Krysten's Blog

Hello! My name is Krysten! I'm a Front End Web Developer for xbox.com specializing in Web Accessibility. I'm currently building a personal portfolio website, but wanted to temporarily use this space as a way to share my recent experience attending the Live! 360 Orlando 2024 Tech Conference.

Why I decided to attend

I decided to attend the 2024 Live! 360 Tech conference in Orlando because I'm always looking for new ways to expand my knowledge in technical ways. I thought the conference would be a great way to hone in on some skills that I may already have and take the opportunity to learn new skills.

AI seemed to be a big focal point in the conference, and that's an area of expertise that I've really been wanting to dive in to. This conference offered so many different courses on how to utilize AI in smart ways. I was eager to sign up for the AI courses so I could really try to embrace the usefulness of AI rather than shy away from it.

Hotel/Location Experience

I lived in Florida as a kid, so the location of this conference was a huge bonus for me. I was thrilled to learn the the conference would be held at one of the Universal hotels in Orlando. The location of this hotel is nestled between other beautiful Universal resort hotels and Universal Studios. This area is a GREAT spot for exploring after a day of learning. Universal City Walk is walking distance from the conference hotel and is a great spot to explore shops and restaurants. Universal Studios is also right next door, just make sure you reserve some time to fully explore the park if you go!

I was able to purchase a hotel bundle package for the conference and ended up staying at one of the nearby hotels called Cabana Bay. This was a great hotel and just a short walk to the hotel where the conference was being held. Taking the walking paths each morning to get to my courses was really refreshing and a great way to start each day.

Conference Experience

Live! 360 Orlando provided so many different varieties of courses it made it hard for me to choose which ones I wanted to attend. I decided to stick close to courses that I felt would benefit my career as a Web Developer. My experience with each of the speakers for the courses was always pleasant, and I feel like they all had valuable knowledge to provide. I really do feel like a gained a lot new insight on things, and all of the course information was provided through the Live! 360 website after each course had been finished, allowing me to circle back to anything I wanted to get a deeper understand of.

Lunch was provided each day by the hotel and was held in a large banquet room. This was a great opportunity to network with a lot of the people also attending the conference. I met a few people I connected with, and was always excited to hear their story of why they decided to attend the conference. Snacks were also provided throughout each day. They knew how to cater to the nerds!

Courses Taken

Copilot Engineering Everywhere
How and why AI is redefining your .NET apps
Get good at DevOps: Feature Flag Deployments with asp.net and web API
Javascript Framework/Library Showdown
Introduction to automated database deployments with Azure DevOps
Code is for humans
Zero to cloud app with github copilot
Getting up and running with modern Angular
Navigating the Project Storm: A guide to overcoming 10 development project pitfalls
Top 10 prompts you should know for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Building secure and scalable APIs
Adapting Strategies - Navigating the evolving landscape of networking and interviewing in tech
Continuous integration with Local Agents and Azure DevOps
Design Patterns - Not just for architechts

Extra Fun

I knew ahead of the conference that I would want to set aside some time after that week to meet up with family and get in as much theme park time as I could. Although the conference is located near Universal, it is still a very short drive from the Universal area over to the Disney Parks. It was three straight days of fun at Disney parks with my sister and her family. I had a blast exploring the parks and making memories with family!

Conclusion

Overall, I feel like my experince with Live! 360 Orlando 2024 was a great one. I gained a lot of valuable knowledge, and it was a great motivator to really get out there and learn and try new things. I would love to attend another conference, whether it be the Seattle one or the Orlando one again.