The first We Rise Women in Tech conference, June 23 – 24th was organized by Women Who Code Atlanta. I’m in my mid-fifties, and after a mid-life career reboot (second degree), and starting some of the organizations I felt were essential to my – and others’ success in the Birmingham metro region – was only now getting out to my first tech conference. I was looking forward to more of the welcoming environment that I had found at the first Women Who Code hackathon in July 2016. I had to work Friday (the first day), so was only able to attend the Saturday sessions. My notes on the sessions I attended continue below the break.
Wren Handman – The Future of Spatial Computing
I was looking for “Let’s Talk Sockets: Creating Interactive Art and Installations with Socket.IO” with Viola Peña, but ended up attending Wren Handman’s “The Future of Spatial Computing”. Which, focusing on VR, was timely (I’m helping plan a hackathon that overlaps with a local film festival – which in turn, has a VR element for the very first time).
Ashley Sun – Graphs: The Fabric of DevOps
Chris Corriere – The DevSecOps Dilemma
I attended this session because I’m curious about DevOps. It’s a new buzzword for me right now – and I must learn and understand.
Chris gave an interesting exploration of the application of game theory to managing the development (open and cooperative) and security (fenced – do not cross) tradeoffs that organizations have to make to ensure trustworthy communities and tools.
Recommended the following books:
- Gene Kim’s Phoenix Project
- Jez Humble – Continuous Delivery
- Jeff Sussna – Designing Delivery
Yolanda M. Davis – I AM NOT Supposed To Be Here
Nichelle Bailey, Traci L. Harden, Telicia L. Palmer, C. Elaine Payne – Nos faciemus heroicis stercore: Creating You 3.0 – Strategies on the importance of women 35+ continuously re-inventing themselves.
This wasn’t quite what I expected – but I took away good strategies for managing depression, fear, anxiety – and how to work through them. And how to persist when people suggest that maybe, you shouldn’t be there. Their company is 4TechMoms.
Talks I didn’t get to that I wish I could have fit in.
Whitley Bacon’s talk – but love this piece she has up on her LinkedIn profile about how she went from a history enthusiast to “getting technical”.
