This week I attended THAT Conference in Round Rock, just outside Austin, Texas. This was my second time attending the conference, which is a very unique. The conference runs twice a year, once in the summer in Wisconsin Dells, WI, and in the winter in Round Rock. These are put on by the THAT community, which reminds me a bit of the PASS/SQL Family.
I was honored to get accepted to speak at THAT Conference 2023 in Wisconsin, and I had a great time. I knew nothing about the event, but my wife and I had a great time. This week I was again honored to speak and I had another great time, so I decided to share some thoughts and pictures.
Theme
The conferences from THAT, apart from having fun with the name, are camping themed. Really summer camp themed, as in a US kids summer camp. The organizers decorate a lot of things camp-related, including the rules and a to-do list as you walk in.
There are lots of camping gear set up around the convention center as well. Here are a few shots from the summer event. I didn’t grab camping shots this week.
The main stage in the convention center also has outdoor camp decorations. I like that the main stage is always open, with multiple keynotes during the day, as well as recordings and interviews taking place during the day. I wish we did that at the Data Community Summit.
Attendees are “campers” and speakers are “counselors”. That’s even on our badges. They also give you a pin code, which relates to your information. You can give a sponsor your pin and then they can access your contact details. It’s fairly clean and easy, easier than scanning badges, IMHO.
They also have a large poster commemorating the event, and they ask people to sign. I signed this week for the Jan 2024 event. Can you find me?
Here was the list of previous events displayed in WI.
The Kalahari Resort
Both events take place at the Kalahari Resorts. Apparently people in Wisconsin know about this place. It’s a large hotel/water park, with lots of African themed art and decorations, indoor and outdoor water parks, and a convention center.
The Wisconsin Dells location is older, and more spread out, but a lot of the same restaurants and options. There is an indoor amusement part and movie theater at the complex, which is on the edge of a very small town north of Madison. I flew into Madison and drove a little under an hour through the Wisconsin trees to get there.
The Austin location is in Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, and has lots of stuff around their property. I didn’t explore as much, but I didn’t see an indoor amusement part or movie theater. However, it is newer and nicer, with one large building for hotel rooms.
The rooms are nice, large, and there are multiple bedroom options for families. They also give you a plastic wristband with an RFID sensor in there. This is your room key and can be used to charge things. It’s a very cool idea, and works well with a water park (and kids).
Program
THAT Conference is a developer event, and it focused on building software. Lots of talks on all aspects of development, but there are a few data sessions and quite a mix of career advice/growth sessions. I was pleased with the mix.
Wisconsin had more data sessions, and I also went to a few RDBMS and NoSQL sessions as well as a Rust talk, a GitHub Actions talk, and a few other random ones. I was pressed in Texas, and it was smaller, so I only went to a DevContainer talk and a GH Custom Actions talk. I learned a bunch in both, including a few things I want to try out.
Open Spaces
I’ve attended a few “DevOps Conferences” over the years, and in some of these they’ve held Open Spaces sessions. This is a format where someone, or anyone, can find a space and start a topic that they are interested in, want to share something, or want to see what others think.
At THAT, they set up these large boards, with a grid. There are times down the side and spaces set across the top. These are sometimes numbered tables in an area, or they could be rooms. They even break after lunch for an hour dedicated specifically to open space time.
Some people will fill out a topic and post it during lunch the first day, reserving a place and time later. Anyone can do this anytime and some speakers do this after their sessions, dropping a note in a space and then going to a table or location and continuing the discussion on their topic.
After our sessions in WI, Ryan actually set one up for the next day to continue a database DevOps talk.
There are also all sorts of other talks. One dev did a talk on making coffee on the road with an AeroPress, and he demonstrates how to do it. Another did a lockpicking talk, which was neat.
The guy got me to practice and I opened a lock in a few minutes. Cool and scary.
I think Open Spaces are neat, because they allow the conference to have sessions (and talks) on topics attendees care about and the organizers didn’t pick. I’d love to see this at Summit. I could see MVPs, skilled attendees that think of something, even vendor SEs taking a space to talk in more detail about something with others.
Family Friendly
With this being a resort with bedrooms available and a waterpark, it’s a great place for kids. However, many of us tech people want our kids interested in stuff. The conference sells tickets at a discount for families to attend. Kids can walk around and play in the tents, mess with Legos or puzzles that are around the event.
We even have kids running Open Spaces. I saw a Pokemon Go session in WI with a range of kids from 6 to 15 chatting. In TX, a girl announced she wanted to have a session to talk about the Barbie movie.
The tickets for kids or family are $99 and that gets them into the various food times as well as the game night. Having your kids exposed to geeks having fun might be one of the best ways to get them interested in STEM. Even if they don’t like the tech, they can have some fun outside the conference as well.
There’s even a family track where people are presenting kid friendly sessions on different topics during the day.
I even saw one Dad with a toddler, probably 10months old, feeding him while listening to a GH talk. That’s cool to see, and I wish I’d have been able to bring a little kid to some events. Not all, but some.
The summer event is scheduled, and tickets are on sale. If you want to attend a fun developer event, perhaps take your family, and visit a water slide, think about going to THAT Conference Wisconsin 2024. I’m not submitting to many events this year, but I am thinking to submit here again.