About the conference
This year, the program presented more than 150 reports from leading experts. All relevant topics were covered, from neural networks and the Internet of things to architecture and scalability. There was a debate about the advantages of microservices over monoliths and vice versa. The reports went in parallel in several sections - perhaps, many would not have given up the time flywheel in order to do everything (of course, after the conference the participants were sent recordings of speeches, but what is a soulless video compared to the opportunity to ask the speaker a personal question).
However, especially in order to communicate on the sidelines, on the first day of the conference, a traditional afterparty was arranged, with a CS championship, a quiz and the opportunity to exchange views with cool specialists in an informal setting.
About the work of stands
Speaking of the informal situation - in between reports, they tried to provide 42 stands from partner companies. Stickers, pens, and other calendars rained down on the participants, as if from a cornucopia. In order to get a more substantial prize, most of the stands offered visitors to demonstrate their professional skills by passing a thematic test, solving a crossword puzzle with terms from highload or finding bugs in the proposed code. We decided that the stand area is intended primarily for the conference participants to have fun and relax the brain between the reports.
Disclaimer: in the process of inventing and developing the application, none of the characters was hurt, we all love the same!
Ivi booth at HighLoad ++ 2019, photo from the official group of the conference in VK.
With ivi, HighLoad ++ participants could practice accuracy and attentiveness and let off steam. On the big screen, an application with the usual picture was broadcast - three tables, at which the developers worked hard to code. The player’s task was to help the programmer Vova work, using soft balls to drive away from him everyone who comes with extraneous requests and stupid questions. An important task was, together with characters who tried to distract the developer from the task (among them were the team leader, designer and service station), not to bring down those who were in a hurry to Vova with valuable information (scrum-masters, testers and product owner). Each exact ball hit in an aspirant seeking to bring a few prize points, like every assistant who reached the programmer, and vice versa. The absolute record that visitors managed to knock out at the stand was 340 points.
Despite the apparent simplicity of the application, we tried to focus on the fact that ivi adheres to the principle of focus and multitasking, and also share the values ​​of scrum. If an employee is immersed in solving a problem, then let the whole world (and STO) wait.
In two days, 50 “warm greetings from ivi” were played at the stand - thermoses that, together with the warmth of hot tea, store the warmth of our hearts and 100 pairs of gloves for touch screens - winter is coming! In addition, countless stickers and certificates were distributed for two months of subscription.
The happy owner of a 2-month subscription was Okko Aleksey Golubev
Conclusion
Participation in conferences of the HighLoad ++ level is always a pleasure from meeting old acquaintances, a noticeable profit from the “exchange of wisdom” with other specialists in high-loaded systems, and a challenge for teams preparing stands. It’s not enough to come up with and realize a cool idea, you need to interest visitors in it so that the stand is remembered, at least until the next conference. We really hope that the Vova programmer will remain in the memory and hearts of all HighLoad ++ participants, and next year we promise to come up with something new, no less fervent. Stay tuned!