Ok, so many of the conferences out there you’re going to get fed the company line. You’ll probably experience some odd behaviors and people pushing product on you. If you’ve got the same feeling about conferences as me, and you’d like to experience these things at a conference:
- A diverse audience of many different people from many different places.
- You’d like to talk to others that are passionate about the future direction of technology and what we can create with that technology!
- Listen and watch presenters provide insight to technology, ideas, and spaces that I don’t regularly get to hear about or discuss.
- Meet many new friends, build my cohort of coders, and learn from each other.
- Have a good time, relaxed, and not under the pressure of being sold things.
…then these conferences are for you. Seriously, I wouldn’t and won’t ever direct anybody to corporate conferences anymore except maybe in super rare occasions. The conferences to attend are the grassroots, community organized conferences like these two! There are too many other truly awesome conferences where the future is being discussed and made RIGHT NOW! There’s a few lined up that I’ll be attending and am currently working with as an organizer. Here’s the top two RIGHT NOW!
Nordic.js
Last year I unfortunately missed it, but not by much. I was running around Stockholm (along with a few other cities) last year but the dates didn’t match up for me. But this year, I’m more than set on going and will be buying tickets and more to insure that I will be there.
Nordic.js videos from last year are up and live. There is also the standard points to follows what’s going on, see when speakers are announced, and more information via the @nordicjs on Twitter, the Facebook page, or go straight to the conference site.
Here’s a short on last year’s conference…
.NET Fringe
Alright, here’s a reprint of a conversation, paraphrased, that has happened a lot lately. I’ve been pleasantly surprised since I’ve had more than a few years in the .NET space and… well, just read the copy.
I mean I remember I was excited about this ALT.NET thing
a while ago, but that thing just fizzled.
Node is the cool kid nowadays.
Did you know they are building a new nextgen .NET stack
that is node-like, completely OSS on Github and works on Mono?
Find out more about .NET Fringe
Talking? I’d love to invite all the ladies, gentlmen, and octopii (please don’t eat Stockholm’s or Portland’s bridges!) to put in your 
Simply, we’re aiming to get a solid direction for the future. I hope to see many of you there!
In the coming weeks I’ll have a lot more about these two conferences, plus a few others that I promise you will be absolutely spectacular. Cheers!