My two worlds — Taking on re:Invent as a data technologist and consultancy leader
This is the first installment in our AWS re:Invent story series. Join us throughout the week for more perspectives from Denver Slalomers attending the event.
My career has been in a state of transition over the past year. Actually, it’s been transitioning for a few years — from industry to consulting, from architect to consultant manager — but my current transition looks less like progression and closer to an actual career change.
At Slalom, my role as a leader in our Data & Analytics practice continues to formalize. I manage a team of consultants, develop and drive knowledge-sharing programs, lead trainings and workshops, and contribute to the strategic direction of our data management capabilities. For our clients, I continue to play a role on development teams, designing data solutions and completing technical tasks, while also collaborating on team efficacies and product development. I’m learning how to take the qualities that made me a successful individual contributor and use them to scale impact through management and influence.
In these roles of both player and coach, executor and visionary, I swing between areas where I can provide value and areas where I can focus on growth. I feel distance from the technology I used to know intimately, and at the same time a novice in my new responsibilities. There is a desire to hold on to the familiar while I jump into the new and unaccustomed.
My schedule for the 2019 AWS re:Invent conference is the epitome of these seemingly opposing forces. Rolling in with a registration pass and a schedule packed with workshops on CI/CD pipelines, graph query optimization, and serverless frameworks, the days will be spent hands-on-keyboard and sandboxing. After many months of building data products in GCP, my AWS familiarity will refresh with exposure to the platform’s new and matured features. Conferences of this magnitude are also indisputable illustrators of the systemic technology patterns that transform modern businesses. I’ll be delightedly engulfed by buzzwords and the fumes of dry erase markers.
Then, after the sessions close down and the extracurricular activities spin up, I’ll trade in my kicks for pumps and my hoodie for a blazer. Innovators and leaders from around the world will gather and discuss successes and trials, theories and application. The struggles of nuanced business challenges will pepper demonstrations of market trends and industry drivers. I’ll represent Slalom, and myself, in this sea of deep thinkers and emerging tech enthusiasts. I’ll listen and learn from others and contribute my own professional experiences and perspectives. In an environment like re:Invent, the changeover between the two worlds I’ve come to know feels all the more stark.
I have no doubt that this week will wear and consume as much as it will engage and inspire. Context-switching, extroverted events, and not to mention the lights and grandiosity of Vegas, are all part of the program. But at the end of the event, my community of players and coaches, executors and visionaries, will be larger and stronger. I’ll gain context and awareness of new-fashioned business strategies as well as implementation options. And, if all goes as planned, I will be more prepared to address the ever-evolving needs of both team and business that can be solved with the help of data technology.
