From GNU to Doom: TechTrain 2019 Announcement

Who are these people and what unites them, in addition to the length of the hair? Many gamers probably learned from a photograph of John Romero , free software supporters do not need to introduce Richard Stallman , and PostgreSQL users may know Oleg Bartunov well . Something in common is already noticeable: all three have been in IT for many years and have been involved in popular projects. But how did the three people involved in so different things appear on the same image?

The reason is that they will be at the same event - and you can be there too. August 24-25, we will hold the TechTrain IT-festival in St. Petersburg, where these three people will be among the speakers. And what else will be there?

For a start: what is TechTrain anyway? It is difficult to describe the festival in one phrase, where a lot of things happen at the same time. Let's try to push off from a more understandable format of the conference and explain the differences.

In addition to TechTrain, we regularly organize hardcore conferences on specific topics (“JS-development”, “testing”, “DevOps”), designed for tough professionals. And in their favor there is no doubt. But at the same time, we realized that an event of a different format would be useful for the IT community.
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First, it is not highly specialized, but intended for all those who are in any way connected with IT. This is where you can remove the blinders of your current tasks and look back at what is happening around. This is where the tester can communicate with the devops lover, and the senior developer with the student.

Secondly, not severely professional, but both informative and entertaining. If your goal is to work as effectively as possible in IT, then TechTrain can help you. But if you just want to hang out for two days with fun, there are no problems either, it’s not by chance that dates are chosen as weekends.

Third, not closed and elitist, but massive and accessible. Professional conferences, where the participation of the viewer is usually paid by the employer, cost a lot. Here we tried to reduce the price of tickets as much as the cost price of the event allows.

Fourth, large-scale and diverse: if the conference is spinning around the reports, and during them the hall is empty, then there are different activities for every taste at the same time.

And what exactly can you see when you find yourself on August 24-25 in the Expoforum?

Reports

On TechTrain, reports are not as crucial as they are at conferences (you can stay on one and still be content), but this does not mean that we think less about their quality. In a sense, on the contrary, you have to think even more. When you are preparing a .NET conference for experienced developers, it is generally clear what the audience is waiting for and what it already knows. But if all sorts of people from beginners to mastodons get together, what should be the reports for everyone to be interested in? Is it possible in such a situation not to fall into unnecessary complexity, or in the «hello world»?

We have now opened last year’s TechTrain videos on YouTube - you can see from them what to expect. Adjusted for the fact that then TechTrain was held for the first time, so we still didn’t have a viewer feedback to improve the program. And with the amendment that at that time all the speakers were Russian: John Romero could not even dream of it. That is, this time it should turn out both verified and larger.



In addition, the traditional element of our events is the discussion zones, where after the report the speaker answers questions in detail. And when people like Stallman gather at the event, it becomes especially relevant: we think that many will want to ask him, and not only on the topic of the report. So TechTrain is not only an opportunity to look at the legends from the bottom up, but also the opportunity to personally know something from them.

Who exactly will perform in August? In addition to the three people already listed, let's call Evgeny Borisov ( EvgenyBorisov ), well known to Java developers. The remaining names will appear later - the most relevant information about this will be on the site .

Communities

Every day, going outside the office, you can completely throw out of your head everything related to programming. But for many people, a programming language is not only a tool for making money, and other developers in this language are not just random “fellow travelers.” People want to unite, arrange something interesting and share useful experiences. Therefore, local IT communities are created by enthusiasts who conduct subject meetings.

And while such communities bring people together, we at TechTrain gather these communities themselves, providing them with stands. They will be able to see others and show themselves by entering a new audience - and they will be able to arrange some interesting activities for this audience, having spent two exciting days.

If communities usually hold meetings with serious reports for those who have been in the subject for a long time, then there is a different format for a stand at such an event (where there are many people with different backgrounds): something more lively for various audiences.

And what exactly depends on each community, they are responsible for the program at their stands. For example, last year PiterJS held a contest “Code in the Dark” (blind layout), and DotNetRu organized round tables, where a variety of spectators willingly participated. We asked PiterJS and DotNetRu about impressions, we will release a separate post about this later.

Communities will also be able to make a report, for this there is a special open “demo stage”. If the “regular” report always goes to the audience in a targeted manner, then in the case of the demo scene, you can see an interesting performance just passing by.

This year we are going to involve noticeably more communities than last year. If you yourself are the organizer of such a community, pay attention to this page (and if you know such an organizer, send this link to him).

Companies

Traditional stands of companies, of course, will also be. And if at the specialized conferences the companies select the appropriate ones (the Java conferences will contain those for which Java is very relevant), then here we can expect a variety. Last year, you could see JetBrains (the creators of the well-known IDE), and Leroy Merlin (which have much more IT than it might seem at first glance), and the financial startup Revolut.

Companies will also have their own reporting sites, and this is not only “what our company does”. For example, in 2018 there were speeches with themes like “Git flow”, and one of the speakers presented his personal project for automatic composing of Bach-style music. Then many people passing by heard musical examples, stopped to watch “what is happening here” and then listened to the report with great interest. In addition, there the companies announced the results of the draws - when it is collected a lot more conveniently than on the stand.

Last year, TechTrain had 50 booths (counting both companies and communities), and this year we intend to increase their number to 100, and we are also working on diversity: we are interested in startups and giants; and hardcore solutions for developers, and cool geek stuff. We think that with such abundance everyone will be able to find something interesting for themselves.

Perhaps you are thinking now whether it is not worth it for your company to participate with a stand (it’s not every day that you can cross with a live audience of thousands of IT specialists). For this case, the site has a special page with information about participation.

Other

The list is not limited to the listed - there will be various entertaining things. Visitors to the previous TechTrain may remember, for example, playing on retro computers, the Mosigry nastolki and the quiz game “Brainwind”. The entertainment list for the new event is not yet available, but the general idea is the same.

There will be our own stand - if you are interested in anything related to our conferences, it will be convenient to find out anything there. There will be an infrastructure for everyone to be comfortable (TechTrain was our first event with an area for children).

And besides this, it is also important that. No matter what activities we organize, for the audience it matters not only what they see at the event, but also what they see there among other viewers. Meeting old friends is always valuable, and hanging out at an event with them can be much more interesting than in proud loneliness. And then the question arises: what is the probability that your friends will be on TechTrain?

Our global goal is this: to make the festival the main IT event in Russia, just the very place where in two days you can cross with all interesting people. And we are gradually moving in this direction: last year there were about 2,000 people on TechTrain, and we forecast almost 4,000 in this. So, if you have friends from St. Petersburg IT pros, it’s likely that some of them are in these thousands.

Total

There is still a lot of time until the end of August - is someone planning to have four-weekend breaks? Does it make sense to open ticket sales so in advance? We think so. Someone who sees the name "John Romero" immediately enters the date in the calendar, whatever it is. Someone can better plan their vacation, knowing when it is worth being in St. Petersburg. And it is more important for someone to simply save: closer to the date of the event, tickets are gradually becoming more expensive. Therefore, now on the site you can buy them at the lowest price.

And if you are not ready to decide yet, the same site will also help you: over time, more information about speakers, communities, companies and activities will appear on it.

We are waiting for the August meeting with many of you!