The tech community in Glasgow has exploded over the past 5
years, with user groups taking place almost every night throughout
the city, across every technology and industry you can imagine.
These are a great way to network with peers, learn new things and
even share knowledge with others. I find that full day events and
conferences really inspire people, help broaden my network of peers
and get people excited about technology. It's great to see so many
local businesses engaging with the tech community and supporting
these events.
My name is Craig
Porteous and I am the Director for DATA:Scotland, Scotland's
first and only free data training conference. We are in our third
year now with almost ten times the registrations we saw when I
first put a small afternoon of learning together back in November
2017, under the banner of SQLGLA and on an £800 budget. You can
still see the original announcement page I posted on my blog.
Even with this massive growth in attendance and expanding the
speaker sessions to 30 for 2019, we still have the same focus of
bringing people together with great content. Speakers come from
across the world to present sessions on new technologies, soft
skills and new ways of doing things. With the help of a team of
organisers to spread the workload, we've gone further this year and
created a newcomer programme (the same way I got into public
speaking at DataGrillen in
2018). Four of our 30 sessions are speakers who have never spoken
at a conference before. We are supporting their journey with
mentors, talks on public speaking tips and dry runs with local user
groups in the run up to DATA:Scotland 2019.
We've come back to Glasgow year after year, not just because the
team and I are locals and run several community user groups in the
city, but because of the focus businesses in Glasgow give to
technology and the communities built around those technologies. In
2018, attendees travelled from all over Scotland and the north of
England. The choice of so many fantastic venues and transport
options in Glasgow made it easy for us to find somewhere to fit our
limited budget and still host a free conference with a high-quality
experience for the speakers and attendees alike. We even introduced
an after-party in The Platform under Central station and a tour of
the WEST brewery the next day to give the speakers a taste of
Glasgow and Scotland.
As we approach DATA:Scotland 2019 on the
13th September, we have blown past our 2018 registration
numbers within 2 weeks of announcing. We have a state-of-the-art
venue in the Strathclyde University Technology & Innovation
Centre (TIC), 32 speakers lined up with our 4 newcomers, support
from many local, national and international sponsors who share our
#AlwaysLearning vision.
I'm often asked "why" we commit so much of our own time to
organising DATA:Scotland, or the community user groups we run. At
times it can feel like a job, but for me, it's about sharing
knowledge and expertise. Without the data community, I'd be half
the data engineer I am today and that is thanks to others who
organise events, who speak at conferences for no financial
recompense and continue to give up their time and knowledge to help
others. Seeing someone get inspired by a speaker's session (and
when I speak at conferences), helping people connect with others
and further their knowledge, careers and circle of friends is a
strong motivator. The fact I too get to see these amazing sessions
and talk to inspiring speakers is the icing on the cake and
reinforces an ever-present truth that in many roles, but especially
technical roles, you are always learning as technology advances. Book
your free place at Data;Scotland2019 today.
#DataScotland.
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