Fireside with Voxgig

Episode 249 Sébastien Blanc, Developer Relation Engineer at Port IO

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 16:50:00 +0000

Today, we’re speaking to someone who’s been doing DevRel since before DevRel was a term anyone knew. Sébastien Blanc is the Developer Relation Engineer at Port IO, an internal developer portal that gives developers the opportunity to do all their engineering in one place.

Sébastien speaks to us about his beginnings in DevRel, and the privileges of being given the steering wheel of a budding industry. We chat about the effectiveness of bringing in Dev influencers into the DevRel space - it turns out that many factors can determine if this is the right decision for your company.

We touch on the impact of co-pilot on developing, AI tooling, internal developer portals and documentation!

Reach out to Sébastien here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/s%C3%A9bastien-blanc-08a73b1/
Check out Port IO: https://www.port.io/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 248 Richard Bray, Developer Advocate at BetterStack

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 20:50:00 +0000

Richard Bray is our guest on the show today, and we are so excited to talk all about his role as Developer Advocate at Better Stack. Better Stack is a developer-first observability and incident management platform that combines incident management with uptime monitoring.

Richard started down the DevRel path by creating his own content on social media, which quickly led to him receiving interest from companies looking to draw on skill for engaging people through video. Over time, he’s continued to build up his skills, increase his clients and expand into more areas of Developer Education.

We learn from Richard about what it means to be developer-first or developer-plus, and why that model can work so well for the right companies. We also touch on the process and hiring for DevRel, and the Do’s and Don’t’s you’ll want to look out for during the process.

Reach out to Richard here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbray/
Check out BetterStack: https://betterstack.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 247 Andy Hilliard, CEO of Accelerance

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 11:43:00 +0000

Today we’re delighted to be talking outsourcing, distributed development, and empathy with Andy Hilliard, the CEO of Accelerance. Accelerance is a software outsourcing consultancy - in other words, they help other companies to build distributor teams and make them functional.
Andy has ended up drawing on many of the traditional DevRel pillars, namely empathy, and we learn about how his time in the Peace Corps inspired his passion for global business, and piqued his interest in the myriad of different perspectives from the international community.
He talks to us about how he tries to understand people on a human level, and empower them. In distributed development, it’s all about trying to create stickiness and common ground. He also put our minds at ease about AI - when no one truly knows what the future holds, there’s probably not much point in losing sleep over it.

Reach out to Andy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyhilliard/ Check out Accelerance: https://www.accelerance.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 246 Lori Lorusso, Open Source Advocate and Head of Community at Percona

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 17:15:00 +0000

Today, we’re back with a new episode! We chatted to Lori Lorusso who is an open source advocate and the head of community at Percona. Percona is an organisation leading the way in open source database software, support, and services.
We talk to Lori about how she’s made her way as a DevRel, and how her background as a community builder for Harley-Davidson helped her prepare for her work with developers. Lori is also a speaker, and she thrives on helping developers to share their knowledge!
It was wonderful to have Lori on the podcast, and we can’t wait to see what she does in the future!

Reach out to Lori here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorilorusso/
Check out Percona: https://www.percona.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 245 Thorsten Schaeff, Developer Experience Engineer at ElevenLabs

Thu, 08 May 2025 14:33:00 +0000

In this episode, we’re drilling more into the vocational aspect of DevRel, with our guest Thorsten Schaeff. Thor has recently become the Developer Experience Engineer at ElevenLabs, an AI Audio research and deployment company, and he’s based out of Singapore, having moved there with Stripe six years ago.
Thor tells us that the common thread amongst his various roles has been the learning and teaching aspects, and he’s been lucky enough to be able to follow his interests for the majority of his career. We agree with him on the point that if you are driven by wanting to help and teach people, then DevRel is the place for you.
We also talk about his multi-modal approach to publishing content. Not only do you need to be targeting all platforms, with both long and short form content, these channels all need to interact with each other as well, and present as a cohesive front.
He leaves us with a lovely reminder of just how rewarding it can be to see someone create something great with a technology you taught them to use.

