As a GDE, I recently traveled to the Isle of Man. It’s probably not the first place you would think of when talking about conferences, meetups, and developer communities in general. You’ll probably think about motor races in narrow streets and beautiful hills. This event was once again an eye-opener for me to realize we should probably try to do more for smaller community groups whether that is government sponsorships, or just doing that - maybe literally - extra mile as a speaker.
When we think of conferences and Google DevFest, we usually think about the big cities and the huge events. And while I agree that those places are probably worth a lot in marketing material, I also strongly believe we should think more about the small events. This occurred to me in local meetups, but also in Middlesbrough, which was a medium-sized event, but at heart was a conference that tried to place the North of the UK on the map. The same passion and dedication were felt in the Isle of Man. A handful of people trying to bring developers together, showing the world, that they too have a community - maybe small - but brave and full of talent.
I know that if you’re a speaker, you are probably skimming this article as fast as possible, but I promise to make my point quickly and well before the end of this article.
Harley and Darren, are two fantastic people trying to place the Isle of Man on the map by starting a GDG and organizing a Google DevFest. From my first interview with Harley, I felt the passion and the desire to grow. As a GDE we do get travel reimbursed by Google for DevFest events and even though it was almost 11 hours of travel, I decided to go to check out the community on this Isle and I say so without regrets. So instead of giving a full story, let me just answer a few questions:
Even if my hotel is sponsored, why should I travel to an event so far away?
Look, let’s be honest here, I know as a speaker we probably won’t pay ourselves to go and give a presentation. But if your flight and hotel are reimbursed why are you always aiming on the big ones? Why did you start speaking? Is it out of the inner ego trying to get yourself on video and getting likes and hits? I hope not, I sincerely hope you are doing it for a passion, a passion for sharing, a mission to inspire young people, getting to know new people and talk about tech (and maybe do some sightseeing while at it ;) ).
And that’s exactly what you should do. I can guarantee that I hadn’t met anyone present at the Isle of Man before, and I had wonderful conversations. I heard people who hope to have a bigger community that grows. I saw very inspiring people from Code Club IoM showing kids a way into coding for over 10 years out of pure passion. That… is golden.
Yes, you might be speaking at about 40 people tops which is smaller than some meetups in bigger cities, but I’d rather talk to 40 passionate people, than 90 people who are mainly there for the free food. To be honest, for me, the talk barely mattered, I feel that this trip has made me grow, and left me inspired and energized to do more where possible.
And if that doesn’t convince you…
I can tell you, you will be treated wonderfully. Harley and Darren picked me up at the airport, bought me a fantastic meal and we had a fantastic chat the first day. I felt right at home. If you go to these kinds of places, you’re not a number, you are the person they trust to help them grow by giving community enthusiasts more hunger for these events in the future. Yes, don’t let the 40 people turn into a conclusion it doesn’t matter, maybe - just maybe - it might mean more.
So please… make the extra effort if you’re able
Even if it takes you double the time for fewer people. Even if you’d have to transfer planes just to get there. If you can get your travel reimbursed, go for it. You can thank me later for this tip.
Before I get a whole lot of people shouting bad experiences to me… yes, those might also exist and I might not have run into them as a “junior speaker”. But also make sure that when you go to these events, that you are humble. Do not act as the big shot speaker (that you probably are) but act like me, the junior guy with the imposter syndrome.
About the GDG Douglas - Isle of Man
If you were just here for my rant, you can stop reading now. But I can’t just leave this article without writing a bit about my experience on the Isle of Man.
On the first day after a long trip, GDG group organizers Darren and Harley from Craft Applied were waiting for me at the airport. After a drive, saying “hi fairies” when crossing the fairy bridge (mandatory) and a quick bag drop-off at the “Sefton” hotel (which was lovely), we went for a speakers’ dinner. This is where Felipe joined in, who is also an organizer, but more about him later. We had a lovely conversation about a lot of things and also talked a bit about shop, but we made it an early night. I was dead tired and they had to get some early sleep before the event.
The morning after - the day of the event - I was awake way too early as always. So I took a walk around the Douglas while everyone was still sleeping. What a beautiful place!
