Picture this: sunny weekend, Croatian Silicon Valley, record number of IT professionals, 8 tracks to choose from, over 60 interesting talks, contagious positive atmosphere and lunch being served all day long… Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Well, all of that was offered at the annual 10th KulenDayz conference held in Osijek from August 31st to September 2nd. Below you can read all about our experience attending the conference.
KulenDayz is the biggest conference in Slavonia that gathers IT experts with different roles in one place and offers them opportunity to share their experiences and knowledge with one another in friendly and positive atmosphere. It is casual conference organized by community for community and that’s why there is such a positive vibe around it.
This year it was the annual 10
th edition and considering it was visited by over 700 people, we could conclude that this were the biggest and most popular KulenDayz yet.
I just have to mention the hotspot of the conference, InDaSofa area where all the mingling and networking happened. Everyone just loved being there in the shade, having some refreshments or having lunch as many times as you wanted! Yeah, there was lunch served the entire conference day because organizers wanted to beat the enormous crowd of hungry IT guys in regular lunch time. Good call organization team (who are btw all volunteers)! Also, did I mention that Slavonian specialties were served for lunch, such as Čobanac? Yummy.
Kulendayz 2018 lasted for 3 days and consisted of Preconference, Conference and Teambuilding. The first day, Preconference day, was filled with trainings where you were able to listen and talk in detail about some of the newest and most popular technologies.
Conference day offered 8 different tracks: Backend and Frontend Development, Data, ITPro, Design, ProjectManagement, OpenSessions and special track for Business: HGK Tech powered by Croatian Chamber of Economy. Overall, there was more than 60 very interesting talks that covered hottest topics of today's tech.
Comminus representatives on KulenDayz were our biggest gourmands – the Database team. Naturally, our primary goal was to hit the Data track. We were not disappointed. Also, there was really high-quality Kulen available for tasting and it was possible to buy it. Yummy.
We were honored that one of us even held a lecture in Osijek. Head of our database management department, Dean Savović, in his spare time SQL Server wizard, held a very interesting lecture named “Parameter Sniffing on SQL Server 2017” where he used real life examples to make sure everyone understood what parameter sniffing was about.
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Great thing about KulenDayz is the content being offered outside the conference itself. This year there were KulenDayz Teacherz and KulenDayz Kids. Teacherz was intended for key people that have power of making kids interested in STEM fields - the teachers. They could learn some new things like basic Python or Wordpress and use some new tools like Microsoft Teams or OneNote. Great idea, KulenDayz team.
For Juniors, there was free workshop KulenDayz Kids, held for the 6
th consecutive year. It was intended for kids from 7 to 14 years old and they made some really cool stuff, like creating simple web pages with WordPress, programming robots and play with micro:bit. The effort that was made for the youngest ones by the organization team is admirable. Wish that existed when I was in elementary school😊
To conclude, KulenDayz 2018 was great success and we are glad we could be a part of it. Keep up the good work organization team and hope to see you next year at even bigger KulenDayz 2019!
