Surviving & Thriving at KotlinConf: A pragmatic quick guide for attendees and speakers from Japan

A pragmatic mini-guide for engineers traveling from Japan to KotlinConf.
Shown at: DroidKaigi.collect { #30@Tokyo }

This presentation shares my experience attending KotlinConf both as a participant and as a speaker: what makes the event special, what is genuinely difficult, and when the trip is (or is not) worth it.

Topics include:

* Community and networking
* Direct interaction with speakers and maintainers
* Travel effort, jet lag, and cost
* Social barriers at international conferences
* How to connect with the community before attending
* Why the speaker experience is very different

Main takeaway:
KotlinConf is less about consuming talks and more about becoming part of the Kotlin community.

Transcript

1. @sergiocarrilho Sergio Carrilho Surviving & Thriving at KotlinConf A pragmatic quick guide for attendees and speakers from Japan TechLead | Sony
2. “If your goal is only to watch talks, you probably do not need to go”
3. Source: https://kotlinconf.com
4. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
6. The of attendance
7. Community
8. Direct access
9. Perspective
10. Inspiration
11. Travel
12. Difficulties
13. Tokyo Helsinki Copenhagen Munich Distance
14. Effort
15. Japan Global Social Barrier
16. How to make it easier Engage early Participate in the official Slack channels before attending. Establish familiarity so you aren't a complete stranger on day one.
17. How to make it easier Engage early Participate in the official Slack channels before attending. Establish familiarity so you aren't a complete stranger on day one. Talk to OSS maintainers online beforehand, or approach them after talks regarding specific PRs or issues. Code is a universal icebreaker. Leverage OSS
18. How to make it easier Engage early Participate in the official Slack channels before attending. Establish familiarity so you aren't a complete stranger on day one. Talk to OSS maintainers online beforehand, or approach them after talks regarding specific PRs or issues. Code is a universal icebreaker. Join discussions after talks or attend unofficial side events. Smaller, focused groups are much easier to navigate than the main hall. Leverage OSS Side events
19. Side events
20. experience experience THE SPEAKER THE SPEAKER
21. A Different Conference Entirely
22. Speakers’ Dinner
24. Connections Source: https://kotlinconf.com/awards/
25. Recommendation Recommendation
26. Go if You want to become part of the Kotlin community You want direct interaction with speakers You highly value networking and inspiration
27. Go if Don’t go if... You want to become part of the Kotlin community You want direct interaction with speakers You highly value networking and inspiration Your only goal is consuming technical content You intensely dislike long travel and jet lag You are on a very tight personal budget
28. “For me, KotlinConf is less about the talks and more about the people”
29. Let’s go!