Hi Tip-Sheeters,

This week I have a fun approach to get more out of your next in-person tech conference.

Try out a Persona at Your Next Conference

I enjoy attending data and technology conferences and find them valuable for skill-building and career development.

In recent years, I’ve attended a variety of different types of conferences, including:

• Vendor-focused (AWS Reinvent, Boomi World, Strategy World)
• Data and data science (Open Data Science Conference (ODSC), CDOIQ, although it’s technically a symposium)
• API (APIDays, API World)

You might notice that none of these say AI in the title, but don’t worry: every conference is about AI these days.

They all tend to share a few things in common:

• a kickoff keynote presentation each day
• an agenda full of workshops and talks
• a vendor booth area with reps from companies, institutions, and open source projects
• scheduled meals in a big shared room and informal snack times for chatting with other participants

Getting the Most from a Conference

Have you ever gotten back to the office from a conference and had a hard time giving specifics about the value you got from it?

Maybe it’s because you’re following the same routine from previous conferences and not trying anything new.

I’ve got a suggestion to freshen up your next conference experience: assume a persona.

Assuming a Persona

When you assume a persona, you’re playing a part. It’s a little like being an actor in a play (or an undercover agent). Instead of just being yourself with your normal habits doing normal things, you’ll be single-minded in your focus for experiencing the conference.

For example, you could be The Prospector looking for hidden nuggets of gold across the conference.

What does that mean in practice? When you choose sessions, find a talk with some hidden value at a smaller booth in a remote location. When you walk around the vendor booths, find a product you’ve never heard of that sounds promising.

You can extend this to the part of conferences many consider the real goldmine: the hallway conversations. When you socialize before sessions or during refreshment breaks, seek out people who are not actively chatting with others but have an interesting background or impressive skill.

At conference meals, look for a side dish you’ve never tried before. (I’m a sucker for the meals.)
Does being The Prospector sound more interesting than your last conference session? Maybe add a little wry humor to your experience?

Try out a few more of these personas to have a new conference experience

Persona: The Awards Panel

Perspective: If you were handing out an award to each component of the conference, what would earn your gold medal?

Examples of “winners” to seek out: Outstanding New Product, Best Slide Deck, Top Keynote Presenter, Best Hands-on Demo, Superior Hallway Conversation

Persona: The Open Source Advocate

Perspective: Looking for people, tools, and presentations focusing on vendor-neutral tech

Examples: Look for booths promoting standards bodies or open-source software. Choose panel talks about using an open source framework. Find people during social hour who contribute to open source projects.

Extra points: join a hackathon to contribute to one of the open-source projects during the conference.

Persona: The Prognosticator

Perspective: Scoping out early signals on trends that will emerge in 2-3 years.

Examples: At vendor booths, check out beta releases and product roadmaps. Look for vendor talks emerging from academia or R&D labs. Meet people who aren’t on this year’s agenda, but you predict will be speaking at the conference in 2 years.

What other personas could you try?

Are there other focus areas for a conference that you’ve tried? Other things you look for on the conference agenda? Hit reply and let me know.

Keep coding,

Ryan Day

👉 https://tips.handsonapibook.com/ -- no spam, just a short email every week or so.