Note: Below is a guest post by SIMCAC member Jeff Gallimore, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer and Co-Founder at Excella, and part of the team organizing this year's DevOpsDays DC.
Shortly after what many acknowledge as the birth of the DevOps movement at the Velocity Conference in San Jose, CA in 2009, a small group of people gathered in Ghent, Belgium for the first DevOpsDays event. That small group wanted to continue the conversations about these new and novel ways of working we now call DevOps. Since that inaugural DevOpsDays event, DevOpsDays has grown into a "a community-organized not-for-profit conference series for practitioners" with more than 400 events all over the world over the last dozen years.
Washington, DC had its first local DevOpsDays event in 2015 and five more since, skipping 2020 and with last year's event being virtual because of the pandemic. This year, we're excited to get back together in person for the first time since 2019. DevOpsDays DC 2022 is September 15-16 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. This year’s event marks a return to our venue from 2019 when we had more than 400 attendees participate over the course of two days.
A DevOpsDays event is not your typical two-day technology conference. It’s unique and special in a few notable ways.
First, DevOpsDays events are community-organized and volunteer-led by people in the local area. A global organizer group provides some support and governance, but each city has its own event with its own local group of volunteer organizers. The local organizers are responsible for everything for the local event, like selecting speakers, handling logistics, and managing finances. It’s an event by local practitioners for local practitioners.
Second, the format of a DevOpsDays event is different than your usual conference. You’ll certainly enjoy the 30-minute keynote talks on a variety of DevOps-related topics. DevOpsDays events also have ignite talks, a challenging five-minute format for speakers involving 20 slides that advance automatically every 15 seconds. But many attendees say they get the most out of the Open Spaces, the portion of the event self-organized by the attendees where they can talk about anything they like.
To give you an idea of the variety of topics covered at a DevOpsDays event, a few of the many highlights in the DevOpsDays DC 2022 program include:
And who knows what the Open Spaces topics will be. Consistent with the Open Spaces rallying cry: prepare to be surprised.
Third, a DevOpsDays event draws together a special community in a special environment. I've been involved with DevOpsDays DC as an organizer since our first event in 2015 and the last two years as a co-chair. I am involved in DevOpsDays DC and a member of SIMCAC for many of the same reasons. Both include bright, accomplished professionals from whom I can learn. Both have open, supportive communities in which you can build meaningful and lasting relationships. And both involve opportunities to give back to the local community that’s so important to me. I expect anyone who attends DevOpsDays DC would have the same kind of amazing experience I’ve had since I got involved seven years ago.
If you’re a senior leader with technology practitioners on your team and you’d like to invest in their professional growth, encourage them to attend a DevOpsDays event locally. Everyone involved in software development, delivery, and operations will get something out of attending a DevOpsDays event. If the practitioners on your team happen to be in the DC Metro area, attending DevOpsDays DC 2022 on September 15-16 would be a wonderful opportunity for them. We still have tickets available and at $250 for two days, it’s a fantastic value. They can get more information and register on the event site. If they do attend, let Jeff Gallimore know so I can welcome them to the community when they arrive.