Conference Speaker Experience — wwktm 2019
I want to start from first episode of Web Weekend Kathmandu(wwktm) in 2018 which after attending, everybody could easily say wwktm is one of the biggest tech conference in Kathmandu covering every major topics of web by both national and international speakers. A full day conference followed by Hiking on next day was a next level of experience as attendee not only by the talks but also with networking, opportunity to directly communicate with speakers and being healthy by hiking. :)
It was so exciting to see such conference happening in Kathmandu which is broader than regular community events and meetups. Each of the organizer team deserves a great appreciation for taking initiative in organizing such a big event managing time and resource in their busy life.
By the mid of attending the 2018 wwktm conference, I had decided — I want to see myself on the stage in next episode i.e. 2019. And there I am !
I was way more excited since the CFP was open. It took some time to finalize the talk title which could cover wide perspective of DevOps rather than digging into technical tools and details. Finally, I decided to share experience of DevOps transformation at Pagevamp and what steps we implemented that not only broke “silo” but also foster software engineering cycle.
You could imagine the minute my proposal got accepted. It was gonna be my first conference speaking experience and the most awaited one. This was four months before the 2 day conference but it doesn’t take more weeks to pass months :)
The preparation(mentally) was going on. We had series of meetings with event organizers on how Pagevamp could help on making the conference better. Also, we got opportunity to host pre-conference event at Pagevamp HQ.
Preparing for the talk whether it be in terms of creating slides or mockups, I couldn’t start by giving a big thanks to whole Pagevamp team. Pradip Shrestha helped a lot in refining and designing slides & images which added more sharpness in the presentation. Every feedback, suggestion and place to improve from the team is really appreciable.
A day before the conference, Speaker’s Dinner was organized at Tukche Thakali Kitchen which was nice touch to get the speakers as well as organizers know each other. It added more excitement talking to other speakers from 8 nations and with expertise in different field.
The day has come !!
The shiny morning was adding energy and excitement level had gone higher. It was around 8:30 when I reached the venue(Bougainvilla events) and there were already many speakers, organizers and attendees ready to jump in. After a light breakfast, the event kicked-off with Keynote. My talk was scheduled for third session.
The talk went nice taking bit more of time than scheduled where I shared mostly about the myth of DevOps. What really comes in your mind when you hear word DevOps? General trend is to look it only from the perspective of server and infrastructure but its broad than that — bridging gap between development, operations & business. The achievement cannot be measured only by the metrics of deployment and pipelines but culture as a whole on how the business needs maps to engineering and all the flow till and after the end user uses the application we build. It all starts with learning, experimenting, applying, measuring and optimizing. Keeping in mind “Nothing is 100% reliable and everything breaks over time” is important. Blameless culture and the culture of helping, sharing and learning is the only way to foster the growth of whole business & team.
Lastly, I shared about the journey of building DevOps Kathmandu community from late 2018 and the impacts, learning we are having through the community.
Day 2 — Hiking
Hiking is always memorable and when it comes with 100s of people in the community, the special-ness is undoubtedly amplified. The destination was Champadevi — Pharphing, southern hill of Kathmandu and it took about 5 hours in total to get back to Hattiban Resort starting from Pushpalal Park. The uphill trail with leeches was scary enough to make everyone forget everything around :)
But when we reached the height, it was worth !
The view of Kathmandu valley and mountain ranges inhaling cool and fresh air, it was fantastic experience. What could be more better when you meet new people in the community and walk sharing experience, learning and having food in that environment?
The organizers let no stone upturned to plan and enjoy every bit of the journey. On the way we all played games, shared food, sing & dance.
Unplanned Visit to Pharping Hydro Power Water Dam
Energy was still not down for all of us and there ample amount of time was left, so we went to Pharping Water Dam which was a worth to visit.
The fresh air with view of the valley, kids playing games, the view of water dam made us forget all the tiredness adding refreshment. Finally, we returned to the event venue via bus at around 5pm and bid good bye to all !
That’s all for now. Again, many thanks to organizers for such fabulous conference. It was great meeting you all ! Will see on 2020 episode !!
