SCaLE start and SeaGL continuing
Just got asked to help with the SCaLE career track for the conference in March. I’m gathering up volunteers and reviewing talk proposals this weekend.
SCaLE will be in person in Pasadena. The in person part leaves out one of my friends who often helps with SCaLE. My friend won’t participate in or help in person events. I respect and understand their decision. If they’re fine with hybrid later in the year we’ll be talking about SeaGL when that comes around again on the guitar.
The current plan for SCaLE is to have talks for the career track and also have a career counseling event. With others, I have been running a jobs BoFs at SCaLE for years. We started with employment related networking, a meet and greet for candidates and hiring managers. Then we morphed into resume reviews in addition to the networking. We would fill a large BoF room on a Friday night and have resume reviews for a couple hours.
It’s amazing how much experience some of those new to the industry have. Most of them could really use some help on the resume. Resume writing is difficult, so that’s not a surprise.
We also get the opportunity to help those who are re-careering. They have experience in one industry and are now focusing on tech. They have job history and we can help them find those bits that show experience for the new career.
For SCaLE 2020, as the pandemic was starting, RaiseMe came in to add the career track and had career counseling sessions as well. Lori, famous at SCaLE for game night and more, was my contact to the RaiseMe events.
During the pandemic I got the opportunity to join RaiseMe to help provide career counseling for a few Infosec conferences. We added it for SeaGL last year and I expanded what I had been doing for the Free Software Stammtisch career nights. Working with RaiseMe volunteers again ( and other vols ), we want to have career counseling again in March. I hope we can make that a hybrid event.
A lot of work to get all that going. Lots of volunteer wrangling as well, so let me know if you’d like to help.
For SeaGL I chair the finance committee. We’re still closing out the year. I have some more sponsor thank yous to send out this week. We also need to work through some more volunteer reimbursements.
Then, for January and February, I need lead creation of the 2023 sponsorship prospectus and our base budget. We’re going back to in person for 2023, but keeping online options as well. We really want a hybrid event. The in person portion is going to raise our costs, so sponsorships will be key for us this year.
I’ve already heard from one potential sponsor that the company is cutting back on sponsorships due to the state of the economy. It’s going to be a challenging year, but I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again. I’m also looking forward to some amazing chai when I get to visit Seattle.