I Give Thanks For: EPIC (JIRA) Evenings!

Andy - PTC Redundant
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November 30, 2019

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 🦃🎁

Yes, yes, I know! Thanksgiving is now long over, ridiculous Black Friday 2019 YouTube videos are now in the 1,000s, tomorrow it'll be waste-more-money-Cyber Monday and the countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun.... quite literally, over here: Community's Online Holiday Countdown Calendar 2019 !

But in the spirit of the week, it doesn't mean that I can't still be thankful... right? Right!

And coincidentally, the day after Thanksgiving was not a Black Friday for me - quite the opposite - it was a Great & Green Friday (get to that in a minute); and personally, I was extremely thankful for EPIC EVENINGS the past month. It all started back on October 31st.... HALLOWEEN! 

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EPIC JIRA EVENING - AN EVENT WRAP UP 😎🤘

Over a month ago now ACE Rotterdam had a really cool evening: not only did we have amazing talks by #JiraJoel, all the way over from the Atlassian Westcoast talking up “JIRA: What's New / Coming Soon?” (Cloud) and Joost Schildwacht of TIG on the epically-uber-nerdy subject of “JIRA MAGIC IN DOCKER”, but the event was sponsored by Joost’s other company Yiraphic!

Joel’s talk was pretty insane….! A lot is going on with Jira Cloud at the moment and there are soooo many updates. I have to say, MASSIVE respect to him for being able to not only give us such a great run down in such a short amount of time, but STILL provide us time for Q&A and go into details where the Users needed it!

So, I am super THANKFUL for him! 🙏😇

Joost’s talk was amazing… and sadly, I hardly understood any of it…! Hahaha. This was a real masterclass in using Docker. You didn’t have to be just a nerd to have understood it, you probably had to be an ACM just to follow along! That said, I listened intently and really enjoyed it because I learned a lot! Now I am more wise on Docker and AWS, and how it all relates to delivering powerful quality assurance when testing in Jira.

So, I am super THANKFUL for him! 🙏😇

The only sad note to the evening was that the Jira Magic In Docker talk was original supposed to be done by Jeffrey Pieters, the mastermind behind it all, and I was totally heartbroken when Joost called me that same morning to say that he (Jeffrey) just would not make it that evening due to illness! Fortunately, there is always the Amsterdam ACE, so Jeffrey will get his chance to present and as the presentation is blooming amazaballz…. do not miss it when it happens!

So, I am super THANKFUL for him! 🙏😇

As mentioned Yiraphic were the Sponsors of the event and they went above & beyond in providing an amazing setting at the fabulous Thon Hotels Rotterdam, right next to the famous Erasmus bridge. We had the most ideal meeting room, the food was great and the atmosphere was absolutely uitstekend!! PLUS they came with some damn cool swag!

So, I am super THANKFUL for them! 🙏😇

And of course, it can’t be an ACE without there being some “ace” people to make it what is! Time and time again, Atlassian Users are turning up to make the events amazing, thought-provoking, stimulate knowledge-sharing, have some fun and make it really really EPIC!

So, I am super THANKFUL for them! 🙏😇

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GREAT & GREEN FRIDAYAN EPIC GAMES EVENING 🥂🎲

So not long after the Epic Jira Evening, I got a really cool invite: TIG hold a monthly social and would be doing games night at their office in Amsterdam and I was more than welcome to come join them this Friday just been. And it was a BLAST!

There was pizza, good bevvies, fun talks about all sorts of subjects (course Jira came up, of course!), and there was the Games Event: amazing rounds of various challenges to test everyone’s motor-skills and it was so much fun!

Mariokart, Darts, Balloon Blowing, Nerf Shooting (twice), Paper Plane Throw, Bean Bag Toss, Carnival Tin Can Toss, Ring Toss, Nano Block Building, and my absolute favourite…. Spijkerpoepen!! You’re probably wondering what the hell that is; so was I, as not only had I never played it before, I’d never even HEARD of it (despite 17yr of living in NL) ! ! [Once I get the video of me doing my turn, I’ll upload it here as a GIF… bloody hilarious game!] It was a fricking epic evening and I had such a wonderful time. TIG know how to host a social evening!

So, I am super THANKFUL for them! 🙏😇

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BEHIND EVERY SUCCESFUL MAN… 👩‍🎤🏆

FunManAndy’s life has been pretty damn successful of late: the Epic Jira Evening was absolutely sublime and the Games Night at TIG/Yiraphic, just absolutely perfect! But as the saying goes: “Behind every successful man there is a woman…” and behind this successful man, there is a MARLOES!

Not just the games evening at TIG, but also the Epic Jira Evening at Thon Hotels. It’s quite intense being an ACL: normally I’m sorting the location, the F&B, the set-up, the beamer, doing loads of communicating etc. etc. But this event was a dreamy walk in the park thanks to Marloes. She did nigh-on everything and all I had to do was keep my e-mail in check as I received message after message saying, “This is done… that is complete… this is pending….” Etc. She is a ROCKSTAR 🌟 and TIG are really lucky that they have her as their office manager.

I am super-duper THANKFUL for her! 🙏😇

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ONWARDS TO MORE EPIC EVENINGS 😍🎉

These were two exceptional epic events and it’s gonna be really hard to top them, but as a dedicated ACL who loves putting on events for the Atlassian Users to come together and do their thing, I will be continue to be ever so thankful for this role I have, the people I get to work with like Marloes, Jeffrey, Joost and Joel, and look forward to welcome you all at the upcoming events in December!

Check them OUT: https://ace.atlassian.com/rotterdam/

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