Conference insights from new and experienced attendees

While preparing to attend the Code for America (CfA) Summit this year, we realized that the Mighty Acorn Digital team has a broad spectrum of conference experiences. Some people have been to many conferences, inside and outside of civic tech; others hadn’t attended any; still others hadn’t been to a conference like CfA. This got us thinking about how an individual can benefit from planning for and attending a conference, because a multitude of experiences is possible at a conference.

Each attendee holds a different perspective that influences how they participate—and what they remember and apply afterward. When we practice freely sharing knowledge, even when it’s as simple as telling the story of the first time you attended an event, everyone can benefit.

I may not know you, reader, but before attending CfA, I had only been to 1 other conference. In the 2 days prior to CfA, my nerves snowballed: my only reference point was a non-tech-related writing conference from 15 years ago. Talk about a dusty memory!

This Q&A could be helpful for people like me, who have less conference experience, as well as those who have attended so many conferences they can’t remember them all. We wanted to share the real—real experiences from real humans—with takeaways that help you prepare and feel far from alone.

Mighty Acorn at the CfA 2026 Summit

The lobby was abuzz with excitement. From the registration table to the hotel escalators, attendees were chatting with animation and anticipation. The flow of movement and ideas was immediately apparent: registration was digital, efficient, and uncomplicated, so no one languished in a queue—and I didn’t find any bored faces. (As the new Communications Manager for Mighty Acorn Digital, I was scanning for immediate reception.)

Today was day 1 of the CfA Summit, and it seemed off to a smooth start. This year, the 2-day Summit unfolded at the Marriott Marquis in Chicago, IL. CfA is an annual conference that gathers those working in civic-tech spaces to discuss their biggest challenges, opportunities, and successes.

Mighty Acorn Digital was a sponsor, and I was 1 of 15 attendees on our team. This was the third year of company attendance, and people from several other organizations stopped by to say hello to my colleagues. Since this was day 4 of my working for Mighty Acorn, I lacked the interpersonal familiarity present around me, but it was nonetheless nice to witness these exchanges. These smiles seemed authentic; people knew each other from previous roles or partnerships, as well as current projects.

And, to quote my colleague Dan, you could tell that attendees were there “because they care”—an earnestness to better serve the public was the norm, not the exception.

First-time attendees

For some of our Mighty Acorn CfA attendees, this was both their first time attending a tech conference and CfA. The conference layout extended across 2 floors (levels 2 and 4), and several people were dressed colorfully and fashionably, as if they’d known there would be 3 escalators to treat as a moving catwalk. (Alas, I missed that memo.)

After CfA ended, I interviewed my fellow first-timers and our multi-year attendees; everyone had knowledge gems, so read on for their insights.

Carron White, Software Engineer V
What did you enjoy the most?
I’m relatively new to civic tech so it was great to get a big picture understanding of how critical our work is. I really appreciated learning how other civic tech orgs overcome complex logistical hurdles to deliver essential services, especially the session detailing how Oklahoma Tribal Nations managed to provide SNAP assistance during funding shortages.

Did you learn something surprising?
I was delighted to see the session on open source tech in New Orleans. I’m not very informed about civic tech initiatives in my hometown so it was a pleasant surprise to see that the city is pioneering online traffic court case resolution, an application that I might need to use but hopefully can avoid!

Any guidance, tools, or takeaways you can apply in your work at Mighty Acorn?
I’m interested in learning more about how New York State incorporates AI into their design system workflows.

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
Talks are not recorded so pay close attention and don’t hesitate to take photos of slides.

Kayla, Software Engineer II
Was this your first time at a tech conference / was this your first time at CfA?
This was my first tech conference and my first time at CfA.

What did you enjoy the most?
I’m always game for an opportunity to learn, and this conference had so many opportunities to hear and see what other folks in the industry are doing to make a positive impact in their community. I feel like I left with an abundance of things to contemplate and apply to my work.

Did you learn something surprising?
While I’m not surprised at how much can be done with a strong and dedicated team, I left so inspired by people’s passion for their work and their ability to turn constraints into possibilities.

Did you learn something cool?
Plenty, but I was especially inspired by Tribal Nations, Hunger Free Oklahoma, and Asemio’s partnership to expand Oklahoma’s Summer EBT system. They talked about how they managed to find stable data in “a setting with unstable requirements,” and attributed much of their success to having folks on their team that know the EBT system firsthand through experience. Their focus helped them reach their 3-month deadline and served over 85 percent of eligible children.

What has stuck with you or left an impression?
I attended a discussion on storytelling, and the panel emphasized that we should continue to be judicious with our use of AI, and see it as a brainstorming tool vs a way to create content. They described the pillar of public service as “preserving the human experience to ensure people have what they need” and we will lose our sense of community needs if we continue to outsource the work being done to something that doesn’t understand those needs. The way it was framed really resonated with me.

