Tag: Travel

Maximizing Impact: Travel as a Developer Advocate

I almost titled this post “Wasting Company Time & Burning Yourself Out” considering some of the interactions and involvement I’ve seen in the DevRel Community of late. But I’ll get to that drama and angry frustrations later in the post, but immediately let’s get down to brass tacks.

As I dive into the nuances of traveling as a Developer Advocate, it’s crucial to clarify that this post isn’t just about logistics or coping mechanisms, but about the larger strategic picture beyond just the tactical underpinnings of day to day travel, airports, train stations, and the like. Instead, I aim to delve into what underpins the demand for travel as a developer advocate. Travel is far more than just getting from point A to point B to partake in an action. It’s about positioning myself—and by extension, the organizations and efforts I represent—to make meaningful connections, drive impact in decisions, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry.

Strategic Travel: Guiding the Future of Major Projects

When it comes to strategic trips, the stakes are high. These aren’t just any industry conferences or casual meetups; they’re focused events where the future of a project might hang in the balance. Take, for example, a situation where a software fork of a major open-source project is on the horizon. The decision to fork isn’t taken lightly—it’s a move that could redefine the project’s trajectory, influence developer adoption, and ultimately shape the software landscape for years to come. Being on the ground and having built connections with the people involved face to face is irreplaceable. Having just had few meetings or video conf calls doesn’t cut it, one can’t replace the built trust of time spent face to face builds. This is where traveling to where people are, as an advocate, become priceless.

In these scenarios, my travel is centered around influencing and guiding these pivotal moments. I’m there to represent the interests of my company, to ensure that our vision and goals align with where the project is heading. This might involve meeting with the core contributors, understanding their motivations, and providing insights that can help steer the project in a direction that benefits both the community and the enterprise. It’s about being at the table when decisions are made, rather than reacting to them after the fact.

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Behind the Scenes @ DevRel Week in Santa Clara & San Francisco

The following are some lagniappe, a little extra, about the behind the scenes adventures I’m off on when I travel or am in between coding. Ya know, coding being life and all.  😉

The first episode in this series I posted a while back on my gear I use to record the Twitch sessions and pretty much everything else. These are the story of the first half of the trip to Santa Clara and San Francisco. The rest, are still in post-production, and will be out real soon. Along with videos on a host of other adventures that will offer you good information on where the good food is, the best coding places, best meetups, and all that stuff. So subscribe on my Youtube Channel and on Twitch – the shows are coming to Youtube, and now and again I’ll pre-watch one with my Twitch audience. Cheers!

Speaking, Coding, and Visiting Salem, Oregon

I like to take a trip down to Salem every now and again. It’s a great chance to break away from the daily grind in the bigger city. When I lived in Portland or now in Seattle, it didn’t matter, still a great small city to go visit. The other cool thing is I can often combine business and taking a break at the same time in Salem.

The City

Even though it’s a small city it bats way above its size when it comes to excellent food, coffee, beer, and related things. This is always nice to combine with that slower pace of things that a small city provides. The downtown is also beautifully walkable and compact. One can walk to any point in the city in a matter of minutes.

The coffee scene there is seriously on point too. With establishments like The Gov Cup and Archive providing premium coffee options in truly relaxed, chill, and comfortable settings it makes doing a little work and enjoying some espresso an easy thing to do.

Combine that with my other requirements of easy to get to, easy to bike, non-hostile drivers, and beautiful parks and natural environments around and Salem is perfect.

The Tech

Mill Creek

Combining all the aforementioned things with some tech makes everything even more fun! In Salem there’s a group I’ve spoken at a few times called Willamette Valley Software Engineers. It’s a solid group of people, where I regularly gather an audience of 40+ people to present to, converse with, and we often continue onward after presentations across Mill Creek to Boon’s Treasury for conversation a round afterward.

Inspired by Bob Ross

This recent trip I presented, with direct inspiration from Bob Ross, on “The Joy of Coding”. It was the first time attempting to put a talk together in this format. Overall, I believe it worked out pretty well, which the audience elaborated on after the talk on ways I can tidy up this or that and really add some “wonderful trees and forests to the grand mountains” of the presentation as a painting. I’ll be presenting this again and hoping to put a video of the talk together soon. So stay tuned to Composite Code and follow me on Twitter @Adron for future dates.

All in all a great trip. I always enjoy Salem. So until another time, cheers Salem!