You’re about to spend three days with people who get your obsessions without you having to explain them. The developer who spent a week on a fix nobody else noticed. The designer who cannot physically walk past bad navigation. The marketer unreasonably excited about a 2% lift. The PM with roadmap opinions that could fuel a two-hour dinner.
Some of those conversations start when you’re both determined to win the LEGO a little too much. Others become something that lasts longer than the conference. I’ve watched it happen enough times to want it for everyone who walks through the door.
Give it a try, or at least a read. Who knows who’s waiting to bump into you…
Gear up before you land
Schedule one meeting. The rest fills in around it.
The WebExpo app goes live a few days before the conference. Fill in your profile, look at who’s attending, and if there’s someone on that list you’d love to sit across from, message them and book a time. One real meeting scheduled in advance is worth more than ten accidental hallway collisions.
Browse the speaker lineup and pick the talks that answer a question you’re already stuck on, not just the names that sound impressive. Building your personal program in the app before you arrive is genuinely one of the best things you can do for the three days ahead.
And when you start meeting people, connect on LinkedIn the same day, while you still remember them.
Before the crowd forms
Show up on Tuesday. It’s the easiest social moment of the whole week.
Pick up your badge at the Warm-Up Party on Tuesday evening, at Apify’s offices at the top of Lucerna Palace. Every person in that room has just arrived. Nobody has found their people yet. The whole room is up for grabs.
At 21:30 there’s a venue orientation tour. Lucerna Palace has multiple halls and a layout that will surprise you. Take it and you’ll walk into Lucerna on Wednesday morning like you own the place.
The hidden program
The talks are the reason. Everything around them is the reward.
The main tracks for developers, designers, tech leads, and marketers are the obvious draw. They’re great. But WebExpo has a parallel layer of content that doesn’t live on the big screens.
Head to the Discomfort Zone, this is the antidote to LinkedIn. Riki Fridrich hosts the sessions where people admit when things go south. It is for the taboo topics, the failed launches, the budget meltdowns, and the technical debt you are too embarrassed to mention. If you are tired of hearing that every project is a perfect success, this is where the masks come off.
If you have a problem so specific that Google has given up on you, or you just want to hear how someone else navigated a career pivot, drop by the Mentor Café. You get time with experts who have already survived the nightmares you are currently overthinking.
Speakers do not vanish after their final slide. They move to Speakers’ Corner because they are excited to discuss their talk with you. Your reaction is the best proof that their months of preparation were worth it. Go and ask the question that has been bugging you since the fourth slide.
Our partners have swapped the brochures for challenges at their stands. These tasks are an easy excuse to talk to people. The conference game in the app even gives you points for visiting them. This is just the universe agreeing with this advice.
Look out for the total eclipse of the dart competition rotating through the conference. It is exactly as unserious as it sounds and it works.
The art of the open circle
Stand like Pac-Man and skip the boring job titles.
Most people stand in closed circles like a secret society protecting a treasure. It is intimidating for anyone on the outside looking in. Try the Pac-Man rule instead and leave a gap in your circle. This empty space is a silent invitation for a stranger to join the group.
Once they do, skip the usual “what do you do” and ask what problem they are currently trying to solve. That is when things get interesting.
If you see someone standing alone, go and say hello. You are both at WebExpo because you like the same things.
Need a nudge? Come find us. We’re always happy to make an introduction.
Where the best stories happen
Three nights to find your people.
The Wednesday Party is at Radlická kulturní sportovna, a legendary Prague summer venue where first-day conversations turn into three-hour ones and nobody checks the time. The After Party is at Mama Shelter’s garden bar, and it’s where nobody quite wants it to end. (The Warm-Up on Tuesday also counts.)
After the credits roll
Follow up while it’s still fresh.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said about…” sent within a week keeps a connection alive that most people let die. I have watched WebExpo connections turn into collaborations and friendships that outlast company rebrands and tool migrations.
And it doesn’t have to stay in your inbox. Share specific takeaways from sessions and tag the speakers. That does a lot more than “great energy at WebExpo”. It is how people find you worth following, and how conversations begin that sometimes run for years. Use #WebExpo and tag @WebExpo.
The conference is only where it starts. You decide what comes next.
