News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015? by jawns on Thursday January 01, 2015 @08:48PM (#8825152)
I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who's attended That Conference (https://www.thatconference.com) -- which bills itself as a summer camp for geeks. That it occurs at a giant indoor waterpark makes me wonder whether the actual conference is beneficial, or if it's just an excuse to get your company to bankroll part of your vacation. If you've attended and your company did foot the bill, was it a hard sell?
Re:Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015? by jrs235 on Thursday January 01, 2015 @09:29PM (#8825259)
Gone every year so far. Company has sent the entire dev team (7 this past year). We're less than a two hour drive away. It was an easy sell for us because of cost. Tickets, hotel, travel, and food (the catered breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and pig roast are awesome) costs less to send 7 (8 or nine will go next year) than to send 2 developers anywhere else. Some talks are great, others are ok. Its great for netwotking and getting exposed to things outside your dev stack and for us its a team building function. You get out of it what you make it. They are trying to incorporate more family and kid stuff. Our team includes single devs, married devs, and devs with kids (though no families came with this year and would be a non company paid expense). It's also something simple our company does to stand out from others in the area (helps retain and show respect and care for developers from the company) feel free to ask me if you have any questions.

Add: There are some well known people from various dev communities that attend and/or present. Its kindof cool to be feet from them or even better getting hang out with them since its not massive in head count.

Re:Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015? by dotnetkow on Friday January 02, 2015 @05:55PM (#8829037)
I've attended every year so far, it's a blast! Like someone else mentioned, like many conferences, the more you put in the more you get out. There is a large variety in content and lots of opportunities to socialize. I've taken back lots of new ideas to my work, whom has always paid for it. I even spoke this past August! https://www.thatconference.com/sessions/session/1171