It’s been 2 weeks since GopherConAU 2023’s closing that I finally remember to write this recap. This is my rating (1-5)
- Talks (weight: 0.5) - 3
- Socializing (weight: 0.3) - 4
- Facility (weight: 0.2) - 3
So the overall weighted score is 0.5 * 3 + 0.3 * 4 + 0.2 * 3 = 3.3. I’ll give details about each aspect below.
The talks.
I bought this year’s ticket the moment the schedule was released. Russ Cox and Rob Pike start and ends the conference with interesting topics in the middle coming from a diverse range of speakers. What else do you need to be convinced to go? While I did enjoy the opening and closing talks and a few other talks, I’m a bit disappointed with the overall breadth, depth and relevancy, especially compared with the talks in 2019, which was the inaugural GopherConAU. After the 1st day, I was disappointed that I thought I’d never go to it again. The 2nd day saved it a bit but still not reached my expectation. Here’re some the talks that I enjoyed:
- Go Testing By Example - Russ Cox
- What We Got Right, What We Got Wrong - Rob Pike
- The Hacker’s Guide to JWT Security - Patrycja Wegrzynowicz
- The Power of Bloom Filters: Building a Cutting Edge Go Search Engine to Explore the World’s Source - Ben Boyter
- Lightning talks - names I cannot remember…
For the lighting talks, I noticed there’re some eye-opening projects and ideas but I felt it was cut short due to time and logistic issue so I hope it could be given more attention in the future.
Socializing.
I gave it 4 because I’m happy to reunite with some of my ex-colleagues, catching up what’s going on and had beers after the first day (the weather was not so good). It reminded me how enjoyable work used to be when I was at MX, working with well thought designs, debating different ideas and chit-chatting with smart and interesting people. Even MX is still a small start-up today, I think the high standard engineering practice is ahead of many tech giants. When I was there I got opportunities to work with cutting edge technology with top expert in the field. But looking back past 2 years since I left MX, although the complexity and scope of work increases dramatically, the technology I’ve been using is mediocre and most of time I’ve been busy shipping features and fixing bugs instead of leveling-up my skills and understanding. So I am exited to learn that MX hasn’t changed a bit in terms of engineering practice and grown quite a bit its customer base and technology footprint. Maybe someday I’ll go back if allowed.
Facility.
The venue is same as 2019 which is a lecture room in UTS. There were some technical issues with the projector that impacted the opening keynote speech and the 2nd day afternoon session. The lunch was probably not up to many people’s standard as I saw many were not taken and were given away people nearby.
Final thought
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents of GopherConAU 2023. By itself I think it’s still worth to go but given that I have to pay for it and use my annual leaves for it I don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t think I’ll attend next year if things stay the same but Katie mentioned that the GopherCon NZ is under consideration so maybe I’ll change my mind then.