Networking and my First Agile Talk as an Agilist

On August 23rd, 2017, I gave my first agile talk at Mindvalley’s beautiful Hall of Awesomeness, organized by an incredible organization called Women Who Code, Kuala Lumpur (WWC). The event also included a talk by my fellow agilist colleague, Andreea Visanoiu, who presented a comparison about agile frameworks.

My talk was about agile teams and it was well received, in spite of a few stumbles here and there from lack of practice in giving talks in general. I had notes in one hand, a mic on the other, and was one hand short of being able to hold the clicker. I’m happy to say that I’ve gotten much better since then.

How did my agile talk happen? Meet Women Who Code

A few weeks before my talk, I luckily stumbled upon another agile talk organized by WWC. Agilist Kimberly Brown was the presenter, and she shared her experiences helping organizations to be agile in the workplace.

In this event, I met Daphne Choong, who is one of the organizers of WWC and leads the agile track. Daphne and her fellow WWCers organize numerous events in Kuala Lumpur: 17 events in total in 2017! They organize these events in their spare time and the events are free to attend with the vision to “[create a] world where women are proportionally represented as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members, and software engineers.” But, just as their vision promotes equality, so do their events: both men and women are welcome.

As we were both passionate about agile topics, Daphne then mentioned that, if I was interested, she would put together another agile event where I would be the speaker. I could not have said no! I was more than happy to support this inspiring organization and at the same time take the opportunity to get some stage time.

So, find a Women Who Code chapter near your area and check out their next events. You will learn a lot of cool stuff and have a ton of opportunities to network with other professionals in the area.

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