An exciting improvement in Drupal 8 is having a date field in core. That said, custom code is often needed to provide commonly-requested functionality. The Smart Date module allows you to upgrade your date fields, quickly and easily!
You'll hear from the module's creator about the problems it is built to solve. In particular we'll talk how it aims to help Drupal provide an interface for date and time entry that draws interface best practices from popular calendar software like those from Google and Apple. Another key feature is more granular control over the output of dates, to provide output that approximates more "natural language" formatting. The Drupal community has played a big part in evolution of Smart Date, so we'll also cover the ways in which input and assistance from people like you has helped shape its roadmap.
You'll also learn about new features like recurring dates, calendar displays, more sophisticated timezone handing, evolving views integration, and more. In its latest version, it even supports core Datetime and Datetime Range fields!
The module is designed to make life easy for site builders, editors, and visitors, so there aren't necessarily prerequisites, but knowing some of the challenges in managing dates and times within Drupal will give you a depper appreciation of the material.