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Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?

68 points by tburger ↗ HN
As a resolution for 2015, I'm hoping to attend more conferences - particularly for web development, server-side languages, Linux, and open source software. What are the best conferences lined up for 2015?

59 comments

[ 19.9 ms ] story [ 4078 ms ] thread
alblue
You should provide what kind of location or travel budget that you are asking about: there's great conferences across Europe but that may not be of interest if you are based on the West coast of the states for example.
tburger
I live in the Seattle area, and would be open to one or two in Europe during the year.
gracer
I live in Australia. So almost EVERYTHING is an international airfare (ugh).

But love it here anyhow!

gopalv
LCA is pretty awesome.

I went to linux.conf.au for five years in a row (from India).

Heard people like like Andrew Tanenbaum and Bruce Schneier, more importantly go to ask them questions (yes, that's the point).

Rusty, Tridge, Linus, Bdale, Keith Packard, Lennart, Garret, Val Henson, Rasmus ... if you work on the lower layers of the linux ecosystem, this is a pretty awesome place to head to.

The only downside was that I returned from the conference every year with a sensation of having wasted the entire year before not doing anything significant (of course, I worked on a lot of small things, but nothing which took a year to write).

dyadic
Or leave it open and have answers that are more relevant to more people
akoumjian
PyCon (https://us.pycon.org/2015/) is always a blast. It's large, but has an amazing sense of community. You will find at least three or four amazing talks each day, on a variety of subjects. The posters area will expose you to all kinds of cool academic and other projects. The Expo Hall is always full of hip companies (giving away lots of great SWAG, of course).

I guarantee you will leave inspired.

gracer
Of course! Thanks - great tip.
JoshTriplett
I'm going to PyCon for the first time this year (presenting on how to port Python to run without an OS). I've been to quite a few other FOSS conferences; any tips for PyCon, since it sounds like you've been before?
akoumjian
The testing "birds of a feather" is not to be missed. In general, don't be afraid to step out of your shell and introduce yourself to other pythonistas. One of the friendliest conferences there is.

Your talk sounds fantastic. I'll try to make it and introduce myself.

RevolverOce
Any Idea how much this will cost? I am a student in college and I was interested in going to PyCon since python was my first programming language -- and do Students have a different rate than regular tickets?
bgar
You can apply for financial aid and go for free. I did that for PyCon 2013.
criveros
You can find most relevant talks on youtube.
Splendor
There's so much content on YouTube it can be hard to find something worth watching.
MichaelGG
The value in conferences is only mildly related to the actual talks. Meeting people and the discussions and connections are the real value. Like, ClueCon, for VoIP devs. It's rather haphazardly managed, many of the talks are useless, some are even just pure ads. But if you spend time to meet people it can be totally worth going.
neduma
>> The value in conferences is only mildly related to the actual talks.

Agreed.

jwildeboer
Fosdem in Brussels. Best place for open source since 14 years.
Yadi
http://rubyconf.org/

The International Ruby Conference -- more commonly known as RubyConf -- has been the main annual gathering of Rubyists from around the world since 2001.

http://www.railsconf.com/

April 21-23, 2015 • Atlanta, Georgia

Something similar to JsConf:

http://fluentconf.com/javascript-html-2015?cmp=kn-web-confre...

http://www.buildwindows.com/ 2015

"/dev/winter 2015" http://devcycles.net/2015/winter/?utm_source=lanyrd

Free 1 day software conference. Development, DevOps, Mobile, Web, NoSQL, Cloud, Functional Programming, Startups and more.

QCon London 2015

http://qconlondon.com/

9th International Software Development Conference

Or

QCon New York 2015

The 4th Annual International Software Development Conference

https://qconnewyork.com/

Maybe: http://sxsw.com/interactive ?

Less Web Dev though ( http://www.gdconf.com/ )

Game Developers Conference

I think there will be:

http://html5devconf.com/ for 2014 as well.

Here are some other conferences about "Computer Image Analysis, Computer Vision Conferences One Year Calendar"

http://conferences.visionbib.com/Browse-data.php?order=DateN...

pw
I've been to RubyConf and, as a Rubyist, I was looking at going last year, but my impression was that it was pretty poorly run (at least compared to a conference like StrangeLoop). They seemed very late in getting sponsors and offered nothing in terms of travel assistance for underrepresented groups. When I asked them why they didn't, they gave me some malarkey about being a non-profit then refused to engage with me further.
pw
For example, I was horrified when I found out that RubyConf didn't pay or even offer cover the travel for their speakers.
JoshTriplett
Linux Plumbers Conference is always incredible, both as an attendee and as a presenter. This year, it's in Seattle.

linux.conf.au 2015 is coming up very soon, but you might want to start planning for linux.conf.au 2016.

