Attending Conferences

Pasadena Convention Center

Students on Expo Floor

What happens at conferences?

• Conference attendees typically meet others, attend workshops and/or presentations, and spend time at the exposition where they can talk to vendors, learn about new products in the industry.
• Vendors are there to publicize their company or organization, and perhaps convince you to join their group or even buy a product or service that they sell. They occasionally have small promotional items or t-shirts that they might give away to help publicize their business.

What can I do at SCaLE?

As a "Next Generation" student, you've already benefitted from the organizers of SCaLE who have offered you free admission to most of the event on Saturday. This conference promotes the use of open-source software, and SCaLE hopes that by attending, you will learn more about technology, computing, and the open-source community.

You already have some experience with open-source software:

• the Internet runs largely on computers running Linux, an open-source operating system
• your computer is likely an Apple laptop, which runs on a UNIX-based OS, which is what the Linux OS was based on.
  Or you have a Windows laptop on which many developers install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which allows Windows users to use open-source softare on their machines.
• The Python programming language is open-source, which makes it free and freely-available for distribution, use, and modification.

The three best things you can do at SCaLE:

1. Get your free conference t-shirt and wander around the Expo floor. (Be sure to wear and show your conference badge so they know you're legit.)
2. Attend talks from other students at The Next Generation conference room.
3. Visit The Next Generation playground, and volunteer to spend some time at one of the tables we have set up there!

Conference Skills

• Smile!
  There's a lot of cool stuff to see and do.
• Relax!
  You're here as a student to enjoy the vibe, and to learn a little more about technology. (Have some sympathy for the vendors who are here trying to sell their equipment and services, or the other attendees who may be looking for a job.)

• Take your daypack.
  There will be swag! (Don't be greedy.)
• Bring money.
  There may be stuff to buy, and you may want to get coffee/lunch.
• Keep your badge visible and facing out.
  People will see your name, and vendors may ask to record it for email follow-up. (You're not required to do this, but it's something of a professional courtesy.)
• Talk to vendors.
  The classic opener, from you to a vendor: "So, I'm a student, and I use Python/Java/GitHub/etc. Tell me about your product!"
• Be polite.
  You can't just walk up to a table and steal swag. It's fair for a company to expect you to engage with them before they give you free stuff. Have a conversation, find out what their thing is. Then, you can say, "Would you mind if I took one of these cool little plush toys?"
• Practice your "soft skills."
  It's a tech conference, and people like "hard skills," but they really like "soft skills." ("You can code... but can you look me in the eye while you talk to me? Can you have a conversation with me that doesn't make me want to turn around and run screaming in the opposite direction?")
• Have your own "elevator" talk prepared.
  Vendor to you: "So, what do you do?" Response: "I'm a student at Polytechnic School. I'm taking the AAA course there, but what I'm really interested in is BBB." (You can fill in additional details regarding anticipated fields of study in college, projects you've worked on, things you find intriguing: AI? Cybersecurity? Videogames?)

Student Presentations

Yash Tandon
Coming soon!

August Cho

Ikenna Ogbogu

Austin Froelich

Desmond Mantle