WebCamp Zagreb 2014, Zagreb, Croatia
by Željko Filipin
Today is the last day I can say that earlier this month I was at WebCamp Zagreb 2014 conference. Tomorrow that would not be true.
I have been to all three WebCamps. Every time I was impressed with the quality of the conference, especially since it is free. This year for the first time they have accepted optional donations.
This first year it was a small conference. The second year it grew so big they had to change the venue. This year it was even bigger. Two days instead of one. A lot of preconference activities. The organizers even started a non profit to help organize local tech events. It would be even better if they did it the first year. I plan to use the non profit this year to organize a tech meetup. More about that soon.
The organizers had a really ambitous plan. I was able to atted almost all preconference and conference events.
The first event was Week of WebCamp. A few local tech groups have organized a two-track mini conference. I do not remember the details, but I was not dissapointed with the organization and the talks.
The second event was a workshop day. I have attended three workshops. I wanted to attend Git workshop, but when I decided to register, it was sold out. :’( It was not all sad news, since the usability testing workshop that was at the same time was great. A lot of good content and a couple of hands on exercises. I have also attended Scala and Elixir workshops, but I was dissapointed. Both of them assumed a lot of previous experience, but that was not communicated before the workshops, or at least I did not get that email.
The main event, the conference, was also really good. Some good talks, some meh talks, some not so good talks. The usual. But rememeber, this was a non profit conference. Amazing. I have helped organize conferences, and it is not easy.
What have I learned?
- Register for the workshop(s) early.
- Cheap workshops are sometimes amazing, but sometimes not so amazing.
- One of the best parts of any conference is a meal or a beer (or even better, both). Sometimes with people that you know well, sometimes with people you only see at tech conferences. Sometimes with complete strangers.