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Vicki Langer
Vicki Langer

Posted on • Originally published at webwide.io

I'm Gonna be Open w/ You: What I Learned at the All Things Open conference

Earlier this year, I went to the All Things Open 2019 conference in Raleigh, NC. My goal was to meet people and learn new things, but I could never have prepared for the things I learned.

As a new person in tech and a first-time conference-goer

  • T-shirts, hoodies, shorts, and other casual clothing is totally acceptable
  • Everyone is so welcoming and kind
  • I was pronouncing everything wrong
    • Kubernetes (hint: NOT Koo-brrr-neats)
      • K8s (hint: NOT kates)
    • Netlify (tip: it's Net-lif-eye)
    • PostgreSQL (tip: 's' is said twice / hint: NOT post-greh-Es-Queue-Ell or post-greh-Sequel)
    • Azure (hint: NOT a-zoo-er)
    • I'm sure there are more

Reminders for next time

  • Do not wait until 2 days before to book a hotel room
  • Make sure to bring a water bottle

Takeaways from sessions

  • Use open-source tools to bootstrap, the big companies are, why wouldn't you
  • Free admission != access (speaker Nikema Prophet) Liquid error: internal
  • Allow people to be themselves at work (speaker Matt Rogers) Liquid error: internal
  • Avoid burnout! (speaker Ashley McNamara) Liquid error: internal
  • The lines between front and backend have blurred over the last few years, hence why I couldn't tell the difference. (speaker Chris Coyier ) Liquid error: internal
  • Machine learning is basically a bunch of if/else statements, I think
  • Mentoring can scale and Kubernetes has a neat framework for it
  • Every single person, regardless of our differences, has a place in tech

Other observations

  • Purple hair is in and it looks badass on all sorts of different people
  • It seems to be acceptable to be on your phone/computer through entire sessions
  • I met a few people from Twitter
  • Lego! There were legos on 2 different floors (I <3 Lego!)

PS. Here's a separate bit on what I learned about stickers.

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