Leverage the power of communities
[Music]
every year
i get emails from someone for new year
and diwali
no it’s not a bot it’s a show ashok was
a helper at triple iet bangalore
and a participant in one of my first
projects
with google student club i was helping
him learn
how to use emails and this was eight
years back
when smartphones were not too popular
so we got together one saturday
afternoon and created
an email id for him i must admit
he was a quick learner and years after
i left the institute i still get emails
wishing me happy new year or happy
diwali or just
hello ma’am how are you the joy of
receiving that email
is like a surprise dropping into your
mailbox
every once in a while my journey with
communities
started with this experience and i went
on to
learn and do multiple things as part of
communities
it helped me interact with a lot of
people
right from the housekeeping staff all
the way to the director
i guess that’s where my passion for
communities
got ingrained all of us at some point
have been part of groups with shared
interest
it could be a music or a sports or a
photography club
at college or a technical community
nearby
or an employee resource group at your
workplace
it could also be a spiritual or a hobby
group
in your society everyone associates a
different feeling
by being part of communities for some
it could mean a sense of shared identity
and purpose for some it could be
emotional connect
or friendship i even have a few friends
calling it family for me
it is a sense of belonging
a few weeks after i graduated a friend
of mine
reached out to me to lead the blr droid
community
which is the bangalore android user
group for those who don’t know
it’s a tech community with people
interested
in building mobile applications i
immediately said a yes to him and since
then
there has been no looking back
my purpose behind the yes was to meet
new people
and for those who know me i derive a lot
of energy
from people but what also came along
was a set of responsibilities weekends
spent
in hosting and speaking at events and
the responsibility
to figure out what does it take to run
and build great communities
you need the right audience you need to
identify their needs
and check what value you’re going to be
adding to them
each time most importantly you need to
be able to do this
consistently well i also remember many
of my friends
asking me what is it that you get by
being part of communities
do they pay you i said well no
but let’s see what unfolds it’s only
years
later that i understood the profound
impact that communities
have had on me through the community
i got a chance to apply to a public
speaking training
which was hosted by one of the leading
public speaking agencies in san
francisco
called speechless post the training
we were taught to record our own story
and my talk
along with two other friends got
featured on the google developers
youtube channel this was in
2014 i felt a deep
sense of accomplishment and i still
remember
my parents showing that video to friends
and relatives
for almost a year
through my community contribution i was
also given an opportunity
to travel to google i o on an all
expense
paid trip google i o is google’s
annual developer conference and this was
in 2016.
i remember sitting in one of the front
rows with my friend
arya watching the keynote live
listening to sundar pichai releasing
products like aloe
duo and even launching the new google
home
the exposure the listening to the
experts about latest technologies
and meeting people from different
countries and cultures
were all fascinating while i spent my
weekends for almost about two and a half
years
hosting and participating in various
communities
i built relationships with people i
would have
never met if not for communities i
started realizing and
understanding the value of strength of
weak time
i would make it a point to go and say
hello to everyone
hoping that they would remember me the
next time
we met i also spent some of my free time
in upskilling myself around the topics
of data science
based on my community experience i was
contacted
to lead the women techmakers program for
india
it was an extremely tough call for me
to let go of my dream job in the field
of data science
and choose to lead communities but i
decided to take the plunge
because i could foresee myself changing
the lives of individuals
with this role i must admit
i was confused and scared of the
unknowns
that lay ahead and just figuring
out how to lead communities at a
national scale
the program was at a very nascent stage
back then
and there was a lot of work to be done i
was fortunate to have some great mentors
and friends
who supported me in this transition
i built connections even beyond work and
meetings
in three years i managed to touch
about 17 000 members in india
and scaled the program from eight
ambassadors in india
to 58 today this experience has taught
me
a lot about courage empathy
and resilience fast forward 2020
kovit presented us with a lot of
challenges
but also a set of opportunities to me
it meant running the biggest virtual
summit across
india for international women’s day what
is usually
a physical one day summit with about 300
women attending
had to now go virtual seamlessly
so with about three weeks of preparation
35
communities decided to come together to
put together
this event right from putting together a
team
to designing the website to figuring out
