blog.dasrecht.net

With a min of max the opt!

Stepping back from Organizing


Frontend Conf 2016

This was an extraordinary year for conferences.

I was able to fit three conferences and two involvements for the programme team for DrupalCon Dublin next to work into my schedule (thanks to a very generous team who made it possible – thank you amazee.io).

  • Wunsch Schloss
  • FrontendConf 2016
  • TEDxBern 2016
  • DrupalCon Dublin – DevOps Summit
  • DrupalCon Dublin – Performance and Scaling Track

This all would not have been possible without a great team and effort, late shifts or just picking up work which has been left unasigned.

All in all, every conference I took part was a success.

Sitting here and contemplating about the time spent, the great moments we had, I had experienced something I didn’t encounter for months. It was a time to reflect. I gave myself time and space to think about how i want to contribute to those events and where I personally wanted to go. I felt depleted and loss of ideas. During a long and very good conversation with Dominik, we had come to the conclusion that there must be more to this than the ‘normal’ conference. I’m in search of something new, however, first I’ll shift my focus and take on new things, perhaps also enjoy free time, and get back to my reading challenge.

It humbles me when Speakers like Simon Weidman or Gwendolyn Masin tell me that the moment when they went on stage they felt that they are in the right hands or Laura Kalbag writes following:

It’s rewarding and feels great to see people enjoying the stage you set.

On Failure

Did everything go perfectly? No way! We failed to make the DevOps Summit at the DrupalCon Dublin to make a success. But the Drupal Association very wisely pulled the plug at the right moment. We were sitting there and said, It’s not worth it. Work has been done, but we did not get enough traction. We had this discussion also for another conference this year at an earlier stage. And the team agreed we’re still on a GO so we did it. Not this time for the Summit. I would have loved to see it be a success but it’s also wise to call it a day and cancel an event when there is time and you’re not over the point of no return. I don’t see it as a failure, I treat it as a learning.

Heading for new Shores

The Wunschschloss in Thun is a lovely venue with interesting talks how Switzerland can evolve and what it can learn from other countries. Young and old people take their ideas to the stage to get heard. I like the format and the venue. After being responsible twice for the whole Event Tech I’m letting go and passing it on to the team we’ve built up. Next time I’ll maybe sit in a back row where I can overlook the stage and the tech crew doing their work.

As we run TEDxBern every other year we have some time to sit back and decide how we tackle the next edition. I won’t let go of this as Markus and I started it years ago and it’s something we run with a lot of passion (even tough we argue sometimes a lot – but that’s part of a creative process)

I’ll let go of FrontendConf as my work-focus shifted quite a bit it’s not the centre of attention for me anymore. After 4 years being active for the conference, i’ll take a step back, letting others take on the Journey such an event brings.

On Energy

I had to pull out of several activities this year, some of them I could handle well while some were treated less well. After a strenuous time, the most valuable lesson I learned is that I can still do a lot, but I also need to take care in the long run. In a book I read recently, a wise man said “Your year has 12 months but you only have 6 shots. You need to prioritise to get things right”.

It was a pleasure meeting with all of you. See you near a Stage soon. I’m sure I’ll keep myself busy with something new.


6 responses to “Stepping back from Organizing”

  1. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! for all the time an passion you’ve put into Frontend Conf during the last years! It was a pleasure working with you.

    As we already discussed in length – Yes… let’s see what the future brings 🙂 Let’s step back and reflect… and who knows – maybe we’ll be soon organizing another great event together!