Back in the September this year, I visited for the first time San Francisco. It was my first visit to the USA and first transatlantic flight.
Oh, man! It was great.
Route: Berlin - München, München - SFO
Travel time: 14+ hours
Conference ticket price: $250
I met so many great people during my trip and stayed for a week in the downtown SF.
Day one - guided tour
We met with the guys before the conference for the Friday Fun Day activities. The meeting point was in the Ferry Building Marketplace. We grabbed some Blue Bottle Coffee (I got the trend, huh!). It was a great opportunity to get to know each other before the conference, meet organizers and enjoy the guided tour (including cable cars!). The tour was led by the conference organizer Benjamin Dunphy. Thanks, Ben for the great organization and showing us spectacular views! :)
View on downtown
Russian Hill
View on the Alcatraz
Lombard Street
Day one - lunch break
After walking around the Russian Hill and enjoying good lunch we separated and went sightseeing. Checked out Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, and surroundings. After chilling in Mission Dolores Park we took a ride to Microsoft Reactor building for the conference opening.
I feel like Mission Dolores Park is my favorite place in SF along with the Golden Gate Park :)
Mission Dolores Park
Day one - Microsoft Reactor - Topic Tables
Topic Tables was a very interesting experience for me. You get around the tables with presenters and discuss what is interesting to you. It encourages informal communication with the presenters for talks so that you can ask all the questions and discuss topics you're interested the most. I had a good chat with the guys about GraphQL, functional lenses by James McNamara, accessibility etc.
Day two - main event - GitHub HQ
We've got a full day of talks from leading experts in the JS/React community.
I was impressed that all the talks are interesting and very, very good quality. From slides to how people present, it was engaging and inspiring.
You can find recordings here https://twitter.com/reactathon
Venue
We spend a full day with the talks in the GitHub HQ. I pleased to see GitHub main office and also grab a bunch of presents from Real World React and sponsors. Stickers of course! An environment is so great there. I enjoyed playing ping pong with Max. Hey Max! Hope you're doing well!
Famous Octocat
Thanks
I'm thankful to organizers, speakers and all the people I've met and had a chat with. You rock!
...and all many others amazing folks!
Unfortunately, I can't fit all my impressions and stories in one article. I would recommend everyone to visit a conference in another country. It was 100% worth the long flight. I've stayed for one week in the SF and enjoyed my experiences very much despite the shocking (for me) situation in the downtown with the homeless people around.
Stay safe! Stay curious!