I don’t like to write about conferences. The opinions about them are highly subjective and they are valid for a very short time. I also don’t like to write my opinions about the sessions (in some rare cases I do write them anyway). And yet here I’m writing about #programistok 2016. Why?

To put you into the perspective this was my first time attending #programistok conference. Last year, for some reason (I don’t remember it now) I coudn’t make it to Białystok. So why this time I’m taking the time to write about it? Well, a lot things has happened that I think are applicable to broader spectrum of people. So here it is.

So what is the takeaway for me from the conference?

talk to people

Talk to speakers. Unless you talk to them and ask questions it would be like watching it at home. It’s probably not their first talk about the topic. Also talk to other attendees & oragnisers – meet new people and listen what they have to say. Be the silent monk* and listen to people problems and try to make some projects out of them. Of course the session are important but if you can skip one or two and have nice discussion in the foyer – do it.

* of course when people ask you questions be polite and answer 🙂

have a lightning talk prepared

By prepared I mean have at least some topics you can talk for about 5 minutes. You don’t need slides or fancy presentation to be ready. If you have an interesting topic in mind there’s a good change they will be a lightning talk session at the conference – here’s your slot to have something to say. If you have something funny or not – share it with the crowd. As for myself I need to have few stories ‘prepared’ to such occasions.

learn how to juggle

I was surprised to see a juggling developer but believe me – there was one 🙂Krzysztof Morcinek talked about his experience and juggled at the same time. I’ve always wanted to juggle and this short talk convinced me to finally learn how to do it. Also this was a spark for another initiative. Read below.

just do stuff

Seriously. Justo do it. Don’t overthink, don’t spend hours analysing the perfect domain. Just do it. Don’t believe me? Just see what happened when I just did the stuff.
As you know from previous point I wanted to learn juggling. So I ordered the juggling balls. The ordering form did not accept ‘+’ in email form. So I got pissed again at it but this time I did a bit more. I’ve created ‘the plus manifesto’ and put it on github and tweeted about it.

24 hours later day later I got like 19 retweets from people like The Code Junkie and others. Awesome feeling.


See how things happen when you are drunk and pissed off about not being able to use the ‘+’ sign? Don’t think – just do stuff! I’m very happy that I did that.

That’s all I wanted to say about programistok. Conferences are not about sessions – they’re about people. The organisers, speakers and attendees. It was a great conference, awesome people. I had the best time in Białystok and I hope that I will be able to attend the next year’s edition.

And if you want to know, I think the best session was ‘Raster Shadery na Commodore 64’ by Michał Taszycki. But I might be a bit biased here 😉

https://web.facebook.com/programistok/posts/1093012304069904

https://web.facebook.com/programistok/posts/1093012304069904