Recently, Kolesa Conf 2024 took place in Almaty. This is the largest conference in Kazakhstan that unites and develops the IT community.
Over the course of one day, four streams were held focusing on IT areas: Management, Web, Data, and Mobile. This year, Kolesa Conf was conducted in an offline format, gathering 1,600 participants. Speakers and guests traveled from other cities in Kazakhstan, and some even from CIS countries and Europe specifically for the conference.
The main value of Kolesa Conf lies in live interaction and effective communication. The conference program was designed to ensure that every participant could find something of interest.
A new feature this year was the live interaction between experts and the audience, with themed discussions on QA, Design, and HR. Additionally, there was a panel session in the Management stream featuring C-level executives from Sergek Group, Beeline Kazakhstan, Kolesa Group, and Drinkit Kazakhstan.
Kolesa Conf was also supported by other major companies, making the conference even more engaging: PS.kz and Lerna.
The event manager of Kolesa Group, Araylim Kozhanova, was the chief organizer of Kolesa Conf 2024.
“We paid special attention to the comfort of conference participants. Together with designers, we meticulously worked on the customer experience and navigation for attendees through flags, banners, and signs both inside and outside the venue. We set up two large registration desks.
It is challenging to find a location in Almaty with four separate halls and enough space for networking and activities. In Bakshasaray, three halls are available, while we have four streams. Therefore, we divided the large hall into two smaller ones to prevent the Management and Web streams from interfering with each other. We found contractors who built a soundproof wall for us, 8 meters high and 22 meters wide. The wall was constructed continuously over 30 hours.”
Nikita Baev, Head of Web & Mobile Development at Bereke Bank, appreciated the quantitative and qualitative growth of Kolesa Conf.
“I was impressed by the quality of the presentations and the level of speakers — strong local and foreign experts. I organize meetups myself, as I develop the frontend developer community in Kazakhstan. I know from personal experience how challenging it is to organize a large conference.
I attend Kolesa Conf every year and am delighted that the number of participants continues to grow, the level of organization improves, and more talented and motivated newcomers are emerging.”
DCI expert Albina Zhetibaeva attended the event for networking and new knowledge.
“I work in the oil and gas sector. We implement projects where we use IT solutions to enhance production and safety, as well as optimize costs. For example, we develop and implement software for equipment that provides precise analytics based on machine learning. Overall, we are focused on digitalization and improving work processes.
I came to Kolesa Conf to gain new knowledge and to meet and interact with new people. I am attending presentations in the Management and Data streams.”
As was the case last year, the conference was held in two languages: Kazakh and Russian. The organizers provided simultaneous translation so that attendees could consume content in the language they are most comfortable with.
Active participants were rewarded with branded merchandise from Kolesa Conf’24, as well as prizes from the conference’s partners and speakers.