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DockerCon EU 2017 - Dino Behind the Scenes

Another DockerCon come and gone! As always, it was a blast and unfortunate to return to "normal life." Haha! One of the fun things about this one was my adventure as a dinosaur!

Where'd the idea come from?

The original idea came from a conversation I had with Abby Fuller after her last talk at DockerCon Austin. I don't recall how we originally got on the idea, but the conversation quickly turned to, "What would happen if a dino crashed your talk? What could we do?" Word quickly got to Ashlynn Polini, who runs all of DockerCon, and simply said it needed to happen! We came up with a few ideas…

  • Demonstrate the old way - dinos are old. Get on stage and use their short arms to pound away on the keyboard. Obviously not the best way. Then show the newer, better, faster way to build apps/images
  • Demonstrate dino orchestration - if a dino can lead an orchestra, why not let it show off container-based orchestration?
  • Dino apps need love too! - since Docker's big push is to Modernize Traditional Apps, why not use dinos to help sell it? Could just roam around the conference center "proteseting" they need love too!

Prep and Go Time!

Obviously, we took Option #3 above. Dino suits were bought, packed, and brought to DockerCon! We cut up some boxes, stapled them together, and made custom signs! Cheesy? Absolutely! But, that's the point!

Dino signs

Then, it was time to go to work! Some frequent questions we were asked…

  • Was it hot? Uh… yeah. We could only do about 20 min intervals before being covered in sweat!
  • Could you see? Uh… sorta. Key points are to know the area and look out for shadows. If they stop, good chance they're taking pics!
  • Was it worth it? Absolutely! DockerCon is all about the experience and having fun. This was just another way to show that off!
  • Will you do it again? We'll just have to wait and see, eh? ;)

Why we did it!

Obviously, it was fun! But, there is a reason Docker is putting a bigger emphasis on modernizing traditional applications. You don't have to use Docker for only new apps. HUGE gains are to be found with just changing how you're running your existing apps. Numerous presentations from large companies highlighted this… some saving up to 70% in infrastructure costs for existing apps. This is a big deal!

Show me the pics!

We joked about making a slight competition between #dockerselfie and #dinoselfie. Obviously, it's impossible to beat the queen Betty Junod, but it was still fun! Here are some of the pics I pulled from Twitter!

So… always remember… Dino apps deserve love too!