Another quick blog from my conference survival guide series that could be useful for new KubeCon attendees as KubeCon NA approaches!
This could also be a great reminder for experienced attendees that could use a reminder or two.
Location specific suggestions
- Bring your best hiking gear and a camera, Utah has amazing trails and landscapes. Some of those are not far from Salt Lake City, rent a car and explore!
- Remember your AC adapters, I forgot them more than once aaaand it’s painful.
- Buy an eSim, to have data using services like Airalo or Saily.
- Enable your credit/debit card to work internationally and use N26 or similar digital banks to have convenient currency conversion rates. Please, also have some cash!
- Pack some warm clothes, Utah is COLD.
General suggestions
- **Go to Rejekts **— to attend my “I explained eBPF to my grandma!” talk… Self-ad time, lol.
- Build your schedule ahead Do not go with the wind, the wind blows faster than you think and you’ll end up overwhelmed by all the talks and events.
- Include after hour events in your schedule, do it now!
- Leave some room for breaks, eating, drinking water, going to the bathroom (yep, forgetting is a thing), breathe some fresh air, smoke a cigarette (or not, it’s not that healthy)
- Use Too Good To Goo instead of eating in a restaurant every single night, it could save some money and you could discover some hidden gems / small grocery shops and typical food as well.
- Still fit some exercise and no, walking during the conference doesn’t count.
- Networking is king, but if your social battery is empty just let other people know, give them your LinkedIn name and ask them to follow up the day after or something, no shame in kindly refusing a conversation if you are not >80% committed to it.
- Take pictures, take small notes and at the end of each day, try to upload them in a safe place, you’ll get to reorder and organize everything later, no worries.
- Pair with a “senior” attendee (or group of) if you know someone already, or just talk to people! More often than not you can find some more conference buddies and if you can’t reach out to CNCF Ambassadors (I am one of them).
- Call your loved ones once in a while (e.g. lunch break), try to dedicate some time to them even if they are far away.
- Book the parties in advance, don’t just show up and try to get in, it’s gonna be packed.
- Dedicate some time for self reflection, try to understand if you are getting what you want/need from this conference and embrace changing your schedule if needed.
- Have fun! Happy KubeCon NA 2024, I’ll see you there.
That’s all for now, from your favorite Cloud Native🥑 Find all my links 👉 here.
See you around, ciao!
Originally published on blog.mb-consulting.dev