From Nervous Newcomer to Community Organizer

This week was packed with some amazing events that left me feeling inspired and connected. It started with DevOps Days Atlanta, followed by a local meetup at Tech Square, and then the AI Agent Hack Night hosted by MCP at Atlanta Tech Village. At DevOps Days, I was excited to see my friend Nerando speak. His talks are always insightful and refreshingly honest — he never tries to be anything he’s not. I really admire that about him. He’s open about his journey in tech, and his content resonates whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience. I also caught some really fun and engaging Ignite Talks from Katie, Chris, and Jason. For those unfamiliar, Ignite talks involve presenting with auto-advancing slides every 15 seconds — it’s fast-paced and you don’t realize how quick 15 seconds goes until you’re trying to fit meaningful content into each slide! On Tuesday night, we held our monthly meetup, a collaboration between Modern Web, Atlanta JavaScript, Refactr.Tech, VueJS Atlanta, and ReactATL. This meetup is one of my favorite parts of the month. The community here is amazing — friendly, welcoming, and full of people who genuinely want to connect. It’s always great to see new faces, but there’s also something special about seeing the familiar ones who keep coming back. It really feels like we’re building something meaningful here in Atlanta. The talks that night were incredible. We had a fireside chat with David from FanDuel about engineering leadership — how he transitioned into that role and what it takes to succeed in it. He emphasized the importance of empathy and the need to step away from the code sometimes to help others grow. Then, Max from GitHub gave a talk about navigating and contributing to open-source projects, which was super informative. We wrapped up with a fun and nerdy presentation by Michael from Thinkwell Technology Services, who shared how he built a RAG-powered bot to judge rules in Magic: The Gathering. As a fellow nerd, I was all in for that talk. On Wednesday, I headed to the AI Agent Hack Night with MCP, not really knowing what to expect — or even what MCP (Model Context Protocol) was. Thankfully, they gave a great explanation. We learned about an AI agent called Codename Goose, which can automate tasks. We even got free credits to try it out ourselves! The challenge was to create a photo filter using Goose. As someone who uses Windows and doesn’t have a Mac, I hit a few roadblocks, but another attendee helped me get everything set up in PowerShell. While I’m still figuring things out, I learned a lot and made some valuable connections along the way. We ended the night with food and casual conversations at a local restaurant — it was the perfect way to wind down. Reflecting on the past year, I’ve realized how powerful consistency and showing up can be. There’s a big difference between simply knowing people in your network and building genuine, lasting connections. I’m so grateful for the friendships I’ve formed — people I can bond with not just over tech, but over shared hobbies like gaming, Legos, and anime. Turns out, a lot of folks in tech are huge nerds — no surprise there — and I absolutely love it. It’s wild to think that just over a year ago, I didn’t know anyone here. I was the new person at events, nervous to talk to anyone and unsure of my place in the tech world. But I took a deep breath and did it anyway. Like Nerando said during his talk, someone once told him, “Do it scared.” You don’t have to be fearless — you just need to be brave enough to take small steps. If you’re feeling anxious about attending an event, start small. Find one group you really enjoy and keep showing up. Connect with one person at the first meetup, two people at the next, and just keep building from there. The more you show up, the easier it becomes. And as your network grows, connections will naturally multiply. Today, I know so many people working in tech — not just in Atlanta, but around the world. Some connections came from conferences, others from online spaces like Slack and social media. I’ve also found that the best connections happen when you go in with no expectations. Don’t attend with the goal of landing a job or finding a mentor — go in wanting to make a real human connection. The rest will follow. And if you’re in Atlanta and nervous about attending your first event, reach out to me. I’d be more than happy to be your emotional support buddy. Sometimes all it takes is having one person by your side to make a space feel a little less intimidating. Coming from a background in education and theater, I’ve always found joy in helping people grow — and I plan to keep doing that in tech. Whether it’s encouraging someone in their journey or connecting them with their next mentor, I’m here for it.

