Orientation Event by Kojo Idrissa

Alright, so I don't have a a lot of slides here. I'm just gonna hold this microphone. It's a little easier. So I'm here to just sort of to cover a few of the sort of some of the basic some of these things. Ed discussed as well, so I just sort of skip over them. So as I told you earlier, orientation is something that we do here at DjangoCon Excuse me, to help new people become more comfortable. People who are introverted don't like to be in large crowds So one of the first things I want to cover is uh issues relating to our COCR code of conduct and if you run into any sorts of uh violations there or you feel like you need to report an incident. And the reason I point this out in the beginning is because one of the primary concerns that we the organizers have for DjangoCon

is that everyone who is at DjangoCon have a comfortable experience, an experience where they can learn and and meet new people and feel as safe as possible. And it's not a thing that we do because some Someone told us we should do it. It's not, we don't have a code of conduct because everybody else has a code of conduct. We do this, we have a code of conduct, and we make efforts to enforce the code of conduct. and to let attendees know that the code of conduct is something that we take seriously. We do that because it's actually important to us. And it is important to us as the organizers that each of you have the best Django kind you can possibly have. And unfortunately Unfortunately, if something goes wrong, which we hope it doesn't, uh we want you to know that there are things that you can do. So if you go to the DjangoCon website, uh, and how legible is that, Tim?

How how legible uh is the text on the slides? Okay, for me. Okay, just well I I'm asking Tim because Tim's in the back of the room. So I'm hoping people closer it will be more legible for maybe bump that up a little bit more. That didn't help. All right. So if you go to the website, the DjangoCon website, there is to the slash C O C, you'll see the actual code of conduct listed there. Again, we want you to be safe and have a pleasant time all at DjangoCon. If you feel that you need to say something to someone, don't be ashamed or don't be embarrassed about that. We literally went through a certain process to have a code of conduct and have code of conduct conduct violation reporting mechanisms. We did that on purpose because we want you to be able to make use of them if you feel you need to. So I j I I might be it might seem like I'm

I'm harping on that point, but in a situation where something you feel something goes wrong, we want you we want you to be comfortable knowing that you can actually say something to someone. So who do you say something to? A little block of text here. There is a list of our first responders and their phone numbers. So First name is me. I am the large man with the red thing on his head. So uh even without a phone number, I shouldn't be that hard to find, but phones are also useful. Heather Luna, who is one of our DEFNA board members, DEFNA As you see here in the last bullet point, Jeff Triplett. Jeff Triplett of DEFNA. DEFNA is a Django Events Foundation North America. That's the nonprofit organization that oversees Django Company. So myself, Heather, and Jeff are all board members of DEFNA.

And so those are contact numbers for us. You can reach us at those numbers by voice or by text. And so again, just wanted to be clear that if you feel something has gone wrong, who should you speak to about it? Alright, so now on to the more fun things about the conference. So the idea of staying connected while you're here at the conference. Um and some of these things are things that Ed mentioned. If you want to volunteer at the conference. On the DjangoCon website, if you go to the website and click on the news link, there are a series of blog posts. There's one about volunteering opportunities. I think it's the title is Help Run DjangoCon. And so there's a list of different volunteer opportunities there. There's also a link to a Google spreadsheet that you can use to sign up for the different volunteering opportunities. So we are looking we are have volunteer opportunities for people to be session runners to help introduce

introduce speakers and and run the different rooms where the talks are going on. We also have volunteer opportunities at registration. That will sort of fade as the week goes on because people Well more people will be here and registered. There are also volunteer opportunities to volunteer at the Sprints. I am also the Sprints chair, and so again you'll see see more of me than you would like to. So take a look at that if you're interested in volunteering, wanting to learn how a conference runs or how a conference gets organized. If you are someone who attends a meetup in your hometown, a tech meetup in your hometown or your whatever your locality is, this might be an interesting way for you to see how another organization, another group, runs their events. and you might get some useful ideas there or it might inspire you to go home and start your own meetup. I've met people at DjangoCon and other conferences who say, oh well, I don't

I live in a small town. I live in Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city uh in the country. I'm originally from Washington, D. C. the nation's capital. I 've always been around lots of people, but everyone isn't in that situation. I know lots of people come from smaller places. I've met people who said we don't have this meetup or that meetup in my town. Well, maybe you help organize a little bit at DjangoCon or another conference, get some ideas, and then you can get something started in your neck of the woods, as they say So one but it's also a good way to stay connected with other people. If you don't know other people here, well if you volunteer while you're here, there are going to be other people who are volunteering and you'll make some new friends that way with a shared experience. Uh the Twitter hashtag. I understand not everyone uses Twitter, but I've heard on many occasions that Twitter is useful especially for conferences.