Reach out to Thorsten here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thorwebdev/
Check out ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 244 Karl Hughes Founder of Draft.dev and The Podcast Consultant

Fri, 02 May 2025 17:33:00 +0000

Some people spend their whole lives looking for their “superpower”, but if you’re a DevRel, you’ve probably already found yours. Today we’re speaking to Founder of Draft.dev, Karl Hughes about his path through the startup world, and the ever-changing landscape it operates in.
Draft.dev is a developer focused content agency, and with Karl we learn about the epic highs and lows that he and the company have been through in this industry. Any small business owners or startup founders can relate to the realities of Karl’s journey - one day your cash is flowing, the next it’s a dead stop and only those with true skill and dedication can run a company that successfully traverses both eras.
We discuss the effects that AI is having on DevRel, as well as the return to in-person events. Karl has been the very definition of hands-on with his projects, and it has allowed him to gain an extremely well rounded understanding of the technical aspects of running a company.
Be sure to give it a listen!

Reach out to Karl here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karllhughes/
Check out Draft.dev: https://draft.dev/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 243 Carolina Paradas, Vice President of Growth at Fidel API

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:20:00 +0000

We’re back from our break this week with an excellent chat about the world of Fintech! Carolina Paradas is the Vice President of growth at Fidel API, a classic aggregation API that lets you act on payments in real time. And with code on the homepage, we already know that they’ve got an outlook we can get on board with.
Carolina’s role is focused largely, as she tells us, on enabling people to do the best work they can. She monitors sales, customer success and marketing, and ensures that anything client-facing represents the company correctly. As you can imagine, this type of work requires much in the way of collaboration and people skills, something Carolina brings to the table in droves.
One thing to pay attention to in this episode is Carolina’s focus on developing synergy with others in her field. Through a mutual exchange of ideas, goals and everything down to contract details, it seems that Devrels in Fintech are doing an excellent job.

Reach out to Carolina here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-p-693b418a/
Check out Fidel: https://fidelapi.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 242 Juan Cruz Viotti, Founder of Source Meta

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 17:25:00 +0000

Today, we’re sitting down for an in-depth technical discussion with Juan Cruz Viotti, the Founder of Sourcemeta, a top provider of JSON Schema tooling and services. Juan has been working in the space for a long time, so we’re delighted to be getting his insight into this field.
A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with JSON Schema, and much of that originates from the fact that, despite what people may think, it is a constraint language, not a modelling one. Juan explains to us that one of the reasons people can find it so painful is that the language is extremely powerful and expressive. Through his work, he is determined to help people learn and get to grips with it, so it doesn’t seem so intimidating.
Finally, he tells us about what Sourcemeta is currently working on, and how they are continuing to evangelise and promote JSON Schema. They are diving head first into the conference space, and will soon have a desktop app to further aid people in their understanding of the language and how it works.

Reach out to Juan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jviotti/
Check out Sourcemeta: https://www.sourcemeta.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 241 Alex Rattray, Founder of Stainless

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:14:00 +0000

Today we’re sitting down for a chat with Alex Rattray, founder of Stainless, to talk about what they do, and how AI could be shaking up the SDK space in a big way.
Stainless is an SDK generator that helps create high quality SDKs for rest APIs. Alex’s reason for starting the company is simple. He wanted to serve developers in a million different ways. That could be why the Stainless website homepage features a wall of code - they know who their audience is.
With every programming language carrying its own nuances, SDK generation can be a mammoth task, especially developing them to the standard that Stainless holds itself to.
It was a pleasure speaking to Alex, not least because it’s so clear that, for him, the value of developer experience comes first and foremost.

