Atlassian Summit Survival Guide

The grand Atlassian event of the year is approaching! 2017 is a lucky year with one event in Barcelona in May and one in San Jose, CA in September. Use this guide to navigate Summit and make the most of your time at this October's user conference!

Before Summit

• Pre-plan which sessions you want to attend, but be flexible. (Continuing your conversation with that Expert partner or Atlassian employee may be more valuable than attending the next session.)
• Don’t be a slave to power! Bring an extra battery or portable power source. Consider taking notes on paper. You won't want to fight for an outlet to recharge devices.
• Be prepared to network! Pack your business cards. Don’t have work business cards? See if your company has any “generic” ones you can write your info on.
• Check the weather and the time zone in the conference city. Bring a light jacket in case it's chilly in the conference center.
• Arrive the day before conference activities start. Check in at the registration booth as soon as you arrive. (Avoid the long registration line on the first morning.)
• Walk the conference center, before it gets busy, to get a feel for where activities will take place. If there's a map, take a phone picture.

During Summit

• Don’t try to work AND attend Summit at the same time. It is too hard to do both well. Instead, turn on your “out of office” email autoresponder, set the expectation that you’ll be unavailable, and delegate your tasks to coworkers while you’re away.
• Find the Atlassian User Group area. The user group leader from your city might be at Summit. No user group in your area? Find out how to start one!
• Get to sessions early if you want a seat!
• At the event, login to a chat program so you can communicate in real time with your colleagues also at Summit. Ex: "I'm going to the X session next." or "Meet you at noon in the lobby!"
• Write a quick note on the back of any business card you receive so you’ll remember how/if/why to follow-up later.
• Pace yourself on day one and during Summit Bash! It's a long day and you want to make it to the party.
• Atlassian feeds you a lot on conference days. You won’t need to spend much money on food.

After Summit

• Try to leave the day after Summit activities conclude. It's no fun leaving early to catch a flight.
• After Summit, the major session recordings are made available online. Don’t worry if two sessions you want to attend happen at the same time.
• Leave room in your luggage for the return trip. You will acquire new goodies! (At least a few new t-shirts.) Some die hard collectors even bring an extra bag or plan to mail back items.
• Share your notes and the most important information with team members who could not attend.

Also see: How to Get your Boss to Send you to Atlassian Summit User Conference, Atlassian Summit Travel Guide, and Summit Through the Years.

Rachel Wright is an entrepreneur and an Atlassian Certified JIRA Administrator.  Rachel also uses Atlassian tools in her personal life for accomplishing goals and tracking tasks. Her first book, the "JIRA Strategy Admin Workbook", was written in Confluence and progress was tracked in JIRA! Follow her on Twitter at @rlw_www.