AiA 220: Creating a Great Community with Juan Herrera

In this episode, the panelists talk with today’s special guest, Juan Herrera. The guys talk about community and how the Angular community is different than others out there. The following topics are discussed: calls for proposals (CFP), talking at conferences, Meetups, and reaching out to others within the same field as yours. The team emphasizes how meeting and networking not only creates great business connections, but great lasting friendships, too! Check it out!

Hosted by: Charles Max Wood • Aaron Frost • John Papa
Special Guests: Juan Herrera
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Show Notes

Panel: 
  • Charles Max Wood
  • John Papa
  • Aaron Frost
Special Guest:  Juan Herrera
In this episode, the panelists talk with today’s special guest, Juan Herrera. The guys talk about community and how the Angular community is different than others out there. The following topics are discussed: calls for proposals (CFP), talking at conferences, Meetups, and reaching out to others within the same field as yours. The team emphasizes how meeting and networking not only creates great business connections, but great lasting friendships, too! Check it out!
Show Topics:
0:00 – Advertisement: AngularBootCamp.Com
0:52 – Chuck: Hello! Our panel is Eric, John, and myself. Our special guest today is Juan Herrera!
1:00 – Panel and guest go back-and-forth.
2:28 – Chuck: Let’s discuss how to think about community locally, nationally, and internationally!
2:39 – Guest talks about his background and his work in Columbia. 
4:00 – Aaron: I will give my talk in Spanish and it will be epic. I think we should start a hashtag “bonniemademedoit.”
Aaron is talking about Bonnie and how she’s inspired Juan and many, many people. 
5;18 – Chuck: She is so enthusiastic about this stuff you have a hard time telling her “no.”
5:32 – Guest.
6:00 – Panel: I am proud that she is apart of our community, which is our topic today.
6:26 – Guest: Yes, I think these conferences help make people pumped-up about these sort of things.
6:53 – Chuck: I am curious when talk about community – talking about global communities they are similar to other Meetups and incorporate their own way of doing things. How do you find that your particular area is unique in its own way?
7:32 – Guest: When we start this community I want to see what’s already out there? Once I know that I was trying to mimic what was already out there. In addition to that I went out of my way to figure out how to make people feel welcomed and find our own niche.
10:27: Panel: Hey – let’s create a community! I think sometimes it’s deliberate and other times it just happened. It sounded like you were very intentional. How did you get people involved? How did you get the word out? How did you get people to give talks?
11:10 – Guest: Yes that is a great challenge for us. Great question! I wanted to help people gain exposure and to help them participate at the conference. After giving their talk we give them a special gift. It can be a shirt or sticker or something. It seems enough for people to come and participate. We realized some people were scared to participate b/c imposter syndrome kicked-in. We made sure they felt comfortable and it helped them to participate.
15:00 – Panel: Yeah it sounds like 300 is a very solid conference. Good job!
15:18 – Chuck: Yeah they compare it to the bigger conferences when the local conferences are just as strong and good. Sometimes the smaller conferences are really nice b/c they are more intimate.
16:05 – Panel: I am not a fan of these massive conferences. Great, but you can’t have conversation with 50,000 people. You go to the vendor floor – it’s loud and dark. I go to conferences to talk and listen to them. I like to listen to their challenges and hear stories.
17:01 – Panel: I enjoy the variety.
17:48 – Panel: Just the quality of people that were there was fantastic. NG VIKINGS is a great one to go to!
18:10 – Panel: I saw the conference for New Zealand? And the one that is in Antarctica?!
19:10 – Panel: Some people say: I don’t know how to get involved with X conference? I have a hard time giving advice b/c we all have different backgrounds. Who wants to present on Chrome Frame? Or...
21:07 – Guest: Not everyone is outgoing nor comfortable being in front of an audience. However, just practicing helps!
22:12 – Panel: Chuck, I want to hear about your community!
22:25 – Chuck: I can’t go to a development conference that doesn’t know who I am. I thrive off of people and connecting with them. There are a lot of great opportunities from learning from folks.
The email went out this morning and get in the general channel and say: What do you listen to? What are you up to? It’s nice to hear feedback.
25:54 – Panel: I appreciate the work you’ve done within the community, too, Chuck!
26:08 – Panel: My community I’ve been around the block for about 20+ years. I get into one technology and then bounce from one to the other. I’ve had the blessing to be apart of many different communities. I did a lot of JavaScript back in the day and then left when it was a mess. These communities all have something similar: people come together. They want to find others who look/act like them! These experiences change people’s lives!
28:11 – Guest: Through these communities I’ve made a lot of friends and great colleagues. Not just professional but also personal.
28:44 – Panel: Yep the people that I’ve met through Twitter and conferences.
29:00 – Panel.
29:33 – Panel: I was in Poland a few weeks ago and I met some guys – two different Mike’s. I love how down-to-earth these guys are and I think it’s awesome to meet these great people at these conferences!
30:11 – Panel: Go to Angular conferences if you can!
31:25 – Panel: I tell people to do the same thing!
33:17 – Guest: Yeah there are people out there that are introverted, but know that other people are like you, too! Reach out to people before the conference and Tweet at them! Invite people to your group and meet-up at conferences and have a coffee!
34:55 – Panel: I meet a lot of people on Twitter.
35:51 – Panel: I think we are getting to the end and I need to say this. The angular community is a bit different compared to other communities. One thing that this community doesn’t have is the focus of the community. On top of the community are Rob, Steven, Jewels and Naomi and others! I think the Angular team themselves really care! I know they care.
38:09 – Guest: I completely agree with you, Aaron! We appreciate it!
38:25 – Chuck: To wrap-up let’s talk to you, Juan, about where communities should be going to take care of the people
38:45 – Guest: Yeah, what are we going to do next year? Are we going to do Meetups? Do they need something else? What are the needs of our members today and tomorrow? We decided to change the format. We realized that Meetups are great but they are 20-minute talks and they aren’t enough for our members. We do 4 hour Meetup that is called the MEGA MEETUP!
41:00 – Fresh Books!
END – CacheFly!
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AiA 220: Creating a Great Community with Juan Herrera
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