Nikema’s Spinnaker Summit 2021 Recap hero graphic

Nikema’s Spinnaker Summit 2021 Recap

Jun 29, 2021 by Armory

My Second Spinnaker Summit is in the Books!

Last week I attended and spoke at my second Spinnaker Summit. Like last year’s summit, it was fully virtual. This time Spinnaker Summit was co-located with cdCon and took place on the Hopin platform.

Last year, I spoke on a panel about Black professionals a few months after starting as a new employee at Armory. I showed up and just spoke my mind. I was just getting introduced to the Spinnaker community. Between then and now, I co-founded a Special Interest Group (SIG), the Contributor Experience SIG, with my co-lead Ige. We presented the story of our SIG on Day 0 of the summit.

In less than a year’s time, I can see how much I’ve grown in my comfort level and my level of community involvement. I no longer feel unsure that I have anything of value to offer this project. I am solidly an active member of the community.

As further confirmation of my place in the community, I won an award for contributing to Spinnaker. I was super surprised but honored.

 

Must-See Sessions and Keynotes

As the Associate Community Marketing Manager at Armory, Spinnaker Summit was an important event for me to participate in. For a number of reasons, I didn’t get a chance to attend all of the sessions I wanted to check out in real-time. Fortunately, this was a virtual conference that was recorded. I can’t wait for the replays to be posted in July.

Until then, we have the conference keynotes available on the Continuous Delivery Foundation YouTube channel.

Tweets!

Tweets posted during the event that caught my attention.

Personal Notes

Burnout is REAL. I’ve been approaching the point of burnout since the beginning of May. The #SpeedOfLife campaign was a stretch outside my comfort zone. Stretching and growing pains are fine and normal under regular circumstances. Unfortunately, during #SpeedOfLife, I started writing energetic checks I could not cash at work and in my personal life. I quickly found myself overwhelmed, over-capacity, and struggling.

What I’ve learned from two months headed towards burnout

The #SpeedOfLife campaign taught me through my experience of leading a project for work and from the words of the people I spoke with. Kelsey Hightower talked about being present, Lee Faus talked about how the appropriate speed depends on the context, Margaret Francis spoke about how our work at Armory enables developers like me to work effectively at the speed our lives necessitate.

I am grateful and relieved to be where I am today. I had three major projects to complete over the past few months, #SpeedOfLife, the Spinnaker.io website refresh, and Spinnaker Summit. In many ways, I fell short of the expectations set for me but I have objectively accomplished a significant amount.

I’m grateful but I definitely need a break ASAP. I am looking forward to returning refreshed and reset, in a mental state that sets me up for success.

Share this post:

Recently Published Posts

How to Become a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Jun 6, 2023

A site reliability engineer (SRE) bridges the gap between IT operations and software development. They understand coding and the overall task of keeping the system operating.  The SRE role originated to give software developers input into how teams deploy and maintain software and to improve it to increase reliability and performance. Before SREs, the software […]

Read more

Continuous Deployment KPIs

May 31, 2023

Key SDLC Performance Metrics for Engineering Leaders Engineering leaders must have an effective system in place to measure their team’s performance and ensure that they are meeting their goals. One way to do this is by monitoring Continuous Deployment Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).  CD and Automated Tests If you’re not aware, Continuous Deployment, or CD, […]

Read more

What Are the Pros and Cons of Rolling Deployments?

May 26, 2023

Rolling deployments use a software release strategy that delivers new versions of an application in phases to minimize downtime. Anyone who has lived through a failed update knows how painful it can be. If a comprehensive update fails, there are hours of downtime while it is rolled back. Even if the deployment happens after hours, […]

Read more