It's a good way to sort of keep track of things and to meet people. And it's also a good sort of low cost, a low-effort way to keep up with people that you meet. So the official Twitter hashtag for DjangoCon is DjangoCon. You can capitalize it, you can not capitalize it. There's also a Slack channel, which I believe a link was sent out to. And so if you're someone who likes Slack or wants to use Slack, you can stay in touch with your various conference attendees. in the Slack channel. So these are all good ways to stay connected, especially if you're someone who maybe isn't super comfortable in large physical crowds. You can stay connected in this way digitally. can be helpful. Or if you volunteer, it gives you a specific task to focus on and you don't have to worry so much about the, oh well what do I say to this person? You can just focus on the task at hand and work together and make new friends. Teamwork makes the dream work.

That's true. That is an actual science. So what about your Django Khan US experience? What are you hoping to get out of this? And again I I had people sort of call out, you know, what are you hoping to get out of Django Khan? Um so I think it's important to consider what your goals are for Django. DjangoCon while you're here. A lot of you are here at your first tech conference or your first Django Con. Why are you here? What do you want to get out of it? So it's a good thing to think about. Some of the things people called out earlier, there are usually a few basic things people are focused on. They're wanting to learn. Let me bump that up a little bit. There we go. There we go. They're wanting to learn. You're either doing job searching or you're hiring. So maybe you're looking for a job, or maybe your company needs to hire someone, and you thought, okay, well this would be a good place to be.

meet people. So is that one of your main goals? Or are you just trying to sort of meet other people in the industry? Again, I talked about people who come from smaller areas. Maybe you don't have a big meetup scene or a big tech scene in your city. city or in your area and so you'd like to meet other people. So just sort of let that spin through your head as you're here and think, okay, what am I really trying to do here at Django Khan? What am I really hoping to get at? of it and just going through that thought process will help you guide some of your later decisions and then when you're looking at the different talks on the schedule uh and trying to decide what talks you're going to go to and what you're going to do with your time, let those goals be your guide. Because if you're you know mostly here for the learning, then focus on the talks that are going to let you learn the things that you want to learn because even a goal like learning. Well are you trying to learn more technical things?

Are you trying to learn more soft skills? Are you did you recently become a manager or a tech lead and now you're trying to figure well how do I How do I even people? I don't know how to people. I would like to learn how to people better. So there are gonna be some talks that will help you with that versus wanting to learn more about say uh channels in Django Con. Uh-oh There's a somebody's gonna tear the roof off it. No, no, don't don't don't tear the roof off. So again, when you're choosing your your talks and your your scheduling, just try to think about what your overall goals are for the conference and then just make decisions that support that. How to ask conference questions and conference etiquette. This comes up at a lot of conferences. The idea is when you're when someone's speaking, there's often an opportunity for questions and answers.

If there's a QA opportunity, please, please have a question. Don't have a comment. It's not comment and answers. It's question and answer. So please, please, have a question Also, comments, comments are wonderful, but save those for what we call the hallway track. And so the hallway track, for those of you who are new to tech conferences, is the sort of unofficial name for all the things that happen that aren't in the actual session. So just people out in the hallway talking to each other. That's the hallway track. It's a much fancier name for what it is. Actually, it's just it's loitering, basically, is what it is. People are loitering. But the hallway track, the loitering The hallway track, fancy tech conference thing. So it's it's better. That's better. That's why we use that. So again for your

Django US, what are some things you do at lunch? People people like food? Do you like food people? People like to eat? So someone people are happy with food. You can make friends at lunch. One of the the goals maybe is try to sit with people that you don't know. And so that way you can make new friends. Now if you're here by yourself, that's pretty easy. to do but there sometimes is uh a tendency to sort of just sit with people that you've already met. If you could try to sit with a different set of people Each time you have a meal, it's a good way to meet new people, make new friends, talk to folks, that sort of thing. I realize that can be a little uncomfortable sometimes. And you're like, look, look at Kojo, you're up there, you got a big red hat on. And you want to just sit with strange people, that's fine for you, but not for me. Well, it'll be all right. Just give it a give it a try once, see how it goes.

