I just won tickets to RubyConf from Heroku. (Thanks again, guys!)<p>I graduated college in May, and I've never been to a conference like this before.<p>Do you guys have any tips for getting the most out of one of these events? What to expect? Thing to do / not to do? Any advice would be much appreciated!
Most of the conferences I've gone to (i.e. DEFCON, BlackHat, etc) I've benefited from turning off the laptop, silencing my phone, and listening. There is no way you will grasp everything that is covered at a conference, and especially so if you aren't paying 100% attention to the presentations. A little dead-tree notebook and pencil/pen is enough. Learned that the hard way toting 10lbs of gadgets around my first year at DEFCON.<p>On a networking note, bring business cards of some sort. People forget your name, forget your face, but its hard to forget something physically given to you when you're genuinely interested in talking to the other person.
The talks will be fun and informative. Enjoy them, but don't get distracted taking notes.<p>Talk to everyone. Ask them about what they do, and what they're interested in. If you make any sort of connection, add people on Twitter, Facebook or whatever they prefer. Keep up with what they're doing, and help out if you can/want.<p>Go to the hackfests. Find different folks to eat with at every meal.<p>Notice how much I'm talking about people? Yeah, they're the most important part of a conference (and life in general).
Going way back, and in no particular order:<p>Have an offline copy of the schedule, and don't count on the wifi staying up.<p>If it's not already, make sure your dev environment is fully set up.<p>Review the schedule, downloading, and perhaps installing any software/libraries mentioned in talks you find interesting, (saves you missing 10 minutes of the talk)<p>Realize that for a lot of things, a simple note that X exists and what it's called is enough for future research.<p>Roomshare. You'll learn a lot, and meet people you wouldn't otherwise.<p>Go to the sprints if you can. Go out with people in the evening.<p>Have fun!
Start your preparation <i>now</i>. You only have 6 days left.<p>Be well rested, mentally and physically prepared. Forget about drinking, drugs, coffee, soda, junk food, and late nights, starting now. When you get there, go to as much as possible, day and night, and take it all in. Get there early and stay late. Take advantage of related events and get-togethers (at night, especially). Minimize drinking, coffee, and junk food while you're there. Let your mind and body take your notes for you. Don't allow yourself to end up in crashing and missing anything. There will be plenty of time for that on November 14. Most of all, have fun. Don't wonder what could have been if you had planned properly.