Happy Hour Booster: How to Use Slack to Enhance Your Virtual Happy Hour
Zoom calls, wine glass in hand, are the new normal, right? At DSS, we’re lucky to have a strong community of women in data science, and this community rallied around the idea of a virtual happy hour. But when it comes to sitting down in front of your computer or phone, can a happy hour with a bunch of people who don’t know each other actually work?
As opposed to friends or companies hosting a virtual happy hour where you know most everyone, our virtual happy hour felt a bit more like an in-person networking event, where people are in your network but not your immediate connections.
The challenge, then, is making everyone feel connected, when a topic — data science — is the only thread that binds. Here’s where we felt like we found a secret ingredient for success: Slack.
We created a specific DSSe Slack channel and opened it up a day or so before the happy hour, letting participants know by email. They could join, post what was on their minds, and answer polls. As the happy hour opened, people pulled up the Slack as well, and also answered the polls in real time. The Slack channel essentially became a digital hostess, acting as a virtual icebreaker, nametag, and directory of attendees.
We encouraged people to share their videos — which took a few seeded people sharing theirs first! — and asked some non-industry-specific questions to start. It helps to have a moderator, who can “call on” people or react to statements by drawing someone else in, because facilitating one giant virtual conversation is challenging.
The Slack channel was particularly helpful here as well: conversations could continue on the side, individuals could connect with other participants one-on-one in an organic fashion — the digital equivalent of pulling someone aside for a chat — and people sharing projects or resources could post them rather than painfully spell out their URLs etc.
But perhaps the best part of the Slack channel is that it lives on after the hour, and between hosted happy hours. Forgot the name of a person you liked, or a class you wanted to take? It’s all there on the Slack channel, and you can reach out any time publicly or privately.
As for our virtual happy hours, we’ll stay connected to our community on our Slack channel until the next one, on May 7!
Interested in joining our next DSSe happy hour? Register here and follow us on twitter @DataSciSalon for more virtual event announcements!
We’re also hosting a Data Science Salon virtual conference on May 7. Click here for information, speakers, and FREE registration!
ABOUT DSSE
DSSe is an initiative to elevate and connect the voices of women in data science and encourage companies to set a better habit to generally consider women for data-intense roles.
DSSe is important because the field of Data Science is still young — for it to fulfill its true potential, we need voices that reflect the full experience of the world we live in to contextualize our data-derived insights.
By elevating women and other underrepresented groups, we have the opportunity to build a truly incredible and thriving field that influences decision-making at every level in a meaningful way.
