Atlas Camp 2023 - here I come!

It’s finally Atlassian AtlasCamp.. again! I'm heading to Copenhagen, and I couldn't have been more thrilled!

After a four-year hiatus, it’s finally that time again: developers working in the Atlassian ecosystem gather at their dedicated conference called AtlasCamp! 

In 2011, I was still at a very early stage of my Atlassian journey. Thanks to my work in the Atlassian Community, Atlassian gave me a ticket to join fellow like-minded people at Half-Moon Bay, California.

At that time, I was working at ACA, so I told them I got a ticket.. and immediately the best possible reaction followed from my boss: “Wow, then we’ll make sure we’ll take care of your transport and stay!”

This was the first Atlassian event that I attended, and it was such an enjoyable experience. A little town taken over by a bunch of bright and fun people. Plenty of Atlassian engineers, whose work I was using on a daily base. Heroes from the partner ecosystem who I only knew by their books, products, … just wonderful.

Over the years, I kept attending these events which I always loved more than the general, more marketing-driven events. The level of depth, the knowledgeable people, the interactions that allowed me to vet the quality of products, … an entirely different kind of atmosphere.

The last time I attended AtlasCamp was in 2018. At that time, it was a single-day event after the main conference, the Atlassian Summit in Barcelona, Spain. I still have very fond memories of that event.

There were plenty of Slack-related sessions. At that time, Atlassian just sold the Intellectual Property (IP) of HipChat and Stride to Slack, their main competitor. 

Outside, I also enjoyed the sun during a break and got in touch with a joyful person in the early stages of his start-up. We got our conversation about books and he recommended the book “Turn the ship around” by David Marquet. A few weeks ago, I finally started reading it, hoping this helps me get the same rocket boost it gave this guy. Mere six months after our conversation, Good Software was acquired by Atlassian and Tim Clipsham joined their ranks.

In the afternoon, we gathered around a creative and safe bonfire - not Atlassian’s screenshot-capturing product. It was time for a whole bunch of workshops, thinking about totally different things while swapping team members the entire afternoon. It was so enjoyable that that it was a shame that the event didn’t last longer!

Now, we are five years later and here I am, self-employed but still enjoying this whole ecosystem.

I am looking forward to the next two days!