Ask Slashdot: Good Technology Conferences To Attend? 131
SSG Booraem (2553474) writes I've recently been hired to a IT supervisor position at a local college. My boss wants me to find some technology conferences that I'd like to attend and submit them to her. Since I've worked in IT for 18 years but usually done scut work, I don't have any ideas. I'd appreciate suggestions with personal experiences.
Depends on your Job Duties (Score:2)
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If only... (Score:2, Informative)
Ah yes! https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=information+technology+conference [google.com]
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Maybe he should attend a course at a local computer store and they'll show him how to put a shortcut to "The Google" on his desktop.
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Re:If only... (Score:5, Insightful)
He asked which ones are good to attend, not which ones are best at SEO.
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I had the same issue and in my case, it really didn't matter. It was budgeted that I should attend a conference, it didn't matter which one. If I didn't go, then I get dinged on my performance review for not "continuing my education through training opportunities."
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Then again, if he had put that much thought into the question, he probably could have answered it himself.
Black Hat (Score:1)
You need to find better ways to cover your tracks after browsing them freshmen girls mobile photo. If boss asks about the name, just tell them it's a reference to Harry Potter, and the black hat is for wizardry
Any good technology conferences to attend? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Any good technology conferences to attend? (Score:5, Funny)
There are no good technology conferences, my friend.
You are mistaken. They list several. [good.com]
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There are no good technology conferences, my friend.
Never been to Defcon, have you?
Dreamforce and MS TechEd (Score:5, Interesting)
Dreamforce and TechED get my vote, sadly TechEd will no longer be around, but they are recorded and very interesting.
Congratulations! (Score:5, Informative)
I work on the instructional side of technology in K-12. I would suggest the yearly ISTE conference. It rotates around the country in late June. Next year it will be in Philly, I believe. It is massive and has sessions on instruction, administration and pretty much anything else you can imagine. The vendor area usually draws the latest heavy hitters in software, services and hardware.
You may also want to check and see if your state has an ISTE affiliate group. They often hold quality state conferences as well. Here in North Carolina, we have NCTIES in March. It's good for a state conference.
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The League for Innovation also does conferences. Educause may be good.
Both of these are education focused, but there is plenty of technology going on as well.
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Educause is pretty good.
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While I was a K-12 admin I never got to attend the conferences, but I had always wanted to visit ITSE... And I live in PA which seems to do a lot of ITSE workshops in various parts of the state. However I was 'to valuable to let attend' right up until they replaced me, so I never got to go...
Chaos Communication Congress (Score:1)
The Chaos Communication Congress [wikipedia.org] is an annual conference in Hamburg, Germany (previously in Berlin, Germany). It is held between Christmas and New Year. You can review previous schedules and download recordings. [events.ccc.de] Most talks are in English, some in German. There are also workshops and podiums.
Vendors, Vendors, Vendors (Score:1)
Figure out which vendor software you will be supporting and go there. Also look for a local users group so that you can meet people that may have already solved the tricky problems. (Or with 18 years experience you can offer *them* solutions. Your boss will love the exposure your department will get.)
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Rotate (Score:3)
try these lists ...USENIX, OSCON, VMworld (Score:3, Informative)
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If VMWorld is the one I am thinking of, then I actually would recomend against it. It was a few years ago but I went to a "conference" put on by VMWare that was one of the most useless experiences of my career. Maybe my standards were set high by Usenix, but, I was not expecting every single "talk" to be some salesman in a suit giving me the dog and pony show on his product.
Wasn't a single presentation on anything useful, nothing on research projects, nothing but dogs and ponies.
Maybe I am mistaken and this
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Thinking back it was local in Boston so you are probably right. If there is one thing I am sure of, its that the people I was working for would never send us anywhere to go for a conference or pay any reasonable amount for it either; so whatever it was was something they got tossed in for free on a contract. Must have been one of those events.
Prior to working for them I had been to Usenix. Need to start making some requests for next year, I bet I can get these guys to send me to a conference.