Reach out to Alex here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexrattray/
Check out Stainless: https://www.stainless.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 240 Courtney Yatteau and Raúl Jiménez Ortega, Developer Experience Team at Esri

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Today, we have a very wonderful unreleased episode from last year. It’s a dynamic duo on the pod today, as we’re joined by Raúl Jiménez Ortega and Courtney Yatteau from the Developer Experience Team at Esri.
We talk about the experience of DevRel in a large organisation, and how internal DevRel compares to external. When you grow to a certain size, the question broadens from ‘how do I engage new people?’ to ‘how do I engage my own people?’
Esri is a leading geospatial tech company helping big and small organisations to make the most out of their data. Courtney compares for us the practice of teaching in a classroom vs teaching developers. Raúl takes us through his DevRel journey and the current role he plays on Esri’s Developer Experience Team.
It was such a delight to have Courtney and Raúl on the podcast, and we hope you enjoy listening! ‍

Check out Courtney’s Medium: https://medium.com/@c_yatteau
Reach out to Courtney here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyyatteau/
Reach out to Raúl here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimenezortegaraul/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 239 Abhishek Mishra, DevRel Engineer at Tune AI

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:35:00 +0000

Today we’re speaking to the wonderful Abhishek Mishra of Tune AI, a Gen AI stack, that focuses on fine-tuning and deploying generative AI models. With two products under their belt, they’ve had their hands full and Abhishek joins us to tell us all about it.
In this episode we discuss the topic of playgrounds, and the vital role they play. Something not always considered, is that not everyone has the capability to test if an LLM will work for them or their product, so playgrounds that allow for experimentation are essential for reaching those people.
We also get onto the topic of DevRel backgrounds, and how Abhishek believes every DevRel should work as a developer, not just to know the pain points, but to have a fully rounded understanding of how to advocate for them. ‍
Reach out to Abhishek here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stalwartcoder/
Check out Tune AI here: https://tunehq.ai/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 238 Trey Botard, Head of Developer Relations at Atomic

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Trey Botard joins the ranks of our guests with an unconventional entry into DevRel. He’s the Head of Developer Relations at Atomic, a digital financial connectivity platform that manages online payroll transactions. His origin story begins with wine, and helping a team of waiters understand how to sell it to customers. Sounds like a familiar setup…
With this background, and an interest in tech, it’s not surprising that Trey found his way to DevRel. The importance of making customers feel special and heard is something he emphasises, as well as building trust by not just telling, but showing.
As are many people, Trey is stuck in an ever growing pile of Slack channels. So of course, this has inspired his current desire to find a better way to manage information distribution in a way that is efficient but not overbearing. We’re very excited to hear his update on this in a few years, but for now, you’ll have to enjoy hearing about all the other great work he’s doing! ‍

Reach out to Trey here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treybotard/
Check out Atomic here: https://atomic.financial/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 237 Martyn Davies, Developer Relations Leader at Zuplo

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:03:00 +0000

Today we’re speaking to someone who could definitely give us all a few tips on how to make high quality, engaging DevRel content. We’re talking about Martyn Davies, the Developer Relations Leader at Zuplo, who joins us to talk APIs, developer experience and the wider world’s understanding of DevRel.
Zuplo is an API management platform offering a better, more supportive experience to developers. As Martyn explains, this space has been dominated by a few big players for a long time, and they’re excited to continue shaking things up and offering something new to people.
Martyn is leading the charge on Zuplo’s developer content, namely in the form of their wonderful Youtube channel, which has a distinctly friendly atmosphere. By focusing on the wider API world, as well as the benefits of using Zuplo, they’ve created something that stands apart in the sea of DevRel resources.

