Introduction

Conferences are a great way to network, connect and grow in your career. Either your intention is to speak or listen, there are varieties of benefits you derive by showing up. Tech events could be conferences, meetups or online workshop, it is an avenue to sell yourself, company or product. If you have been doubting the value of tech events, I believe such doubt is vanished. The key tip is knowing if it is right for you or not, and how to leverage what such events have to offer without experiencing burnout or a diminished value in your productivity and learning process.

Update

About a month ago, I kickstarted a career in Developer Relations as a mentee at DXMentorship. An intensive 3-month hands-on experience on DevRel practices and strategies. It has been fun so far, with various talks, tasks, brainstoming and team building activities. A big shout-out to Kenny

Yaaaay!!! 💃🏽💃🏽😁 I’m kickstarting a career in Developer Advocacy.

Thanks @dxmentorship @kenny_io for the opportunity. pic.twitter.com/A66QD28JvD

— Arafat Abdussalam (@Arafat_ssalam) November 9, 2022

The first time I heard Dev Advocate, I was as confused as wondering what avocados have to do in tech community. Hehe! Worry not if you felt same way, this article focuses on clarifying the role of Developer Relations, DevRel Con and DevRel communities.

What is Developer Relations?

"DevRel is the people building the train tracks, marketing builds the train station, sales drive the train home. It is essential to have each part or the train goes nowhere." - Eamon Leonard

"If a business is a machine, DevRel is the grease that turns the wheels, making everything function reliably. It improves efficiency." - Paul Burt

Simply put, DevRel is at the intersection of product, engineering, sales and marketing. The department performs the roles which other department can't perform efficiently. Professionals in the DevRel department are tasked with updating the software documentation, writing code examples, creating product demo, building sample applications, maintaining developer community, content creation in the form of teaching and educating the developer audience, speaking at events, gathering feedback and communicating them to the product and engineering team while improving the business value of the company. Sub related roles are Developer Advocate, Developer Experience, DevRel Engineer, DevRel Manager. Everyone has a common priority.

It is essential that a developer advocate has technical expertise, you can't teach a language you can’t speak nor read.

Why establish a conference for DevRel?

The latest Dev Relations event, DevRel Prague has just been concluded. I bet you are also wondering what a DevRel event is and why it is necessary.

Developer relations need a platform to sell themselves too. The conference is for Developer Relations by Developer Relations while catering for Developer Advocates, Developer Experience Managers, Technical Community Managers, Internal Developer Advocates also.

DevRel events are aimed at informing and equipping Developer Relations on the best practices and strategies involved in building a successful DevRel team.

The talks mostly covered during these kind of events include metrics and performance, recruitment processes, strategies and tactics, customer adoption and retention.

The following are common DevRel conferences to watch out for. Feel free to join the community via mail or newsletter sign up, social media follow and engagement while improving your DevRel expertise.

DevRel Conference and Communities

1. DevRel Con

DevRel Con is an international series of technical conferences established in various countries across Asia and Europe. It organized by Hoopy, Kiwi. Read more about DevRel Con here

2. DevRel Collective

DevRel collective has a communication channel aimed at providing resources and helpful tips to individuals who are enthusiastic about developer relations. Learn more here

3. DevRel Community Africa

DevRel community Africa is a community of developer relations experts and enthusiasts across various countries in Africa. Check it out

4. Developer Avocados

Developer Avocados curate newsletters, articles, resources and CFP related to developer relations. Join the community here

Conclusion

So far, in this article, you have learned what developer relations is about, the roles performed by DevRel, why it is necessary to establish a platform for DevRel professional and how to show up while being focused on your personal goal. Well, I do hope you haven't tongue twisted Advocados for Avocados.

Cheers, see you in the next article. Bye!

Feel free to reach out to me on twitter

Read my previous article here

Cover image credit, via Dribble