I recently had an idea about finding out what is it like at the ElixirConf US. Being unable to attend personally, I thought I'd get an insight into what occurs by asking someone. That someone is Christian Tovar, an experienced software developer who recently attended the event. Here's how my Q&A session went:-

Danny: Hey Christian. Thankyou for agreeing to be interviewed for Beam it Recruitment’s forum. I’ll be firing a few questions your way……

So, to begin with what got you interested in Elixir and Software Development?

Christian: "Software Development has been something I’ve been interested in even before getting my engineering degree. At first I was more into embedded systems using C++ but eventually got introduced to Elixir and shifted my focus into the ecosystem. Got very interested in how Elixir targets the BEAM along with all of its concurrency primitives so I got hooked to it ever since."

Danny: I can see you have a few years of experience working professionally with Elixir, so what was the motivation to go to the Elixir conf US?

Christian: "I’ve been doing Elixir for over 5 years now, and I’ve seen the community grow ever since. The ecosystem has widened to many other disciplines such as ML and embedded systems, so naturally ElixirConf is the perfect opportunity for 2 main things in my opinion, first of all is connecting with the community. We get the chance to be in person to discuss and actually shape the way us developers want Elixir to be in the short and medium term. And also we get an exclusive sneak-peek into how Elixir is being used within the industry, so you get to hear how Elixir has been leveraging many companies into reaching their goals using cutting edge technology."

Danny: I’ve never been to any Elixir Conf meetings myself, could you explain what actually goes on?

Christian: "So ElixirConf is a multi day conference where 3 main things happen. First of all there are keynotes, which are talks that have an specific intent of giving an update regarding Elixir, some of its core libraries or a specific use that has been given via these tools. Then we have the event talks, which are a variety of talks that take place at the same time and are targeted from beginner to an advanced audience. As opposed to keynotes, these talks are shorter than keynotes but are what make up most of the event. Lastly, we have the miscellaneous activities that happen during breaks and in between talks, usually sponsors will have booths where people will be able to interact with their staff and there are sometimes activities imparted by them."

Danny: Would you recommend the meetings to anyone?

Christian: "Absolutely, ElixirConf is one of the few opportunities to actually connect in person with the Elixir community. There many other platforms that have allowed the Elixir community to talk and discuss such as elixir forum, Slack, etc but ElixirConf is special in a sense that it allows us to connect in person and meet new people and have a good time outside of our comfort zones."

Danny: That’s interesting, what do attendees gain from going to these meet-ups?

Christian:  "As mentioned earlier, a conference such as ElixirConf will allow attendees to both connect with the community and also brethren their ecosystem knowledge as many people from all over the country and even overseas are using Elixir for an immense amount of different applications"

Danny: When is the next ElixirConf US?

Christian: "ElixirConf US 2024 will be in September of the next year."

Danny: Will you be attending the next one?

Christian: Yes, I'm very much looking forward to attending next year. 

Danny: OK that’s great, how can people attend?

Christian: There are 2 main options, you can either attend in person, the city or venue for ElixirConf usually changes every year. And there’s also a virtual option that will grant access to attendees to the event’s exclusive live stream.

Danny: Thankyou for taking your time to speak to me, it's good to hear about what goes on from those who have experienced it in person

Christian: Thankyou, it's been a pleasure sharing my experience with you

If you'd like to learn more about the 2023 Elixir Conf US, please see the following website https://2023.elixirconf.com