Any guidance, tools, or takeaways you can apply in your work at Mighty Acorn?
There is so much, but I think the common thread in all of these panels was teamwork. I think to really give back, collaborating with our Mighty Acorn Digital community is the key to success.

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
See and hear as much as you can! There are some amazing things being done in our industry every day that we can learn from. Your community or client needs might be different, but we can all learn from each other how to meet those needs.

Kaitlyn, Business Analyst / QA Tester
Was this your first time at a tech conference / was this your first time at CfA?
This was not my first time at a tech conference but it was my first time at CfA.

What did you enjoy the most?
I really enjoyed hearing about how different cities and states built or improved their systems to help benefit their constituents.

Did you learn something surprising?
I think the most surprising thing I learned was that Colorado only had 2 years to stand up their paid family medical leave program (voters approved the ballot measure in 2020 and CO started providing benefits in 2024. The speaker at the talk I attended was then hired in 2021 and they had a deadline to get things up and running by 2023). I just found this super surprising!

Did you learn anything cool?
I attended a talk from folks in Washington, DC, where they created a browser extension to help identify factors in a risk area that helped reduce payment error rates for SNAP benefits. I thought it was a super cool way to quickly and efficiently address a problem—and it’s been really effective for them!

What has stuck with you or left an impression?
Pete Buttigieg’s talk left an impression on me. He said he wanted to avoid words like “rebuild” because we have an opportunity here to not just rebuild but to reenvision agencies for the future—and we shouldn’t let the old way of doing things shape the new way we establish, because we have a chance to completely change how we’re doing things. I like this framing, of seeing this as a chance to build new programs that are leaps and bounds better than the old ones, because in some ways, there’s a fresh start.

Any guidance, tools, or takeaways you can apply in your work at Mighty Acorn?
For my work at Mighty Acorn Digital, I really appreciated the emphasis on human-centered design (HCD)—the CO talk listed HCD as an operational discipline, which is a concept I liked, and then I think the DC SNAP talk did a good job on digging into a problem and really finding the source (they talked about how everyone said the problem they were having was one thing, but when they dug in they found the source of the issue was actually something different, and targeting that is what helped them solve their problem and reach their desired outcomes). It was a good reminder of how important it is to keep HCD at the core of what we do!

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
For future attendees, I think my advice would be to attend a balance of talks you think you should go to (it’s a relevant topic, it’s being presented by a client you work with, etc.) and ones you WANT to go to—I went to the CO and DC talks because I thought the topics sounded interesting, and felt like I had really great takeaways from them that are relevant to our work at Mighty Acorn Digital!

Kathryn, Software Engineer IV
Was this your first time at a tech conference / was this your first time at CfA?
This was my first time at CFA but not my first tech conference (my second).

What did you enjoy the most?
These talks were amazing and super inspirational. I left the conference with a lot of hope! Speaking of hope, the hope talk was one of my favorite talks to date. I loved learning the power of hope and how it really does make the world a better place. I also attended a talk about 2 people in the state of Colorado who were able to revamp applying for paid-leave processes. It was so empowering to see how just 2 people could enact change so fast. And then meeting the other attendees, and coworkers at CfA, was also a highlight.

Did you learn something surprising?
How much hope makes you happier in your job and in real life. And how hope and a wish are different. Hope requires a pathway to the change you want to enact. An over-simplified example is I want blue hair. I can wish every night for my hair to turn blue in my sleep. Or I can hope, make a plan to get my hair blue, get past all the barriers, and enact it.

Did you learn anything cool?
Our addresses are everywhere! I know I should not have been surprised with how government services are run, usually in isolation. So it was really cool to see some states start the process of tying them all together. Whether it’s just normalizing them, or getting them from the same source.

What has stuck with you or left an impression?
How amazing all the engineers are in the civic tech space. There were no egos. I talked to the VP of Nava, founders of their own startups, and many more. Everyone was so open to chat and discuss how they were enacting change in our own communities (local, state, and some even federally).

Any guidance, tools, or takeaways you can apply in your work at Mighty Acorn?
I loved the human-centered conversations around AI. It made me rethink how I use AI and I can definitely bring that over to my work. Also the Fact Graph talk (that my team gave) re-emphasized how to think about problems from the get go.

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
Sit with people you don’t know at lunch: that’s where I had my best conversations! Attend the talks; they will inspire you.

Multi-year attendees

Several people on the Mighty Acorn Digital team have attended CfA before—and they offer equally valuable perspectives. Plenty worth reading here, too!

Andrew, Engagement Manager
What stuck with you or left an impression?
At a conference like CfA it’s good to feel that Mighty Acorn Digital is all on the same team and you can always hang out with anyone from our team. It’s a good group the whole way around and I don’t take that for granted.

