Why I Stepped Down from Stir Trek

I have worked with Stir Trek off and on in many roles since 2009. I tried to sneak in as an attendee one year, and I ended up helping wrangle registration lines that year. The rest is history – my friends roped me into planning, and it’s been quite a fun adventure. I’ve been coordinating the volunteers for the event for most of my time there, as well as handling social media in the earlier days. I stepped away once in the late 2010s since I was leading my own event – a hackathon at NASA Glenn – and needed to focus on that. But then I came back once I stepped back from the hackathon. In the past couple years, I’ve focused on just the volunteer part. However, the time has come for me to tend to another event!

MSPGeekCon – Now in their 2nd Year!

Last year, I managed the volunteers for Stir Trek and helped advise MSPGeekCon on their first year adventures. Their first year felt like a 2nd or 3rd year of a conference, and I’m proud that I could be a part of that. This year, I am going to continue to focus on helping them as an advisor and then volunteer to do whatever needs to be done. Last year, I was helping with registration and scanning badges during the event. No idea what they’ll have me do at the event this year, but always up for an adventure!

Why MSPGeekCon?

Why am I focusing on MSPGeekCon? Their audience are the technicians at Managed Service Providers (MSPs). These are technicians who are early in their careers to mid in the careers. This an opportunity for them to grow and learn from the community. The conference itself is a great way for MSPGeek to continue to grow their community – which is HUGE already because they’ve been around a long time in forums and otherwise!

So why them? Why this conference? Because… at my core, it’s super important to impact our younger techies early in their careers. I know the importance of support and growth that early, and I know the pains of not always getting that support. I did a lot of tech support work during college and right out of college – so early technician days are very much in my realm. No, these aren’t the software architects or the senior devs that I’m mentoring on growing into architects. And that’s fine – there are no rules out there that say I have to choose a team to support. I choose both.

Also, there are a couple people in that community who I’ve had history with and love collaborating with – Kevin Dutkiewicz (yeah! the hat guy you guys see me with!) and Jason Slagle (one of the teaching assistants from our college days who is an awesome IT/security community dude). So it’s good to have community adventures and shenanigans with them!

What about Stir Trek?

They’re in good hands! The Stir Trek organizing committee has been working together since the late 00s, bringing in people along the way.

Also, if there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I don’t leave places completely in the dark when I leave. All the secrets and timelines that I’ve employed over the years are documented, and I made sure the team knew where to find those things. There are parts that are just who I am and that I wouldn’t have caught in the docs – expert blindside. But most everything should be in the documentation for them – email templates, timelines, and other things related to coordinating volunteers and helping make the event run smoothly.

How can I get involved with Stir Trek?

I’ve gotten this question a lot. You can contact Stir Trek many ways. Check out their Contact Us page!