If you don't burst into flame, then maybe try it again. And again, if you're really anxious about being with strangers, you can probably find me. Again, I'm easy to find, but I'm one of the organizers. Most of my friends here are organizers, so we'll probably have a job for you to do. So just keep that in mind But the invitation is open. Lightning talks. The lightning talks, as Ed mentioned, are a good way to get started. One of the reasons we do this sort of thing is to help people come into the community. and become contributors to the community. And so lightning talks are a good way to do that. A short talk. Registration information for the Lightning Talks will be available soon. It hasn't been, if you're wondering, well I haven't seen it. That's because it hasn't been released yet. That's fine. That'll be coming soon. But consider giving a Lightning Talk. It's a five-minute maximum.

I am also the Lightning Talk chair, so. Again, I'm everywhere. Guide book. If you have if you have a mobile phone, which I think most of you do There's a guidebook app that you can get and the guidebook app will have a lot of information. The nice thing about the guidebook app is you can go through, see the schedule for the conference, and then you can select different sessions that you want to go to and create your own personalized. schedule. So that way you'll have your own personalized schedule of the stuff that you want to go to. You can see easily if you've got scheduled conflicts, that sort of thing. So guidebook is helpful. And then the Slack channel, which I mentioned before. And then other events. So there's some other things going on besides just the specific conference itself. Monday night we're having the welcome reception. Monday night, that's tonight. Actually. So we're having uh the welcome reception.

You tell I type these in the past and now it's now it's the present. Time travel, it's hard. Um So there's a welcoming uh reception going on tonight. Tomorrow night, Tuesday night, is board game night. And so I think there's information about that on the on the website as well. I personally Personally, I have a laptop that I use for playing video games. I might bring that to the gaming night because you know a game is a game. Uh it's a it's it's a board game, it's on a on a a motherboard. But still uh still a board game, I think. That's that's a thing. Might not be a thing. Uh and then Wednesday night There is an event happening off campus. One of the local newspapers is hosting an event here, and there's information about that on the Django Web DjangoCom

website as well. So final thoughts, and I have this in big giant letters because it's I think it's important to bear notice. With the organizers honestly want you to have the best, most fulfilling, most informative time you can at DjangoCon. That's literally why we do this. Like most of us aren't from Spokane or even from Washington State, or really most of us aren't from the Pacific Northwest. I think there's like two of us maybe from the Pacific Northwest. Northwest. And so like this is far from where I live and from where my bed is. And and this is true for most of the organizers. And why do I say this? I say this because Just to sort of emphasize the point, we really, truly, honestly want you to have the best experience you can here. And that's why we've organized a conference and that's why we

done all this. And so if you have questions, if you have concerns, uh if you're just confused or don't know where to go or you or feel sad or you know whatever. Um Talk to one of the organizers, talk to someone. We've got the the little red badges that say ask me or the bright green ones that say organizer. We want you to have the best time possible. So please keep that in mind. Um any questions or an any questions anyone has, you can ask me now in person or again I'm big and obvious and easy to find. You can also find me on Twitter, I'm transition on Twitter, or you can find another organizer. So with that, if anyone has any questions, that means I've done a wonderful job and I'm the best.

So with that said, we're gonna wrap up this session and the keynote is happening here in the next few minutes, next fifteen, twenty minutes or so. So let you all relax and Look at your laptops and your mobile devices because that's what we do now in 2017. So thank you very much for your time and most importantly, thank you for attending Django. It it literally doesn't happen without you all. Without you all, that's just like me and the other organizers just hanging around on the internet talking to each other. And that's that's a whole different thing. So Thank you for your time and enjoy the conference.