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
Don’t be afraid to talk to people. Even the old hands in this space haven’t been here that long and you don’t go to this conference to stare at a wall. We probably have more in common professionally with any random person at CFA than in any other room and there’s really no downside but an awkward interaction.

Colin, User Researcher
Was this your first time at a tech conference / was this your first time at CfA?
No, I’ve been to many. I presented a lightning talk at CfA a couple years ago.

What did you enjoy the most?
I had never been to Chicago; happy to see it. Happy to connect with Mighty Acorn Digital people and Bloom Works people I work with. I had a great hot dog and went to many comic book stores. I loved Wicker Park. I love riding the metro in a new city.

Did you learn something surprising?
Someone on Mainstage talked about a village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon that has the last remaining mail mule.

What has stuck with you or left an impression?
It feels like AI has been maturing over the last few years. 3 years ago, it was “AI is here! What does it mean?”; last year it was “AI is here to stay, we swear!”; and this year it was much more grounded—“Here’s how we did our AI project.”

In one project, I heard an approach to AI I really liked—they break the process apart and treat it more like suggested edits than a redraft to keep policy writers in the loop and in control. They walked them through the process instead of giving them the output all at once.

One session, about UX researchers in the LA fires, was just wild. Totally unlike normal UX research. They were essentially running around helping people and reporting back.

Any guidance, tools, or takeaways you can apply in your work at Mighty Acorn?
There was a session about public sentiment of AI, where they talked about how people are concerned about what happens with their data, and can prefer using a system to interacting with a person.

One speaker talked about bad experiences leaving a more lasting impression than good ones. It’s important to put your best foot forward, even when doing a pilot.

Another speaker described the purpose of design systems as “Making the best choice the easiest choice.”

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
Take some time to rest! Don’t do everything.

Dan, Software Engineer V
Did you learn anything cool?
I learned a lot about how much massaging of an AI you have to do to get it to produce semi-decent translations—and even then, you should really get a translator to double-check its work.

What has stuck with you or left an impression?
Everyone in civic tech (or at least CfA) is there because they care.

Dave, Technical Architect
What has stuck with you or left an impression?
I attended a workshop on storytelling with data that was fascinating. It was the last slot on Friday, so everyone was drained, but they presented a slick interdisciplinary framework for thinking about telling better stories with data.

Melissa, Software Engineer IV
Was this your first time at a tech conference / was this your first time at CfA?
No, I’ve been to a few tech conferences like Drupal (CMS), Elasticon, and STAREAST (Testing). This was my second time at Code for America.

What did you enjoy the most?
Meeting people that I have worked with in the past and getting to know new people in the field.

Did you learn something surprising?
I’m seeing a lot more government moving to AI in their projects compared to 2 years ago. It seems to be getting bigger in the government area, at least over the last few months, based on my project and others at the conference.

Did you learn anything cool?
The Fact Graph was a cool talk and hands-on experience. The Fact Graph is a tool developed and used in the Direct Open File program.

What has stuck with you or left an impression?
Some people are trying to make changes to the government and processes to benefit everyday people. Those ways are a bit different compared to when I was in government.

Any guidance, tools, or takeaways you can apply in your work at Mighty Acorn?
Yeah, we already think outside the box on many of our projects, but now we’re seeing others in government doing the same thing. They are no longer just saying no to things, but trying new things compared to before. Especially in the last few months, with AI becoming very big in the government sector now.

Any advice you’d like to give future attendees?
If you are in the government sector, you will meet many people in the same boat as you, trying to solve very similar issues. This conference helps bring people together to discuss and explore ideas for solving these issues using tools that might already be available to them.

Rachael, Product and Delivery Manager
CFA brought together a lot of passionate, experienced folks who were able to distill their practices and experiences into easily understandable presentations—a really great starting point for anyone just getting into civic tech work. I genuinely enjoyed meeting other people, working on similar projects in different states, within a space where we could share ideas and learn from one another.

Rob, Director
For me, the Code for America Summit is all about getting to connect with the broader community. One of the things I really love about this space is that everyone is genuinely happy to share their insights and what has worked for them. There’s no tribalism there, just people connecting to help government work better using all the tools they have.

Sean, Director
This was my third time at CfA with Mighty Acorn Digital. It’s an energizing Summit, filled with learning-focused organizations also growing like ours. I like tracking civic-tech innovation, and CfA is a great opportunity to do so.

Travis, Business Development Manager
It’s often difficult when you work in an “impact” field to show the impact of what you do. Code for America is a great place to see the depth and breadth of the “outcomes” that we focus our work on, whether they’re for government employees or for citizens. Witnessing so many aspects of why we do this work is really exciting and invigorating.