A diversity ticket holder at AngularConnect 2017
I joined Women Who Code London and Women Who Code Global and so am on their mailing list. Every now and then I get a newsletter with upcoming events and scholarships. I have been applying for scholarships for various interesting courses and for tickets to events but not been successful. Till this time:
Hi Ashnita,
Can you let me know if you are still 100% able to attend Angular Connect (https://www.angularconnect.com) on November 7–8. I might have another ticket available. Let me know by end of Friday.
Best,
Gen
I was super excited and couldn’t believe my luck. Am I sure I want to attend AngularConnect, oh pretty please, yes!
What was it like being at AngularConnect 2017?
I was completely starstruck seeing the angular superheroes in person. These were the amazing people who wrote articles, tutorials and courses that I used to learn Angular. It was incredible listening to the talks live. I had the most exciting two days at Angular Connect 2017, filled with learning and inspiration.
Learning
Talks. With two streams of talks, it was hard to choose which ones to go to, but comforting to know that all the talks would be available to watch online later.
From the talks I went to, I found these especially impactful, Purely Fast by Minko Gechev, Breaking the Eyes by Uri Shaked and Angular Forms by Kara Erickson.
It is really inspiring seeing how knowledgeable and passionate the speakers are about their subjects. Their enthusiasm caught on.
Workshops. I went to the Angular Material workshop. An excellent workshop and a great introduction to Angular Material for me. I was really grateful for the help I got from Elad Bezalel in getting started, he patiently and kindly helped me each time I got stuck.
Office hours and Q&A panel. AngularConnect has office hours and Q&A panels over the two days of the conference. It was a golden opportunity for me to ask questions, to show my code to the experts and get advice on how to improve. Did I make the best of this golden opportunity? No! I was too embarrassed to ask questions and show anyone my code, so I stayed well away from office hours and panel. I am working on being more confident.
Inspiration
I was quite touched to see how kind people in the Angular community are. Both the speakers and attendees were friendly, happy to meet and chat with others.
Meeting Shai. I am a massive fan of Shai Reznik and HiRez.io since watching this video. I loved seeing his ng-game-show live at AngularConnect 2017 and took many pictures! I wasn’t sure if I would get to speak with him in person, he might be too busy, or something ;-). At the socializing event after the talks, Shai went to all the groups of people and said hello, he didn’t miss anybody. He came up to our group and said, “Hi guys, how are you doing?”. He was happy to chat with us and answered all our questions about how he thought of ideas for his shows, etc. He gave me a sticker of Bonnie from HiRez.io, which I keep with me as an inspiration to keep learning and improving.
Meeting Tina. A friend wanted to speak with Thomas Burleson so I went with him but as I didn’t have any knowledge of Angular Material so I stayed aside. I met this pleasant and lovely girl who was there too, so I started chatting with her. Her name is Tina Gao. I asked her how long she has been using Angular, etc. She decided to join me for lunch. It took me a while to realize that she is not a learner like I am, that she is actually a core team member of Angular Material. She was excited about CDK and talked with us about it. I was really taken by her humble way and how she didn’t judge me for not knowing any Angular Material. After meeting Tina, I was super excited to learn Angular Material!
Diversity lunch
AngularConnect has a diversity lunch where people ask questions and talk about diversity in tech.
I was very interested in the diversity lunch as I really wanted to know what help is available to someone who finds that their career in IT has somehow derailed and is finding it hard to get back into employment. If you’re curious to know why exactly I qualified for a diversity ticket, I wrote an article called Teaching myself Angular, upskilling from AngularJS, which gives a bit of my background.
I was of course too shy to ask anything myself, however, someone else asked about how to make your way back into IT.
I was quite taken by Joe Eames’ advice on this. He said something in this line, become active in the community, if there isn’t a local meetup or study group in your area then start one, organize events, speak, teach others, this would help you build your skills, give a whole lot of self-development and help you progress.
Things I did after the conference
Became active on Twitter. I saw that people share valuable learning resources on Twitter so started following technical people from the Angular and JS communities.
Took Joe Eames advice. I started organizing study meetups for freeCodeCamp Reading. Although this takes time and energy, it is a very rewarding activity. We have a very lovely and hardworking community of learners in Reading, UK.
I tweeted that I had followed Jo Eames’ advice on starting a local study group but then I deleted it. For a long while, I would tweet something but then deleted it, I guess I didn’t have confidence in my voice.
Got invited to speak at FullStack London. I am happy to tell you that being active on Twitter has advantages. Nicole from Skills Matter saw me on Twitter and messaged to asked if I would be interested in submitting a CFP for FullStack London 2018.
This was an incredible opportunity for me, so although I had never spoken at a conference before I said yes. I thought I would choose a topic that I would like to learn which was new and therefore exciting for others too. I chose to do a lightning talk on Web Components and Angular Elements.
I got very nervous at the talk and drew a blank in the opening few minutes, however, I recovered and managed to deliver the talk. The actual topic Web Components and Angular Elements was new to me. Preparing content, preparing slides, actually delivering the talk, everything was new as I hadn’t even done a slide presentation at work. I am very thankful to the Skillsmatter team for this opportunity and for the support they gave me. All the new speakers got to attend “Giving Engaging Technical Talks at Conferences and Meetups” course for free. This is a great course by Jenny Martin.
My advice on how to make the most of conferences
Make use of the office hours and Q&A panels at the conferences. Ask questions. Connect with people. The Angular community is filled with amazing people who don’t judge but are very happy to help.
AngularConnect has a Scholarship Scheme where they sponsor free tickets to people who qualify. They also assign a guide who will be there to help you get the most out of the conference and to introduce you to people.
I met a couple of the year later at AngularConnect 2018 who were on some scheme where they got assigned a couple of mentors over the year.
These are great initiatives and would make a big difference to a person trying to learn on their own.
Although I got a free ticket from Women Who Code London, I didn’t get a guide or any mentors and I didn’t know to try and ask for it. If you’re a learner and new at a conference maybe you can try and ask around if someone can help you connect with a guide if you would like one and if there is a way to find a mentor.
Closing thought. Kindness is a great virtue, a small act from the person or people being kind with a massive impact on those receiving!