The DevFest at Douglas
I arrived on time, met up with everyone, and had a bit of coffee, you could feel the nerves of the organization a bit, it showed their passion for making this a success. Luckily one of the organizers Bransom Bean was an expert in lightening the mood. You just feel it, these people have one goal: bringing developers together from all over the Island.
A bit later, Dominika Zając, the first speaker of the event arrived. After just a brief introduction, I could feel her passion as a GDE. I knew right away this was going to be a perfect start to this event. It was a great talk on accessibility with examples, jokes, and memes, and it opened a lot of questions and discussions over the day. I’ve seen quite a few accessibility awareness talks, but never with this kind of positive energy and great spin on AI and DevTools. You could tell she knows her stuff and there was probably a lot more she could talk about when given the time.
Next up was Guneet Mutreja on “Leveraging Machine Learning and Google Earth Engine for Satellite Data Processing”. As a webUI geek, this might’ve been a bit too far off my domain, but still, there were some great examples in there of city growth and global warming illustrated. Unfortunately, the audio wasn’t always perfect and I’m quick to lose attention when watching a video in a conference… Sorry Guneet, it’s not you, it’s me 🙂
The next presentation was named “Is it still coding if there are no lines of code?” and this was an amazing talk given by Felipe Ceotto and Owen Cutajar. What’s better to see than two passionate people getting kids into coding from their early years until their teenage years and beyond… They’ve been doing this for 10 years(!!!). It shocked me how casually they were saying that! I thought this was a major achievement in itself. So interesting to see how they evolve techniques in coding to keep kids to teenagers interested, from Scratch to Lego, to Unreal engine,…
I needed this talk, We needed this talk, we need these kinds of people. These are the things that matter and I wish them many more years and successes to come. More info on https://codeclub.im/
After some great lunch with sandwiches and desserts, it was my turn to talk about popovers, invokers, and customizable selects. I’ll cut this part of the story short as it feels wierd talking writing about myself, here is a picture:
As a closure of the day, we went from solving problems with UI to Solving problems with AI by Chris Kissack. It showcased many good ideas on how to make the best use of AI making your life easier but at the same time raised a variety of questions, and I loved how Chris tackled this. Let me be honest, after a year of conferences full of AI, it’s hard to create something fresh, and this presentation was something very welcome as it also illustrated some findings Chris had by working with young people, as well as the elderly. Had a lovely chat with him as well.
So yes… Isle of Man has some great talent, and even if not the biggest community, a very heartwarming and dedicated one that asks great questions and opens beautiful conversations full of pure interest and respect.
After the event, we all went for some drinks, which was lovely but then something happened. I received an email…
Your flight has been canceled due to “storm Ashley”
I was supposed to leave the day right after but that sure wasn’t going to happen. I contacted the travel agent and they helped me right away.
I got an extra night and a new flight for Monday (Thank you Google and thank you to the worktrips.com team… really!) It took a little while to get finally sorted, which makes sense but they were so helpful, and patient an made me feel at ease. So I continued with my original plan of that evening and visited Summerhill Glen together with Dominika. She was already planning on staying Sunday as well and she offered me to do some sightseeing together. This Island is absolutely magical…
After handling things with iO, I was happy that I could just take that extra day and enjoy it to the fullest. I decided to work on the airport on Monday during a long layover period.
An extra day - Isle of Man, there is something magical there
Forget about the TT motor race for a second, there is a lot to see and do for tourists at the Isle of Man. The beautiful vistas, nature, steam train. I am grateful I got to spend this other day, and also thankful for - my partner in crime for a day - Dominika. Exploring is always more fun when you can share some laughs, I hope we run into each other at another event in the future, maybe I’ll give that karaoke a try (big maybe). Later in the evening, we met up with Darren and Harley again, they seemed well rested and happy, it was great to see.
After a good nights rest, they drove us to the airport.
Yes, it was a long travel and I had a 6-hour layover time due to the other route, but it was worth it. Will I go to the Isle of Man again any time soon? That I don’t know, but one thing is for sure…
This event, the people, and the Island will always have a special place in my heart.
