My new personal/business cards
Tags: devrel, career, freelance
Published: 2024-03-19 23:56:37

---
title: My new personal/business cards
published: true
date: 2024-03-19 23:45:14 UTC
tags: devrel,career,freelance
canonical_url: https://andypiper.co.uk/2024/03/19/personal-cards/
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5envcsrxnhecnswcolr9.jpg
---

[![Three square business cards. Two show a decoration of detail from two different black and white abstract designs. The third shows the text from the reverse: Andy Piper freelance technologist consultant | speaker maker | podcaster](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/io7zbz4l8p0it3pp2s24.jpg)](https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/674165160771625072)

I’ve been getting to more events lately (casual meetups, small conferences, academic workshops, etc); but, I’ve been dissatisfied with my answer when I was asked the question “what do you do right now?” – because I often start to talk about a specific project.

I’ve got a number of interesting but limited (in time) pieces of work right now, and I’m excited to be involved with them; but ideally, I don’t want to describe myself and my capabilities in terms of what I’m doing for any one client, since I may not be continuing with a specific role for a longer term. It also hasn’t felt ideal to hand out a card for the studio, podcast, or with one of my client “hats”, since doing so doesn’t signal availability for “other things”.

So, time to refresh my (personal) business cards. I’m still using [MOO](https://refer.moo.com/s/andypiperuk8) ([after all these years](https://andypiper.co.uk/2006/09/19/flickr-mini-cards/)) – I’m happy with what they offer. The cards feature details from two different designs of my pen plotter artwork from [the studio](https://forgeandcraft.co.uk) (original framed pieces, as well as prints, are [available in the store](https://shop.forgeandcraft.co.uk/category/art-prints-and-plotter-art)). I’ve gone with the recycled cotton finish this time around.

For the tagline, I’ve tried to capture a number of my skills, abilities and interests, without limiting myself to a single niche.

**freelance technologist; consultant | speaker | maker | podcaster**

- I’ve been working professionally in _Developer Relations_ for ~15 years, most frequently in the Developer Advocate role, but within that I’ve also leaned in to Partner Engineering, management, and team leadership at different times; and, I’ve also worked with public policy and moderation teams, as well as on some complex technical integrations. 
- This year, I’ve also run booths at events (including at State of Open Con 2023 for the Open Source Initiative, at tech events for OpenUK, and at FOSDEM 2024 for Mastodon); and, I’ve been speaker coordinator for a major 2-day conference (State of Open Con 2024). 
- I love to speak at events myself, and I’m honoured to have been invited to [deliver the closing keynote at QCon in London](https://qconlondon.com/keynote/apr2024/where-art-history-technology) next month. 
- Our weekly podcast [Games at Work dot Biz](https://gamesatwork.biz) is a fun ongoing element of life – it keeps me up-to-date with what is going on at a macro level in technology trends, and has always been a great opportunity to explain and educate. Find us in your favourite podcast app!
- The [Forge & Craft maker space and art studio](https://forgeandcraft.co.uk) is also a big part of my current identity.

What can I do to help you? Potentially, a range of things: through running a developer program for a technology project, to providing guidance and advice around current technology trends (fractional CTO roles), to senior community leadership and management. I have 20+ years of experience in the Open Source movement, and contributing to projects at every level.

I’m continuing to work on configuring my online presence, but [my landing page](https://andypiper.omg.lol) is a good starting point to find out what I’m working on (plus, the omg lol domain seems to entertain people!)

If you’d like to book time with me for consultation, you can [find my bookable calendar here](https://calendly.com/andypiper); you can [sponsor me on GitHub and book a session with me for your team here](https://github.com/sponsors/andypiper); or, [buy me a coffee / fund my habit of trying out new gadgets over here](https://ko-fi.com/andypiper).

What do you think - useful set of information for me to share when I meet people, or should I take a different approach?