Jose Vicente Nunez, a system administrator and DevOps professional at a fintech company, attended ObservabilityCON 2022 in New York City with the hope of gaining practical insights for his work with Grafana, a tool he has used since 2020 for infrastructure monitoring. Initially skeptical about vendor events, Nunez found the conference highly valuable, especially the workshops and presentations that provided practical examples and techniques for optimizing alert systems using Grafana Mimir. The event facilitated networking with Grafana engineers and industry peers, offering opportunities for 1:1 coaching and collaboration. Particularly impactful were the sessions on scaling and monitoring multiple services, which aligned closely with Nunez's responsibilities of providing metrics to guide business and technology decisions. He appreciated the accessibility of conference materials post-event, enabling colleagues who couldn't attend to benefit from the sessions. The experience was further enriched by meeting Grafana Labs' solutions engineering manager, Ronald McCollam, and the opportunity to discuss his book. Nunez deemed the event a worthwhile endeavor and recommended it to others, expressing enthusiasm for future participation.