Making the most of industry events: insights from PayPal Developer Day

This August, I went to a two-day developer-focused event centered around Fastlane, PayPal’s new accelerated checkout product. As member of Syde’s product team, I had first-hand experience working on integrating Fastlane into WooCommerce’s checkout, and recently the Block checkout. The event was a great opportunity to get unique insights into the new product, and reaffirm our long partnership with PayPal.

A little demo of our Fastlane and WooCommerce Block Checkout integration in WooCommerce PayPal Payments

About PayPal Developer Day

PayPal hosted us at their San Jose headquarters. I found the venue quite impressive, especially the beautiful outdoor space.

It is clear that PayPal put a lot of thought and effort into this event to ensure in the successful rollout of Fastlane. The event featured a mix of very approachable general sessions, hands-on coding workshops with PayPal engineers, and networking opportunities. The event was well-organized, with plenty of branded materials, excellent swag, and engaging activities (scavenger hunt, arcade games, and VR experiences among others). The attention to detail kept the target audience (dev geeks) very engaged.

They had set up a Boba bar, a mini donuts station, and even a shaved Hawaiian ice cream stand. There was also a candy station, and all the meals provided were excellent. I particularly enjoyed the tacos.

Sadly, my colleague Moritz wasn’t able to make it to the event, but thankfully, I didn’t feel too lonely thanks to the company of Andrew Wikel (my former teammate) and John Coy, who were there representing Automattic.

A few tips for attending industry events

Reflecting on PayPal Developer Day, I’ve compiled some key observations and lessons learned. These insights cover various aspects of attending and making the most of such professional gatherings.

💚 Brand Visibility

Unfortunately, the official company swag was delayed, so I had two t-shirts and a hoodie printed locally in San Jose with our Syde logos. This turned out to be quite useful. Throughout the event, people approached me after recognizing our logo (mostly PayPal people directly involved with us), eager to chat. It helped boost our visibility, led to several meaningful conversations and greatly enhanced the quality of photos.

The simple branding worked better than I expected. Several attendees mentioned that seeing our logo helped them connect faces to the names they’d been working with remotely, creating an immediate sense of familiarity.

🤝 Relationship building

While it was tempting to dive into technical discussions, bugs, and implementation details, I found it more valuable to focus on building relationships, especially with the PayPal developers. These connections could be invaluable for future collaborations and support.

Learning about the teams and people behind the technology proved more valuable than diving into technical specifics. Technical problems become much easier to solve when you’ve established personal connections with the people involved.

🔋 Managing jet lag

I arrived in the U.S. a couple of days before the event, which gave me time to adjust to the time difference. This extra time ensured I was alert and energized for the event.

The extra days helped me adapt to the local schedule before the busy event began. Being present and focused during key sessions made the extra travel days worthwhile, significantly enhancing the quality of every interaction.

🖼️ Photos

I asked people to take photos even when it felt a bit awkward. I asked colleagues several times and even approached the event photographer for some professional shots. This effort resulted in good content for our social media channels and this post.

The resulting media serves multiple purposes – from social content to internal presentations. The mix of casual and professional shots provides flexibility for different communication needs, helping showcase our participation at the event.

🎸 Interacting with developer rockstars

Speaking with high-profile people can be quite intimidating. I often feel self-conscious, but I tried to overcome it and engage without being timid, aiming to establish a good rapport, and positively represent Syde.

These conversations revealed valuable insights about industry trends and technical challenges we hadn’t considered. The discussions helped position Syde within the broader ecosystem while creating opportunities for future collaboration.

🪪 Event etiquette

A simple but important point – I was mindful of wearing the event lanyard at all times, ensuring that my name was clearly visible. I believe that made it easier for others to approach and engage.

This basic practice led to many spontaneous conversations. Clear identification helped others connect faces with familiar names from emails and documentation, making networking feel more natural.

🧠 Help your memory

I took photos of people’s lanyards when I spoke to them. That helped with following up with them post-event, for example via social media.

This simple approach made post-event follow-ups much easier. The visual references preserved context from conversations that might otherwise blur together, enabling more meaningful connections after the event.

Summary

Attending the Developer Day for Fastlane was a great way to show our commitment to the partnership between Syde and PayPal. It has been a wonderful experience for me, and I am very thankful for everyone at Syde who made it possible for me to represent Syde at this event.

I enjoyed reflecting on my experience in the second half of this post, sharing a few tips on how to make the most of an event like this. Hopefully, these tips are helpful for people who are planning on going to an industry event themselves. If you have any other tips, don’t hesitate to comment!