Check out Zuplo: https://zuplo.com/
Check out Zuplo’s Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@zuplo?si=THBY-5wLJ4IgRdLl
Reach out to Martyn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martynrdavies/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 236 Ed Shee, CTO of Ignitus

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 14:45:00 +0000

It can be a hard pill for DevRels to swallow, that not everyone loves learning as much as we do - but at the end of the day, this itself becomes a problem that we can spend time learning to solve! Too meta?
Today’s guest is Ed Shee, the CTO of Ignitus, where they’re working on individualised AI powered mentors that eliminate the need for constant training and retraining of employees. What they discovered is that most people are at least a little resistant to learning new things, especially if they have to sign up for something, or create an account or disrupt their current task. So Ignitus incorporates this mentoring directly into the flow, creating a seamless transition.
Ed speaks to us about what he’s taken from his DevRel history into this new role - for example, the incomparable power of on-demand learning tools being what sets AI powered tools apart from documentation as a singular resource.
So while Ed may have stepped out of the DevRel world on paper, the ethos and ideas have continued to inform and bolster his new work. Be sure to listen for specific insight on Ed’s approach and how he goes about his work.

Reach out to Ed here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edshee/
Check out Ignitus: https://www.ignitus.app/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 235 Nuno Job, Co-Founder of Decipad

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000

You may have heard of something called a “can-do” attitude. Well for today’s guest, Nuno Job, it’s more of a “will-do” attitude, as he seems to breeze past industry neurotics and red tape with admirable ease. Nuno is the Co-Founder of Decipad and was one of the organisers of the LXJS conference series. He’s here giving a little inspiration to those wanting to shake up the way things are done.
Decipad is an interactive notebook that seeks to challenge the spreadsheet’s claim to mathematical dominance. Their strategy is unique, letting their community come to them as they continue to focus most of their energy on creating the best product they can.
Nuno speaks to us about the power in surrendering - putting your energy into the world and accepting what it returns to you, rather than letting the rewards you seek dictate the way you live your life. It’s a refreshing break from the narrative we’re used to putting stock into, and the ethos seems to be rewarding Nuno in many ways besides monetary.
This was a great chat on conferences, product building and opening your mind to creative solutions.

Reach out to Nuno here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nunojob/
Check out Decipad: https://www.decipad.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 234 Pat Dwyer 2, Professional Humourist and Speaker

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 12:40:00 +0000

If you’ve ever been tasked with public speaking, then you’ve probably found yourself amongst the large majority of people who consider it to be one of the scariest things a person can do. And if that’s the case, you might be interested to hear from today’s guest, Pat Dwyer.
Pat revisits us on the podcast, to discuss how he uses his nerves and adrenaline to inform what he does onstage, treating them as a boost, rather than a hindrance.
We talk to Pat about what it’s like to feel a sense of “home” on the stage, and why it is that so many speakers find it much easier to talk to a crowd of a hundred people than to have a one-on-one conversation with a single new person in the conference room.
One thing he draws our attention to is that talks, like products, require testing. How much humour, how much information, when to speed up or slow down? It all needs to be tested and tested again. Ultimately, what you’re there to do is serve your audience and give them the best experience. According to Pat, the moment a speaker starts thinking about their own stakes, the quality of their speaking tends to go off the rails.
If there’s anyone in the speaking world to take advice from, it’s Pat.

Reach out to Pat here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-dwyer/
Check out Pat’s website: https://www.patdwyerwastaken.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 233 Allan Knabe, CEO and Co-Founder of apiable.io

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +0000

We’re continuing to kick off the new year with Allan Knabe, the CEO and Co-Founder of apiable.io, an API portal that’s helping to smooth out the creation process. Building an API is harder than it looks, but it doesn’t always have to be such a difficult task.
One of Apiable’s key priorities is seamless onboarding for developers, which sets them apart from other similar products. It’s the kind of thing that becomes important to you when you, like Allan and Richard, have encountered enough API portals that are simply repackaged swag documentation.
Allan refers to this as part of his overall strategy of going back to basics. Let’s not forget to ask ourselves - what is project management? Are certain features helpful, or just impressive? Is what we’re creating practical? Sometimes the most obvious things are what get forgotten in the startup chaos, and we were delighted for Allan to remind us of them.
Reach out to Allan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-knabe/
Check out apiable.io
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 232, Eoin Boylan 2, Head of Engineering at Evervault

