Gaming for Good with Stephanie Renfrow, Head of On-Prem Support for Confluence & Dev Tools
We’re excited to feature @StephR, Head of On-Prem Support for Confluence & Dev Tools at Atlassian, and to hear more about how she uses Confluence in gaming and planning this year’s Extra Life event, a 24-hour livestream and virtual gaming event for charity that Atlassians are participating in. Read on to hear how Atlassians use Confluence for gaming, and chime in with how you would!
Hi Stephanie! Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and what your role is at Atlassian?
Hello! I have been at Atlassian for 6.5 years and I am the Head of On-Prem Support for Confluence and Dev Tools.
What’s your favorite Atlassian value?
Tough one! As a member of the support team, DFTC. As a leader, probably Play, As a Team. I love collaboration and building something with people. Extra Life embodies the Play, As a Team spirit perfectly.
Do you enjoy gaming/playing games? If so, which ones, and have you noticed if it impacts or informs your productivity in work/life?
I’m a life-long gamer. I enjoy RPGs like Mass Effect, Cyberpunk, and Dragon Age but I mostly play cozy games these days like Stardew Valley. Especially during the pandemic, I found that cozy games were much easier to pick up and were generally better for my mental well-being. Games definitely help my productivity, both in clearing my busy brain and in giving me small incremental wins to counteract some of the longer initiatives I handle at work.
Can you tell us about Extra Life? How long have you participated in Extra Life, and what do you enjoy about it?
Extra Life is a year-round fundraising program for Children’s Miracle Network. At Atlassian, we focus on an annual 24-hour streamed gaming marathon. I have participated for 5 years but 2022 will be Atlassian’s 7th year to field a team. My favorite thing about Extra Life is that is gives me, and so many of my co-workers, a way to use our passion to give back!
When do you start planning for Extra Life, and how do you use Confluence to do that?
As the event has gotten larger, we start earlier and earlier. In 2022, our event is October 27-28 and we had our first planning session in March. We use Confluence for many things: we keep track of all of the coordinator’s tasks and the communication plan, we store all of the information for participants, keep track of the main stream schedule, and more! It wouldn’t be possible to organize this event without Confluence.
How do you organize and collaborate with other gamers for Extra Life?
Each year we have between 60 and 100 participants in Extra Life. They each stream to their own channels and then we can display them on the main channel.
We use Confluence to keep track of participants' stream details, schedules, the main stream schedule, special events, and challenges. We also use it to coordinate group games like Among Us or tabletop games like Twilight Imperium.
How did you choose to organize the Extra Life space? Did you learn anything from previous Extra Life events to inform what you’re doing this year?
Extra Life is an event that requires a lot of prep for each participant. We don’t require streaming or even playing games (we have had DJ sets, baking, Lego building, and drawing) but if a participant plans to stream, there is a lot of planning and specialized knowledge needed. In past years, it was quite hard to explain to people how to set up or alternate ways to get involved.
This year, we split the space into different way to help: I want to participate and stream, I want to participate but not stream, I want to help in other ways, I want to donate, and I want to watch. This has been much more straightforward for the participants and we have had to answer fewer repeat questions.
What’s a feature in Confluence that you love using, either in general or for this event?
I’m a big Confluence fan, and was even before I worked at Atlassian so I could name many. I think one feature I have loved when planning Extra Life was the ability to drag and drop pages in the tree in the sidebar to reorder them or move them around in the space.
Do you use Confluence to organize other parts of your life (e.g. other games, personal life)? If yes, how does it differ from how you use it in a work setting?
In my personal life, I use Confluence (and Trello) to keep track of all sorts of things - games, home improvement tasks, trip planning, etc. The biggest difference in how I use it for work is that at work I am much more organized and my pages look much nicer.
What’s your favorite Confluence tip or shortcut for someone who is new to Confluence?
The status macro (shortcut: /status) is probably the one I share the most!
We want to hear how you game with Confluence
Do you use Confluence for gaming/managing game information, building worlds, keeping track of characters, or planning gaming events with your friends or teams? We’d love to hear how you use Confluence to manage all aspects of gaming in the comments. 👂🏼
Here’s an example from @Bernie Costales from our Atlassian team:
Thanks so much, Stephanie and Ted! Check out Confluence for gaming to learn more about Confluence, and let us know how you use Confluence in the comments! 👇🏼
Our Atlassian team will be Gaming for Good from October 27-28: visit the Extra Life team page and feel free to tune in to Atlassian Gamers on Twitch. We’re proud of how the Atlassian Foundation supports donation matching for events like these.
We can’t wait to hear how you use Confluence for gaming!
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Sharon Tan
About this author
Customer Marketing Content Manager
Atlassian Inc.
Austin, TX
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3 comments