Christopher Astfalk
In September, this year, I visited the web-conference-marathon of Reject.js, JSConf.eu and CSSConf.eu in Berlin. Which is part of WhatTheFest.
It was a blast!
But first things first:
For years I have watched the talks on their YouTube Channel. But I never thought of myself as good enough to attend it.
But one night I read on twitter, how a relatively new programer purchased a ticker for JSConf.eu. And encouraged by this, so did I.
What followed was months of euphoria and self-doubt.
There are no javascript meetings in my area. So this would be my first real meeting with web-developers. And also my first trip to Berlin.
On one of my euphoria moments I also bought a ticket for CSSConf.eu. After all: if there is a day between the two JSConf-days, why not also attend CSSConf? And the Reject.js ticket didn't cost so much, and so it got bought, too.
But the feeling that I wouldn't fit didn't go away.
Almost everything I have written in Javascript is inside an intranet. To have at least a project to show, I startet a chat-client. Most of the days I tried to work a minimum of 30 minutes a day on it. Which I really recommend everyone to do.
But I still had the feeling that my ticket did take away a place for one of the super über Javascript-libery developers. This stayed until I read an interview of one of the organizers of JSConf (in German). In it Jan Lehnardt stated that they are expecting ~600 Javascript-enthusiastics. Somehow this made me feel good. There is enough room for all. Maybe that he talked about Javascript-enthusiastics not developers also helped …
On Wednesday before Reject.js the organizers invited everyone interested to a local restaurant. I recommend everyone who has the opportunity for such kind of gathering to go and attend it! I met many awesome people that helped me throughout the weekend. Oh and the food was good.
First conference day and minutes in I was warmly greeted by folks I meet last evening. So the ice was already broken.
In the following days it was proven to my that all my fears were false:
- I didn't need to prove something to anyone
- All where welcoming and friendly
- There is plenty to talk about
- And everyone is really happy if someone new comes to the community, ever if you are an absolute beginner
- And it is really ok if you never have worked on an open source project
In the end I was even encourage to go to JSUnconf.eu. Because I have worked with UDP/Datagram and not many web-developers have done it.
Oh! And the food was fantastic!
Overall the conferences and their attendees create a wonderful atmosphere, where everyone can thrive without having to fear to be excluded.
I only regret not having talked to more people. But there is still JSUnconf and next year!
There is nothing to fear! If you have the chance of visiting a meetup or conference: go! It will transform you!
CSSconf EU 2015 – Mood Film
Berlin you beautiful city! Thank you for this awesome conference!