Mark Bates

Mark Bates is cofounder and instructor at Gopher Guides, the industry leader for Go training, consulting, and conference workshops. After graduating with a degree in music from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 1999, Mark joined the original dot-com boom as a software engineer and began his career as a technologist. Since then, Mark has been fortunate enough to work with some of the world’s largest and most innovative companies, including Apple, Uber, and Visa.

When he first discovered Go in the summer of 2013, Mark was immediately drawn to the language and its ecosystem. In 2014, Mark attended the first GopherCon, where he met Cory LaNou. For seven years, Mark hosted the GopherCon lightning talks and has been proud to introduce hundreds of new speakers to the community. Mark has spoken at conferences around the world and is a regular on the Go Time podcast.

When not coding or writing about coding, Mark enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, and recording music. Mark is currently completing a master’s degree in music production from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.