ADD 2011 in the fight for efficiency
The efficiency of Russian IT conferences is extremely low. You can say no at all. First of all, it is low for speakers and sponsors. But even ordinary listeners do not take advantage of the conference facilities and miss out on unique communication opportunities.
Perhaps the first to notice this problem are the organizers of ADD 2011 . I am still full of impressions of participation in it, and I want to write why habrayusers should look at the next ADD.
A few words for those who have not heard about ADD.
ADD is a conference for programmers who love their work. The Application Developer Days conference is an event implemented by experts in the field of software engineering, designed to bring together individual professionals and the IT community on one platform. The symbol of the conference is the crossed-out woodpecker , which symbolizes that only interesting reports get to the conference and you can not be afraid that you fall asleep from the manager sucking SaaS, Agile, ISO9001 or CMMI.
')
I begin, however, in general with another. Let's learn to communicate in general and at conferences in particular. It is so helpful!
You, I think, and so know about the problem of lack of communication and silence. On Habré recently there was a good post about the harm of silence . But here it is actually more and more global. Not in the programmers case. We were simply massively taught everyone to live quietly, to do their work quietly, to endure inconvenience, to wait for someone to notice and correct them. To clarify, I'll start my note from the end. Namely, how I returned from ADD 2011.
I managed to get into the train St. Petersburg - Makhachkala. In principle, I didn’t care what the train was, since my trip ends in Tula. Someone would think, so there, probably, the people were strange. No, companions were normal. The temperature was abnormal. In St. Petersburg, the temperature dropped to 6 degrees, and there was an oak in the car. I did not even undress. So he sat in a jacket and hat.
The stove is not heated. The conductor rushes sausage over the car, settling various issues. Distributes linen, fills in some forms brought to him. A lot of children from sports competitions travel in the car, and he and the coach are trying to seat them. Children run, jump, climb each other to visit the shelves and confuse everything. The conductor attaches straps for children so that at night they do not fall from the upper shelves. In general, such a normal fuss. I look at her, and I understand that he is not up to the stove now. Quietly sitting, cold. And I'm not alone. Children, too, are all in hats, though they jump. Older ladies complain about the cold in a whisper and wrap themselves in a blanket over their clothes.
We are already traveling an hour and a half, and now the fuss is gradually ending. The conductor returns to his booth and a queue of numb passengers is immediately lined up for hot tea. Sit, warm hands on the glasses. Well, I think, now I have to get warm. Once so many people went to him for tea, they complained about the most I do not want. Especially rides a couple of moms with young children. And they always care about the heat. I sit on the chilly, gnawing bought in McDonalds.
After three hours, I feel that it has not become warmer. And I go for hot tea too. Dialogue:
- Something is all cold and cold. Give me some tea, please. Something your stove does not crack. Everything does not warm. Maybe you can add some power there?
- So she does not drown now.
- (Pause. Big eyes. Emotions. Inarticulate chaffing).
- And what is cold, yes?
- Yes, Kick! Won all in hats. In clothes in a blanket are wrapped up! They run for tea! Dubak!
- Ay, ah. Well, wow ... And I did not notice something. Well, okay, I'll go and flood.
I WAS THE FIRST WHO CALLED ATTENTION IN THE CAR TO THE COLD! And you say that programmers are not sociable and quiet. We are the same as everyone. And maybe even more advanced. At the very least, we notice that there is a problem of lack of communication and we are trying to do something with it. We write articles on Habrahabr about it, read books in the spirit of “The Art of Spontaneous Conversation”, attend conferences. Well, at least do something.
I will now return to the discussion of conferences.
It is a huge misfortune that the conferences practically remain unnoticed by the majority of developers, in spite of useful reports and useful people present there. It is clear that everyone cannot get to the conference. Yes, it is not necessary. The bad thing is that there is no chain reactions in blogs and twitter. A couple of records and that's it. It's horrible. The efficiency of the entire conference is 1% of the possible. Those who fell quietly listened and parted. And the end.
Why is that bad?
Why is it bad for sponsors, I think it is understandable. About what a wonderful stand they had, and no one except the participants found out about the product. They are not praised in the forums and did not scold. Silence.
This is bad for speakers. They are going to find interested in their topic. They want to get feedback, comments, learn something new by their topic. But after the report, only a couple of people come to them. And those who would like to communicate, they are simply not there! They do not know anything about the speaker, do not know about this conference and the report.
