How do I make Uber '07 an Uber experience?

June 26, 2007 4:13 PM

I'm finally going to a developer conference! What do I bring?

I'm going to be attending the 2007 Arizona .NET User Group Über Meeting tomorrow. It's a small conference, but I've never been to one before, and I'm not sure what to bring with me. I've got a MacBook Pro, but it IS a .Net conference, and I don't want all the Windows devs pointing and laughing at me. Should I bring that, or a pad and pen, or just try and trust my memory to grab everything? Anything else I should bring? Any general tips for this sort of thing? Thanks!

posted by DarkElf109 to computers & internet (5 comments total)

For any conference:
* Comfortable shoes or gel insoles (preferably both)
* Ear plugs (If there is a "loud conference floor" like CES)
* Water
* Business cards (why can't we touch phones to transmit contact info yet?)
* And, find seats near the outlets to keep your laptop/phone/DS charged...
posted by bodega at 4:20 PM on June 26, 2007

Carry the macbook. I was at a private event in Redmond with Microsoft late last year and a lot of people were packing macs including me - everyone was fine with it. Macs have the cool factor these days. Trust me, if it is fine to carry them into the Microsoft HQ itself, it will be fine for a .net meeting.
posted by fredoliveira at 4:36 PM on June 26, 2007

Your MacBook can run Windows without even rebooting, with Parallels. Let them snicker all they like.
posted by Mikey-San at 4:42 PM on June 26, 2007

Your Mac will be fine.

Bring all of your business cards and pocket-sized pad of paper and pencil.

Your favorite hangover cure.

Power strip or simply one of those things that will split a plug into 3 or 4.
posted by Ookseer at 4:57 PM on June 26, 2007

The only developer conferences I have attended are a couple YAPC's. You don't really need much. Most people recommend not updating your laptop software just before you go, just in case the update breaks things. I do anyways, and have never had problems (but I update all the time).

Take a look at the conference schedule about a week beforehand and decide which talks you do/don't care about. Maybe do a little research on the other ones you're not sure of. Having an idea of what your days will be helps you get the most out the conference.

The popular thing for people to do now is something called Birds of a Feather (BOF) meetings. These are less formal get togethers, usually over drinks or dinner, where people who use the same technologies can talk shop. Mostly it's a good way to start socializing at the conference.

To echo what other people have said, definitely bring your laptop. Everyone else will have one. Install BootCamp, or Parallels, and run Windows. Personally, I like the VM solution. I've really gotten used to using VMs as my development environment. You create one basic image with all the standard tools you need, then back it up somewhere safe. Then when you start a new project, you just create a new VM with the backed up image. 100% clean development environment each time makes things easier for me.

Have fun!
posted by sbutler at 7:15 PM on June 26, 2007