are virtual IT conferences actually a thing? where do people find them?
Posted by StatusCatch1809@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 29 comments
kinda random but I’ve been wondering about this lately. still pretty new in IT and trying to learn more outside of just day-to-day work, but most of what I see are either paid events or in-person conferences
are there actually decent online or virtual conferences people attend? like something where you can just join sessions, listen in, maybe learn how others are doing things in real environments
not really looking for courses, more like real talks or discussions
if these exist, where do people usually find them? or is it mostly just vendor stuff nowadays?
sixblazingshotguns@reddit
But you don't get the buffets and open bar at a virtual IT conference...
DangerousVP@reddit
Not with that attitude. You better believe Id be setting myself up with a buffet and open bar for an all day Teams meeting.
DULUXR1R2L1L2@reddit
During COVID one virtual event shipped everyone a 6 pack of beer and a bag of chips
SirLoremIpsum@reddit
My company does some virtual events for the whole company and sent us a link to order a sweet treats up to a $$ value.
But like it shipped from the US (us company, in in can) so it never arrived until 2 weeks after and was like a 10 cookie lol
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
Ha! got me there lol, probably the main downside. I guess I’m just hoping to get the knowledge part without needing a travel budget 😅 Have you found any decent ones online or mostly just the in-person stuff?
FutureManagement1788@reddit
Virtual IT conferences have definitely matured in the last couple years since the pandemic. Some of the better ones now do solid hands-on labs and real-world troubleshooting sessions instead of just keynotes.
I’ve found the ones focused on monitoring, endpoint management, and proactive IT give the best ROI when you can’t travel.
Some in-person conferences upload videos of their sessions that you can watch later. Not quite the same as real-time interaction, but still a great way to learn virtually.
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
Sounds good to me, as someone starting out with no proper budget yet, the video sessions might help. Where can I possibly check these videos out?
FutureManagement1788@reddit
Here's a link to the Nexthink Experience conference from 2025: https://nexthink.com/experience/replays
Nexthink_Quentin@reddit
Most conferences have a virtual component you can join at this point! You can always ask too, generally there's a way.
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
good to know actually, didn’t realize most of them had virtual options now
do you usually just check their websites directly or is there a place that kind of lists these out?
Nexthink_Quentin@reddit
most of the time they just advertise that as an option on the website, but I've also reached out to informational emails and been given virtual options
SecureNarwhal@reddit
ISC2 does virtual conferences, they're really well moderated. Both completely virtual and hybrid (come in person or attend online)
there's a big education IT conference in the States that had virtual options but I can't remember the name
m5online@reddit
Educause is the big academic IT conference. Typical trade conference both in person and virtual (I've been to both). https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
haven’t heard of that one before, I’ll check it out
is it still worth attending if you’re not in academic IT or is it pretty specific to that space?
m5online@reddit
Pretty specific to academia, not sure you'd get much out of it as general IT.
Background-Look-63@reddit
There are a ton of them. Just depends on what you are interested in?
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
I think that’s part of what I’m trying to figure out, probably more interested in stuff around sysadmin/devops, like real-world setups, monitoring, troubleshooting, that kind of thing
any you’d personally recommend or where you usually find them?
Background-Look-63@reddit
So the troubleshooting ones are going to be from your specific vendors usually. You have to get to know your reps for the invites and they tend to be more fun events (ie: whiskey tasting, topgolf, exotic car driving). They always have an engineer attending these events and you can get help from them or talk to other attendees about your specific problem. These usually are very intimate events.
Bigger vendors like Microsoft, crowdstrike, cyberark, Citrix, nutanix, etc have user group meetings and conferences that you can attend for free or pay for. Many times they are hosted physically and virtually. The virtual component sometimes are free if the event is a paid one. Again talk to your rep to know about them.
Security conferences are hosted all over the country and tend to be the ones that you will hear about the most since security vendors have way more money to put on conferences. Just need a corporate email to get into these. Doesn’t matter if you actually work in cybersecurity or not.
