RoboCon 2023 is dead, long live RoboCon 2024!
Intro
In this post I am going to talk a bit about the RoboCon 2023 online and the preparations for the upcoming conference 2024.
About the RoboCon 2023 in-person please see this post.
RoboCon 2023 Online
What an experience! We had a really great conference experience in the RoboCon online 2023. Our host Joe Colantonio did a superb job entertaining the crowd. His easy going live Q&A’s after each talk was music to the ears.
The talks were really good and besides the pre-recorded talks, we had a few live sessions as well. First an opening with the Chairperson of the board René Rohner and Executive Director Miikka Solmela of the Robot Framework Foundation to discuss the Foundations and what it is and what makes it unique. The second live session was an awesome panel discussion at the end of the conference between our Lead developer Pekka Klärck, Community leader Ed Manlove and a Member of the board Many Kasiriha.
These sessions and all the other talks will be released on our Youtube channel during the summer. Check it out!
Overall, the online conference was a success and the community was able to get together on the Gather.town platform. We have read through all the valuable feedback. In general it was really positive and the online conference actually had a higher NPS (59.42) than the in-person (46.27). We have also taken into consideration some of the improvement ideas for next year.
Thank you everyone involved in the conference, you rock!
RoboCon 2024
It is on! The workgroup has already started to work towards creating an even better conference experience for 2024. So, what will it be in 2024?
One thing we have discussed in the workgroup is doing something a bit differently. Don’t worry, we will have enough of the same guaranteed quality but we want to add a fresh twist.
We will have a similar asynchronous conference first in-person in Helsinki on 6–9th of February followed by the full online conference 28 of February until 1st of March.
The in-person conference will start with the workshop day to learn new skills hands-on, then we will continue with the community day which is an open space for the community to learn, discuss and advance topics related to Robot Framework. After that we will have two days of excellent talks and other content at Bio Rex. And let’s not forget the dinner after the first conference day, after party and maybe some culture on Saturday!
Few weeks later the online conference will include streamed pre-recorded talks and live Q&A as well as some live-sessions all hosted by the evergreen Joe Colanation. This time we shall have an after party! The online community day is after the conference. The whole experience will be on an interactive platform to allow people to connect and chat with one another.
One of the things that we want to emphasize especially at the onsite conference is the interpersonal connections and community. Another key thing is creating value for the participants and “leveling up”. We want each participant to take something away from the conference and try to find the answers to the questions people have in their job regarding the usage of Robot Framework. And let’s not forget about fun!
Follow us on social media or robocon.io for more information.
So what is the twist then? It is top secret… but let’s just say let the games begin!
You make the conference
We are a community above all. It is people in the community who make the conference. Now this is your time to make RoboCon 2024. There are several ways to contribute, you can:
- Give a talk
- Give a workshop
- Give a tutorial
- Be a leader during the community day
- Be an event partner (sponsor)
- Join the organizing workgroup
- Give us ideas or inspiration
- Write a review on a past conference
And last but not least
- Participate in the conference!
We encourage you to contact us with any questions of the above mentioned at info@robocon.io.
Moreover, as it happens, we have just opened the Call for Speakers so list your talk, workshop or tutorials proposal or get in touch with us to further discuss.
If you are in a need of inspiration. We will, among other things, discuss talk / workshop / tutorial ideas in the next Open Space! Join the fun 30.6.2024 3 PM CET.
We want to highlight that at this point of time there are still many open possibilities and we are highly flexible regarding your wishes as a conference participant, partner, speaker and we want to listen with an open ear about the suggestions, ideas and dreams regarding the up-coming conference.
In the end RoboCon is for the community, by the community.
Yours truly,
Miikka Solmela
Executive Director, Robot Framework Foundation