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Welcome back! We’re bringing in 2025 (and with it a new, exciting lineup of guests) with an oldie but a goldie - Eoin Boylan. Eoin first visited us fireside in 2022, and we are delighted to have him back for an update on all he’s been up to since our first chat.
SDK strategy can be divisive, with some business strategies being to avoid the topic altogether - but Eoin, who’s currently working as the Head Engineer at Evervault, finds them to be worth their salt as an investment.
Evervault is a data security platform focusing on the payment space, serving as a one-stop-shop for developers. At their core, they remain developer first, retaining the knowledge from their early days, but now applying it to a more specific group of buyers. While we have time, we may touch on the current state of developer knowledge, and how, as useful as it may be, how ChatGPT may be influencing our bidding developers for the worst.

Check out Evervault: https://evervault.com/
Reach out to Eoin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoin-boylan/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 231 Andrew MacLean (repeat), Developer Relations Manager at DevCycle

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:05:00 +0000

Today, we're revisiting this New Year's episode from 2024. Our guest was Andrew MacLean, the developer relations manager at DevCycle, a feature flag management platform for developers. If you’ve never heard of feature flag management, that’s probably because it’s a relatively new space, despite feature flags having been around forever.
If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of feature flags, one of their main benefits is allowing you to update your platform without having to deploy so many versions that you lose the ability to maintain quality. As with many of the people we feature on Fireside, this service could have been a game changer in some of the startups Richard has worked on over the years.
Andrew dives into the history of feature flags, and what launched them into the mainstream. From Github devs, to articles, to implementation by major SaaS companies, word of mouth popularisation has made feature flags the staple they now are.
Andrew also gives us some insight into his history. It’s a typical DevRel story, of falling into the industry somewhat by accident, but in Andrew’s case his starting point was studying for a career in forensic science. With a background almost as interesting as the work he does now, Andrew makes for a fascinating interviewee.

Reach out to Andrew here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdmaclean/
Check out DevCycle: https://devcycle.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 230, Phil Leggetter, Head of DevRel and Developer Marketing at Hookdeck

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 14:15:00 +0000

Top tip: if you’re thinking of getting into DevRel, just know that you will hate boxes of t-shirts for the rest of your life. Or at least that’s how today’s guest, Phil Leggetter feels about them. Merch getting stuck in customs is a minor issue for sure, but it’s one of the pitfalls of DevRel we get into in this episode.
Phil is the Head of DevRel and Developer Marketing at Hookdeck, an event gateway that strives to be a backbone for event driven applications.
We talk to Phil about the utility of SDKs, and where their detractors tend to miss out on their ultimate purpose. We speak about the connection to revenue, and the key to demonstrating it, if you have higher ambitions for DevRel.
We also ask the question - is there an advantage for DevRel to stand apart from marketing, or does this cause us to miss out on another community that we might gel well with?

Reach out to Phil here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leggetter/
Check out Hookdeck: https://hookdeck.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 229, Kevlin Henney, Consultant, Speaker and Writer

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:30:00 +0000

Today, we’re speaking to Kevlin Henney, who, if you scroll back far enough, you’ll see was one of our earliest guests on the podcast. We’re thrilled to have Kevlin back for a discussion on microservices, agile development and how developers can avoid the “factory line” work style.
Kevlin talks to us about how there isn’t one service or language that has “the answer”, and the approach to tools should be broad and open to change. When developing a system, you’re creating something new - it’s not manufacturing, there is always an element of novelty to what you’re making, and that should be understood and accounted for.
We also get into the subject of legacy code and systems, and how to interact with and manage them. The accommodations required to run such a system can often result in it making more decisions than the developers working on it. A code base that’s a decade old with multiple component systems fighting each other can present problems, but if everyone’s too afraid to change things up, then the maintenance costs will continue to rack up.
It was a pleasure to have Kevlin back and we can’t wait to see what he’s up to, 200 more episodes down the line!

