Develop Denver Day 1
Denver’s tech scene has been thriving and growing for years now, and that was mirrored in this year’s Develop Denver conference that was the largest yet, growing 15% over last year. It was a great opportunity for Ambassador to gain knowledge about clever programming solutions, the latest tech trends, topics surrounding the workplace, and the future of tech, both in Denver and as a global industry.
The conference was held in Denver’s growing RiNo (River North) district, a home of many tech companies. A focus at this year’s conference was to foster community and inclusivity between the attendees by giving plenty of opportunities to speak to other developers and people in the industry. The opening address outlined how inclusion was to be a mindset and a verb, and that the focus should be on inclusion rather than intimacy — branch out and meet new people and invite others into the conversations rather than sticking with those you know. The opening talk also featured keynote speaker Rachel Carlson, CEO and CoFounder of Guild Education outlining why her company chose Denver as their headquarters: the feeling of the city, proximity to nature, and amazing talent pool.
Some highlights from Day 1 were the talks ‘Logging In: Creating Space for Mental Health in the Workplace’, a round of lightning talks on topics from JavaScript to internet censorship, ‘Cultivating Continuous Learning in your Software Team’, and ‘Beyond the Keg: How to Build and Maintain a Thriving Company Culture’. At Ambassador we have a huge focus on our OUTCARE values so I found the talks on culture especially interesting. One main takeaway was that culture does not equal perks. Perks are nice to have at job but they don’t make you happy to arrive at work every morning. They don’t foster teamwork, fun, or hard work. Culture must be cultivated. This starts by having clear values that are embodied from the top down. New hires can’t come in to the company just because they checked boxes on the job posting. They need to be a good fit in the company. Being a good fit doesn’t have to mean being the same as everyone else either. It can mean filling in gaps in the culture, balancing out the team, or adding to the team in new and unique ways. Instead of finding a good company fit, find a good company addition.
We were also able to attend a workshop at the conference that focused on communication. The main purpose was to learn to ‘Lock It In’ when having discussions. This means to verify that the other person heard and understood everything you said not by asking questions like “Does that make sense?” but by asking questions like “To check for understanding, can you repeat back what I said to you?” Often times, especially when there is a power difference between positions, people don’t want to say they didn’t understand or didn’t hear everything, and sometimes they may think they understood but they missed some points. However, to state back what was talked about requires understanding. This lets both people know where more clarification is needed which ultimately leads to more productivity, growth in communication, and a more open environment.
The day finished up with a social gathering where we naturally talked about what we learned with each other — gathering information on talks we hadn’t even attended. Despite being a conference for developers there was a large variety of people and professions that showed up and this gave new perspectives for the topics of the day. Much like the talks discussed throughout the day, providing breakfast and lunch were a nice perk of the conference, but it was the culture, atmosphere, and quality talks that really brought us back for another day.
