The best Flutter events 💙

Flutter&Friends, F3, Flutteristas Conference and Flutter Riga... the latest events in the Flutterverse that I'm excited about 🤩

I was planning to send out this newsletter a couple of weeks ago, but as usual, there are plans and there is reality 😂 Last month was busy for me with preparation for the Flutter & Friends conference and various life things. Let’s recap some of them 🙂 

Flutter & Friends

Apparently, Flutter conferences at the beginning of September in Scandinavia are becoming a tradition 😁 Last September I attended my first Flutter Conference - the Flutter Vikings in Oslo, Norway. It will forever hold a special place in my heart because this was the first time I’ve met many of my online Flutter friends offline and have been in regular touch ever since. This September started in Stockholm, Sweden with the Flutter & Friends conference.

It was special in its format, with 3 days of various activities and a strong emphasis on the community. The first day was full of social activities, which unfortunately I’ve missed due to other plans, but will definitely attend next year 😁 The second day was a regular dual-track conference day. Moreover, it was live streamed and you can already watch the talks from the main and exhibition tracks. The talks will be split into separate recordings later. The last day was a workshop day. Unfortunately, they weren’t recorded, but I attended workshops by Roaa and Anna and learned a lot from both of these amazing women.

I had the honor to be a speaker and gave a talk “A safe bridge to the native side”, where I shared my experience on how the pigeon code generation tool solves the problems that are introduced by using Method Channels. Eventually, I will turn it into an article, but you can also already check out the talk here.

One of the main reasons why I planned to go to this conference even if I wasn’t selected as a speaker was the presentation by Slava Egorov. Ever since I read his documentation on Dart VM internals, I knew that this is someone to learn from a lot. His presentation “The runtime that makes Dart tick” did not disappoint. If you also want to get your mind blown, go watch the recording!

But of course, the Friends aspect of the conference is always the most important and fun one. This time was no exception and the whole experience was so much fun that I can honestly say this was my favorite conference this year. Huge thanks to Lukas and Alek, and all of the volunteers for organizing such a heartfelt event, I’m looking forward to it being annual!

Why do public speaking?

I ask myself this question every single time 5 minutes before my time on stage, stressing like crazy and thinking that I could be in my safe space at home reading a book or something 😂 But that would require staying in the comfort zone, and in order to grow you need to expand it.

In order to be successful at public speaking, you need to be good at an array of skills. And by successful I mean that the audience you present to finds your presentation valuable, engaging, and entertaining. Because if they don’t, what’s the point? After all, if you wanted to speak to yourself, you could do it in front of the mirror. In general, I split those skills into two categories - the preparation and the delivery. Preparation includes researching the topic, structuring the information, and forming it into a digestible presentation. Delivery includes the actual speaking, storytelling, interaction with the audience, behavior on stage, and so on. For me, it also includes not fainting and not forgetting to breathe 😂

This year I had a goal of doing 3 live talks about Flutter. For experienced speakers this amount is nothing, for me, it’s a lot, especially because I prepare new talks every time. The idea was to at least get a hang of it, get used to putting myself out there, and do my best while at it. Now that I’ve achieved this goal and I think I kinda got the preparation part, my next goal is to work on the delivery part and actually start enjoying the time on stage, not only wishing for it to end ASAP 😁

Another “why” for me is the feedback from the attendees. When someone comes up to me and tells me that they’re going to try what I proposed, or that they found something helpful or insightful, it is the best feeling ever. These are the moments when I feel that it was definitely worth it and it gives me motivation to do it again.

If you have ever considered public speaking, but are scared, I hope this little note will give you more inspiration. If you want more practical tips, you can find valuable insights from awesome speakers Mangirdas, Anna, and Oleksandr.

More events!

Since we’re talking about events already, there are a couple that I want to mention before we wrap this up:

Flutter Firebase Festival in Prague, 26-27 September

I honestly think that this is the event that you don’t want to miss! The lineup is amazing, and all of the talks showcase the powerful combination of Firebase and Flutter. It is organized by Invertase, so you can be sure it’s going to be a top-notch conference! So if you’re still considering, but haven’t decided yet, this is your sign to do it - go get the ticket and book your trip to the beautiful Prague!

Flutteristas Conference 2023, online, 11 November

It’s happening! We, Flutteristas, are organizing an online conference, where the Flutteristas will get a chance to speak, with the help of experienced mentors and advisers. The CFP is closed already and we’re going to announce the results soon, but make sure to follow the updates and tune in for the conference day. The Flutteristas is a worldwide community of people whose gender identity is either female or non-binary and who have an interest in the Flutter SDK. If that’s you and you’re not a Flutterista yet, be sure to apply here!

Flutter Riga

I’m so excited to share that Igors, Raitis, and I have launched Flutter Riga as part of the Flutter Meetup Network! We’re excited for the events that we will organize together and how it will expand the community here, in Riga. It’s not official yet, but we have planned our first online event on 23 of November, so save the date! Follow us on Twitter for all of the updates.

One last thing…

If you know me, you probably also know Chili - the best mobile agency in the Baltics, where I work as a Flutter developer and mobile tech lead 🌶️ September 15th would mark my 6th anniversary in this wonderful company, but I made a decision to move on and my last day will be September 14th. Those 6 years were the best, but all good things come to an end. Stay tuned for the next newsletter to find out what’s next for me and a little bit of insights on the “why”.

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Let’s connect on Twitter (or X 🫠)

Daria 💙