Reach out to Kevlin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevlin/
Check out his website: https://about.me/kevlin
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 228, Zameer Fouzan, Lead Developer Relations Engineer at New Relic

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 17:25:00 +0000

Today we’re talking observability, open source, developer education and the politics of conference speaking. And we’re doing it all with our amazing guest, Zameer Fouzan from New Relic.
If you don’t already know, New Relic helps engineers effectively deploy and run software with Full Stack Observability. Where other companies may do observability, but don't have a single language to communicate it, New Relic makes use of a single specification that caters to all languages and frameworks with the same APIs and languages.
Part of Zameer’s job is of course, speaking at various conferences and he chats to us about how he’s evolved as a speaker since first starting out, and gives us his best advice for both new and experienced speakers.

Reach out to Zameer here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmrfzn/
Check out New Relic’s past and upcoming events: https://newrelic.com/events
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 227 Jim Bennett Developer Advocate at Pieces For Developers

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Coding is like spinning plates, and before you even start you've gotta be spinning seven of them. Today's guest is Jim Bennett, the Developer Advocate at Pieces For Developers, where they’re trying to make that plate spinning act run just a little smoother.
Pieces For Developers works as a long term memory for your workstream as a developer, feeding across everything you do, allowing you to maintain flow and easily pick up where you left off after being away from your desk. If as a developer, you've ever struggled with the autocomplete style of LLMs that doesn't seem to work in a dense context, then Jim's work may interest you.
Jim's key piece of advice to DevRel's out there? Constantly evaluate and report. Don't get caught out by mismatched expectations. Know who you're reporting to and what they want. You may be doing a hundred things at once but your North star must be the thing that centers you. For Jim, it's daily active users, but for you it could be something completely different.
Be sure to listen to the episode to hear Jim's full thoughts on this!

Reach out to Jim here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbobbennett/
Check out Pieces For Developers: pieces.app
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 226 Katie Wasilenko Miller, DevRel Advisor and Mentor, and Ambassador for the Developer Marketing Alliance

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 12:15:00 +0000

Our guest today is Katie Wasilenko Miller, and if you’re at all curious about what it’s like to have worked in DevRel for Google, Asana, and Slack then this might be the episode for you.
Katie has spent a great deal of time across a huge variety of roles in the DevRel space, and after years of working for big companies, she’s now enjoying her time doing advising and mentoring as well as being an ambassador for the Developer Marketing Alliance, and a member of the steering committee for the new DevRel Foundation.
Katie talks with us about how DevRel might be in its teenage years. Think about it - wanting respect, craving independence, all the hallmarks are there! And while there’s a degree of frustration there, there’s also a wonderful opportunity to determine where we want to go next.
We touch on AI, events, onboarding and more, so be sure to listen to get Katie’s thoughts!

Reach out to Katie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillrunner/
Check out The DevRel Foundation here: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 226 John Gilhuly, Developer Advocate at Arize.com

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:02:00 +0000

John Gilhuly is the chief developer advocate at Arize.com, an AI observability monitoring platform, and he joins us for a great discussion on the rapidly evolving AI space, and what that means for a company built to work with LLM applications.
He talks to us about Arize’s new open source product, ‘Phoenix” - the Garageband to their Logic, and how the inspiration for building it came from how much the team feels they owe to the wider open source community. As much as it is a chance for them to build their own community, that element comes second to their desire to simply give back to people.
We of course, get to talking about the classic DevRel questions, proving value and defining your role. With a background in sales and solution engineering, John points out to us that in sales, your work is handed to you, whereas a DevRel must create and build their work from the ground up, creating something from nothing. Perhaps this is why it’s so often described by our guests as an incredibly creative job in a technical world?

