Angelique Martin
Angelique Martin
Recovered from WITC metadata archive (Interview with Angelique Martin___FQCDazouHKk.json).
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Guest
Guest
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Hi I'm Mike Hall with UGtastic. I'm standing here with Angelique Martin from 8th Light. She is, historically you've worked with the XP Universe and the, well the XP Agile Universe when it was rebranded because Agile was the thing. But now you're working with SCNA, Software Craftsmanship North America. It's a conference that's been what, this is our fourth year?
Guest
Guest
Yes, it is our fourth year.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Can you tell me a little bit about SCNA?
Guest
Guest
So SCNA stands for Software Craftsmanship North America. It's organized right here in Chicago. It will be held November 9th and 10th at the Aon Center. It's a two-day conference. We'll have about 14 speakers including Robert Martin, Corey Foyle, and many other names that you can't think of right now. Oh, remember the roster right now. Yes, Barry Bernard, there's two Sarahs, Sarah Ellen and Sarah Gray, Leon Gersing, I won't be able to remember the 14 of them, Brian Merrick that I can quote. And I can't think of the other one but it's all on the website. That's okay. You know, people can go to the site and see all of that information.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
But can you tell me a little bit about what is SCNA?
Guest
Guest
So SCNA is a conference that aims at gathering people that care about their craft. They care about improving themselves. They care about contributing to the community and meeting with their peers and hopefully exchanging and teaching each other.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Guest
Guest
And this is what, you said the fourth year or so. Fourth year, correct. And traditionally this was something that you shared, 8th Light shared responsibilities with Optiva for, you were kind of handing it off back and forth. But now that, now this year, fortunately this year, that Optiva was acquired was an 8th Light year. So we're good this year, but... Correct. Well, Groupon Engineering was still very involved in the planning of 8th Light. Well, Groupon Engineering was still very involved in 8th Light this year. As a matter of fact, they helped considerably to secure the program. So they're still a main sponsor and they're still very involved. The year before, when 8th Light was in charge of it, you did this kind of, you went, you know, one of the things I liked was you went beyond just the day-to-day. Like most conferences seem to be, okay, we have the conference, we have the sessions, we're going to maybe have an after party, but it's usually local, you know, or right inside of the facility where you organized like a field trip. Correct.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Did you get any feedback from that from people?
Guest
Guest
Well, I got some really positive feedback. The idea behind this was to take, you know, to have a, instead of a banquet where you would get a DJ and gigs really stand up in the end, we were going to take people out into buses so that they could network, have a chance to discuss the topics that the speakers had rushed on that day. For instance, we were going to take people out into buses so that they could network, have a chance to discuss the topics that the speakers had rushed on that day. For instance, we were going to take people out into buses so that they could network, have a chance to work, have a chance to discuss the topics that the speakers had rushed on that day, for instance, and we celebrated different areas of Chicago. Yeah, well, that was one of the things is, uh, from people that had spoken with me from out of town, they were kind of saying that it was, it was, they were excited that there was a chance to go and see things that they might not have known to go see, because I remember that this past year's SCNA, some of the people were kind of, from out of town, they were kind of floundering. That's, that's one of the hard things, we're introverts. Sometimes we, we'll just go back to our hotel room and hack or stay local or not explore. Correct. We'll see the hotel room and the conference hotel rooms.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Guest
Guest
And, um, so, I mean, uh, the other thing was, is, you know, you, you're, you were in the city one year, and then you're out near the airport. Was there any, uh, logistical things that made it more difficult being in the city or, or, or being outside of the city? I think that primarily from the fact that one year, um, you know, we used to alternate. Optiva would organize, and then the next year, we'd be in flight. And at the time, in flight was, uh, mostly located in the suburbs. Um, so we had decided, and you know, for cost reasons as well, uh, to take the conference, uh, outside of the city. It, it was the very first year that it was going to be a two day conference. So to minimize the risk, uh, we decided to take it out of the city. And we did it by the airport with a connection to the city within the parking garage of the hotel. Yeah, so it was easy to get out there. Correct.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Guest
Guest
But, but cost was one of the big things you were saying. It's, yeah. If you put events together, you know that you don't do this for the money. Right, right, right. Yeah, but there's still a lot of money that changes hands, but mostly it's outgoing. Um, okay.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Um, well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me, and I'm looking forward to SCNA. night. Okay, thank you.