Tech conferences are exhausting if you do them right! The amount of people I met at CYC, the talks I went to along with all the information poured into my brain was a tad overwhelming at times. My social battery was worn out by Friday evening but I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
CYC is the first tech conference I ever attended and I can see why this is a special one. I’m really thankful blocks of time for explicitly networking were baked into the agenda. This freed up some mental energy to not have to make the decision between going to a talk or staying in the hallway track. My conversation starter card proved useful especially on Day 1. I have to say the thing I’m proud of the most is knowing that I could hang in a lot of tech heavy conversations. It made me reflect and realize how far I’ve come since 2022. I’m not doing so bad after all!
I got to meet some heroes of mine including Danny Thompson and Leon Noel. I did not have the opportunity to meet Quincy Larson but these three giants have influenced thousands of developers around the world and have created a beautiful learning space online. I am so grateful for these communities where I have made lasting connections and have a support system to lean on. Meeting a bunch of these online connections in the flesh just made the community feel that much stronger and supportive. Attending CYC allowed my personal network to grow and now I have a new accountability buddy for my job search.
Beyond new connections I walked away with a ton of new lessons and inspiration. I learned why trunk based deployment is a no-no. I am now equipped to test out my applications for web accessibility with confidence. I was inspired by leadership talks which made me want to grow into the leader I wish to see in the industry. I met with several speakers in person, LinkedIn messages and have continued scheduling virtual coffee chats beyond the conference.
I have been finding it difficult to keeping this post thoughtful and concise so I will conclude with takeaways from my favorite keynote speaker, Aaron Francis. He left me feeling motivated and empowered. He talked about finding your niche, sharing what you build in public, navigating the world as it is today and creating your own opportunities by asking for what you want. I will be working on a new project soon using TanStack which I don’t see a lot of literature for. My goal is to learn a new tech stack and create a real world application that will be used in the education realm. Perhaps I can one day become a voice associated with TanStack and will sign up for talks at other conferences sharing my knowledge . For now, I’ll just keep building, keep sharing and keep creating my own way.
