How I went to CodeFest

On March 31 and April 1, CodeFest happened again in Novosibirsk. In this post I will tell you how you went to the largest development conference beyond the Urals, and why next year you should also go.

I recently watched some spreading cranberries, which was removed in Britain. There is some kind of espionage story unfolding in Russia in the thirties. The plot to tears is simple and naive (spoiler: the good guys win). Most of all I was touched by the episode when the hero gets on a train from Leningrad to Moscow and makes an intermediate stop in Siberia (there is naturally cold and there is nothing). In general, in the minds of many people working in IT, the geography of Russian technology conferences looks similar: there is Moscow and St. Petersburg, and there are regions, but it's cold and there is nothing (and there is an end of the map beyond the Urals). Fortunately, "in reality, things are not at all as they really are" (c).
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In Russia, there are many cool regional events that are worth a trip. Over the past year, I participated in the Science Festival in Barnaul, spoke on Fenista in Nizhny Novgorod, unfortunately, did not get to Secon in Penza, but I heard a lot of good things and I think I ’ll finish next year. But again, like last year, I traveled to Novosibirsk.

CodeFest is the largest IT conference outside of Moscow, which I have seen. In the Novosibirsk exhibition center gathered 2000 people. Several parallel streams allow you to learn about technology all that you were afraid to ask: QA, Backend, Frontend, Mobile, Management. I spoke at Keynote Stream, it was a separate series of “to think” reports, in which I talked about the future of artificial intelligence, about how we use artificial intelligence in ABBYY, about projects in which it is already used, and about the possibilities of using it in future.

I have several criteria for assessing the quality of the event:

• Logistics. Do participants and speakers understand where and when to go?
• Timing Do the organizers follow it, do they moderate the discussion, do they fit into the stated schedule?
• The program of performances and interaction of participants. People come to the conference to learn something new and to meet interesting people. The task of the organizers is to think about the content of the reports (whether it is in line with the stated topics and interests of the listeners), and about the formats of interaction in the breaks (if there are zones for communication, are there any formats in which people can effectively communicate with other participants).

In my opinion, the team that organized CodeFest coped with all these points. And separately I would like to say about the questions after the report. In order to fit in the time stated in the program, the organizers of the CodeFest ask the speakers after the report to go to designated places for further communication with people who did not have time to ask their question. Similarly, the schedule of reports does not “go”, and anyone interested in the topic can find out in more detail what “hooked” them. Whether it is a merit of the organizers, or whether the academic level of Novosibirsk affects, but the discussion after my report was very good. It's nice when people listen carefully, think, and then ask.

Briefly summarized: you need to go to the CodeFest next year. It's worth it!

Ivan Yamshchikov, technological evangelist company ABBYY