I’m both excited and sad to announce that today is my last day at YOW! Conferences. In many ways this has been my dream job, and the last two years have flown by really quickly. I’m proud of every event we’ve put on, and YOW’s commitment to supporting and growing the APAC tech industry – especially with regards to diversity. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been honoured to meet and spend time with some of the smartest, most interesting folks from our community and overseas – people whose work is going to change the world. And in a way, that’s what prompted me to leave. After being around such inspirational folks tackling big problems… I suddenly realised that I missed being those people. The fun of a conference is in taking what you learn back to your team and building on it, and I need that challenge. I want to work with the teams and companies solving these big gnarly problems and see what I can do to help.

Of course, it’s super hard to leave Dave and the amazing YOW! Team. Not only are they all friendly and great at their jobs, I know what events and speakers they have coming down the pipeline – and I’m already regretting not being there for all of it! If you get a chance to attend one of our conferences, you should. (And Dave – I’m available to speak whenever you want! 😃)

Just for fun, I thought I’d add up all the events I’ve gone to on YOW!’s behalf over the last twenty months…

YOW Confs (attending or hosting) – 11
YOW Confs (speaking) – 4
YOW Nights (hosting) – 19
YOW Nights (speaking) – 3
Non-YOW Conferences (attending) – 7
Non-YOW Conferences (speaking) – 8
Hackathons (judging) – 3
Meetups (speaking) – 36
Meetups (attending) – 92
Training courses (attending) – 2
User group meetups (hosting) – 12

That’s just shy of 200 tech events (197 to be exact) across four countries. 😱

So what will I be doing with myself after today? First I’ve got a little bit of time off, and I plan to spend it catching up with friends, knitting, and watching a lot of Netflix. Then on the 25th I will be starting a new role with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Sydney in the Solutions Architecture team. I’m so excited to meet everyone and start learning new things!

And NO MEETUPS for while… at least a month. Or maybe a fortnight… or a week. We’ll see. 😜