In general, I highly recommend the LWN events and CFP calendars: https://lwn.net/Calendar/ and https://lwn.net/Calendar/Monthly/cfp/ . Use the former if you plan to attend, or the latter to know when to submit proposals.

kapilvt
strangeloop https://thestrangeloop.com/ & gluecon http://gluecon.com/
pw
I second StrangeLoop. I went last year for the first time (after hearing about it every year) and was duly impressed. Amazing content and impeccably run. Also, it's the most progressive conference I've been. They dedicate a ton of time and scholarship money to increase attendance by under-represented groups.
pw
And not only do they offer scholarship money to individuals from underrepresented groups, they give travel stipends as well.
kev009
BSD conferences are Right Sized and the people are amazing. BSDCan is worth the trip if you want to see a different perspective from the larger confs which are highly commercialized.
cperciva
BSDCan is awesome. 2015 will be my 11th trip.
hartem_
If you are interested in security there are at least two or three good conferences happening every month somewhere. Some are listed below. BlackHat (big and expensive), Defcon and various Security BSides are always worth attending. There are some great ones in South America (H2HC, YSTS, ekoparty) and of course there are a lot in Europe (Chaos Communication Congress in Germany, HITB in Netherlands, NoSuchCon in France).
asalkey
I too am interested in attending conferences this year.

My list so far:

Nodeconf Adventure

Laracon

WordPress Seattle and Vancouver

CascadiaJS

Ruby on Rails conf

jawns
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?
jrs235
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.

dotnetkow
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
bsimpson
I'm pretty excited for Facebook's React Conf at the end of the month, but I'm biased because I'm speaking. =D
theshadowmonkey
Why has no one added JSConf. It is an amazing conference with a limited set of people and very good talks. And its a 3 day conference where one day is pure fun. I attended it once and wish to attend again.

http://2015.jsconf.us/

rovolutionary
I second this.

Went to JSConf US this year in the beautiful Amelia Islands (right off the coast of Jacksonville, FL) and had an absolute blast!

Extremely well organized, knowledgeable, and a ton of fun!

lpgauth
I'm a little bias, but one of my favorite conference is the Erlang Factory SF! The conference is still small enough that there's no bullshit and you get to meet most of the active community! A must if you work with Erlang :)
rubiquity
I desperately want to go to Erlang Factory but as a freelance programmer $800-$1200 USD for a ticket is just way out of my range. The lineup of speakers and talks from every year are amazing and it would be so cool to spend time in person with other Erlang users. Bummer about the cost :(
zem
Strange Loop is the one I'm excited for
rubiquity
Me too! I'm going to do everything in my power to get a ticket this year.
Yhippa
Any Java-focused conferences worth going to?
ajones
I attended UberConf a few years ago and found it to be pretty interesting. A lot of the talks seem to repeat from year to year, so it was likely a one-time thing, for me.

https://uberconf.com/

fencepost
For anyone freelancing, any WordCamps in your area may be well worth your time even if you're doing nothing with WordPress. The level of technical information varies depending on size/# of tracks, but there are a variety of other presentations of use (if Chris Lema is speaking, go to that track).

If you're tight on time or money, they're also a decent choice because they're inexpensive by design (almost always under $50 for a 2-day conference; I believe WordCamp Chicago 2014 was $60 if you included the Friday training tracks) and they're generally on weekends.

You can get a fair idea of some of the things you'll find at them and where to find them by going to http://wordcamp.org, and you can find a variety of videos at http://wordpress.tv

chambo622
Google I/O is always a favorite, although I was disappointed by the change from 3 days to 2 days for 2014, and the conference is always very packed. That said, the enthusiasm and energy level is very high and you'll meet a lot of fantastic people.
jace
If you are in India, HasGeek's conferences are all for developers, and often pretty much the only conference on the topic in India (websites are still for 2014):

Feb 2015: Meta Refresh, on web UI (https://metarefresh.in) and Construkt Festival, on tech startups (http://construkt.me)

May 2015: Rootconf, on devops and cloud infrastructure (https://rootconf.in)

Jul 2015: The Fifth Elephant, on big data and analytics (https://fifthelephant.in)

Sep 2015: JSFoo, on JavaScript (https://jsfoo.in)

Dec 2015: Droidcon India, on Android (https://droidcon.in)

All conference videos are available at https://hasgeek.tv

gopalv
+1 this - mostly because they're all in the second or third iteration of the conference.

Take a look at the last few years' videos to get an idea of why this is worth attending, which is probably the harder detail for people who have to travel to attend conferences.

jace
JSFoo 2015 will be the fifth year. That's the oldest. Rootconf 2015 in the third year is the youngest.