Three months, three conversations

Looking back, it sure has been a busy start to 2021! 

At the beginning of this year, I shared with you what I actually do in my role as Digital Strategist. In my previous article I describe my day job, passions, and activities to different members of my family. 

Reflecting on this year so far, I wanted to share some examples of my activities with you. Following in Ginni Rometty’s footsteps, I would like to share three things.

These are three conversations from the first three months of this year.

I hope you enjoy my personal highlights.

January: A Fresh Start

A new year. January provided the perfect opportunity for a refresher. On 20 January, together with my dear colleagues Hannah Weinberg and Luca Nouvertné we held a virtual event: Introducing IBM Developer and Your Career. 

This conversation was aimed particularly at new members of our growing online community. More than 270 people came and/or watched the replay. We shared a wealth of resources from IBM Developer, including our dedication to code, content and community. Hannah gave many tips on job applications and interviews, particularly for those looking to join IBM.

I stepped out of my comfort zone. Typically I am hosting online events, so I really enjoyed this opportunity to speak. Passing the host responsibility on also gave me the opportunity to share my lessons learned and best practices. Thank you to Hannah and Luca for all the hard work into preparation and delivery!

Are you: interested in IBM Developer? Looking for free, online developer resources? Seeking career advice and/or tips for how to apply? This conversation is for you. Catch the replay here on Crowdcast: Introducing IBM Developer and Your Career.

Big thanks also to Sebastian Grodzietzki and Julia Dressler for your support with this event. 

February: Open Source

The FOSS Backstage online conference took place from 10-12 February. Dedicated to everything related to FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) governance and open collaboration, topics include: sustainability, evangelism, diversity, and inclusion. Alongside having the marvelous opportunity to attend, I organised and hosted three IBM Developer satellite events for FOSS Backstage 2021.

On 03 February, Raphael Tholl technical advisor at IBM, shared about OSS in Enterprises. We learned about how adopting OSS (Open Source Software) is beneficial for businesses, which new challenges can arise, and what to consider before making the strategic move to open source business models. I really learned a lot from this talk and was fascinated to discover more about what IBM does to support OSS, recently highlighted by IDC.

On 15 February, Matthias Diester and Enrique Encalada, Software Engineers at our Research and Development Lab in Germany gave us An Honest Take on Open Source. They took us through reasons to contribute and how to get started, they weighed up the differences between working on your own and contributing to projects. I really appreciated their candor, that they gave us a holistic view, by also sharing the “not so nice and shiny parts” of open source, too.

On 17 February, Jan Hassel, User Experience Engineer, took us on a journey exploring design systems in UI development. He shared why we should Stop Building Weird UIs! Use a Design System. We took a look at IBM Plex and the open source Carbon Design System: how to implement it, and how to get involved in its future development. I particularly enjoyed this session, discovering more about IBM Design.

These three conversations revolved around Open Source. It was great getting to know other IBMers more and hearing about their projects and passions, as well as introducing new discussions. Thank you for the fruitful collaboration, Nina Müller!

March: IWD

Now for something completely different! On 16 March, I moderated a panel in celebration of International Women’s Day. The aim of this conversation was to come together with the shared purpose of celebrating women’s achievements and to encourage one another.

For this panel discussion, our Berlin chapter of Women Who Code welcomed three amazing individuals: Dalia Abo Sheasha - Java Developer Advocate, JetBrains, Maren Heltsche - Software developer, myclimate, and Shery Brauner - Engineering Manager, Zalando.

We discussed different routes into tech, experiences influencing change, and this year’s International Women’s Day theme #ChooseToChallenge. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from our panelists and their different experiences, advice, and was inspired by the conversation. Many questions came in, this conversation definitely resonated with our audience.

Typically our Women Who Code team runs Hack Evenings every second week on Tuesday evenings. What happens at a Hack Evening? We come together with the goal of dedicating time to work on programming challenges or our own side projects. For example, I have been training my fingers with online courses such as FreeCodeCamp and Codecademy, or recently we introduced Katas (coding challenges) using platforms like codewars, everyone picks their own language, solving them alone or together and sharing experiences. It's the perfect opportunity to meet, network with others, and dedicate time to yourself and projects.

Thank you again to all our wonderful panelists and co-organisers Sarah Wachs, Radost Rychtera, and Eli Flores.

Behind the scenes

These were just some of my personal highlights of 2021.

For each of these conversations I was speaking at, hosting, or moderating online events.

I learned a lot these last three months. I learned more about careers, technical topics, and open source. I also learned more about myself and pushing my self-imposed limits.

What I would like to emphasise is that I did not achieve all this on my own. I am fortunate to work with fantastic colleagues and collaborate with inspiring communities, for which I am truly grateful.

For those of you interested in our IBM Developer events, I also supported my team with our Data & AI series. This is a 12-week learning journey for beginner and intermediate levels, covering topics such as: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Science, AI & Ops, ... I even hosted a session on Cognitive Bias!

Coming soon!

Our IBM Developer team also has an Application Security learning journey coming up, running on Tuesdays from April through June. Topics include: Cloud Application Security, Best Practices for Enterprises, DevSecOps, Encryption, Authentication and Authorization, Container Security, AI Security, and more. Join us here on Crowdcast.

We also have an Application Modernization series in the works! Alternatively, stay up to date with all our events on Meetup: meetup.com/IBM-Developers

Since many of us are spending lots of time in virtual meetings and events, and since we can refresh our LinkedIn feeds with a click, instantaneously re-populating them with fresh content, I wanted to consolidate some of the noise you may have seen from me over the past three months. Likewise, in case you missed out on any of these nuggets, you have discovered how you can catch up with recordings on demand or get involved in the future.

What about you, what are your highlights from 2021 so far?