This is a guest post written by Emmeline Wong, Marketing Specialist @ Cisco.

The most outstanding developers and programmers I have met always stay up to date with the latest technology and foster innovative thinking. They often gather to talk about ideas, problems, failures, solutions, what works well and what doesn't. However, it takes time to really sit down to read and do research aside from our day-time job. Who really has time for that, right? Hence, if we want to be time efficient and be at the front of technological innovations, nothing is better than attending events.

Why You Should Go to These Events

Being at these events will allow you to get a complete outlook about the newest and greatest in the industry. You will have a chance to connect with peers that work on similar projects and issues and exchange tips. And lastly, you will get inspired to think outside the box by new people and places. Who knows?! Maybe your next "A-ha!" moment will be when you're laying at the beach in San Diego.

Below, I have compiled the top conferences in 2016 for DevOps to attend:

Open Source Convention -O'Reilly OSCON

"OSCON is where the open source community gathers to celebrate achievements, spark new ideas, and map the future of open computing through collaboration and education."

                                                                                     May 16-19, 2016 (Austin, Texas)

                                                                                     Oct. 17-19, 2016 (London)

DockerCon

"DockerCon is the community and industry event for makers and operators of next generation distributed apps built with containers."

                                                                                  June 19-21, 2016  (Seattle)

ChefCon

"Chef comes alive when nearly 2,000 passionate leaders, practitioners, and innovators from the DevOps community converge upon Austin, Texas. We'll present an invigorating blend of technology and local Austin experiences to engage and energize both technical practitioners and corporate leaders."

                                                                                  July 11-13 (Austin, Texas)

Velocity

"At Velocity, web operations, performance, and DevOps professionals learn to build fast, resilient, and highly available websites and apps."                                                          June 20-23, 2016 (Santa Clara, CA)

                                                                                  Sep. 19-22, 2016 (New York)

                                                                                  Nov. 7-9, 2016 (Amsterdam)

                                                                                  Nov. 2016 (Beijing)

PuppetConf

"PuppetConf 2016 is five+ packed days of insightful presentations covering best practices and trends in DevOps, IT automation and continuous delivery."

                              October 17-21 (San Diego, CA)