Bushido Mobius: Member Path

As you already know, following the results of Mobius 2015, we received a lot of feedback: both pleasant and filled with various criticisms - both constructive and not so much. Some participants spoke positively about the content of the reports, the selection of speakers and organizational issues, others complained about the queue for lunch and the abundance of security staff in the program (we wrote about this earlier ).

In preparing Mobius 2016, we tried to take into account the recommendations and wishes of the participants of last year’s conference: on June 4, we will see what came of it. In the meantime, let's see what our members love Mobius, and why people come to us year after year.



We reviewed three “stages” of participation in the conference and asked our participants what they thought about each of them:
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Doubts.

Any conference before the moment of holding, like any other service, is air: you cannot take the trial version or touch it before you buy it. That is why any conference begins with ... doubt! Yes Yes.

The main problem in choosing a technology conference is to separate the wheat from the chaff - the speakers and organizers love biting names that have nothing to do with the essence of the performance. The result is that the reports of the average mobile conference are divided into three categories:

1. Surface reviews of the tools and technologies that the speaker uses. Sometimes not enduring and a pair of tricky questions.
2. Real case studies of enthusiasts dedicated to solving the practical difficulties of developers
3. Marketing reports, which look like category 2, in the middle of which it turns out that they are trying to shove another incomprehensible tool.

As a result, it turns out that the reports of the second category will occupy less than a third of the conference timekeeping. This concern is one of the main fears of a participant in any conference, including Mobius.

Dmitry Zaitsev , Android developer, Yandex:

Basic fears? That the reports will be a lot of water and marketing. I had already been to [another conference, ed.] Before - everything is rather superficial. However, at Mobius this was at a minimum, as it seemed to me.

And here we can say that the last time “grocery” products actually leaked into our program, in particular, a couple of security topics. This circumstance gave us, as organizers, to understand one simple truth - no one can be trusted! That is why this year we are testing the reports, doing runs with the organizing committee and eliminating many proposals.

The second reasoning doubts is the payment of independent conferences: the question immediately arises why it is necessary to pay for reports that tell about what they write on blogs, books, talk in podcasts and in general - you can easily dig anywhere. And this argument, if you have the time and energy - the books allow you to gain in-depth knowledge and masterfully master the necessary tools.

Denis Zagaevsky , Senior Android Developer, Yandex:

Yes, every day you sit at the computer, you look at something, you read - all this information goes in one stream with unreal speed, from which it is rather difficult to get something concrete. If we talk about books, then there is another question. I like to read classics: patterns, “Clean code”, algorithms, and so on. And from books on Android, things are developing so fast that there are no actual books. Maybe you can still find something in English, then there is simply nothing in Russian, it is becoming obsolete, and it’s time to get out.

And at the conference, we are actually from the first hands or from those who really delved into the technology, studied the source code, we get this kind of squeeze. Moreover, in the reports most often include something so cool, what you, reading yourself, will not immediately reach. When you really need it, you will most likely remember the features of the reports.

Sergey Egorov , Head of Software Development Department, SKYROS Corporation:

I prefer the conference, and for several reasons. First, at the conference there is always a place for live communication, which implies the possibility of dialogue, when the viewer has at least the illusion that he can ask the speaker a question and get a comprehensive answer. You will not ask the book anything, it is limited by the fact that it has found it necessary to write the author. Secondly, I, unfortunately, do not read quickly, and I get the information "from mouth to ear" faster than when reading. Thirdly, there is often a lot of “water” in books (as in my answers :)), which is usually not on the reports. Fourthly, if a book is written boringly, then you can fall asleep, and boring reports are much less common.

Dmitry :

If you compare with books, it is obvious that the conference has other tasks, in particular - it is the establishment of personal contacts, here neither books nor the Internet will help.

From the point of view of obtaining knowledge, of course, the books benefit in the sense that everything is detailed in them. On the other hand, it is necessary to understand: in order to cover the volume of topics and directions that rises at a conference in books, one has to spend much more time.

Program.

Doubts can only be dispelled thanks to the very essence of the conference - the elaborated program. In the descriptions of the reports, not only three words of the title, but detailed theses; In the description of the speakers, not only the name, but a complete list of achievements and reasons for which this person can speak.

If you return to the three categories of reports that can be found at conferences, you will not find a word about hardcore in this list, because you will not find anything like this on mobile conferences: no one will tell you how Android ART or the iOS security subsystem works on the subcortex - You do not go to Mobius.

