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 e-mail.
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.