In a previous post I told you my story about becoming a PyLady, first as a speaker and later as an event organiser of PyLadies Stockholm and PyCon Sweden. This time I want to share my motivation that gives me the energy to arrange such kind of community events and why I encourage you to try out as well.
This is by far the most obvious point of motivation. The main reason I like organizing events is the fact of meeting
new people. That doesn't mean that I go to everyone who joins and bother with a conversation. Being the organizer
allows me to get in contact with speakers, other members from the organizer team and volunteers. Since I was
struggling in the beginning to find my sense of belonging in the tech community, knowing a bunch of people helped
me definitely to feel more at home.
There are times when I am unsure about where I want to go in my career, then I take the chance and ask people
directly what tasks and responsibilities they have in their roles. Do you know what it means to be a data
scientist, software engineer, UX designer or the CTO of a new startup?
I am so thankful about those precious insights.
Arranging events needs some form of leadership. For most events with PyLadies Sthlm I had to keep a couple of people in the loop beforehand. Starting with the organizer team, to speakers who provide the content and sponsors hosting us. That means I have to formulate a vision of the event, answering questions and taking decision by myself. Just because I have arranged a couple of events before it is not obvious to everybody what the procedure is. Over time I became a better communicator by explaining and listening to ideas from others.
By attending tech events I always learn something new. Either a new concept, or if I have already some knowledge about the topic I understand more details or simply see a different approach of explaining. Hearing the content being presented by a person in real time is way more engaging and goes beyond the frontal approach of online courses and documentation web sites. Mainly because there is somebody that can answer questions directly. I always leave events inspired and with 100 ideas of possible projects and feel also like I see where tech trends might go and which skills might be good to develop next.
Events go beyond the meetup platform. Most groups have a web site or social media presence. Public relations and communication is nothing I studies formally. However I can try it out by writing meetup description, do some web programming or video streaming and get better over time and learn the tools and new ways.
For me it's a big reward seeing people grow. Especially the ones that haven't done such kind of talk or
workshop before and dare to take up that challenge. I know that speaking in public is terrifying for most
people and I want to give as much as support needed so that speakers feel comfortable with the situation
knowing there is one alley in the audience. For me that means that I am available for a dry runs of the
presentation, prepare some questions to initiate the discussion and give some feedback if wanted.
Standing in front of the crowd that has high expectations about the event and moderate and initiate discussion
gave me a push to grow as a person. I have to take ownership and responsibility for everything that goes well and
also the parts that go wrong.
Usually people appreciate having a place to meet their peers and learn more about the subject they are interested
in. Getting this appreciation and seeing how other people find each other makes me happy since I feel like I am to
some part the one enabling this experience.
In the end my goal is to build a community where people feel like they belong here, where they feel safe and get brave to try out. With every coming meetup we get a bit closer to that goal.
Which event would you like to see happening? And what stops you in trying out to arrange yourself?
I am sure it will be a great experience!
All the best,
Christine