Why You Should Be a Volunteer At a Software Engineering Conference?
Every Software Developer is focused on self-development. Without following the newest tech trends you’ll end up in boring code with low paying company. For sure that’s not what we want to do! Why treat yourself badly?
Most of us try to read books, blog, attend meetups or conferences. In this article, I want to talk about conferences and why being a volunteer on a few of them is the best thing that happens to me.
First of all, being a volunteer is not an easy job. You have to take care of presenters, attendees, snacks for guests, or lecture halls. It might be overwhelming at some point. So the question is why do that? From my point of view, there are a few reasons.
You have access to backstage. What does it mean? You can easily (very very easily) reach lecturers that just had a presentation and talk to them for countless hours. It’s a great opportunity especially if you are shy or have no idea whether your question is relevant or not. They are very polite people and you can not only talk with them about technology but also about other interesting things!
Picture of my friend and me at code:dive conference!
If your company does not refund tickets or you are a student who cannot easily spend money on big tech conferences but you still want to follow up most recent trends by being a volunteer you can attend some lectures (probably most of them) for free as a member of organizing stuff. It’s a great learning opportunity that you get.
You can also fulfill your duty and help others and give back to the community that in the field of technology is widely open and helpful. Did someone help you with something? Try to help them or others.
One more thing that always makes me happy is that probably you’ll get some gifts (t-shirts etc) so you can brag in front of your colleagues!
Those were my reasons why I try to help in organizing conferences, what are yours? You can find me on Twitter, Linkedin, or via mail.
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