Impressions from Geeks On A Beach
Mic check. Is this thing on?
Hey everyone, Dave here. It feels a little awkward to be sitting in front of my laptop pecking together words by hammering keys on my keyboard...and well, what I'm trying to say is I miss looking out from the stage and seeing all your lovely faces. I had such a great time with you guys and I hope you did as well.
Leading up to the event I had a lot of concerns about how it was gonna pan out - true to form, this was like a startup! Questions like: “Can we pull this off or are we just crazy?” “Will people actually register (and pay) for this?” “Where can we find more sponsors?” “What have I gotten myself into?” There were also some moments of greatness: “We’ve got ________ confirmed as a speaker!” “________ agreed to sponsor!” “I can’t wait to see the beaches of Boracay.”
I am honestly really happy with the outcome. That's not to say it was perfect (what event is?), but here are a couple of things that I have been thinking about since leaving Boracay.
##We had an amazing lineup of speakers and panels
I've been thinking about the quality of individuals that we had on the stage and in the break out sessions and I am so happy that they would participate and share their experience with us. I learned so many things during the event from the lineup!
##Our stories are inspiring.
I can't acknowledge everyone here, and so many of you inspired me. (Just ask my team, as yesterday we had a company pow-wow and chatted about what inspires us.) To pick a few of my personal favorites:
Rosh - the 11 year old developer. Mind Blown. I cannot say how inspiring it was to think that this little event we put together would have such an awesome kid attend. Stephen Jagger and I have already given him job offers when he is old enough, and no matter what he does I have the feeling he is going to be an awesome founder soon.
Design & Gaming Track - I was not the greatest host of the track as I was in and out of another meeting at the same time, yet my track's speakers were awesome, they kept everything flowing without me and I was blown away by the things they shared. As I reflected on it later the one thing that stuck out was the amount of effort and the high quality of each of their presentations/chats with the track. No one just "showed up", each of them came ready to discuss what they had and I know everyone in that room left with a ton of great takeaways. They raised the bar of quality and delivered. It made me want to be a better person.
I could go on and on about how each person who shared did this. I would be right in doing that, however there just is not enough time to do so. To everyone who shared, in whatever capacity - thank you for delivering!
I'm pretty lucky as I got to be one of the faces of GOAB. I looked good on stage only because a massive amount of blood, sweat and tears were poured out by an army of organizers before, during and after the event. To these organizers, including (but not limited to) TechTalks.ph Volunteers, Happy Garaje, and my own team at Symph - Thank you for making my job easy. This whole thing would still be an idea on a whiteboard in someone's office if it weren't for our Sponsors, their amazing teams who also worked hard to make GOAB a success, and of course Tina Amper who just *gets. things. done.* (Government Warning: Going to coffee or lunch with Tina may be dangerous to your health. Symptoms include: agreeing to organize and power a conference, be the MC of said conference, and sponsor the conference amongst other things. Seek professional counseling or doctor's treatment as needed.)
Dave and Albert in action during GOAB. Credit to @beorski for the photo.
