Shaping the Tech Community with Meet-ups and Events
By: Christine Winter
Tags: Python Programming, Tech, Community Engagement, Meetup, Careers

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Maybe some of you have met me at PyLadies Stockholm or PyCon Sweden events. I just love connecting with people about my favourite programming language.

So, this time I want to share my motivation that gives me the energy to arrange tech community events and why I encourage you to get engaged in your local tech community as well.

Meeting People

This is by far the most obvious point of motivation. The main reason I like organizing events is the fact of meeting new people. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not an outspoken extrovert, that goes to everyone who joins and bothers with a conversation. I like creating meaningful relations with the people around me and being the organizer allows me to get in contact with speakers, members from other organizer teams and volunteers.

Career

At the beginning of my tech career, I was struggling to find my sense of belonging in the tech community I didn’t study at any of the local universities, didn’t know the language that well and felt most of the time just misplaced. Knowing a bunch of people helped me definitely to feel more at home in my tech role. Even after some years in the field now, there are times when I am unsure about where I want to go next with my career. Then I take the chance and ask people directly what tasks and responsibilities they have in their roles to understand how career paths could look like. Do you know what it means to be a data scientist, software engineer, UX designer, or the CTO of a new startup? You never know who will join an event, and it’s always a great opportunity to get precious insights.

Another point is that tech community events are often supported by companies that are working with a certain technology. So it’s a good way to learn about different companies and get in contact with recruiters and eventually future colleagues.

Level up your Leadership Skills

Arranging events needs someone (singular or plural) to take the lead. Reaching out to people, deciding on a time and format, syncing with the parties involved and ensuring communication with the participants as well. 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 deciding by myself. Just because I have arranged a couple of events before it is not obvious to everybody what the procedure is.

Level up on Tech Knowledge

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. 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 websites only. Mainly because there is somebody that can answer questions directly. I always leave events inspired and with 100 project ideas and maybe even some new skills or tools in my dev toolbox.

Growth & Appreciation

For me, it’s a great reward to see 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. That’s why I want to give as much support as needed so that speakers feel comfortable with the situation and know that there is one alley in the audience. That means that I am available for a dry run of the presentation, prepare some questions to initiate the discussion and give some feedback if wanted.

Standing in front of a 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 new topics in their field. Getting this appreciation and seeing how people find each other and exchange ideas makes me happy.

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 meet-up we get a bit closer to that goal.

Which events would you like to see happening? And what stops you in trying out to arrange one yourself? Let me know if you need help to get started!