Summit Europe 2018: Key takeaways from our Community Champions
Summit Europe 2018 is in the books, and while we’re still glowing (read: happy and tired) from the days’ events, we thought we’d check in with our Community Champions to talk about their key takeaways.
In their own words:
I had the honour to moderate one of the round table sessions at the Community workshop. I have quite a bit of experience in meetings and workshops of all kinds, but I was still amazed at the amount of really valuable feedback from very different angles that came out in only an hour. As a result, I also had the opportunity to speak to several people in person afterwards and I am very happy to have many smart, lovely and interesting people to my friends list.
But the most remarkable thing for me was still to come, then. I felt and still feel that I need to do something with all the information I collected during the session. In the spirit of 'be the change you seek' find the right way to get something going to make the Atlassian Community and - by extension - the entire ecosystem a better place than it already is. So at the Community Dinner later that evening, I stepped into my bravest shoes and went up to Mike Cannon-Brookes to talk to him about it. And I got to know a really authentic, accessible guy that invited me to send my feedback directly to him. Something I will definitely do as soon as I can. And I am secretly looking forward to what that might lead to.
Stepping up to Mike was quite a personal challenge for me. It took me no less than five Summits to finally find the courage. And one of the first things I mentioned to him, was the impostor syndrome that he explains so beautifully in this TED talk. And what I take away is that stepping out of your comfort zone really leads to great experiences.
I could spend only short time on the community workshop, but for my takeaway is having met the other contributors to community in real life, because for me it is completely different thing to do something with people I know in real life to do the same thing with people I know only as avatars.
Also having the chance to meet and talk to some of you Atlassians was great, because that was the chance to give some direct feedback.
Summit was a blast!
My 3-4 key takeaways would be:
Meeting with Community Team and finally having memories associated with names instead of avatars :)
Learning more about the ecosystem, not only Atlassian (Slack, Google presentation about Bitbucket...)
Learning from my peers (Atlassian Experts) and how they work, what kind of habits they have with the tools
Hearing from Apps developers on the roadmap, the way they publish new features and what to expect!
Getting to meet people I've never met, despite having been online with them for years.
Seeing old friends, and making new ones.
Talking to people who have fresh ways of looking at stuff, new and interesting problems and solutions.
I guess there should be something about Atlassian in here really, so I'll say that they're good hosts, organising a load of stuff that gets people together.
The Atlassian community is full of smart, honest, and relatable folks who are a joy to get to know in-person in addition to online. For me, one of the most valuable things I walked away with from Summit, is that connection, whether it be other implementation teams that offer use cases and guidance or other Champions that I look up to and have a lot in common with. Gaining that fresh perspective and renewed energy is absolutely a great reason to attend Summit.
It was especially nice to reconnect with Champions I had met last year but even more so the new ones I met at this Summit. To me this connection with others is what is at the top of my list for reasons to go to Summit. … DO NOT MISS SUMMIT 2019!!
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Erica Moss
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Community Manager
Atlassian
New York, NY
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