My 2023 Conferences In review
Context
2023 was a crazy, busy, fulfilling, and Interesting year for me. This was my first full-time year as a Developer Advocate. I traveled around the world. Well, not literally! But went to many new places. I attended and spoke at many new events and met thousands of extraordinary individuals.
How did it go? Which conference was the most memorable? In this post, I wanted to reflect on 2023 and highlight my experience attending events worldwide.
But before that, Let's get some numbers out. This year, I was fortunate to:
- Attend and speak at 54 In-Person events (80 if you count online).
- Traveled to 5 new countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Romania, Greece).
- Spoke to thousands of people.
January
Google Developers Experts (GDE) Summit in Berlin, Germany: Started the year meeting our EMEA GDEs in Berlin for a summit they used to run every year before the pandemic. The opportunity to chat with our experts and present some technical topics was the highlight of this event. And Berlin is always fun to visit.
February
FooConf in Helsinki, Finland: This was the conference's first edition, organized by the same folks behind Jfokus in Sweden. A single-day multi-track conference. It's small but cozy. I watched the first edition of a talk by Djalal and Mohamed called "From Dockerfail to Dockerfile." That content is now an e-book.
Jfokus in Stockholm, Sweden: At this stage, I'm becoming a regular at Jfokus. It's happening where I live, and the venue is 500m across the street from my office. Meeting friends and hanging out with the local community is an excellent opportunity.
March
CloudFest in Bydgoszcz, Poland: I was invited to this conference. I knew the organizers but needed to figure out what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the engagement of the local community. I had a lot of questions and great discussions afterward. And the fact that I have been to Bydgoszcz is now a great conversation opener with Polish folks I meet. They are always surprised I have been to that part of the country.
April
Devnexus in Atlanta, GA, USA: I was invited to this conference without a session as an attendee. I mainly went to see some friends and meet new folks.
Cloud Native Rejekts in Amsterdam, Netherlands: This is the conference people submit to when rejected by KubeCon (hence the name). Since I was not accepted to KubeCon EU this round, I repurposed my talks and got accepted at Cloud Native Rejekts. The conference has two tracks. My session on Software Supply Chain Security was well received (almost the entire room).
KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2023 in Amsterdam, Netherlands: At this stage, I have attended more KubeCons than I can remember, mainly in Europe. What was particular about this edition was the venue. The hangar-like building called RAI Amsterdam with the big windows, which let a lot of natural light in, was a nice change from previous editions. KubCon is always an excellent opportunity to meet friends, community members, podcast guests we receive on our show, and more. There are too many good things to mention from KubeCon EU 2023, but the highlight of this week was spending two hours over dinner discussing with Kelsey Hightower and snatching a picture at the end.
May
CloudConf in Turin, Italy: This was a new conference and city for me. It was cozy, with 500 people on a single track. What I liked was the amphitheater-style room. Since there is only one track, each speaker gets to do the talk in front of the entire audience. And, of course, you cannot beat Italian food.
June
Meetups: For some reason, June this year was full of meetups and small events. I went twice to Gothenburg, on the west side of Sweden, and hosted a meetup in our office in Stockholm.
JSpring in Utrecht, Netherlands: My good friend Brian Vermeer invited me. Who, in his own words, told me: "When I need someone to talk about Kubernetes, I call you." I'm still contemplating whether this is an honor or an insult. Anyway, I needed to figure out what to speak about in a room full of Java developers. So I built content around tooling every developer (regardless of language and framework) needs for Kubernetes, and to my surprise, this was well received. My highlight was showing people "kubectx"; most did not know it.
DevTalks in Bucharest, Romania: I was invited and did not know what to expect. It was an extensive tech exhibition with tech talks happening in parallel. The room was complete, the people were engaged, and I hung out with my good friend Natalie Godec at the airport before our flights. What not to like? Also, Bucharest was sweltering hot!
July
One would expect that summer will be calm. But not in 2023. It started in Greece for two weeks and ended up in Germany for one week. So, almost all of July was on the road.
