article, I talk about how one can get probably the most out of attending technical occasions as a knowledge scientist, ML engineer, or different related roles. Attending occasions will be difficult, as there are quite a few methods to spend your time. I’ll thus talk about learn how to prioritize your time between speaking to consultants, attending displays and panels, and visiting firm cubicles. There are additionally different methods to enhance your expertise, reminiscent of correct preparation forward of the occasion and reflecting in your learnings, each of which I’ll talk about on this article.
The inspiration for this text stems from my attendance at NVIDIA GTC Paris 2025 as a knowledge scientist from Findable from June 10 to 12, 2025. I’ll thus talk about my expertise on the occasion, what I discovered, and how one can strategy related occasions to get probably the most out of them.
You can too learn my article on OpenAI Whisper for transcriptions.
Disclaimer: I’m not sponsored by NVIDIA in any means, and they didn’t affect the contents of this text.
I’ll cut up this text into 4 principal segments:
- Motivation: My motivation for attending the occasion and writing this text
- Preparation earlier than the occasion
- Throughout the occasion
- Reflections after the occasion
That is to spotlight the thought course of I went by means of earlier than, throughout, and after attending the occasion.
Motivation
My motivation for this text is that I used to be attending NVIDIA GTC Paris 2025. This marked my first time at a big convention like this, and thus, I spent a while determining learn how to greatest spend my time on the occasion.
I attended the occasion as an worker of Findable, and went there to enhance my technical data, talk about AI with sensible individuals, and hopefully be taught so much. I consider going to such occasions will be an immense studying expertise, however to get probably the most out of the occasions, you need to put together and strictly prioritize the way you spend your time.
My aim for the article is to share my expertise on the occasion, and inform you how one can get probably the most out of comparable technical occasions.
NVIDIA DGX GB200 compute system. Picture by the creator,
Planning forward of the occasion
Earlier than the occasion, NVIDIA put out a full session overview on their web page. I went by means of all of the periods on their web page, and chosen as much as the highest three periods I wished to attend per timeslot. Generally, lower than three have been related to me, wherein I simply chosen the related periods. I additionally put the periods in a prioritized order.
I then put all the related periods into my calendar, as you may see within the picture under. As you may see, I packed my calendar to be as full as potential. I consider it is a good start line, and if you happen to discover out throughout an occasion that you simply wish to do one thing else, you may in fact determine to prioritize that. For instance, on Wednesday, June 11., I discovered there can be a dialogue with
This naturally outweighed the opposite plans I had that night, and I made a decision to attend that dialogue as a substitute, which turned out to be an inspiring speak.
And that was a lot of the planning I did for the occasion. Aside from this, I principally took issues on the fly throughout the occasion.
In the course of the occasion
There have been three days to the occasion
- Tuesday, June 10: I attended an LLM Workshop
- Wednesday, June 11: Jensen’s Keynote and a few periods within the afternoon
- Thursday, June 12: Periods your entire day
Tuesday June 10
On my first day on the occasion, I attended the workshop on adding new knowledge to LLMs. This was an attention-grabbing workshop going by means of subjects reminiscent of:
- Knowledge cleansing/curation
- Analysis (LLM as a decide, and so on)
- Data injection (fine-tuning)
- LLM compression (distillation)
This was an insightful workshop, and I’d suggest attending related workshops if they’re related to you and your work. I additionally met some attention-grabbing individuals on the workshop, with whom I received to have insightful technical discussions.
Nonetheless, I consider the simplest factor you are able to do at such a workshop is to talk about with the instructors. In reflections after the workshop, I noticed I spent too little time discussing with the instructors, as a result of in numerous instances, they might be actually sensible individuals working at NVIDIA, who might offer you insights into completely different AI subjects. If I have been to attend a workshop like this once more, I’d spend extra time upfront getting ready inquiries to ask throughout the workshop.
Wednesday/Thursday, June 11/12
There are a variety of issues you may spend your time on throughout as of late. Most notably:
- Attending displays/panel discussions
- Going to the corporate cubicles
- Attending the join with consultants periods
Join with skilled periods are occasions the place you sit round a small desk, amongst a number of different attendees, and also you get to ask inquiries to an NVIDIA worker. The occasions sometimes had a set matter; nevertheless, you can, in idea, ask any query.
Join with skilled periods have been by far probably the most priceless periods I attended throughout my time at GTC Paris.