Then there are the forward thinking events like ted talks. These are usually hosted by some company that tries to bring together executives for a dinner meeting that is sponsored by some company to talk about what is happening in IT right now and how are the executives dealing with it. AI and Governance right now are hot topics. These are hosted in major metropolitan areas and you sort of have to know someone to get on the list if you seriously want to do these. Once they know who you are, it’s basically once or twice a month at a very expensive restaurant for 3 hrs of your time. Sometimes you get a little bit of cash to help pay for transportation to the event. These are also intimate and you better be comfortable speaking in front of a group because they will ask you to talk about your company and how your company is dealing with any issues. Some can be half day events either breakfast to lunch time or lunch to happy hour events.
For just purely virtual events, these will usually just be done by your vendors and they will have an event page on their website where you can sign up. Verkada, Proofpoint, Microsoft, Citrix, liquidware, etc will all have these.
Finally a lot of big MSPs/Consulting companies will have their own events or sponsors them (ie: concurrency, sayers, Xentegra). These also tend to be more intimate ones where you can just talk about stuff with other attendees and hopefully get some help, but these are more about drumming up business for them. So these events are also like the first ones - March madness viewing party, sport games, sneak preview to a major new movie, top golf, etc
I’m based in Illinois and can pass along the ones that i know about. Like this week, I’m attending 4 events. All of them are in-person and are a mix of intimate meetings and big conferences.
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
this is super helpful, didn’t realize most of this stuff was tied so much to vendors and reps. makes sense now why I wasn’t really finding much just by searching online. I don’t really have vendor contacts yet so I guess that’s something I’ll need to build over time
for the virtual ones you mentioned, are they actually worth attending or do they feel more like marketing most of the time?
Background-Look-63@reddit
The virtual ones sort of depends. So there are different types of virtual events, obviously. Vendor ones where they are basically letting you know how to use their product better and then independent ones but are sponsored by vendors so usually the vendor has a time slot to either pitch something or contribute how their products work in a specific scenario.
Honestly, it’s hard to know what you are going to get out of virtual events. Depending on who is actually hosting it will make a big difference. The ones that say they are independent but yet have sponsors usually have some sort of giveaway or prize to entice people to join. Here is a link to newsletter sign up form for some different virtual seminars - sign up form
The vendor specific ones might do a raffle at the end (rare) but you can at least ask questions about any issues you might have or chat with an engineer.
In my opinion, it’s best to go to an in-person event than do a virtual event if you can. IT now really requires you to be able to network. With how bad the job market is, you need to be able to have other IT folk vouch for you and they really need to put a face/personality to the name.
enterprisedatalead@reddit
Yeah they definitely exist, but you have to look in the right places. Most of the good ones aren’t heavily advertised like big vendor events, they usually come through communities, Slack groups, LinkedIn posts, or even subreddits like this.
In my experience, smaller community driven events and meetups are actually better than big conferences. The big ones tend to be more vendor focused, while smaller ones have more real world talks and practical discussions.
Also worth checking YouTube and conference websites after the event, a lot of sessions get uploaded for free and you can still learn a lot without attending live.
Are you looking for something general in IT, or more focused like cloud, security, or sysadmin topics?
StatusCatch1809@reddit (OP)
I’ve mostly just been searching randomly so that probably explains why I keep finding the same big vendor stuff, smaller community ones sound more like what I’m looking for tbh, more real world and less sales-y
probably leaning more towards sysadmin/devops type topics right now since that’s what I’m getting exposed to at work
any communities or places you’d recommend starting with?
JM_Artist@reddit
Oh man I’d love to know too, I need my CEUs
awful_at_internet@reddit
Unironically: attend conferences for other fields that are convenient for you. I have social work CEUs because i attend a regional social work conference from time to time. Tech is relevant for them too and they have introduced me to some interesting ideas i've used to improve my documentation.
GullibleDetective@reddit
Most have a virtual component
WWGHIAFTC@reddit
defeats the entire point of spending a week in another city with per diem and free travel and ditching the whole thing to chill.
commentBRAH@reddit
dell had one a while ago were they gave everyone who signed up a Quest 2, then everyone joined a VR conferance, was pretty funny tbh lol.
anka_ar@reddit
https://nerdear.la
It started in Argentina but now was hosted in Chile, Mexico and Barcelona. It was always free, and the talks are streamed.
It started with more IT content but also science, management., technology in general, etc.
Yes, it is mostly in Spanish because the focus was Latin america people, but check the speakers. Almost all the previous talks are on YouTube.
braliao@reddit
Meetup, Luma, signup to receive marketing emails from vendors, find local chapters of ISC2, ISACA, ISSA, etc.