It would be cliché to say the world has changed, but it’s also hard not to note the drastic life changes we’ve all experienced with technological advances, the cloud, and the haze of covid. When I reminisce back to around 15 years ago, I was on my second “grown up” job and about to start a new position with a women-led company, YCC (Your Conference Connection). Looking back, I can’t begin to articulate how many opportunities this position opened up for me and how it fostered my passion for a career in technology.
Take that dad! He didn’t know what kind of job I would get with an art degree….
A little backstory: one of the largest clients at YCC was ODTUG (The Oracle Development Tools User Group). The 2010s were the “Heyday of Conferences” and the celebration of the community that these User Groups provided. People didn’t have the same easy access to collaboration technology, and they embraced User Groups as the opportunity to connect with other users to learn and grow. Skip forward a few years, and my responsibilities grew from starting as a “Conference Assistant” to upgrading to a Speaker Coordinator and the Creative Director for the ODTUG Kaleidoscope Conference (that we now know simply as Kscope). This was the largest event that YCC coordinated annually. People came from all over the globe for a week of learning and celebration. Eventually, I was given the opportunity to know so many of the members, the event went beyond a simple work event for me. These people became my friends and family.
So what now?
After a short break from the Oracle-centered world, (i.e. Red Pill Analytics & Qualytics ), I am honored to find myself surrounded by familiar faces from this past life during my first week at Insum. (Anton, David, and Monty– looking at you!) How fortunate to see and hear all these names I recognize, and share fond memories with (Steven and Adrian). In my past life, I have spent time in different parts of the country with these people and enjoyed some amazing theme parties. Suddenly, I am here connecting to them on Teams and Zoom! (Francis and Patrick)
With this new adventure, I am excited to share what I’ve learned running marketing for both service and product companies. With that, I also bring an understanding and respect for the APEX community. This is one of the pillars on which Insum has founded its success. They are always working to build the community’s knowledge base and connect with other APEX developers. This amazing celebration and connection is what drew me to this new adventure with a familiar technology. These people became my friends and family. If you want to jump into APEX, Insum is the place to begin. Here we go.
Side note:
LinkedIn alerted my connection world to my new position, and I have heard from so many of these exact people that I share these memories with, and they each made me smile.
