Newsletter sign-up

View all newsletters

Sign up for our technology specific newsletters.

Enterprise Java

Email Address:

What Sun won't tell you about JavaOne

Rants, observations, and 10 ways to improve next year's JavaOne experience

By Mariva H. Aviram, JavaWorld.com, 08/20/99

Page 3 of 4

4. Pay attention

Don't be absentminded when going about your JavaOne activities: Although it can be a lot of fun, treat this conference as you would any other business event. Take a lesson from my "bathroom incident."

I find JavaOne to be overwhelmingly dry -- physically, and sometimes mentally. So I'm in the habit of drinking a lot of water and breezing through the thankfully line-free women's restrooms throughout the day. On my third full day of JavaOne attendance, my sleep-deprived brain was swimming in thoughts of XML, KVM, J2EE, EJBs, JDBC, CORBA, and every other Java-related acronym you can think of -- so much so that I absentmindedly stumbled right into the men's room. My baffled first thought when I entered was, Why is this bathroom so filthy? My next thought -- and I was indignant about this -- was, What are men doing in the ladies' bathroom? Then, as if a bucket of ice had been dumped into the pit of my stomach, I realized what I had done.

Now, walking into the restroom of the opposite sex is no big deal in other places I've been, such as during my brief stint as a student at Oberlin College, where coed restrooms -- and even (shock!) coed showers -- are commonplace. But at JavaOne, a woman casually walking into the men's room is decidedly uncool.

I blushed hard. In my embarrassment, my legs seized in paralysis. A kindly gentleman looked at me, smiled, and said, "It looks like you're in the wrong place." When my legs finally caught up to the will of my brain, I was outta there like a bat out of hell. The moral of this story is pay attention. How can you get the most out of JavaOne if you're absentmindedly stumbling into places you don't belong?

On the other hand -- and this is my real piece of advice -- sometimes you can get the best information by stumbling into the wrong places. A trek off the beaten JavaOne path might just yield some interesting data, such as what's behind the keynote address stage, or how many electric fire-prevention rules have been broken under the computer lab tables, or the real reason why the infrared Lego-car demo isn't working when you stop by.

5. Pick and choose

Be discerning about the activities you participate in at JavaOne. I know there are lots of fun distractions, but some are better than others for your career. It's okay to play air hockey or pool with a fellow developer you've just met, for example. You can even let him win in order to score professional points. But, in all honesty, it's a waste of time to wile away the hours on a beanbag chair, watching old movies on a bad movie screen or nonstop episodes of South Park in the Hackers Lounge. If you really need to get away from it all for a little while, take a walk around Yerba Buena Gardens, or visit the Museum of Modern Art across the street for a couple of hours.

6. Seek out greatness

If you wanted to be where the mental action was at JavaOne '99, the thing to do was check out the KJava Playground, a partially hidden computer lab off the JavaOne Pavilion. This should have been dubbed The Mensa Room, because the average IQ climbed about 20 points within its walls. Here were rows of serious developers pounding out tiny-footprint applications for the Palm V Hackathon, comparing notes on EJBs, and quietly discussing innovative company startup plans. Although it could be hard to pull anyone away from a screen to actually talk to him, it was considerably easier to surreptitiously look over shoulders and witness the Great Things the assembled geniuses were doing. (Next year's version of the KJava Playground will probably be called something else, so don't miss it.)

7. Be outgoing (and influential)

You're around people all day for four days in a row, so it would be a shame not to take advantage of this social opportunity. It isn't necessary to be bent over your snazzy new Palm V during every free minute before the start of a technical session or while waiting in line. Make an effort to talk to people, both developers and people who can get you a job or venture capital. Most people are shy, so they'll be relieved that you're the one starting an intelligent conversation.

Take 12-year-old Elliot Onn, author of Onn-Line, a tech news column in the Canadian Online Explorer, for example. Sporting a new suit, a snappy haircut, and braces on his bottom teeth, he introduced himself to fellow JavaOne attendees around him with ease -- shaking hands, asking questions, and wielding opinions and industry predictions like a pro. You can do this, too! Resolve to win more friends and influence new people at JavaOne 2000.

About the author

An 11-year veteran of the Internet and former Internet technology consultant, Mariva H. Aviram is an independent writer covering the high-tech industry. Mariva's published works include articles in C|Net, JavaWorld, NetscapeWorld (including developing and writing the Webmaster Q&A column), and InfoWorld. Mariva is also the author of XML For Dummies Quick Reference and Palm Computing for Dummies Quick Reference (publication pending). For more information, visit http://www.mariva.com/.

 

Improve efficiency with Visual Studio(r) 2010 Beta 2. - Microsoft

About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Terms of Service/Privacy

Copyright, 2006-2008 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.