The principle causes for this are:
- The NVIDIA workers current on the occasion have been tremendous clever and will, generally, give me a extremely good response to my questions
- I used to be capable of ask questions on business-specific issues (that I, for instance, face at Findable) and obtain solutions to these. That is naturally a lot better than solely asking questions on normal AI subjects.
To elaborate on the final bullet level: In reference to skilled periods, you are supposed to ask a query. This may very well be as normal as:
How do I exploit LLMs for classification?
Nonetheless, it’s typically tough for individuals to reply such generic questions, as it’s tough to know the place to start answering the query. To resolve this downside, you may present them with an instance (or, in lots of instances, the NVIDIA workers will ask for a particular instance). You’ll be able to then present them an instance of a particular downside you’re engaged on at your small business, and obtain a really particular response, which in lots of instances might be way more priceless.
For example, I’d add to my query
In Norway we’ve got a classification commonplace for constructing paperwork, the place they must be sorted into round 300 completely different classes. The classes are for instance “Electrical cables”, “Air flow system”, “Furnishings” and so forth.
Offering an instance like this each makes it simpler for the NVIDIA worker to reply your query and makes the response to the query extra related for you. It’s a win-win!
I’d additionally like so as to add that you would be able to, in lots of instances, join with NVIDIA workers by asking questions after their presentation/panel dialogue. You are able to do this by:
- Asking a query in entrance of everybody on the microphone
- Discovering the speaker(s) after the periods and asking questions
- Connecting with them on LinkedIn and asking your query there.
Additionally, I did attend some displays on June 10. and 11. that have been insightful. Nonetheless, I additionally skilled that numerous periods solely lined subjects at a really excessive stage, or solely lined NVIDIA-specific instruments, and didn’t really present helpful insights for me in my work. This is the reason I made a decision to spend extra time on the join with consultants periods.
Reflecting after the occasion
After the occasion, I mirrored on all the pieces I discovered all through the three-day attendance. I had numerous impressions after these days, from assembly so many new individuals, choosing up numerous new data, and typically, by being in an setting with numerous sensible individuals, engaged on related stuff to what I’m engaged on.
On my means house from the occasion, I subsequently
- Went by means of all my notes. I made positive to take notes from each session I attended.
- Went by means of the fabric I obtained throughout the occasion. Largely Jupyter Notebooks and displays
- Linked with individuals I met on LinkedIn
Afterward, I additionally watched some replays from the occasion, which you’ll be able to watch on demand.
I additionally consider that when attending such occasions, the most effective concepts could generally come from your personal thoughts. So it’s not essentially what somebody says to you, however
For instance, I talked with an NVIDIA skilled about fine-tuning LLMs, and he talked about how teacher-student fashions are crucial in immediately’s panorama. Listening to this made me take into consideration once I was engaged on fine-tuning Qwen 2.5 VL, and that I might need missed part of the LoRA fine-tuning that made mannequin efficiency so much worse than it might have been. I attempt to sum this idea up in a single quote under:
When attending occasions, probably the most priceless insights typically come up from your personal ideas impressed by conversations—not simply from what somebody straight says.
After some reflections, I’ll now additionally present some optimistic and destructive sides with attending the occasion
Upsides of the occasion
- You get to fulfill numerous sensible individuals engaged on related issues to you
- You get a condensed set of helpful info (numerous what you be taught on the occasion will also be discovered on-line); nevertheless, there’s additionally numerous noise on the net. On the occasion, a lot of the info is of top of the range
Downsides of the occasion
- It will probably generally really feel like trying to find gold in Klondike when chatting with individuals. You might need to talk to lots of people earlier than you discover somebody with the best experience and curiosity that can assist you in your precise downside
- It takes numerous time. I spent three full days on the occasion, which naturally may very well be utilized in numerous alternative ways
Conclusion
On this article, I mentioned learn how to successfully attend technical occasions, drawing on my expertise attending NVIDIA GTC Paris 2025. I defined how it is best to plan the occasion forward of time and decide which periods you wish to attend, and I highlighted how I personally discovered most from chatting with completely different consultants (significantly NVIDIA workers), relatively than attending displays and panel discussions. Reflecting on the occasion afterwards can also be essential, going by means of all of your notes and the fabric you bought from the occasion. Attending technical occasions, reminiscent of NVIDIA GTC, will be immensely useful for gathering new concepts, connecting with attention-grabbing individuals, and hopefully, enhancing your engineering abilities.
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