GitHub Universe 2023 with GitHub Campus Experts

Attending GitHub Universe 2023 was an amazing experience! For those unfamiliar, GitHub Universe brings together the world’s developers, enterprise leaders, and security professionals for two days of interactive sessions focusing on AI, security, and the developer experience.

How I Got the Opportunity 🎫

As a GitHub Campus Expert, I was selected to attend GitHub Universe in person through an internal application process. We had to describe our community involvement and outline how we would share our learnings from the event with our communities.

The Experience 💫

As my friend Harsh from OurTechCommunity (OTC) perfectly put it - all the Campus Experts were inspiring! The event provided an incredible platform to:

• Openly discuss each other’s challenges

• Learn about everyone’s efforts and goals

• Witness their drive and hard work

• Share experiences and knowledge

The tech community at Universe offered valuable insights into Open Source and how companies are adapting to the evolving tech landscape. I’m incredibly grateful to GitHub, the GitHub Education Team, and especially to Luis, Juan, Dyson, Stormy Peters, and everyone who worked to make this possible for students like us.

Activities & Events Attended 📅

Networking & Talks

• GitHub Open Source Pre-event Networking @ Minna Art Gallery

• GitHub Platform Engineering Talk @ MoMa

• Telus GitHub Actions Talk @ MoMa

Discussion Sessions

• Developer Experience @ Discussion Lounge

• VSCode Productivity @ Discussion Lounge

• Observability Solutions @ Discussion Lounge

• Education Panel @ Hyatt

• Ignacio’s Panel on AI In Education

• Keynotes with Stormy + Martin

Booths & Demos

• Company Booths: Microsoft, Datadog, Postman, Arm, GitHub CoPilot, Security

• Demos: GitHub Security, CoPilot

• GitHub Certification

• GitHub Women in Tech Event

Key Learnings 📚

Community Building

• Discovered new ways to support and engage community members

• Learned strategies to uplift marginalized/underrepresented communities

• Gained insights into specific GitHub Actions and features for workshops

Open Source Insights

• Learned about current open source projects and how to get involved

• Understanding of OSPO (Open Source Program Office) operations

• Importance of Developer Experience in community engagement

Women in Tech Event

• Strategies for supporting and uplifting marginalized genders

• Creating safe spaces for discussion

• Networking with inspiring women from diverse backgrounds

• Insights into navigating career challenges

Technical Knowledge

• Deep dives into GitHub’s newest features

• Enterprise integration techniques

• Hands-on training with GitHub features

• Practical applications for Enterprise Architecture

Highlights of the Event 🌟

1. Diverse Learning Opportunities: Engaging with professionals from various technical and non-technical backgrounds

2. Community Insights: Learning from developers and community leaders about their projects and future visions

3. Women in Tech Network: Meeting inspiring women and learning from their career journeys

4. Technical Growth:

   • Developing interpersonal and technical skills through workshops

   • Code review session at the Microsoft booth

   • Learning best practices from Dev Advocates

   • Valuable career advice from industry professionals

Major Announcements 📢

GitHub Copilot Enterprise

• New subscription tier combining all Copilot offerings

• Personalized with organization’s codebase context

• Available February 2024

GitHub Copilot Chat

• AI companion for code writing and understanding

• Generally available December 2023

• No additional cost

• Integration with github.com and mobile platforms

Security Updates

• Code scanning autofix (Preview)

• Secret scanning for generic secrets

• Enhanced security vulnerability detection

Want to watch the sessions? Check out 40+ on-demand sessions from GitHub Universe at the official session catalog.