WordCamp Salt Lake City 2017

in Coding Life

I already know what you’re thinking. “Allison, I thought you said you were done with public speaking for 2017.” I thought so, too! However, sometimes the Universe works in mysterious ways and as such – I recently found myself lucky enough to be invited to speak at WordCamp Salt Lake City in September.

Shot of WC SLC swag from above: includes t-shirt, lanyard and stickerSpoiler alert: It was such a great WordCamp. I was already excited to see some nature on my road trip from Southern California. Add crossing paths & reconnecting with several old coworkers to the mix and I was looking forward to it quite a bit.

I was not disappointed. Chris and the other organizers did an amazing job; the event was so well orchestrated. The volunteers were supportive and readily present when anyone had any questions or clarifications, the food was delicious, and of course, the laughter was plentiful. & props for the most unique WordCamp swag.

These people

Collage of two photos of Rich, Carrie, Jo & Allison - one more 'typical' , one completely goofy

The Talks

So many great talks were on the schedule. I decided to calm my FOMO and hunker down in the room I was scheduled to speak in myself. This track touched on subjects that hit home with me and were a great overlap with my own talk on mental health. Joelle Reeder from Moxie Design Studios spoke on staying relevant over time while also true to your own style, Garth Mortensen spoke on the combination of introversion and open source, and Chris Reynolds finished off the day with a much needed kick-in-the-pants on combatting imposter syndrome. The sneak peak into code review and evaluation provided by Mike Selander and Tyrel Kelsey was also great!

I was also pretty pumped to get to hear both of my old coworkers Carrie and Jo drop in-person knowledge on design and development. Carrie offers up both practical and passionate content about atomic design and Jo is straight forward in how to express the needs of navigating the terrain of a project efficiently.

My Own Talk

This is the 2.0 version of my Field Guide to Caring for a Developer talk. Mental health are important topics (For a bit more on the ‘why I think so’ check out my post on WC Halifax). It was nice to have the opportunity to revisit my slides, refresh some of the content and add resources more specific for the United States.

I found myself oh-so-very anxious leading up to the talk but propelled myself forward with knowing how important it is to increase visibility. The more I discuss it, the more it feels so necessary to keep bringing up. It is so important for employers, employees, individuals and a community-at-large to support each other in wellness rather than endorse patterns and actions that don’t serve us.

If you’re interested, my slides for my talk are over at Speaker Deck. I also find myself having additional content that didn’t make it into the talk for density + time purposes that I just might try to find a home for here in the form of additional articles, so keep an eye out if it is a topic that interests you!