From last row attendee to community organizer

Some time ago, in the Superhero Valley Discord server, one of our users asked whether going to tech conferences could be helpful for a student and what conferences to attend. I answered the question with my opinion on this topic, and then I thought it could be a good idea to write a post about it.

My first tech event #

My history with tech events started more than 15 years ago (yeah, I feel old while thinking about this). It was 2008 when my mother told me that she had seen an advertisement about an event called “Linux Day” organized by a local community called Tulug. At that time, I did not even know what Linux was, but I was already extremely attracted to computers. I shared this event with a classmate and we decided to go together. I still remember that day, it was a Saturday afternoon, and after school we went to the Linux Day.

As it happens, in most of the tech events we had the opportunity to attend some talks, but most importantly, we received as a “gift” some CDs with a Linux distribution and a lot of stickers. I still have those CDs and stickers in a box in my room in my parents’ home. That day, I discovered a new world, and I started to be more and more interested in computers and technology. The chat I had with the organizers was so interesting for a 13-year-old child, and watching people working with Linux distributions with a lot of passion was something that I will never forget. I have to admit that at that time, I was particularly attracted by the effects that all of the organizers were able to have on their PC with Linux. This was probably the reason why that day, I decided that I had to try Linux.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, the Linux Day was organized only a few times in my city, and I was only able to attend it three times. Therefore, these three events were the only tech events that I attended until the beginning of University, more than 5 years later.

Attending the events from the last row #

In 2014, I started my Computer Science degree in Pisa. Just after a few months, in May 2015, some people organized a watch party for the Google I/O. Since I was used to watching these kinds of events alone at home, I found this a nice thing and I decided to attend the event with some of my friends. I don’t remember too much of that day except for the fact that a room with ~150 seats was almost full of people interested in the event. That one was the first event of the GDP Pisa. Starting from that day, for the following 4 years, I attended almost all of the events organized by this community and a few other events organized by another local community called Gulp. The biggest mistake I made while taking part in these events was to attend them “from the last row”. I was interested in the talks, but I used to avoid the networking part as much as I could. I was not used to taking part in the beer party after the events or talking with people that I did not know. My biggest mistake was to think that the people who were organizing these events were too “important” and distant from me, so that I could not have the confidence to spend time with them in front of a beer after the event.

The Erasmus #

The turning point in my experience with tech meetup was the Erasmus. I moved to Munich to spend a semester abroad in October 2019. My main goal was to improve my English, which was terrible at that point. Despite following lectures in English and spending time with other students, I felt that this was not enough and that I was not challenging myself enough to improve my English. By chance, I found an advertisement for an event organized by the DSC Munich and I decided to attend it. It was only the first of dozens of events that I attended in Munich during the 5 months I was there. A key event was when I started to attend the Flutter Munich meetup. They organized a Hackathon, and then I started to attend their meetup. It was mind-blowing for me. I had never used Flutter before, but I started to attend all the events and talk with all the other attendees. I think I never expressed enough my gratitude to the organizers of the Flutter Munich meetup. It was really important for me, and in the next section I’ll explain why.

Changing perspective #

After attending the Flutter meetups, I started to learn Flutter and to work with it. I remember that when I was close to the end of my Erasmus, in one of the last meetups I attended, I asked the organizers for some tips on how to organize a Flutter Meetup when I was back in Pisa. They gave me some suggestions, and then I went back to Italy with the idea that I wanted to organize a Flutter Meetup in Pisa. It was the end of February 2020. I guess you all know what happened in March.

I have never organized a Flutter Meetup in Pisa, but after just a few months, my friends and I started something bigger. Thanks to a series of lucky events, we had the opportunity to interact with a Googler who proposed that we gather a group of students interested in preparing for tech interviews all together.

That was the start of Superhero Valley.

Superhero Valley’s goal is to fill the gap between the Italian universities and the Big Tech Companies. Initially, we decided to organize some talks to raise awareness of the opportunities offered by Big Tech companies. At the same time, we started to do LeetCode exercises together. In just a few months, we went from a local community open only to the Computer Science master students of Pisa University to an online community with more than 1000 members coming from all around Italy. The growth of Superhero Valley continued during the next years, and today we have more than 2200 members in our Discord server. Our activities also changed over time. We introduced a new mentorship program that allowed us to pair a mentor with one or more mentees who could guide them in their professional growth. We did our best to track the results of the community, measuring the number of ‘active’ members (mentees, people who joined the exercise group) that received an offer for an internship or for a full-time position in Big Tech. We have more than 100 people who received an offer.

Later, in 2022, Antonio proposed to launch a local startup in Pisa, thought of by computer scientists and tech enthusiasts. We started this community in July 2022. Our first event was a big success.

After that one, we organized a lot of other events in Pisa, and we even had the opportunity to host meetups with international speakers. Organizing local meetups was something new to me. My previous organizational experience was with online meetups. Organizing and hosting a local meetup is something completely different, and I liked it a lot from the first time. The biggest difference that pushes me to continue organizing in-person meetups is mainly what happens after the event: the pizza (or beer) party. During the after-party, you have the opportunity to talk with a lot of interesting people, and this is something that you usually cannot do when organizing an online event.

Giving back something to the community #

Besides the effort that I’ve put in during these years to lead communities and organize events, I also wear another cap as a volunteer. This happened multiple times for the organization of the DevFest Pisa and at the Fosdem AI DevRoom in 2025.

Why should you be a volunteer at a conference for a day instead of spending a relaxing day listening to talks and talking with people?

In my case, the answer lies in the idea of giving back something to the community. I started to feel the “urge” to be a volunteer when I recognized how these communities had on me during the time. Being a volunteer and helping them prepare the welcome kit for participants, introducing speakers before their talk, or just checking in participants is an easy way to give them back something, helping them deliver the best possible event for all the attendees.

Conclusions and suggestions #

Attending community events and meetups is something that has shaped me a lot over the years. I would not be the person I am today without the exposure to these events and, most importantly, to the people in the communities.

At this point, it could be easy for me to just recommend that you find a community you might like, try to attend their meetups, and then, if you feel it, try to be involved in the organization. However, I want to conclude the article with a few bullet points to clarify some things that I think are crucial:

• I believe that each of us has to find a reason when joining a community. Being involved in the community can be rewarding, but it can also be demanding; you must have the right motivation to do that. You should not do that just to put yourself in a “power” position or for your personal goal. Remember that the most important thing is the healthiness of the community, of the organizing team, and the value you give to the people who will attend your event.
• Kill your ego: You must be open to being the last one to join, being open to learn new things about how a community works.
• Be honest with yourself: Regarding the effort needed to join a community, it is essential to be honest with themself, don’t overestimate the time you can dedicate to the community. It is better to do just a few things than promise that you’ll do a lot and then disappear without saying anything.