Reach out to John here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngilhuly/
Check out Arize.com: https://arize.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 225 Stacey Kruczek, Director of Developer Relations at Aerospike.com

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 19:05:00 +0000

When Stacey Kruczek joined Aerospike.com, their community building needed a little TLC from a developer relations expert. These days, the community is 12,000 people strong, the meetups are thriving and she knows exactly how to prove DevRel’s business value. In this episode, we chat with Stacey about all of this and more. If there’s one word to describe Stacey, it’s passionate. This is obvious from the way she has built an immense amount of trust with developers at Aerospike and beyond. Aerospike is a real time database handling massive amounts of data, and Stacey has been key to building the wonderful community they currently uphold. Of course DevRel is a complicated role, but as Stacey puts it, she’s really there to listen - and that’s what she does, responding in real time to developer needs. Stacey is also doing incredible work with the Developer Relations Foundation, where she’s on a mission to be the spokesperson that DevRel desperately needs. The foundation’s focus is on promoting the value DevRel adds to business, and supporting their community in that goal. The work that Stacey does is not only huge in its amount but huge in its reach, and we can’t wait to see what more she does in the future! Reach out to Stacey here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceykruczek/ Check out Aerospike here: https://aerospike.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 224 Nick Schneeberger, Founder of Free Public APIs

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:05:00 +0000

Nick Schneeberger is the developer behind Freepublicapis.com, which is no small accomplishment given that he’s also teaching at a university and studying for a data science masters degree at the same time. We’re thrilled to have Nick on the podcast, to give us some insights into how programming is being both taught and learned in the current age. Nick teaches programming basics, and it was his own students that prompted him to found Freepublicapis.com. Every semester, Nick would have to go through the API list he provided to his students and individually check that those APIs were still up and running. Now he provides this service on a much wider scale, helping not just his students, but anyone looking to use an API, and be confident it actually works. We speak to Nick about what it’s like to teach coding to beginners. He tells us that it's not so much natural ability, as it is interest that can help people excel. A key skill to develop is being able to find the flaw in your code without losing your cool. It's a tricky thing to teach something that mostly comes with time and experience. Nick is very open to his students using LLMs to aid in their work. From his perspective, it’s more helpful to teach them how to use it in an effective way. Despite this, he still believes the old school ways are going to stick around too. Start with the whiteboard - then move on to the new technology. After all, why stick to one way of doing things when you can take something useful from everything? Reach out to Nick here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-schneeberger-814645154/ Check out Freepublicapis: https://www.freepublicapis.com/about Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 223 James Higginbotham 2, Founder of LaunchAny and API Consultant

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:20:00 +0000

Back in February, James Higginbotham joined us for a chat about what it’s like to work with increasingly large developer teams. Now he’s back to catch us up on what he’s been doing at his company, LaunchAny. LaunchAny is an API strategy and design consultancy, and so James is the ideal person to ask this question: I’ve launched my API, now how do I run it professionally? James explains how he’s seen commercial forces create a shift, where APIs are now not only being taken more seriously, but an absence of them can create serious issues for otherwise stable organisations. A key example he gives is of a company that lost a bid for a big silicon valley client due to their inability to present a solid API integration plan. A few years later, they bid again, and won. What happened in the years since? James and his team had been working with them to help build up their API portfolio, and they were then in a position to offer all the client wanted and more. James also talks to us about lifecycles, and the deprecation of APIs. While so far he hasn’t had an influx of people looking to sunset their API in a professional way, he expects that in the next few years of API sprawl, this will become a lot more prevalent. Be sure to give this episode a listen for some technical insights into the API world! Reach out to James here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshigginbotham/ Check out LaunchAny: https://launchany.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 221 Colm Doyle 2, Engineering Manager at Personio

