Monki Gras 2016

A couple of weeks ago Adam and I attended Monki Gras — the conference about craft, maker and developer culture. This years theme was about Home-brewing and turning side projects into communities, products and companies. It was a really fun couple of days with some really inspirational talks. Personal highlights included Andiamo, gaming AMEX for flights and the amazing food.

Adam was kindly offered the chance to give a talk about DeskBeers and how its growth from a side project of Mint Digital to a fully fledged company by way of automation occurred. It’s a talk that should hopefully provoke some ideas for founders at the beginning of their journey as to ways in which they can grow their part time project into something more.

We listened to lots great talks throughout the two days about the trials and tribulations of creating side projects and communities. Everyone who spoke stressed the importance of listening to their community and how it can throw up surprises and delights in equal measure. The way in which each founder nurtured their community was fascinating, for some it was a case of helping develop young minds to see coding as a possible future career, whereas for some it all about creating a democratic process for decision making on open source projects.

The two days got us thinking how could we be make DeskBeers into more of a community driven company. Drinking beer with colleagues at the end of the week is pretty good already but we want to make it something more than that, something where like minded individuals from separate companies even countries can chat about their love of beer. This is where the idea for #howtodrinkbeer was born. It’s a slack channel that anyone can join. We’ll talk all things craft beer and try to keep you updated with all the going ons of the craft beer scene. The conversation doesn’t have to be about the finer nuances of how an Imperial Stout is brewed, but could be your new favourite pub, a beer you tried and liked, even a beer you tried and disliked. We’re very excited about it and hope to see you there soon.

Cheers,

Adam