This is bad for participants. They often do not know who is who, whom to listen to, who is not. Reporting visits are often random. They do not know how great it was in hall N1, while they were sitting in hall N2. They do not discuss in the forums / blogs after the conference reports and do not know that somewhere they have not understood / heard something. But the speakers are so fond of when they are discussed and always ready to explain.
Sad picture. The first who seriously thought about this issue are the organizers of the ADD conference.
They are trying to increase the efficiency of the conference. For this they do three very important things. They are trying to prepare people up to, as fully as possible to give information on them in the process of the conference itself, and to maintain communication after.
They write notes ( example ) about previous reports. This helps people to know in advance who is interested in them and who they should talk with, what to prepare for communication. They prompt the speakers to express themselves in the places where they communicate (blogs, twitter, forums, and so on). It turns out that the listener can already know in advance what and who is waiting for him at the conference. This is just great!
This is information on the site and in the distributed books about each of the speakers. This is a great time for reports, allowing you to properly ask questions and discuss them. This is a permanent coffee breaks and laid tables with sandwiches. It is so wonderful to see small groups of people at conferences. This is just great! Come to the next time you enjoy!
This is posting recorded conferences. And the video is very high quality. It is so great when you can see what could not visit. The organizers are great. And to everyone who was, I urge to write, write and write, about what was interesting. Discuss in blogs. Praise, criticize, well, at least something. The more we create responses, the more interesting links we can find. During the discussion, you will find people with common interests.
What is important, anyone can make a report. Yes, there is a competition where reports are selected. But I assure you there is really to get there , if you have an interesting topic. This is an open community, not a small party, where everything is divided.
COMMUNICATE! DISCUSS CONFERENCES! Noise!
Write at least a little about your conference blog. Anything. This can be useful in unexpected ways. Even the one who scolds you may suddenly be extremely useful later. I had this more than once. If he scolds, then this topic bothers him!
Yes, squeezing something out is hard. But otherwise, we will be so cold in our computers, letting in the warmth of communication, new opportunities, unexpected vacancies.
PS
Thanks again to all the organizers of ADD 2011 ( SQALab , BYTE-FORCE ) and who helped them.
Pps
I myself gave a talk on " Static Analysis of C ++ Code ". Here is the presentation.
Perhaps the first to notice this problem are the organizers of ADD 2011 . I am still full of impressions of participation in it, and I want to write why habrayusers should look at the next ADD.
A few words for those who have not heard about ADD.
ADD is a conference for programmers who love their work. The Application Developer Days conference is an event implemented by experts in the field of software engineering, designed to bring together individual professionals and the IT community on one platform. The symbol of the conference is the crossed-out woodpecker , which symbolizes that only interesting reports get to the conference and you can not be afraid that you fall asleep from the manager sucking SaaS, Agile, ISO9001 or CMMI.
')
I begin, however, in general with another. Let's learn to communicate in general and at conferences in particular. It is so helpful!
You, I think, and so know about the problem of lack of communication and silence. On Habré recently there was a good post about the harm of silence . But here it is actually more and more global. Not in the programmers case. We were simply massively taught everyone to live quietly, to do their work quietly, to endure inconvenience, to wait for someone to notice and correct them. To clarify, I'll start my note from the end. Namely, how I returned from ADD 2011.
I managed to get into the train St. Petersburg - Makhachkala. In principle, I didn’t care what the train was, since my trip ends in Tula. Someone would think, so there, probably, the people were strange. No, companions were normal. The temperature was abnormal. In St. Petersburg, the temperature dropped to 6 degrees, and there was an oak in the car. I did not even undress. So he sat in a jacket and hat.
The stove is not heated. The conductor rushes sausage over the car, settling various issues. Distributes linen, fills in some forms brought to him. A lot of children from sports competitions travel in the car, and he and the coach are trying to seat them. Children run, jump, climb each other to visit the shelves and confuse everything. The conductor attaches straps for children so that at night they do not fall from the upper shelves. In general, such a normal fuss. I look at her, and I understand that he is not up to the stove now. Quietly sitting, cold. And I'm not alone. Children, too, are all in hats, though they jump. Older ladies complain about the cold in a whisper and wrap themselves in a blanket over their clothes.
