Conference Notes: All Things Open 2015

Last week, I attended my first All Things Open conference. The conference focuses on Open Source software and includes speakers from major industry players like IBM, Microsoft and Red Hat.

This conference was a reach for me. I am not a backend developer and know very little about server-side technology or app development. But it was an important reach for me for a few reasons.

First, working from home means not having people to bounce ideas off of and not having those informal conversations that allow you to get new ideas and see cool things that other people are working on in person. Conferences can fill some of those holes for me.

Second, while contributing to open source software can seem intimidating (WordPress is Open Source), it shouldn’t be. The community is overall supportive of new people joining projects and wants to find new ways to include people who believe in the mission of open source.

Third, and possibly most importantly, spending time with people who are passionate about what they do, whether it’s the same thing I do, or something completely different, is energizing and regenerative. I came home from this conference convinced that I can build that app, finish this project and do something new.

For more on what I learned at the conference, check back in a couple of days.

This is the first in a series of nine posts on the All Things Open 2015 conference I attended in Raleigh in mid-October. For more information on the conference, along with videos and slides from the presenters, check out the conference website.