My Day at BITCONF 2018

So first off I didn’t plan to go, but still looked at it, decided it is way too technical for me and I was back to planning the next best L&D thing for #Mobica.

Thursday the 13th came and our Employer Branding team had one returned ticket due to illness. It's 16:00 and I’m in the EB room talking to them, so I spontaneously agree to fill the last place and go to BITCONF #Bydgoszcz IT Conference, with the words “don’t be late” ringing in my ears.

7.15am 14th September I’m stood outside the Holiday Inn waiting for registration to #Bydgoszcz IT Conference which opens at 8.15, so I won’t be late! The morning is great, weather is good so I sit with my giant cup of coffee and wait.

I start to see people arriving, among them friendly faces that I know or remember from days past.

Registration started bang on time and we were whisked through very efficiently and quickly. Goody bag in hand I head for my next coffee and start to check who’s who and plan which presentations I will attend, the split is fair 50% in Polish and 50% in English language - perfect!

So the conference is aimed at Java & Cloud with two rooms clearly displaying which is which thus avoiding any confusion, the opening speech takes place and the the first presentation which is for all people “Cloud Native in Enterprise - great opportunity and greater responsibility”, was delivered, so a great kick off! I’m feeling happy about life in the IT lane.

Next up for me was on the Java side. I enjoyed “Testing Your Message Driven Application” the most.

Following on from this was “Blockchain: more than bitcoin” and “Big Data and Machine Learning in the World of Google”.

During the breaks between sessions were opportunities to catch up with people you haven't seen for ages and also to network. Several of the big IT companies in Bydgoszcz had stands at the conference.

A well prepared lunch was delivered at 13.30, leading us into the afternoon sessions which for me consisted of Consumer Driven Contracts like TDD to the API and the final presentation Oracle Cloud Infrastructure a beast for the Enterprise, both hit the mark and I enjoyed them.

Closing speeches were held on time at 17.30 with an invitation to the after party which I declined mostly because my wife was in town shopping with the credit card and unsupervised so I had to go and rescue that situation.

Summing up I discovered that you shouldn't be scared to throw yourself into new situations and I learnt a lot  whilst also discovering I really know nothing! But it has inspired me to want to know more. I would like to thank the organisers (#Bydgoszcz Java User Group, #Cloud&Datacenter User Group Bydgoszcz, #IT Kontekst and #Symentis) as everything was so well prepared and the atmosphere was great I really felt at home, so now I am just waiting for next year’s conference.