More info? (Score:5, Informative)
Spiceworld [spiceworks.com]
Various Microsoft conferences: Exchange [msdn.com], SharePoint [msdn.com], TechEd [msteched.com]
Some Cisco stuff [cisco.com]
And Probably a whole host of others. Choose a vendor/specialty and search for their conferences.
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If you're in SoCal (Score:2)
SCALE [socallinuxexpo.org].
Hard to travel to. (Score:4, Insightful)
If I were you, I'd go quickly.
Most of them are back in the nineties.
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Yes that's useful. The idea of "technology conference" is extremely vague. One could go to a conference on nuclear power engineering and still be considered a technology conference. Or a Blackberry conference, or a video game devices conference, and so forth.
So for a conference to be actually useful, it should be something related to the job being done and where something of value can be acquired. Otherwise it's just a fun holiday at the employer's expense. So even conferences that seem related to the
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If I were you, I'd go quickly.
Most of them are back in the nineties.
He only has to go 88 mph to make them, then!
sxsw interactive (Score:3)
HighEdWeb (Score:1)
It's a very balanced conference with tracks for just about all job types from programmer to managers and administraitors. This year it's being hosted in Portland Oregon. Their website lists the details http://www.highedweb.org/
It would be a bit of a help (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you run the helpdesk?
Are you in charge of the student hourlies?
Do you have a cadre of minions running the data center?
If you don't know that, what would get you fired in 2 seconds?
IBM/Rational Innovate (Score:1)
I've been to the Rational Innovate conference (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/innovate/) a few years back, been trying to go again. The conference is chock full of software development / software engineering related topics from the companies that have the heritage, between Rational, IBM, and all of their partners. The location doesn't hurt, either, as flights are inexpensive and you can spend as little or as much as you'd like for the hotel.
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But aren't company sponsored events just a marketing opportunity. Where will you find people at that conference who think it's all snake oil, or show you alternatives that are cheaper and better or more relevant?
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Yes, but if you're already invested in that technology, then those types of conferences can be really beneficial to get far more indepth knowledge and trade tips/horror stories with other users of said product.
It's not like you're changing your key vendor every single year. At some point it'd be nice to get into depth into one of them.
USENIX and LISA SIG (formely known as SAGE). (Score:2, Informative)
The USENIX Annual Technical Conference is quite good.
Then probably all of the USENIX conferences. Check them here https://www.usenix.org/conferences
You also have LISA SIG (the Large Installation Systems Administration Special Interest Group) conference. https://www.usenix.org/lisa
If you work with Electronic Arts, try to get to EADC, it's great.
Location, Location, Location (Score:3)
If you're a former grunt, then you've seen the after effect of these conferences. At best, it gets your bosses out of your hair for a few days. At worse, they come back revved up to implement the newest buzz work...for a week, until they see the cost, then it's like it never happened.
Take my advice; choose based on location and work up your justification from there. Myself, Vegas is always an attractive option, but by no means should you limit yourself. Be imaginative. /jaded and tarnished.
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My suggestion would be "counter" to yours, which is, go to conferences for stuff you are or are already about to implement. It is usually a much better option to make use of the technology you have fully, before adding in more "Stuff" to manage. I've seen enough halfway implemented technology that ends up being an albatross later to need more than two hands and two feet to count.
As supervisor, your job is to make sure the technology and people you have are adequate, and manage the transition if they aren't.
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Decent advice, but it's been my experience that you don't get valuable information from conferences, just more sales contacts.
Guess it depends on the tech in question.
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I have been to conferences that were "sales" and those that were "user based". Even "sales' conventions can be good, if you're wanting exposure to a variety of Tech that you may not be aware of . But User based (centered) Conferences usually have a ton of breakout sessions for learning how to use particular tech, and meeting people who use the tech, often in ways you may can employ that you haven't considered.
Brainstorm is an excellent conference (Score:1)
I've had great luck with Brainstorm [brainstormk20.com], held in Wisconsin Dells every year. It's primary focus is K-12 but it does apply to college level as well. Vendor expo is pretty good, and the technical talks were great.