We are already traveling an hour and a half, and now the fuss is gradually ending. The conductor returns to his booth and a queue of numb passengers is immediately lined up for hot tea. Sit, warm hands on the glasses. Well, I think, now I have to get warm. Once so many people went to him for tea, they complained about the most I do not want. Especially rides a couple of moms with young children. And they always care about the heat. I sit on the chilly, gnawing bought in McDonalds.
After three hours, I feel that it has not become warmer. And I go for hot tea too. Dialogue:
- Something is all cold and cold. Give me some tea, please. Something your stove does not crack. Everything does not warm. Maybe you can add some power there?
- So she does not drown now.
- (Pause. Big eyes. Emotions. Inarticulate chaffing).
- And what is cold, yes?
- Yes, Kick! Won all in hats. In clothes in a blanket are wrapped up! They run for tea! Dubak!
- Ay, ah. Well, wow ... And I did not notice something. Well, okay, I'll go and flood.
I WAS THE FIRST WHO CALLED ATTENTION IN THE CAR TO THE COLD! And you say that programmers are not sociable and quiet. We are the same as everyone. And maybe even more advanced. At the very least, we notice that there is a problem of lack of communication and we are trying to do something with it. We write articles on Habrahabr about it, read books in the spirit of “The Art of Spontaneous Conversation”, attend conferences. Well, at least do something.
I will now return to the discussion of conferences.
It is a huge misfortune that the conferences practically remain unnoticed by the majority of developers, in spite of useful reports and useful people present there. It is clear that everyone cannot get to the conference. Yes, it is not necessary. The bad thing is that there is no chain reactions in blogs and twitter. A couple of records and that's it. It's horrible. The efficiency of the entire conference is 1% of the possible. Those who fell quietly listened and parted. And the end.
Why is that bad?
Why is it bad for sponsors, I think it is understandable. About what a wonderful stand they had, and no one except the participants found out about the product. They are not praised in the forums and did not scold. Silence.
This is bad for speakers. They are going to find interested in their topic. They want to get feedback, comments, learn something new by their topic. But after the report, only a couple of people come to them. And those who would like to communicate, they are simply not there! They do not know anything about the speaker, do not know about this conference and the report.
This is bad for participants. They often do not know who is who, whom to listen to, who is not. Reporting visits are often random. They do not know how great it was in hall N1, while they were sitting in hall N2. They do not discuss in the forums / blogs after the conference reports and do not know that somewhere they have not understood / heard something. But the speakers are so fond of when they are discussed and always ready to explain.
Sad picture. The first who seriously thought about this issue are the organizers of the ADD conference.
They are trying to increase the efficiency of the conference. For this they do three very important things. They are trying to prepare people up to, as fully as possible to give information on them in the process of the conference itself, and to maintain communication after.
Before
They write notes ( example ) about previous reports. This helps people to know in advance who is interested in them and who they should talk with, what to prepare for communication. They prompt the speakers to express themselves in the places where they communicate (blogs, twitter, forums, and so on). It turns out that the listener can already know in advance what and who is waiting for him at the conference. This is just great!
In the process
This is information on the site and in the distributed books about each of the speakers. This is a great time for reports, allowing you to properly ask questions and discuss them. This is a permanent coffee breaks and laid tables with sandwiches. It is so wonderful to see small groups of people at conferences. This is just great! Come to the next time you enjoy!
After
This is posting recorded conferences. And the video is very high quality. It is so great when you can see what could not visit. The organizers are great. And to everyone who was, I urge to write, write and write, about what was interesting. Discuss in blogs. Praise, criticize, well, at least something. The more we create responses, the more interesting links we can find. During the discussion, you will find people with common interests.
What is important, anyone can make a report. Yes, there is a competition where reports are selected. But I assure you there is really to get there , if you have an interesting topic. This is an open community, not a small party, where everything is divided.
COMMUNICATE! DISCUSS CONFERENCES! Noise!
Write at least a little about your conference blog. Anything. This can be useful in unexpected ways. Even the one who scolds you may suddenly be extremely useful later. I had this more than once. If he scolds, then this topic bothers him!
Yes, squeezing something out is hard. But otherwise, we will be so cold in our computers, letting in the warmth of communication, new opportunities, unexpected vacancies.
PS
Thanks again to all the organizers of ADD 2011 ( SQALab , BYTE-FORCE ) and who helped them.
Pps
I myself gave a talk on " Static Analysis of C ++ Code ". Here is the presentation.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/118673/
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