React Finland 2021 - Hybrid in late August

Previous postNext post

2021 has proven to be yet another pandemic filled year. Our initial plan was to run React Finland at the end of May this year but we had to postpone the event to late August, early September. Due to the complicated situation, we've decided the following:

  • The originally planned live event will be held 2022, late May
  • As a replacement to what we consider a regular event, we'll run the conference between 30th of August and 3rd of September. Some of the workshops may begin a week before.
  • The current plan is to hold fourteen vodcast style sessions during the week. Most of them take place between Wednesday and Friday while Monday and Tuesday have been dedicated to the workshops.
  • For each online vodcast, we plan to invite three speakers and a host. The sessions are focused around React topics and will be streamed live to YouTube and Twitch. We'll bring questions and comments to the sessions from these channels. Our experience has shown that short demonstrations and presentations with interaction in between fit online well.
  • The workshops will be mainly commercial and we hope to cover a good range of topics.
  • We'll organize smaller satellite events with our partners as permitted by the situation. In these live events, you can participate in the stream locally (mainly in Finland) and we'll announce further details on this in August.
  • As a bonus, we're planning to use a virtual venue during the conference week where you can meet other participants during the breaks. We'll also use a matchmaking platform that you can use to schedule meetings with others. Both platforms are important as they allow us to recreate the informal portion of a conference in part.

What about my ticket?#

If you already have a ticket for our last year's (2020) event, it's automatically moved to the next live event we are able to organize.

Call for papers#

Call for papers has closed so consider the text below as something retained for archival purposes.

Traditionally React Finland hasn't used a call for papers (CFP) process and instead we've invited speakers based on a rough plan.

Due to the exceptional circumstances, we've decided to run our first CFP and our hope is that we'll be able to attract speakers from all around the world. That said, given there are so many slots, likely there are also good chances to cover local speakers.

Here’s what we would expect from a vodcast guest:

  • Time commitment - ~2 hours
  • We expect you to prepare a short (~15 mins) demonstration/presentation (think live coding)
  • Apart from the demonstration, the rest is discussion based so it will be more relaxed than a usual talk
  • You don't need prior speaking experience and we have good experiences with newbie speakers using the format

See our YouTube channel to understand what the vodcasts looks like in practice

For workshop instructors, we would expect a solid plan for the online workshop. In terms of money, you'll receive 70% of the sales and we'll make sure it's worth it for you to run it (i.e. a cancellation clause) while providing licenses you might need (i.e. Zoom). We have mixed experience with online workshops and it's hard to guarantee success but we hope you pitch your workshop to us.

Conclusion#

Although the situation is globally challenging, we are sure we can deliver a solid week of content for React enthusiasts around the world. I hope you'll take part in some of the sessions at least and perhaps even submit to our CFP.