You just have to go to... (Score:1)
And don't try to hook up with them. They're out of your league. If she says "yes", she probably has a penis or in a con artist (or both).
Source: my buddy Rob found out the hard way. Of course, I always figured he liked to walk on the wild side.
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'Scantily clad' does not imply 'not fat as a whale'.
That said beauty is just a light switch away.
Very simple decision (Score:5, Funny)
Which ever one is in Las Vegas.
DEF CON (Score:2)
DEF CON - https://www.defcon.org/ [defcon.org]
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Sadly, most conferences feel like just a way to extract some vacation and entertainment money from the bosses, or a way to network so that they can more easily hop jobs.
Remember, that's a week of time during which you get no actual work done. Which is fine if you don't mind cheating the employer, but someone even halfway honest should at least attempt to acquire some value at the conference, learn something that's utterly unlearnable on the web or from a book, discover the solution to the vexing problem at
You have to get more specific (Score:3)
A lot of tech conferences can also be sorted by industry. Medical tech is huge, for example, and has its own set of regular gatherings. [eventsinamerica.com]
Try SIGUCCS (Score:2)
As others have already said, the original question is really vague since there is little information about what corner of IT work will be done. But since it is at a college, there is a good chance that it will fall under the area that SIGUCCS conference tries to cover.
http://www.siguccs.org/Conference/2014/about.shtml
I went and presented 5 or 6 years ago and found it to be an OK conference. I did not get a lot out of it from the technical presentations, but it is a really good place to get an idea of what y
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None (Score:2, Troll)
Don't travel to conferences. Waste of time, money and other resources. Far better to use discussion groups, forums, webinars, email, etc. Physical conferences are dinosaurs. Most have died off. Some just don't know they're zombies but will soon fall apart. This is particularly true for tech conferences. We don't need to be in a place to communicate and techies know that better than anyone.
What is particularly obscene is the conferences by politicos and ecos to solve world hunger, solve pollution, solve glob
SCALE - http://www.socallinuxexpo.org (Score:3)
SCALE - http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/ [socallinuxexpo.org]
Datacentre World (Score:1)
I'm a datacentre guy, so the one I go to is Datacentre World - unless you have migrated every single system to the cloud the chances are you have a shedload of infrastructure to look after, and seeing what's out there to keep it safely powered and cooled is always useful.
The swag may not be as good as some of the vendor conferences, but the information can be really useful.
Location, Location, Location (Score:5, Funny)
select conference_name
from all_conferences
where conference_location = 'HAWAII'
Must be nice to have free money (Score:1)
and work for a "nonprofit". Corporate IT budgets have dried up for this sort of fluff long ago. Good for you landing a job where there's free taxpayer money.
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Hmmm, I work for a non-profit, and I don't have the money for conferences. I'm currently doing some training (the first I have been OKed for, for years) and I get 1 month to cram in as much as I can.
Not all non-profits are money sinks. When I worked in the corporate world, we had trainers coming to us a few times a year.
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Corporate IT budgets have dried up for this sort of fluff long ago. Good for you landing a job where there's free taxpayer money.
Yup... all the conferences I've attended in the past several years are just filled with public sector employees, and devoid of anyone in the corporate world. I myself work in the public sector.
Noo.. wait... sorry. That's not true at all. What was I thinking? I work at a corporate job, and the vast majority of people at conferences work in corporate America. Public sector p
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LabMan and freinds (Score:1)
I'd say ... (Score:2)
Drualcon L.A. (Score:1)
O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) (Score:2)
DEFcon (Score:2)
I leave for DEFcon 22 tomorrow...
Yes it's a hacker convention & not an IT convention, but it's the best conference I've ever been to. I get exponentially more out of DEFcon ($220) than I got out of RSA (over $2,000). If money was no object I'd still recommend DEFcon. It makes you think about technology in ways you never have before. It trains you to think about bending technology to your will however you can (the classic definition of hacking), not just security related exploits.
