My Experience at #PlatoElevate2024
Sharing my experience and learnings at #PlatoElevate2024 in San Francisco
Last week, I attended the #PlatoElevate2024 conference and this newsletter is going to be about my experience and learnings from the conference. Before we start, a huge shoutout to
and who made it all possible.I’ll dive more into details but if you are a software engineer, a manager or a tech leader, this will be one of the most exciting place to be in for you. So, look out for event updates from
and subscribe to get event highlightsWhy should engineers go to tech conferences ?
I used to ask the same question before I went to Dreamforce in 2019 and then I realized how they can be useful in multiple aspects
Networking Opportunities
Tech conferences provide a platform for engineers to connect with peers, industry leaders, and potential employers
Learning and Skill Development
Conferences often feature workshops, presentations, and keynotes by experts in the field. Attending these sessions allows engineers to learn about the latest technologies, tools, and best practices
Problem-Solving and Inspiration
Listening to case studies and success stories from other companies can provide engineers with new ideas and solutions to challenges they may be facing.
Career Advancement
Engaging with industry leaders and learning about new opportunities can open doors for career progression.
Highlights from #PlatoElevate for me
Met two of my inspirations -
who is author of and who is author of .
These two are definitely the reason behind .If you are not following their newsletters, you are definitely missing a lot.
We discussed about writing, career, life outside work and it was a pleasure meeting both. I also met a lot of engineering leaders who shared theor diverse perspectives.Keynote Sessions from Eng Leaders
How GenAI is changing the way we hire developers by CEO of Hackerrank, Vivek Ravisankar
From Engineering to Business Unit Leader by SVP of Technology at Sage, Aravinda Gollapudi
The future of developer experience by CTO of Strip, David Singleton
You are in the communication business by CTO of Google Store, Farhang Kassaei
Tech Debt: Leverage for velocity acceleration by CTO & EVP of Engineering at Liveramp, Mohsin Hussain
Stories & lessons from building novel products at Google & Lyft by ex-CPTO at Hayden AI, Luc Vincent
Roundtable by
I also attended a roundtable hosted by Gregor (From Senior to Lead). There were around 10 technical leaders from different companies like Google, Meta, Lyft, Bloomberg etc and it was interesting to hear perspective from both IC and Manager’s side. Few things we discussed are:
What do managers looks for when promoting a senior to staff level
What traits a senior engineer should pick ?
Is it better to be a generalist or specialist as we go up.
How promotions and career growth is different in different companies
Thanks Gregor for hosting and for your insightful tips on the discussions and also for the cool shirt you gave to my wife which I am planning to steal from her.
Workshops
How we make Build vs Buy decisions at Coda by Hari Sivaramakrishnan Engineering Manager at Coda
From Suck to Success: Revamping Your Meetings by Oliver Heckmann Head of Engineering at Coda
The workshops were collaborative. You are given to task to work on as a group. I get to work with other folks whom I met for the first time. It was interesting to see different perspectives and how things are different in startups, mid size companies and big tech.
Thank you
and for organizing this. Looking forward to the recordings of the talks I missed.Before you leave to succeed, if we aren’t connected yet, feel free to connect
Awesome overview Hemant. It was really great meeting you and chatting with you. Looking forward to the next time!
Was such a fun time, Hemant and so glad we had a chance to meet. I'm looking forward to more opportunities like it and to stay in touch