5 More Reasons You Should Bring Your Engineers To SIGNAL

In just 16 weeks, SIGNAL is coming back to San Francisco May 24th and 25th. We got a brand new venue at Pier 27, killer new lineup of over 100 speakers, and barrels brimming with new shenanigans we have in store for our favorite shindig of the season. Last year, I shared a few reasons why I thought you should join us at SIGNAL with your whole team of developers.

A whole lot of you did – and what a time we had together. This year I wanted to extend the same invitation, but for a few new reasons. I’m more stoked to see you at SIGNAL and here’s why.

High Signal-to-Noise for Diverse Teams of Software People

We always aim to provide zero-fluff, no-pitch technical deep dives when we ask for your time, and this Twilio tradition continues with the shindig this year. This go-round we steered the lineup to be useful for everyone that works on your software product. With a diverse content set we think will inform the work of every software developer, regardless of where they sit in the stack.

In particular, I’m really looking forward Eileen Uchitelle’s deep dive on the common web vulnerabilities affected modern web apps – practical wisdom for developers on the front-end and back-end alike. We also have littleBits’ Kristin Salomon returning this year – the developer experience she created with cloudBits remains one of my favorite in the IoT space which will inform the work of anyone working in software. I think folks with a devops bent are going to be in for a particular treat with our own Dom DeGuzman’s session – few I know have as much experience supporting as many different stacks in production as she.

Learning New Tricks From Twilio’s Finest Developers

mRelief started using Twilio a few years ago and have amassed a ton of experience delivering SMS surveys for disadvantaged populations. Their CTO Genevieve Nielsen will be sharing what they’ve learned along the way. We first heard about Tiffani Bell’s work when she joined Code for America back in the summer of 2014. She’s going to share how she’s built an SMS direct assistance network with her Detroit Water Project that has helped 10,000 citizens get their water service restored, full of useful info for anyone building a double-sided marketplace. I’m also way stoked on Lindsey Crocker over at Sparefoot sharing some valuable time savings you can engineer into your customer support call-in experience. My colleague and comrade Gowri Grewal has seen nearly every scale Twilio implementation there is – her talks are always on my can’t-miss list.

I think every time I go into our big annual get-together I think I know all there is to know about hacking on Twilio. That notion usually evaporates around 1pm on the first day.

First Dibs On The Cutting Edge

We also aimed to extend that cutting edge to the folks we invited to SIGNAL to talk. The slate of technologists we have coming in May represent a cadre working on the absolute cutting edge of every relevant trend in programming. JavaScript slinger and fellow New Yorker Sara Chipps will be by to share the remarkable education experience she’s created for young girls learning to write code with her company Jewelbots. We have Leah Culver back who never fails to drop only the freshest iOS knowledge every time she rocks the microphone. And I can’t wait to meet Katy Moe, a literal cyborg who is going to set a new bar in live coding by programming herself onstage.

The Most Fun You’ll Ever Have Coding

You’re going to have a serious blast. And you’re going to cut some code while doing it, regardless of whether or not you have before.

You’re Going To Be There

The most powerful outcomes I’ve seen come from the annual congregation of the Twilio community were almost always a result from the full team being there together. At our annual get-together, I’ve seen new companies sketched out on the back of cocktail napkins who demonstrated at our Community Hall the following year. I’ve seen teams ship completely new experiences that pulled the trajectories of their businesses from a tailspin in two short days. I’ve seen teams kick out prototypes that that led to new products that they never would have considered shipping if it weren’t for those two days at SIGNAL.

This environment, this information and – most importantly – this community combines to create something I haven’t seen before in software.

I hope to see you and your team on Pier 27 in San Francisco. We know how big the opportunity cost is bringing your team out – if you have a group of five or more, use the code Spectre20 to get 20% off each individual ticket. If you have a whole mess of people coming we have group discounts up to half off for 10 or more people – just call 415-446-7731 to get sorted right away.

We got a lot of craziness in store – I hope I get to meet all your developers in May.