On community and conferences

Originally published elsewhere.

As a conference is about to kickoff and I’m waiting for my coffee, I felt strongly about sharing my thoughts about conference communities. At the end of this I’ve included 3 tips on how to make the most of being in the same space with loads of cool people; people who are interested in the same things as you and doing dope things, like you!

Community and confs

Community is important to me. It was, even before I was a dev. It’s part of how I became a dev. The community will always be part of my journey.

Early on in my life as a developer, a friend shared a wonderful nugget of advice: value the hallway track. I took that advice to heart. And I credit that advice with helping me make many of the friends and collaborators with whom I work on all sorts of projects today.

Whether you choose to see a talk or talk with people in the spaces outside, I found that a balance of both helped me make the most of my time at a conference. It helped me, as an introvert, balance the energy expenditure of conversation with the quiet time of just listening to some rad ideas shared by a person who’s put a ton of time into learning and doing.

CascadiaJS helped set the bar for what I want from a conference 🎯

A short note on CascadiaJS

CascadiaJS is a community-organized and community-oriented tech conference in the North American Pacific Northwest. This year it’s in Seattle WA.

As one of the earliest confs I joined, the people I met at CascadiaJS made me feel welcome and part of something bigger than just making software as a lone developer in the wild.

CascadiaJS helped me find my values and define my expectations of the tech community.

CascadiaJS, and conferences like it, do a wonderful job at making people feel welcome and wanted in the wide open space that is tech. It’s not enough to make room for people at the table. If they want to be at the table, help them get to it.

3 tips on making the most of already being at a tech community conf

If you’re already at a community conference, congratulations. You’ve set yourself up for loads of learning and fun! 💥

If this is your first conference:

1️⃣ Walk up to groups of people, even if they’re having a conversation. They will shift around to make room for you, I promise!

2️⃣ Conversations about technology are awesome. Interest in tech is what brought us together. But remember that conversations don’t have to be just about technology. Conversations at confs are also about people’s experiences being a human in tech. So, feel ok to bring up your experience and join conversations with other people about those things.

3️⃣ Plan to be flexible. There are always some talks I absolutely have to go to, like Erin McKean’s talk at DevRelCon London 2018. I told people that I’m absolutely going to that, but with everything else, I’m down to have my eyes opened to new ideas. This is one of the best things about confs: the opportunity for shared learning.

If this is not your first conference:

💖 Make all of the above easier for new people.

The values that I hold now are what drives what I do for communities I build, contribute to, and am a part of. I’m privileged to now have people who empower me to pursue my goals in the tech space. If you want that, you don’t have to go at it alone.