The fact is that our conferences (JPoint, DotNext) were born as a response to the void in the niche of tough technology conferences, and Mobius was not an exception (for example, last year the security theme was at the forefront) and found a response in the minds of developers:

Dmitry :

First of all, I was interested in the topics of the reports - there was a good security unit, I wanted to listen to it. In fact, comparing with other conferences, I was pleasantly surprised - there were a lot of specifics, technical details, reports on the merits.

Denis :

I waited for interesting reports - I wanted to hear something new, in particular, about Android - I'm developing for Android - to communicate with people, to learn some experience. At that time I worked in another company and was the only developer - in such conditions it is generally difficult to master something new and even more so to implement. Mobius helped me a lot with this, let me break out of the routine and pay attention to new things.

Sergey :

The market for mobile development for our company is by no means the main one, but it can become very promising. I wanted to get to know him from the inside - to hear about the urgent tasks facing the developers, and to look at the actual advanced technologies and approaches used to solve these problems. It was important that the direct participants of the events should tell about all this. All my aspirations came true.

By the way, the program Mobius 2016 is ready, you can see it on the conference website.

Result.

The third stage of participation in the conference is its “correct” use. The fact is that you can attend the conference, “sit out” and leave, without understanding and receiving anything. The conference is a huge living organism of hundreds of people: this is both charm and a huge lack of conference format! You may not have time to ask the Speaker a question, skip an interesting report, or even drop by the evening in such a way that the last reports simply “do not enter”.

The conference is not a magic pill, it does not make you an ace overnight. And here it is important to understand what results you should strive for and in which direction to work:

Dmitry :

In one day, covering several new areas and planning a strategy for the future is well worth it. To be honest, the last time was so cool that this time I just went and took a ticket, without thinking twice.

Denis :

Mobius has already been a year since last year, and I notice that the conference has given me a few things that have remained with me in my work to this day: for example, I started using RxJava — Matvey Malkov’s report spread everything out and allowed me to study it correctly. approach; made a security conclusion that one developer cannot, on his own, make protection that cannot be broken, although he has become familiar with the tools that help provide this protection.

Remember, participation in the conference is work! Think about which report to choose, ask questions, discuss reports with speakers and colleagues in the breaks. You will be surprised how open the participants are to the conference.



Dmitry dbelob Beloborodov , a regular participant of our conferences, spoke about how to survive at the hardcore conference from the JUG.RU Group. More precisely, he made a real manual (or, if you will, a bushido) for participation in a technical conference:

Before participating in the conference:

1. View the current list of reports . She is already 95% ready.
2. After the appearance of an accurate program of reports with parallel tracks, select reports to be viewed during the conference.
3. Organizers should send a letter with a request to share information about what reports you plan to visit. This information is needed to clarify the size of the rooms for specific reports. The grid of reports after this may be slightly adjusted.
4. View video reports of previous conferences on the channel JUG.ru on YouTube . Most speakers have previously spoken at other events. The selected new Mobius presentations may be a continuation or similar in scope to previous reports by the same or other speakers.
5. Subscribe to Habrahabr to the blog of the company JUG.ru Group. The announcements of the conference have already been published, interviews with speakers and news are published.
6. Subscribe to a @MobiusConf twitter account to track news about the upcoming conference.

During the conference:

1. If you plan to write a review of the conference, it is recommended to take a camera. The quality of smartphones cameras is not enough to publish, for example, on Habrahabr.
2. Before the conference, make sure that the grid of reports has not changed unexpectedly. If this happens, adjust the list and procedure for visiting reports.
3. If the venue of the conference is not familiar, study the layout of the halls for quickly moving from one report to another, coffee breaks, lunch.
4. Feel free to ask questions to speakers. Relevant, interesting questions complement the report well and are useful both for the audience and for the speaker.

After the conference:

1. If you have the desire and opportunity to write a review about the conference - do it. It is advisable to illustrate a review with photos taken at the conference. The best place to publish a review is Habrahabr.
2. View the #mobiusconf hashtag on Twitter for feedback from conference participants.
3. Rate the reports of the conference on the sent link in a letter from the organizers of the conference.
4. After a while, Habrahabr should have a review “Video of the best reports of Mobius 2016”, which will help you choose the following videos to watch.
5. Share impressions about the conference with friends and colleagues. If you like the conference, do not hesitate to recommend it to others.

This year, the conference program can be divided into three sections:

• On the Edge, dedicated to the latest news, tools and technologies in the mobile development world;
• Software Craftsmanship, with reports on practical solutions and approaches;
• and traditional Hardcore, with intestines.

In conclusion, we remind that we will traditionally organize an online broadcast for those who are far / inconvenient to get to St. Petersburg, and this year the “Online-Corporate (up to 10 connections)” tariff appeared, convenient for large companies.



You can register here .
See you at Mobius!