DevTeach is just around the corner again. I’m sitting here tonight putting the final touches on my presentations and I’m thinking about all the things that I enjoy about my trips to DevTeach. I might as well give you the top 5.
The presenters that you get to see in sessions are phenomenal. DevTeach has managed to draw the best of the best in the industry to speak at it. As a result you can choose any session on the schedule and be guaranteed to see a top name presenter speaking on something they’re passionate about.
The varied content is refreshing. If, at any time, you feel that you want to go off and see a session that will put your mind into a different place than it normally is, you can. On a number of occasions I’ve decided to refresh my brain by seeing something that isn’t in the .Net or Agile tracks. If you want you can see SQL Server content or, new for Toronto in ‘08, Sharepoint.
Great before/after parties. Party with Palermo, spontaneous pub nights and non-stop partying make the conference a lot less stressful than most you go to. While everyone attending or speaking is deadly serious about their profession, almost all are also there to live life and have fun while doing it.
Pre and Post Conference sessions. Outside of the traditional one hour sessions during the conference, there also are a number of full day seminars that are held before and after the main conference. Topics range from SQL Server, to Silverlight and Agile development. Always good content.
1. Hallway conversations. Because the speaker to attendee ratio is so low at this conference you have the opportunity to easily enter insightful conversations with the speakers and luminaries that are attending. Half the time you’ll unknowingly end up having lunch at a table with at least one of the speakers. If you decide to skip a time slot, you’ll always find people out in the halls mingling, working on code or trading ideas on the industry. Skipping a session to hang out in the hallways is one of the best ways to enhance the content that you take home from the event.
DevTeach starts up on the 12th of May. If you haven’t already, take the next few minutes and register for the event. It’s one of the best choices that you can make for your career.