the tech infrastructure
designing creatives to promoting that
event on social media
we have to do it all i took up the role
of program managing this event
and through that experience got to work
with some amazing people
across the depth and breadth of this
country
we all had our strengths and we decided
to play by it
there was a lot of work to be done a lot
of collaboration and communication
a solid plan in place and it was
important
to get the organizing team motivated
throughout this journey
we managed to take all those boxes and
ended up reaching
about 11 000 attendees across 76
countries
but what stuck the most with members of
the organizing team
was the bond that we build with each
other
in less than a month we understood each
other more
at a personal level we accepted
each other with our strengths and
weaknesses
and we became the strongest advocates of
each other’s success that’s the magic
that can be weaved in
with what’s even more gratifying
is to hear the stories that people share
with you
while you work so closely with them
there are many instances that remind me
time and again
the power of communities and the impacts
that it has
on our minds and hearts i want to share
with you stories
of a few people that i’ve had the
absolute privilege
to be working with through this
community experience
the first story i want to tell you is
about finding your voice
meet druva from ahmedabad purnima from
kolko
varsha from jalandhar and aditi from
indore while they belong to different
parts of this country
they had one thing in common they would
stay
small and hidden around a group of
people
and would hesitate to give out their
opinions
but by spending about a couple of years
with communities
each of them got transformed for good
today they do not have the fear of being
judged
when they put out their perspectives
sometimes they even convince me
on why their idea is better than mine
and i get absolute joy in looking at
these women
growing from strength to strength the
second story
i want to tell you is about empowerment
meet ananya who is a community organizer
at the bangalore chapter
she joined the communities a few years
back and got deeply involved with her
community
not expecting too much in return i was
speaking to her one day
very recently and she told me how much
she owed
her current role to her community
experience
because that’s where she built her soft
skills and got exposed
to real technology today she is doing a
role
that many of us in the tech industry
aspire for
she calls herself a developer experience
engineer when communities can play
such a key role in providing economic
opportunities
along with the exposure and experience
it’s certainly worth a try
isn’t it the third story
is about hope meet rich raj
from jalandhar one of the most
passionate
community organizers that i know of
i once asked him rich why do you do what
you do for communities
and he said laksha i really want to
support
help and mentor people because that is a
luxury
that i did not have and his answer
really touched me another community
champion
senbil hails from madurai
while madurai is extremely popular for
its temples
it also houses some great tech
professionals
however given its geography there’s a
dearth
of exposure to communities there
language is sometimes a barrier too so
center
based out of bangalore would take the
pain to travel to his hometown on
weekends
to lead local communities there what’s
even more heartening
is to see him translating a few of the
talks and
event summaries to his local language so
that more people
can understand and benefit from this
community experience
these instances make me feel that we are
progressing
towards building great leaders and
stronger
communities over the last few years i
have been
part of many communities student
communities
technical communities women in tech
communities
reflecting on my own community
experience
this has been an extremely fulfilling
experience for me
i have learned to lead with my head and
my heart
and along the way have got an
opportunity to work with some amazing
people
creating a motivated confident tribe of
women
supporting other women is what gets me
to work
every day and i can tell you in a
nutshell
that communities allow you to empower
others around you
and in the process you also empower
yourself
so find your interest group with that
self interest
you can learn grow and share together
with like-minded individuals with very
similar interests
but diverse perspectives it can pay a
way for you
to become a better leader a better
teammate
or even a better person for all you know
it might help you find a new job or a
new mentor
or a new co-founder for your next
venture or
a friend for life i want to take this
opportunity
to thank all the people who have stood
by me
through this journey my support system
my friends from the communities
your support and encouragement is what
inspires me every day
to pay it forward you get me going
at the beginning i spoke to you about
different feelings being associated for
different
people when we think of communities when
i asked a few community professionals on
what comes to their mind
here are a few answers that i got and
i’m sure many of you can relate
to some of these words and phrases
as i sign off i wish you more power
to build and participate in communities
that will enable you
to find your voice get empowered
or be instrumental in paying it forward
or all of the above thank you