Latency 2019

So, for the third time, Latency Conference has come to a close. And this year, I can safely say that it was our biggest and best event to date. Not only had we secured Kate Mats from Google but we also had Mitchell Hashimoto from HashiCorp coming out to little old Perth.

We started preparation early, had a larger committee and focused on getting the things we had failed at in previous years right. A big part of that was choosing the right venue, which could support our unique requirements around AV and "vibe".

This year was our first two day event, and we settled on the State Theatre Centre, which in hindsight proved to be the right choice. The team there were amazing, supporting us through the build up to the event and having ample front of house and back of house support on the day.

With the larger committee, we were able to re-design the logo, the website and provide more emphasis on the vibe. Many of us (ok ok, just me) relived our misspent youth and we delivered an 80's themed / Tron inspired experience for punters. A special mention goes to Karen Cheng and Valeria Spirovski for getting it just right.

A week out from the conference and I realised things were progressing too smoothly. We were super prepared, all speakers were still on board and nothing major had yet gone wrong. This sent shivers down my spine and I started having sleepless nights. It just wasn't normal.

Thankfully, we had our first drop out. A panelist pulled out, but being the well oiled, connected team we are, we had other options in our back pockets. Huzzah! So now, I could relax and get some rest? Haha, yeah, sure..

48 hours out, we had our second apology. Frantically we called up our collective networks and within 12 hours had a solid replacement lined up - nice work team!

24 hours to go. I get a cryptic LinkedIn message. I'm expecting bad news and sure enough..

But, on Day 1, we were able to square away another experienced speaker to fill in like there was never an issue!

So despite the issues did I have fun? YES! I was overwhelmed by the support from the community and personal favourite talk was from Meagan, who despite having the crappiest AV of the day, delivered a masterful talk + live coding experience on GCP.

My heartfelt thanks to all the speakers, workshoppers, volunteers, panelists, sponsors and attendees who made the experience memorable. Special mention to Brett Looney, Martin Abbot and Ben Trigger for helping save the day. It takes a lot of work to get something like this off the ground.

See you next year. Maybe.