I (fucking) love events.
1 year and 3 months ago I started interning for a web dev outfit, on a boat, without a clue what I was doing. 1 year and 3 months later, I am an Events Co-Ordinator; organising regular meet-ups, workshops, conferences and other things in between. Events are awesome.
When I first started working for Event Handler, I didn’t really know what a “meet-up” was. Or rather, I didn’t know their importance. I wasn’t a stranger to the web scene, I’d skirted around it for a couple of years and knew some people involved in it. But to me, it was just “there are web developers and designers and they make things and that’s cool”.
The first event I worked on was London JS School Trip, a week after I started my job. I was talking with speakers and had no idea who they were, all I knew was that they knew JavaScript and they were talking at this event. Later, I’d come to know that I’d worked with some very talented people. When the event was over, I thought that the excitement had ended with it. I was very wrong.
My favourite event to organise so far has been GeekyScience. It’s an evening event with talks to do with a different overarching scientific theme each month. The highlight so far has been conversing with Robin Dunbar, one of my favourite psychologists, to get him to talk at the event. Sadly, he couldn’t make it, but I actually got to speak to him!
I’ve worked on numerous workshops, evening events and a conference or three. Not only that, I’ve attended so many other brilliant events and learnt from every one of them.
By organising and attending events, my knowledge has increased vastly. Fresh out of university, I could list some programming languages for you and write some terrible HTML. Now I can understand talks on things including JavaScript, Ruby, User Experience, Front-End Development and more. I’m learning Ruby/Rails and have even given a couple of talks myself.
I used to be a very shy and introverted person, but being an events organiser forced me out into the light where I had to introduce myself to people and get to know them. I’ve met hundreds of amazing individuals, some of them whom I consider to be good friends. I feel privileged to be in a community that oozes talent and is so welcoming.
On the “about” page of the Event Handler website, our number one point is that:
An event is made by its attendees
After the first event I worked on, I was collecting the tweets from the day and this tweet has been in the back of my head for the past year.
The smiling, glowing faces is the thing that fills me with pride. To see people enjoying an event that I’ve worked on is a fantastic reward.
One of the top reasons I enjoy my job so much is because of the people I get to meet and the people I get to work with. So, I’d just like to say, thank you.
