What I learned from @apistrat 2017 in Portland

As it was announced in the schedule, the Open API Initiative and the Linux Foundation hosted an event in the Hilton Portland Downtown Hotel to gather API leaders of remarkable tech titans such as Red Hat, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Spotify, Cisco, Amazon, Paypal among others, to share their experiences with other API contributors, users or simply API curious. 

I must thank to the Linux Foundation for giving me the incredible opportunity to be a Speaker in this eight edition of #apistrat. After the scholarship I had received from the Linux Foundation in 2012, I think it is one of my duties to share in workshops what I have learnt in my IT professional way.

First day and my presentation

The registration went smoothly, I arrived at noon and as soon as said “Hi”, Cassandra asked my name nicely, and she took only 35 seconds to find my batch, my voucher drink tickets and my t-shirt of the event. My presentation was set from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm, then I attended to the Asterisk talk with Chris Howard, to finally enjoy a social activity sponsored by Red Hat at night.Carlos from Ecuador who owns a business related to Asterisk was my student for an hour and a half. He has not worked with GTK and C before, but he had PHP and Geento experiences. His motivation in learning how to write GTK apps made him complete the nine programming warm-up exercises I prepared. Here are the slides of my presentation.Inspirational IT Women

From the left to the right, @tessamero is a Leader and Mentor Development at CISCO, great mother and thanks to her, I understood more about the principles of APIs in theory and how to do a Bot in minutes. @sarahnovotny is a Head of Open Source Strategy for GCP at Google and a woman with great sense of humor. @taylor_atx is a community Engineer at Keen IO and she inspired me to be a better writer, will follow her advice on documentation and of course, on improving my English speaking skill. @meganmckissack is an angel under the hacker woman skin, thanks to her, I applied to be part of the Women who Code community. Last but not least, @Ash_Hathaway from IBM is a busy and charming IT women that inspired me to be better prepared in APIAPI Knowledge

The event includes a wide range of API topics as artificial intelligence, cloud, documentation, tools to handle APIs, cases of successful implementation and migrations. The topics were not restricted for beginners, everyone was welcome to understand APIs since the definition and first steps. I cherish my new API knowledge bounty because I can use them in more IoT projects.API Experts

From my experience, I can say if somebody master a topic. It is noticeable if someone is able to explain in simple words to beginners and those can follow the speaker to the complexity of the matter. These are some cases I listened to during APISTRAT 2017. Thanks @adamd of Zapier, Shruti Patel with decision trees, and the Senior Front End Developer in IBM Austin, Texas @jlengstorf

Making networking with API people

I have interacted with people from different countries and backgrounds. Basically I was curious on what Linux distribution they use, sadly I realize that most of them were not Linux users, some of them were developers, but most of them were managers and IT consultants interested in API clouds and migration for their business in banks, insurance companies among others. I have no words to thank the energy of these people besides jet-lag and harsh itinerary.Sharing Food

Lot and lots of food was served during breakfasts, lunch, 2 break times per day,and for social activities at nights. Now I understand the demand of big size t-shirts in IT people, including me; a very US food as it is “a dona with a coke”.

Location and weather

I feel safe while I was walking around the city, it is a small and friendly place. I visited the Powell City of Books and I saw many yellow leafs seasonal on streets. It was easy to reach down town facilities and they have a good system of transportation. I hope to get back to visit the Japanese Garden that I missed. Special Thanks

It is been swell! Having the presence of GNOME in this edition of APIstrat to connect passionate IT people! I must thank Nicolas for being amazing and welcomed person, Carlos for being my support these days and Lara for the effort she put in this event as representative of the Linux Foundation. THANKS!Sublime Messages

Anywhere you go, you can see posted on the wall on streets and in many others place thoughts from “philosophers” and insights about life. I’ve found some 🙂