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