My management usually se
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LISA Conference (Score:4, Informative)
Suggestions for the Apple technologist (Score:4, Informative)
In chronological order looking forward:
MacTech Boot Camps - http://www.mactech.com/bootcam... [mactech.com]
Small, local, inexpensive. Check to see if there's one close to you.
MacTech Conference - http://www.mactech.com/confere... [mactech.com]
Larger, both sysadmin and developer tracks
MacIT - http://www.macitconf.com/ [macitconf.com]
Larger, multiple tracks and levels of knowledge
WWDC - https://developer.apple.com/ww... [apple.com]
The granddaddy of them all, but next to impossible to get into these days. Mostly developer focused. May not be useful if you don't already have a deep knowledge base.
MacAdmins - http://macadmins.psu.edu/ [psu.edu]
The most education-focused of the conferences. Very knowledgeable presenters.
FWIW, I've been a presenter at MacTech Boot Camps, MacIT, and WWDC.
--Paul
USENIX, SuperComputing (Score:3)
You should try these 2: USENIX and SuperComputing. They are the most enjoyable for a non-academic to attend.
SC14 (Score:1)
Beam me up, Scotty ! (Score:2)
Give them a fake email address (Score:1)
Despite "tech" being your profession, be DAMN sure to give them a temp or fake email address. Because you WILL be spammed for the remainder of your life. I know... I was trusting once.
VMworld (Score:2)
I believe I heard that VMworld [vmworld.com] is now the largest IT infrastructure conference in the world. If you are already steeped in virtualization, it's a wonderful conference to learn stuff and meet people. If you're not already steeped in virtualization, it's a wonderful conference to learn where the IT world is moving, and in fact has largely already moved to.
Look on the edges of tech (Score:1)
Sometimes, you find the best stuff outside the heavy lifting tech world. I've been going to South by Southwest Interactive for the past 5 years. It's been a nice counter balance to nuts and bolts tech conferences. I get inspiration and some notion of Good Things to Do. There are plenty of smart people, and that's a major refreshment for me. The focus isn't on tech as much as interesting ways to use it.
There's now an education conference under the SXSW umbrella. That may be worthwhile to you, and easier to
Training/Conference Crossover? (Score:1)
You might consider http://www.sans.org/ [sans.org] training classes/conferences. They're mostly focused on security, so that has to fit for you, but I've learned a lot in both of the classes/conferences I've attended with them.
IT not your issue (Score:2)
You need training on how to communicate, because you provided precisely zero information on which to base a useful answer to your question.
SIGUCCS (Score:1)
Conferences (Score:2)
IT in Education conferences I would have you look at include Educause, and ACUTA. Educause is the 1,000 lbs gorilla, and everybody is there. ACUTA is much smaller, so you tend to build really good relationships with your peer institutions.
NCDevCon (Score:1)
I help organize NCDevCon (ncdevcon.com)
We're a small, two day web/mobile/tech conference in Raleigh, NC. This is our 6th year.
This area also hosts:
* http://allthingsopen.org/ (Open source conference)
* http://hopscotchdesignfest.com/ (design festival)
Good area for conferences, tech (RedHat, RTP), beer and BBQ.
Write down a list (Score:2)
Of services that IT provides within your organization.
Next write down a list of 'what you are supporting with those services'.
Next write down a list of the most important software you use in the organization, for example: operating systems, application servers... E.g. "Linux" "VMware" "Microsoft Exchange" could be some examples.
Probably, each one of these has a conference.
Next write down a list of your job roles.... for example: what tasks do you on a daily basis.
Job roles have conferences....
For network engineers... (Score:2)
I like NANOG (http://www.nanog.org) for network engineering topics. It's geared towards large service provider networks, not so much enterprise/small business, but still quite informative and great for networking of the social variety as well.
Ohio LinuxFest (Score:2)
http://ohiolinux.org/ [ohiolinux.org]
Linux Conference Australia (Score:2)
InfoSec (Score:1)
lanyrd.com (Score:1)
Good Technology? (Score:1)
NotepadConf (Score:1)
From the NotepadConf site: http://notepadconf.com/ [notepadconf.com]