Email template to ask for approval at the bottom of this page!

We get it — your developer time is valuable — and so is the company budget needed to send you to a conference like GOTOpia Chicago 2021. We also know that online conferences don’t tend to hold as much weight as traditional face-to-face conferences. But we’re here to change that.

Every detail of GOTOpia Chicago 2021 is being planned to ensure the valuable time you spend with us will be a true investment in your learning and growth. You won't just leave the event having learned a ton from the world's leading experts in software development, you'll also have plenty of opportunities to make lasting connections with speakers, partners and attendees through stimulating and accessible session formats.

From April 20-21, you’ll learn from a lineup of 20+ expert practitioners from the comfort of your own home or office, covering topics like microservices, software architecture, cybersecurity, graphQL and emerging technologies like machine learning and serverless.

Find out how GOTOpia Chicago 2021 is reinventing what it means to run a online event with a few more reasons to help build your case below:

TOP PRACTITIONERS
We’ve got a lot of brilliant speakers joining us this spring, and this is your chance to virtually meet and ask them your questions:

• Associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, author of The Programmer’s Brain, creator of the Hedy programming language, Felienne Hermans
• Senior developer advocate for MongoDB, author of the book Coding for Kids: Python, international speaker and LinkedIn Learning instructor who specializes in cloud development courses, Adrienne Tacke
• Software architect and director at ThoughtWorks, internationally recognized expert on software architecture and design, James Lewis

INTIMATE TALKS + Q&AS
We've created a unique conference format that allows each speaker to deliver their talk in intimate sessions repeated throughout the conference. We limit the number of attendees in the room, we make each session small enough that everyone can participate in the Q&A.

BIG PICTURE KEYNOTES
It wouldn't be a GOTO conference without mind blowing keynotes from legendary speakers. We'll kick off each day by gathering all attendees for a morning keynote meant to energize you for the day of talks and networking ahead, and end each day together with an evening keynote for a big dose of inspiration to close things out.

AMA SESSIONS (ASK ME ANYTHING)
Spend time with your favorite experts for crowdsourced question-and-answer sessions, each one meant to open up fascinating discussions outside of the traditional presentation format. We're planning several dozen AMAs with speakers to give you plenty of chances to get your questions answered and hear responses to the ones you didn't think to ask.

LUNCH PANELS
Just because we won't be face-to-face doesn't mean we can't all sit together for some food and knowledge. Join us for a lunch panel each conference day where we'll gather a group of speakers to discuss one topic in-depth, all over some lunch and a coffee.

VIDEO + SLIDE PACKAGE POST-CONFERENCE
Sessions will be edited and packaged along with slides and additional learning material for your continued learning post-conference.

SAVE MONEY
With GOTOpia Chicago 2021 being fully online, you can tune in from the comfort of your own home or office. No need for additional accommodation or travel expenses that typically follow attending a physical event.

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Below is an email template you can use when requesting approval to attend the conference from your manager. We strongly recommend customizing the text and adding in details on which talks you'd like to attend!  

If your boss needs any more convincing, send us an email — we’re happy to help you experience GOTOpia Chicago 2021 however we can, because we promise that you won’t want to miss this conference.

EMAIL TEMPLATE

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Dear [MANAGER'S NAME],

I'd like your approval to tune into GOTOpia Chicago 2021’s online conference (https://gotochgo.com/2021) on April 20-21. This is the ideal opportunity for me to stay in the know during uncertain times.

The event consists of two days of conference talks with countless networking sessions, hallway tracks, intimate talks and Q&As, Ask Me Anything sessions, big picture keynotes and so much more.

GOTOpia Chicago 2021 covers topics related to my everyday work like [TOPIC] and [TOPIC]. I'm especially interested in hearing [SPEAKER] present their talk on [TALK TITLE]. You can see the full conference program here: https://gotochgo.com/2021/schedule

I would also like to attend these sessions:

• [TALK TITLE - recommend including the link!]
• [TALK TITLE - recommend including the link!]
• [TALK TITLE - recommend including the link!]

At the conference, I’ll get the chance to network with the hundreds of software developers, architects and engineering managers attending, not just to connect with them, but to learn from them and to understand how other companies are solving similar problems at work.

GOTOpia Chicago 2021 is a fully online event, so there are no additional accommodation or travel costs to account for.

I'm confident that being a part of GOTOpia Chicago 2021 will help me better understand how to leverage new technologies, tools and methodologies to help our project and team, and I'm really looking forward to gaining more practical skills to improve our everyday work. If I am able to attend this conference, I would love to then present a summary of my experience, recommendations and findings back to our team.

Do you agree that this conference is worthwhile for me to attend? If so, I'd be happy to discuss which sessions I would attend in more detail.

Thanks in advance,