May 1, 2025 - 20:58

From Nervous Newcomer to Community Organizer

This week was packed with some amazing events that left me feeling inspired and connected. It started with DevOps Days Atlanta, followed by a local meetup at Tech Square, and then the AI Agent Hack Night hosted by MCP at Atlanta Tech Village.

At DevOps Days, I was excited to see my friend Nerando speak. His talks are always insightful and refreshingly honest — he never tries to be anything he’s not. I really admire that about him. He’s open about his journey in tech, and his content resonates whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience. I also caught some really fun and engaging Ignite Talks from Katie, Chris, and Jason. For those unfamiliar, Ignite talks involve presenting with auto-advancing slides every 15 seconds — it’s fast-paced and you don’t realize how quick 15 seconds goes until you’re trying to fit meaningful content into each slide!

On Tuesday night, we held our monthly meetup, a collaboration between Modern Web, Atlanta JavaScript, Refactr.Tech, VueJS Atlanta, and ReactATL. This meetup is one of my favorite parts of the month. The community here is amazing — friendly, welcoming, and full of people who genuinely want to connect. It’s always great to see new faces, but there’s also something special about seeing the familiar ones who keep coming back. It really feels like we’re building something meaningful here in Atlanta.

The talks that night were incredible. We had a fireside chat with David from FanDuel about engineering leadership — how he transitioned into that role and what it takes to succeed in it. He emphasized the importance of empathy and the need to step away from the code sometimes to help others grow. Then, Max from GitHub gave a talk about navigating and contributing to open-source projects, which was super informative. We wrapped up with a fun and nerdy presentation by Michael from Thinkwell Technology Services, who shared how he built a RAG-powered bot to judge rules in Magic: The Gathering. As a fellow nerd, I was all in for that talk.

On Wednesday, I headed to the AI Agent Hack Night with MCP, not really knowing what to expect — or even what MCP (Model Context Protocol) was. Thankfully, they gave a great explanation. We learned about an AI agent called Codename Goose, which can automate tasks. We even got free credits to try it out ourselves! The challenge was to create a photo filter using Goose. As someone who uses Windows and doesn’t have a Mac, I hit a few roadblocks, but another attendee helped me get everything set up in PowerShell. While I’m still figuring things out, I learned a lot and made some valuable connections along the way. We ended the night with food and casual conversations at a local restaurant — it was the perfect way to wind down.

Reflecting on the past year, I’ve realized how powerful consistency and showing up can be. There’s a big difference between simply knowing people in your network and building genuine, lasting connections. I’m so grateful for the friendships I’ve formed — people I can bond with not just over tech, but over shared hobbies like gaming, Legos, and anime. Turns out, a lot of folks in tech are huge nerds — no surprise there — and I absolutely love it.

It’s wild to think that just over a year ago, I didn’t know anyone here. I was the new person at events, nervous to talk to anyone and unsure of my place in the tech world. But I took a deep breath and did it anyway. Like Nerando said during his talk, someone once told him, “Do it scared.” You don’t have to be fearless — you just need to be brave enough to take small steps.

If you’re feeling anxious about attending an event, start small. Find one group you really enjoy and keep showing up. Connect with one person at the first meetup, two people at the next, and just keep building from there. The more you show up, the easier it becomes. And as your network grows, connections will naturally multiply.

Today, I know so many people working in tech — not just in Atlanta, but around the world. Some connections came from conferences, others from online spaces like Slack and social media. I’ve also found that the best connections happen when you go in with no expectations. Don’t attend with the goal of landing a job or finding a mentor — go in wanting to make a real human connection. The rest will follow.

And if you’re in Atlanta and nervous about attending your first event, reach out to me. I’d be more than happy to be your emotional support buddy. Sometimes all it takes is having one person by your side to make a space feel a little less intimidating.

Coming from a background in education and theater, I’ve always found joy in helping people grow — and I plan to keep doing that in tech. Whether it’s encouraging someone in their journey or connecting them with their next mentor, I’m here for it.