My Take on QCon London 2023

Alright, let’s address the elephant in the room right away - QCon London is eye-wateringly expensive. £1,800+ for a conference ticket makes my wallet hurt just thinking about it. I’m lucky my company foots the bill, but every year I have the same conversation with my boss about whether it’s actually worth it.

And every year, including this one, I come back convinced that yes - somehow it actually is. Let me tell you why.

Getting There: Surprisingly Convenient

The conference is at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre right in the middle of Westminster. You can literally see Big Ben from outside the venue, which made for some nice walking breaks between sessions. I stayed at a hotel about 15 minutes away (the Premier Inn in Victoria - nothing fancy but did the job).

Getting around was super easy:

• Westminster tube station is literally right there
• I walked from Victoria Station on day one, which was actually quite nice
• There’s about a million hotels nearby at different price points

One thing I wish I’d known before: the security lines on the first morning are LONG. I spent 25 minutes queuing to get in, missing the first part of the keynote. Day two and three I got there 30 minutes early and breezed right in. Learn from my mistake!

The Venue: Nice But Not Perfect

The QEII Centre itself is… fine? It’s obviously designed for business conferences - lots of carpeted rooms, decent chairs, reliable WiFi. Nothing to write home about, but everything worked.

A few observations:

• The main auditorium is great with good visibility from pretty much everywhere
• Some of the smaller rooms got PACKED. The Platform Engineering track was standing room only
• The temperature control was all over the place - freezing in some rooms, stuffy in others
• There were plenty of power outlets (always my biggest concern)

The one genuine complaint I have is that the venue feels a bit maze-like. I got lost trying to find specific rooms multiple times, even on day three. Some better signage would have helped.

The Content: Where QCon Really Shines

This is the part that makes the ticket price justifiable. QCon’s content is just on another level compared to most conferences I’ve been to.

The conference is organized into themed tracks, and this year I mainly followed:

• The Platform Engineering track (because that’s literally my job title)
• Staff+ Engineer Path (because that’s my next career goal)
• Dipped into the API sessions when something caught my eye

What makes QCon different is they get actual practitioners to speak - not professional speakers or vendor people trying to sell you something. These are engineers and architects in the trenches who are sharing real war stories.

The People: Surprisingly Down-to-Earth

Tech conferences can sometimes feel like a competition for who’s the smartest person in the room. QCon somehow manages to attract people who are genuinely interested in learning and sharing rather than posturing.

The structured networking bits were actually useful:

• The lunch tables with topics worked really well - I had a great discussion about observability with a mix of people from startups to huge enterprises
• The speakers hung around after talks and seemed genuinely happy to chat
• Even the evening social events weren’t the awkward stand-around-with-a-beer affairs you often get

I exchanged details with about 10 people I genuinely hope to stay in touch with, which is probably 9 more than at a typical conference.

The Food: Actually Good (Seriously)

Conference food is usually somewhere between “airport sandwich” and “sad buffet,” but QCon actually does this right. The lunches were proper meals with multiple options, and there were decent snacks throughout the day.

They also had:

• Really good coffee (not the usual conference brown water)
• Proper tea (I’m a tea snob, so this matters to me)
• Plenty of options for different dietary needs

This might seem trivial, but when you’re trying to absorb complex technical content all day, not having to worry about where to find decent food or caffeine makes a huge difference.

The Sponsors: Less Annoying Than Usual

The sponsor area was busy but not overwhelming. Maybe 30-ish companies? What I appreciated was:

• Most booths had actual engineers who could talk tech, not just sales people
• The swag was mostly useful stuff (though I did get another 5 t-shirts for my collection)
• Nobody was aggressively scanning badges or pushing demos

I had a good chat with the Datadog folks about some specific integration challenges we’re having, and they actually put me in touch with their engineering team rather than just a sales rep. That alone was worth braving the sponsor hall.

Is It Really Worth The Money?

So here’s my honest take on the value question:

For me, absolutely yes. I’ve been to cheaper conferences where I’ve gotten maybe 1-2 useful takeaways. From QCon, I came away with:

• Concrete solutions to at least 3 specific problems we’re facing right now
• A notebook full of ideas I want to explore further
• Connections with people facing similar challenges
• Access to all the session recordings (including the ones I couldn’t attend)

The content density is just so much higher than other events. In three days at QCon, I get more actionable insights than in a week at most other conferences.

That said, it’s definitely not for everyone:

• If you’re early in your career, some of the content might be too specialized
• If you’re looking for hands-on technical training, there are better options
• If networking is your primary goal, there are cheaper ways to meet people

But for senior engineers, architects, and technical leaders? It’s one of the best uses of a professional development budget I’ve found.

Criticisms Because Nothing’s Perfect

For balance, a few things that could have been better:

• The mobile app was pretty buggy - it crashed multiple times when I was trying to plan my schedule
• Some of the rooms were way too small for popular topics (looking at you, Platform Engineering track)
• The WiFi occasionally slowed to a crawl during peak times
• A few talks felt a bit too high-level or theoretical despite the conference’s practical focus

Also, I wish they’d record the Q&A portions of the talks. Some of the best insights came from questions, but those aren’t captured in the official recordings.

Will I Be Back Next Year?

Absolutely, budget permitting. I’ve already started making the case to my manager. For me, QCon has become the one conference I prioritize each year precisely because the signal-to-noise ratio is so high.

If you can only attend one technical conference and your company can stomach the price tag, make it QCon London. Just remember to arrive early on day one, bring layers for the unpredictable room temperatures, and don’t schedule anything important for the week after - your brain will need time to process everything you’ve learned!