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Notes for my JSConf EU 2014 talk entitled "A Community of People, Not Projects"
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jsconfeu_talk_notes.md

A Community of People, Not Projects

  • Carter Rabasa
  • Developer Evangelist, Twilio
  • JSConf EU 2014

Introduction

Audience poll

  • Show of hands, who here has organized an event that brought developers together?
  • I have two modest goals for this talk.
    1. If you didn't raise your hand, I hope this talk encourages you to get more involved.
    1. If you did, I'd like to share a few things I learned about making community involvement more sustainable, especially for people who have families and full-time jobs.

My name is Carter

  • I am a developer evangelist for Twilio.
  • I've been working there for 2.5 years.

Family

  • I've been married for 5 years.
  • Carrie and I have 2 beautiful daughters, Catherine and Emily.

Seattle

  • We moved to Seattle shortly after getting married.
  • Moved out to work at Microsoft where I spent 2 years working on the IE team.

CascadiaJS

  • In 2012 I founded CascadiaJS, a conference for web developers in the Pacific Northwest.
  • Why did I create a conference?

Getting involved in the community

Twilio

  • One of my jobs at Twilio is to support my local developer community.
  • Pretty open ended mandate (scary & exciting).
  • Had to think about what this meant to ME in SEATTLE.

SeattleJS

  • Started attending
  • Started helping out, became a co-organizer, eventually became the lead organizer.
  • Many developers wished they had something like JSConf in Seattle.
  • Connected with developers in Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC who agreed.

CascadiaJS

  • Heavily inspired by JSConf, JSConf EU, LXJS, NodeConf
  • We wanted it to be the kind of conference that we wished we could attend.
  • Wanted to connect developers from up and down the Pacific Northwest.

Success!

  • 200+ happy JS developers.

Feedback

  • The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
  • People consistently talked about how great the "people" were and how nice it was to meet new people.
  • I felt like I had really made a difference in my community

Cowbell

  • I had a fever.
  • And the only prescription was "more events!"

2013

  • Sports Hack Day
  • Seattle Hacks
  • CascadiaJS 2013
  • Vancouver Developer Week
  • Dev Local
  • Look at all these projects, what a successful year.

Hitting a rough patch

Meh

  • 2014 was nothing like 2013.
  • I hit a real rough patch.
  • I wasn't doing excellent work at Twilio.
  • I wan't doing a great job of being a husband or a father.
  • I had a nagging sense of stress and just wasn't happy and didn't understand why.

April 2014

  • Hit a low point in April.
  • In Jan I had started working with organizers in Portland on the next CascadiaJS.
  • In April it was clear that the lead organizer and I weren't communicating well at all.
  • I was feeling pretty fresutrated with everything.

A small epiphany

Chuck

  • On the flight back home from a conference, I looked for a new Chuck Klosterman book to read.
  • Chuck is a great writer and he writes about pop culture, sports and music.
  • In one of the reviews for his book "Killing Myself to Live" I saw this really interesting quote from the book:
  • "Art and love are the same thing; they're the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you".

Mind blown

  • This quote instantly resonated with me.
  • I had been ruminating on things: what's wrong with me, why aren't I happy working on these things anymore?
  • I realized that I had been too focused on the "things" (conferences, etc) and not focused enough on the people I was organizing them with.

Pour Over Coffee

  • I thought back to CascadiaJS 2012.
  • What were the things I really cared about?
  • Spent weeks tracking down the best pour over coffee.
  • These projects were my "art", and I was fixated on them at the expense of the people around me.

Projects

  • I looked back at other projects and saw a similar pattern.
  • Events are great, but only insofar as they bring people together.
  • I had always paid attention to the attendees, but didn't pay enough attention to my fellow organizers.
  • That is a terrible shame.
  • The people you're working with should be as important as what you're working on.

August 2014

CascadiaJS 2014

  • I worked really hard to change be attitude about CascadiaJS; to think less about the specifics of the event and more about the people organizing it.
  • I ended up having an amazing time because I got to see what Tracy and her team could do and I just focused on removing obstacles.

A few things I learned.

Watch for signs that you're doing too much.

  • Your work or you family begin to suffer.
  • You can't remember the last time you said "no".
  • You can't readily identify who should take over.

Learn to identify great people.

  • Pay attention to the work other people are doing.
  • Don't be afraid to ask for help.
  • Get to know them as people.

Stop working on projects, and start working on people

  • Learn to let go.
  • Invest in documentation and communication tools.
  • Define success not by what you did, but what you helped someone to do.

Wrap-up

  • I hope this talk has given you an idea of what I love about being an organizer.
  • For me, there is no more rewarding experience than being of service to such a wonderful and talented community.
  • If you decide to get more involved or are already in the thick of it, just remember:
    1. Don't try to do everything yourself.
    1. Find people who share your passion.
    1. Focus on what you can help them accomplish.

We're hiring

  • If you're interested in doing this for a living, Twilio is hiring :)

Thanks

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