Since the start of the pandemic situation nearly all technical conferences adapted by shifting to online events rather than actual physical ones. It has been an interesting process and allowed us to expand beyond the individual geographic location and reach out to really interesting speakers from across the world. On the other hand, we were starting to crave the real human contact and networking that comes with a live event. EPAM Bulgaria’s team has come up with a solution for this situation. In July came the first edition of the Tech Talks Drive-in Conf – a technical conference, which took place outdoors with popcorn, hotdogs and beverages with a big screen the visitors could watch from their cars. The visitors came to the venue and watched from the comfort and safety of their car two great talks by Chief Software Engineers Samuil Aleksov and Ivaylo Pashov. (The talks are available for watching here). The agenda included two topics - “Immersive Media” and “Modern Event-Driven Systems”. The event was such a success that on September 30th EPAM Bulgaria is planning the next edition of the event, dedicated to Java and in partnership with the Bulgarian Java User Group. The speaker line-up includes world-renown speakers such as Adam Bean and Venkat Subramaniam. The drive-in idea has also spread to other EPAM locations such as the Czech Republic. The office in Prague has organized their own edition of the event on October 5th. The next edition of the conference will happen on October 17th at the Galleria Burgas open-air parking lot with the support of the Burgas Municipality and Galleria Burgas. The event is free, but the registration is obligatory: https://community-z.com/events/driveinconf-burgas
„In the last months since the start of the pandemic we took most of our activities online… until the Drive-in Conf. This idea emerged spontaneously while we were discussing our latest online front-end conference. As it often happened, someone suggested that we do a drive-in cinema and half an hour later we were at a conference call talking about the details around the organization of the event!”, shared Vladimir Natchev, Country Head of EPAM Bulgaria.
„Courtesy of our speakers, we managed to offer high-quality content in a really innovative format. Our top priority was the health and safety of the visitors, but we also managed to share knowledge, network and have lots of fun,” says Maria Zharova, Marketing Manager of EPAM Bulgaria.
“Drive-In Conf. sounded like a very interesting format and I am glad that I managed to become a part of the first conference of this kind in Bulgaria”, shared Samuil Aleksov, Chief Software Engineer at EPAM, who presented the Immersive Media talk.
“For several years now, I have been sharing my experience in the enriched reality and computer graphics, because I believe that there is a potential for a very different and creative collaboration between user and machine, as the technologies get more and more accessible. The big screen allowed me to show several interesting apps and to present the content in a suitable way”, says Samuil Aleksov.
Ivaylo Pashov, Chief Software Engineer at EPAM, who presented the topic Modern Event-Driven Systems shared: “This time it was very interesting, since we shot the video of the presentation in the city of Burgas. This summer, I have the opportunity to work by the seaside as a part of the EPAM Remote by design concept.”