The DevOps Conference Everyone Needs Right Now

I am going to emcee Deserted Island DevOps, a virtual DevOps conference that takes place wholly in Animal Crossing. That’s not a sentence I ever expected to say, but here we are. In a normal year, I would attend and speak at a dozen or more DevOps conferences (because they’re my favorite), but that’s not happening this year. Our world is strange right now as we all try to cope, help, and continue our lives as normal. But this is not normal. Many of us are able to work, but we’re working in new ways. We’re worried. We’re scared. We miss our friends and family.

We are all dealing with quarantine and the pandemic in different ways: as for me, I’m spreading a little joy, playing video games, and spending time with my dogs. Along with the rest of the internet, I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that’s designed to be friendly and laid back. The animation is super cute and the music is happy, and I spend most of my time bartering with raccoons. It’s nice.

A shovel is the only tool I need.

So when my friend Austin told me he wanted to organize a DevOps conference inside of Animal Crossing, I jumped at the chance to be involved. It’s not just about the popularity of the game, it’s about what Animal Crossing and DevOps have in common: great communities. I have always felt the most welcome in DevOps spaces (shoutout to DevOps Days), and I’m so glad to have a chance to bring that community together right now for a little bit of joy.

Deserted Island DevOps will be silly. It will be educational. It will be heartfelt. It will definitely bring much-needed joy into my life. I’ll be there with the audience every step of the way because yes, we have to keep working, but it doesn’t have to be normal.

Register now to watch the event live on Twitch on April 30.