Hey, are you interested in going to a conference in Miami?
A week in the sun, eating amazing food, why wouldn’t I? Probably some sort of video conference, I know enough to hold my own.
By the way, it’s a developer conference called React Miami
opens ChatGPT and looks up React
Ok, this will be a new one for me.
Hi, I’m Adam. I work in sales at Mux. Here’s what I learned from stepping into a world where "CRUD apps" sounds vaguely offensive, mentioning Angular could get you canceled, and spotting Michelle in the wild is a celebrity moment.
I attended a dev conference as a very-much non-developer, and I relearned that stepping out of your comfort zone isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential.
Why speed and performance actually matter to everyone
Henri gave a compelling talk on DevTools and the performance tab. It immediately reminded me of dial-up internet, watching painfully as websites loaded line by line. But why should this matter today? I don't wait for coffee if there's more than two people in line, let alone for a slow website. Ever bailed on a Netflix preview because it took too long to load? Exactly.
We live in a world where even a couple of extra seconds can cost businesses real money: abandoned carts, frustrated users, and lost opportunities.
Speed matters, even if you’re not a developer. Performance directly impacts user experience, customer retention, and ultimately, revenue. Whether you're building a website, streaming service, or an app, if you're not obsessing over performance, someone else is–and they're capturing your impatient audience.
Just because you've always done it one way doesn’t mean you should keep doing it
Jemima gave a very funny (and informative) talk titled “I can’t believe it’s not JS”. So many developers build certain components using Javascript when HTML or CSS were way more performant with much less code.
Jemima’s talk taught me that using excessive JavaScript can actively harm your site’s performance and stability. Even a minor undefined element can crash your whole webpage. Jemima's solution was going back to basics. Modern Web APIs now offer simpler, more stable alternatives using native HTML and CSS. Need an accordion, modal, scroll transition, or carousel? Turns out, HTML and CSS can handle these features efficiently and reliably, often reducing the lines of code by more than half.
It’s a good reminder to all of us: learn, adapt, innovate, change, grow, and simplify.
AI is our friend, not foe
Chance ran an interactive session, “Are you smarter than a React component?”, where devs coded live with AI assistance off and learned about the latest changes from React 19.
Coding in front of a live audience has to be stressful enough, but now you’re doing everything from memory with no shortcuts. Developers, the pioneers on the tech adoption curve, showed that AI isn't here to replace, but to assist. Like any creative project (including this post), getting started is the hardest part. AI is your partner to ideate, start, and iterate faster, and devs are relying on it more than ever.
Would I do it again?
Would I attend another developer conference as a salesperson? Absolutely. Attending React Miami fundamentally changed how I appreciate and relate to the people who actually use our product at Mux.
As a salesperson, stepping into the developer world helped me better understand the developer persona: their challenges, frustrations, strong opinions on Tailwind, and the actual problems they’re solving daily. It's easy to talk about customer pain points in theory, but throwing myself into the developer's natural habitat allowed me to experience some of these conversations firsthand. The buzzing hotel lobby full of devs hunched over MacBooks was a vivid reminder that these are the creators driving digital experiences forward.
Leaving Miami, I’m equipped with insights that directly translate into how I communicate and empathize with developers. Understanding their language, even just a little better, makes me a stronger partner to my customers and ultimately a better salesperson.
I’m looking forward to React Miami 2026. If you're in sales or any customer-facing role, I'd highly recommend stepping outside your comfort zone and diving into the developer ecosystem. The payoff is well worth it.