Jcrete in Crete, Greece: Jcrete is different from your typical conference. It's not a conference at all. It's an unconference. A group of like-minded people gather in the same place and spend a few days together discussing various topics in a structured way. The topics are decided each morning. Votes dictate which room gets which track. It's a lot of fun. Afternoons and evenings were spent between the beach and food. And yeah, this is an invite-only event. So, no tickets, no CFP, Sorry!
Kubernetes Community Days in Munich, Germany: This was my first KCD. I had a session on Istio Ambient Mesh. And hung out with Anders Eknert and Annie Talvasto.
August
It was a calm month; not much to talk about 🙂
September
Javazone in Oslo, Norway. It was probably the best conference and event I attended as a speaker in 2023. There are so many good things to mention about this one. Here are my top favorites as an attendee and speaker:
Attendee:
- The overflow room is a unique concept. If you cannot attend a talk because the room is too full, head to the overflow area, grab a listening device, sit down, and dial into any of the livestreamed sessions.
- Food is available throughout the day and throughout the venue. There are tons of options, and it is tasty as well.
- The theme was the circus. The entertainment during the event with the circus multi-instrument person was hilarious.
- The location was perfect. City center, easy to get to.
Speaker:
- The speaker's dinner was fantastic. The location, the food and vibes, everything.
- The speakers' trip at the end of the conference offers many activities, such as mountain biking, hiking, and climbing…
- The food, the company, the vibes. Everything was 10/10.
October
DevFest in Beirut, Lebanon: What was supposed to be a holiday to visit Lebanon turned into a work trip. I attended DevFest Beirut on October 7th at the Lebanese American University. Great vibes, a lot of questions. Suddenly, I had to catch a flight to Morocco in the afternoon, so my stay was short. But the organizers did everything to make it smooth, including sending someone to pick me up from the hotel and drive me to the airport.
Devoxx Morocco in Taghazout, Morocco: You cannot beat a venue by the beach and swimming pools. I'm biased because this is my 4th Devoxx Morocco, and I have been a committee member for four years. Also because the organizers are friends of mine. But Devoxx Morocco is at the level of many international conferences. I was shocked to see this year, a lot of attendees coming from abroad (Switzerland, Poland, France…). The food is excellent; the atmosphere is fantastic. And I managed to take a little road trip with my good friend Gerrit Grunwald. So all in all. Fantastic.
All Things Open in Raleigh, NC, USA: Devoxx Morocco was over before I knew it, and it was time to move to the next event. Fly from Casablanca to NYC and Raleigh, North Carolina, to attend All Things Open. It is a 4000+ attendees event with twelve parallel tracks and many good content. My room was packed, and I was happy when a shoot taken during my session made it to the conference's final report. This one was particularly nice because I caught up with many good friends. I visited Wilmington with Melissa McKay to see our friend Lori Lorusso and visit the Blue Ridge Parkway.
November
Oredev in Malmö, Sweden: I've heard of Oredev for a while since I moved to Sweden, and this year was my first time attending it. I made a grand entrance with four talks in three days. Yeah, this happens sometimes when you submit talks to conferences with multiple tracks and where the track leads don't talk to each other.
It was awesome, with an engaged audience and a lovely venue, and the event's highlight was the speaker's dinner at the Malmö town hall, where the city's mayor explained the history of that impressive building.
Google Cloud Region Launch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: We launched a region in Saudi Arabia, and I was invited. It was a short trip but an excellent opportunity to meet the local community and speak at the DevFest run in parallel. I'm looking forward to going back.
VoxxedDays in Thessaloniki, Greece: This was my first Voxxed Days event, and I could not have asked for a better beginning. Thessaloniki is pleasant even in winter. It was a great community, and I had many questions during and after my talks. I stayed for a few extra days to visit Meteora.
December
DevFest in Cairo, Egypt: This was going to be my last event of the year, but as things typically go, I find myself involved in other stuff. This trip was my second to Egypt and Cairo. I was surprised by how much the city changed since 2015. I met tons of great people, and the organizers were excellent—a lot of questions and pictures. The trip to Saqqara and the Giza Pyramids was the highlight of this trip.
In a nutshell, 2023 was full of good experiences. So here is to another year with even more fantastic adventures 🍻.
