For years technology conferences have been a way for IT workers to keep track of trends, make important connections and have fun with same-thinkers. And then COVID-19 happened and changed it completely. First, we thought conferences are cancelled for the unforeseen time but then we adapted and moved them online.
This change has actually made a positive impact and actually gave us opportunities we never had before. Like, when conferences needed to be attended in person it led to a bunch of related arrangements. Organizers had to take care of inviting the speakers, organizing the space, accommodating those speakers… And hosting people from all over the place. Same for attendees – if you weren’t in the same place as the conference event, you had to make all the travel arrangements and anything could go wrong at any moment.
Now, you can attend a conference anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own home office and engage with speakers and potential partners from any city in the world!
Though, if you are a tech evangelist from Canada and you are planning on doing your business locally, you are probably interested in finding partners within Canada or maybe the US. So we’ve decided to list conferences not to be missed for Canadians for this and the upcoming year.
Let’s go!
Why To Attend a Conference At All?
Besides the overall fun of being around people who are interested in the same thing as you, we managed to define 5 good reasons to attend a tech conference:
- Education. If you are doing web development in Toronto, it’s easy to reach the local expertise limit and stop adopting new skills. So if you are attending an event that hosts people from all over the place with their own, unique expertise, you’ll probably learn a lot of new stuff. And learning is awesome.
- Networking. Are you doing the web development in Calgary and looking for ways to open the Toronto web agency brunch? The conference might be a great opportunity to find suitable partners for that. Or is your web application development company looking for a design partner? Or are you willing to find new clients to sell web development in Canada and you need talented salespeople for that? The conference might be the place to make all those connections!
- Meeting new vendors and suppliers. Conferences are crowded with salespeople who are aimed at making new connections and expanding their services. For instance, if you are a Toronto website development company and you don’t offer typography or print design services, you can partner with a company that does that and offer new service to your existing clients. And as a result, grow your business. And again, conferences are great to look for such connections.
- Building your expert image. If you planning to stay competitive in the tech field, you should start building your expert image. Clients are much more likely to order services from a company listed in the top 5 web development companies in Toronto rather than from some no-name studio with a couple of clients. And, of course, conferences are a great place to speak as an expert on behalf of your business.
- Having fun. Working 9-5 on tech projects with the same team and the same clients might get boring. And if you are somewhat like us, you probably love all things tech and can’t imagine your life without the digital business. And trust us, when Ontario web development people meet British Columbia tech people, the party begins! And it doesn’t end until every last minute of the conference.
Now you are probably eager to attend a conference. Even though the online experience might be somewhat limited, we believe it’s temporary and you’ll be able to have 100% of the offline fun really soon.
Though for now, let’s see what’s coming next.
Conferences Not To Miss in 2020-2021 by Danavero
AWS re:Invent (November 30 – December 18, 2020)
Amazon Web Sevice hosted conference re:Invent 2020 this year will be going online and charge-free. It’s a three-week event that is perfect for all kinds of technology-based employees. It’s an amazing networking opportunity – more than 65,000 tech professionals attended re:Invent last year.
O’Reilly Software Architecture
(Days vary, please see a schedule of live training sessions for details) Organizers for the O’Reilly Software Architecture Conference announced that all of their events will be hosted online for the immediate future. They’ve scheduled dozens of online sessions giving the opportunity to participants to learn from industry experts about technology, design, and business. O’Reilly is awesome for those who are looking for educational training in a smaller setting.
TECHSPO Toronto May 20 – 21, 2021
TECHSPO Toronto is a 2-day event hosted in Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton Centre Hotel in Toronto, Ontario. So if you are a Toronto web development company and offline events are back then, this conference is probably the best chance to start attending conferences! (Assuming you never done this before of course). TECHSPO Toronto brings together some of the best web developers in Canada, tech leaders, digital designers, and innovators.
Deep Learning Summit January 28 – 29, 2021
Deep Learning Summit was recently voted the “#1 Best Artificial Intelligence Conference for Business Leaders.” Lucky for us, in 2021 the Summit will take place online and we don’t need to fly to San Francisco to be a part of this amazing event. The Summit will offer interactive Q&A sessions and dozens of interesting presentations. Tickets are available already!
Consumer Technology Association (CES) January 6 – 9, 2021
Consumer Technology Association will also host its 2021 event online. CES is labeled “the most influential tech event in the world”. The conference is providing a showcase for new technology and it also includes a conference program for tech industry leaders to collaborate. If you or your company are looking for the latest tech trends, then CES 2021 is your must-attend event. As you’ve probably noticed, 4 out of 5 listed conferences are hosted online. So we think it’s important to brainstorm the perks on online conferences:
Benefits of Attending An Online Conference
- Bigger variety of people. A virtual conference can be accessed from any part of the world and from any device. You’ll meet people from farthest corners who wouldn’t make it to an offline event.
- It’s a time & money saver. When buying a ticket to an online conference you only pay for the ticket. And, well, you already pay for your internet connection. While attending an offline event you also pay for transportation (not only with cash, but also with your time) and if the conference is in another city, for the accommodation.
- Easy networking. Online communication cuts the getting to know each other process short. And you’ll have everybody you need in your Facebook or Linkedin by the end of the conference. While in offline communication, you are limited by an amount of people you can talk to at once.
Online events seemed a bit dull in the beginning of the pandemic. And now, while we have to stay separated from each other for our safety, it’s proven to be a great and comfortable way to learn and meet new people.
In Conclusion
Obviously, attending a conference involves time and money. However, the best things in life usually require some amount of effort. For a few days, you can focus on learning and connecting with new interesting people. We love conferences and hoping to meet you in one of them!
