99 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
99 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
|
---
|
|||
|
|
title: Conferences you did not know existed and now you know you just need to go to
|
|||
|
|
date: 2016-03-13 11:43:03
|
|||
|
|
tags: [social, conferences]
|
|||
|
|
---
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
# Go to conferences. It's good for you.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Ever wondered why to go to conferences ? Is it worth it, especially if
|
|||
|
|
you [do not feel confident](http://sarah.thesharps.us/2016/02/02/first-timers-guide-to-foss-conferences/)
|
|||
|
|
that the conference is on something that would be in an immediate realm
|
|||
|
|
of your day-to-day interests ? Just go ! You might end up learning
|
|||
|
|
something and meeting new people. And new people mean more variables to
|
|||
|
|
mix up your life. A bit scary, I know. Still worth it though. Wondered
|
|||
|
|
what conference in **Europe** are weird enough so people wouldn't mind
|
|||
|
|
having another misfit ? Here you go.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
# nucl.ai
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Now imagine something niche within the industry. To me, AI comes to
|
|||
|
|
mind. Mages in robes in their towers, sending out autonomous robot
|
|||
|
|
armies against each other. Right ? There's a conference for that ! At
|
|||
|
|
[nucl.ai](http://nucl.ai/), in July, in Vienna, you can meet AI
|
|||
|
|
professionals from academia and industry alike, most of them coming from
|
|||
|
|
game development background. The atmosphere is very newcomer-friendly,
|
|||
|
|
the only requirement is that you're interested in AI, not necessarily
|
|||
|
|
having anything to do with it professionally. Petra and Alex, the
|
|||
|
|
organizers, are wonderful people that make this conference quite unique.
|
|||
|
|
It's happy fun to see ideas floating from academia to the industry and
|
|||
|
|
vice versa. Don't forget the presentations on work-in-progress major AAA
|
|||
|
|
games ! I've learned there that the everyday programming in the games
|
|||
|
|
industry is quite different than the one I do in terms of best practices
|
|||
|
|
and patterns. Definitely worth a try !
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
# Erlang User Conference
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Speaking of something completely different. Erlang ! Was functional
|
|||
|
|
before being functional was [considered cool](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrIjfIjssLE). Very practical,
|
|||
|
|
very fast, parallelize everything ! Processes everywhere ! Message
|
|||
|
|
passing ! Want to feel the groove as well ? Visit Stockholm in September
|
|||
|
|
for [Erlang User Conference](http://www.erlang-factory.com/). Meet
|
|||
|
|
creators of the language, talk about massive scale deployments. Other FP
|
|||
|
|
languages are welcome. I would even say, the more strange the better.
|
|||
|
|
[Idris](http://www.idris-lang.org/) seems to be the topic of interest
|
|||
|
|
as well. Eat good food, walk the city of dynamite. Erlang has a quite
|
|||
|
|
close-knit community which gives you this warm family feeling.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
# SoCraTes
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Speaking of family. There's a family of conferences known as
|
|||
|
|
[SoCraTes](https://www.socrates-conference.de/). Software
|
|||
|
|
Crafstmanship and Testing. SoCraTes. Get it ? :D As it's more than one
|
|||
|
|
conference a year, it's harder to go to all of them. I only went to
|
|||
|
|
[Codefreeze](http://www.codefreeze.fi/), in Finland, in January, and
|
|||
|
|
only once, but loved it already. Codefreeze, Finland, in January. Get it
|
|||
|
|
?! :D First thing is that you don't know what will happen there. You
|
|||
|
|
just go, meet the people and then you sit down and everyone talks about
|
|||
|
|
what they would like to learn and what they can share. This way you come
|
|||
|
|
up with some loose agenda you follow more or less. One track, very
|
|||
|
|
intense. Talking, swimming in ice water, learning, sauna going. Very
|
|||
|
|
intimate feel, not many people, lots of things to learn.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
# Chaos Communication Congress
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Speaking of lots of people and intimate feel. [Chaos Communication Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Communication_Congress) is, I think, the biggest gathering of all nerds and freaks in Europe,
|
|||
|
|
yet being there feels quite at home. The best organized conference I've
|
|||
|
|
been to. Friendly people showing their wares on their humble tables, 4
|
|||
|
|
simultaneous tracks, huge building with intricate hallways. It's
|
|||
|
|
cyberpunk, it's inclusive, it's about hardcore infosec topics, it's
|
|||
|
|
about politics. Everything's there, everyone's there. 4 days of data
|
|||
|
|
being constantly uploaded to your brain, riding on the waves of [Club
|
|||
|
|
Mate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club-Mate). Feels like an
|
|||
|
|
extended holiday present, as it's happening in the last week of
|
|||
|
|
December.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
# The Camps
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[The Dutch Camp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observe._Hack._Make.), [EMF Camp](https://www.emfcamp.org/) and
|
|||
|
|
[Chaos Communication Camp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Communication_Camp).
|
|||
|
|
Imagine CCC, the Congress, but in the woods. Middle of nowhere,
|
|||
|
|
multigigabit internet connection. sleeping in the tent, then going to a
|
|||
|
|
world-class lecture. BothCCC, the camp, and The Dutch Camp, the camp,
|
|||
|
|
are happening every 4 years, each of them taking alternating slots. So
|
|||
|
|
every 2 years there is a camp somewhere. EMF is there even more frequently - every 2 years !
|
|||
|
|
Did I mention that the location changes with almost every event ? Happy camping !
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
## Summary
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
So go out there. Explore. Meet people. Learn. Have fun. None of the
|
|||
|
|
above are much expensive and most of the events have a policy of "write
|
|||
|
|
to us if you want to go but can't afford the ticket". Friendly people
|
|||
|
|
fixing problems together.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
- nucl.ai: July, tickets around 250EUR
|
|||
|
|
- EUC: September, tickets around 350EUR
|
|||
|
|
- SoCraTes: the cost and the time depend on the event
|
|||
|
|
- CCC: last week of December, tickets around 100EUR
|
|||
|
|
- The Camps: summer, tickets around 125EUR
|