User Groups And Thoughtworks At GOTO Conf Chicago 2014: Mike Hall Interviews Emily Rosengren | GOTO Conference 2014
Interview with Emily Rosengren at GOTO Conference 2014 on user groups and thoughtworks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014. This recording captures practical lessons and perspective for software teams and technical communities.
🔗 Read the full structured forensic transcript with durable insights at: https://just3ws.github.io/interviews/emily-rosengren-goto-conference-2014
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Hi, it's Mike with UGtastic. I'm here at GOTO Conference 2014, standing here with Emily, who's with ThoughtWorks, and she helps with some of their interactions with local technical community here in Chicago. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. So, Emily, how do you work with the user groups, and what are some of the technical communities that you work with here in Chicago?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
So, I hope to organize the ChicagoRuby Meetup, that's hosted in the Chicago ThoughtWorks office. Ray does most of the work, but I think it's great to host at ThoughtWorks every month, and I hope to encourage ThoughtWorkers to attend and present. So, yeah, it's like a proxy through into ThoughtWorks, so that way it helps promote the community in ThoughtWorks, as well as give a place for the meetings to happen, right? Yeah, yeah. I think ThoughtWorks is lucky to have a large space in the AAM Center, and it's a great way to give back to the tech community, to be able to host events like that, and give people a platform to talk about what they're doing. There's a lot of cool stuff going on in the Chicago community. Yeah, Chicago is pretty active, and it's growing.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah. And what are some of the other groups that you work with?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
So, I've been pretty actively involved with Open Gun Pack Night, hosted in 1871 for the last year. ThoughtWorks occasionally sponsors that as well. So, I've been helping evangelize the group inside ThoughtWorks, and get people to attend and get involved in different projects. Right, and that's the Open Government with Paul Baker, and all the movers and shakers here in Chicago's tech community.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
So, when you're working with these people, how does that work?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
Does ThoughtWorks approach user groups that it sees as being really active and special in the community, or is there a way to apply?
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Like, hey, I have a user group, how can I work with ThoughtWorks?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
I think it depends on the user group, how we got into the arrangement we're in. I think in most cases, ThoughtWorks has been approached. I think we've been hosting ChicagoRuby for years.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
I think originally, maybe, I don't even know the full story. I'll have to answer right next time I talk to. It's been so long, but it's lost to the history. But I think it's nice out of that consistency of having it be in one location. And then, for Open Gun Pack Night, some of us had gotten involved pretty early on, and they were looking for some sponsors, so that people didn't have to pay for their own pizza every week.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
So, that just happened to work out for us that time. And you know, those are two very different styles of groups. And obviously, one is on-site, one is off-site.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Does that change how you interact with those communities?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
I do think, we sponsor, it's easier to sponsor things inside the office. And it's, we have this great space in the Ann Center that's something that we can contribute if people want to post events. We were able to post a really cool event leading up to PyCon this year, where people would need practice talks. And it was just, it's not a, at least not yet, it's not a recurring event. But it was really cool. And it was, they needed a space, and they wanted to invite a lot of people, and we were able to provide that. And help with the organizational details. So, I think that's a way we can help out with people that want to get people together in the tech industry to talk about something.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
Or share what they're doing. So, yeah, I think that's easier in some ways.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right. Right.
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
So, when you're, like if I'm a user group, and I'm like, well, I would love to be able to be associated with others.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Do they, is there a specific place they should go to maybe try to reach? Or should I give them your email address?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
That's a good question. It's usually just approach someone from ThoughtWorks.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
Doesn't really matter who. There's not a designated person. So, if you get an insider, then it's usually you. Talk to someone. See if, see if the dates that you're looking at is available, and see if it's something that's aligned with what ThoughtWorks is trying to do. I think, definitely, we want to be actively engaged with the Chicago Tech community. There's a lot of cool stuff going on. And, oh, we're just doing a lot of cool stuff internally. And we want to make sure we share as much as we can between those two. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No, no. If I'm a user group organizer, so you've been working with these communities for a while. And I, you know, or maybe I'm somebody who's looking to start a user group. What are some of the activities that you do that are maybe somebody might not realize that they're going to have to do when they're going to use a group. Like, when you talk about the logistics of food and things like that.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
What are some tricks that you maybe have learned about how to manage those kinds of little details?
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
I think just looking at how each event goes and make sure you use what went well and what didn't go well to feed in for the next one. That's really the best advice I can give. I think we noticed at ChicagoRuby pretty recently that there was some time before the talks would start where people weren't really interacting. And we were getting a lot of cool people together. But then they didn't know each other and they didn't know what to do. So I talked with some of the organizers and we actually decided to, hey, what if we, like, rearrange the chairs? Put them all in, like, different clumps so that when people are sitting there, when they arrive, they sit with a group of people. And they're not just, like, sitting auditorium-style waiting for the presentation.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Emily Rosengren
User Groups and ThoughtWorks at GOTO Conf Chicago 2014
Let's see how it goes. So we tried it the next time. And it actually worked pretty well. We asked people what they thought and we did find that people were interacting more. So I think looking at each group is different. So they're not, like, set rules that are going to work for everyone. It's going to really depend on your group size and what type of community you're attracting. But I think just looking at what's working for you. So just pay attention to what is and don't be afraid to experiment.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. I appreciate it. No problem. Thank you.