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Today we’re speaking once again to the wonderful Colm Doyle, who you may remember from his appearance on Fireside early last year. It’s so wonderful to catch up with Colm, as he’s now the Engineering Manager at Personio, and as such has some fresh new perspectives to give us. For those who may not have caught Colm’s last episode, Personio is a HR enterprise platform, and we chat to him about what it’s like to make the transition from an outward facing DevRel role, to a role helping internal engineering teams deliver products smoothly and efficiently. In short, Colm’s job is to help every engineer at Personio be the best engineer they can. Something Colm stresses to us, is that when you don’t give your engineers time to breathe, you rob your customers of value. It’s as simple as that. He’s been fortunate to work for organisations that consistently value engineer time, which as he points out, is one of the most expensive resources a software company has in stock. So how does one become an engineering manager? Well Colm tells us that the key to moving into any role, is to draw attention to something that’s losing money, and show how you can put a stop to it. ‘It’s taking 6 months to integrate new engineers before they get up and running? I can get that down to 3 months.’ Sometimes, that might be all it takes. It was a delight to have Colm back on the podcast, and we know you’re going to love this episode as much as his first! Reach out to Colm here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colmdoyle/ Check out Personio: https://www.personio.com/about-personio/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 220 David Cramer (repeat), Co-Founder and CTO of Sentry

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +0000

We’re fortunate on the Fireside podcast to be able to speak to so many people at the top of their game, and today we're revisiting our chat from earlier this year, with someone who's no different. David Cramer is the Co-Founder and CTO of Sentry, the app monitoring platform designed to quickly help developers get to the root of code problems. David has helped bring Sentry to the top of the pile in this category - to the extent where, in his words, they don’t have competitors, they have “ankle-biters”. But does “heavy is the head that wears the crown” have any bearing for a company at the top? We’re excited to find out. David has worn many hats at Sentry since its founding, but as a software engineer at heart, he’s currently taking up the position of CTO. He dives into how strategy helped set Sentry apart in the early days, and how they manufactured the way they wanted the business to run, as opposed to simply responding to hurdles as they came up. The Sentry team, ultimately, is made up of developers, and David explains how this fact has led to the creation of a platform that is highly developer focused, in both user experience and in sales. He tells us about how yearly price hikes are not something Sentry wants to engage in, and how valuing affordability has allowed them to skyrocket in popularity since their first launch. Community is at the forefront of David’s current plans for Sentry, and he talks us through this, and other aspects of what he hopes to achieve with the company the future. Reach out to David here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmcramer/ Check out Sentry here: https://sentry.io/welcome/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 219 Pierre Burgy Co-Founder and CEO of Strapi

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Today, we're delighted to be talking to Pierre Burgy, the founder and CEO of Strapi, a headless CMS. We're getting into how they're trying to eliminate having your CMS be your biggest headache as a developer. Pierre has a fresh perspective on open source business models, and open source itself that we’re excited to get into in this episode! It all came about when Pierre and his friends were building websites for themselves and clients, and dealing with the struggles of trying to efficiently build on websites from mobile devices. The APIs were slow, and overall it was a grinding process. This, of course, set them on a course if developing a content management system based on an API - it was a no-brainer. They knew Strapi needed to be a business. We also ask him the key question - how do you get from an early stage project to 60,000 stars on GitHub. According to Pierre, blog posts worked well in the early days, and encouraging friends to get on board in the even earlier stages. But at the end of the day it's about keeping your eye on the project, pursuing improvements and nurturing your community. Make sure to give this a listen! Reach out to Pierre here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-burgy-strapi-88671673/ Check out Strapi here: https://strapi.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 218 Jono Bacon 2, Founder of Community Leadership Core

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 12:30:00 +0000

It’s time for another talk about community! And who better for us to speak to, than friend of the podcast Jono Bacon? Jono is the Founder of Community Leadership Core, and a community expert. He’s sitting down with us to give us a look behind the scenes of how he completely transforms communities. From those that have yet to get off the ground, to those that are experiencing a dip after their heyday, Jono and his team know the practical steps to get these communities thriving - or thriving again! Community Leadership Core isn’t quite a course and neither is it a consultancy, or a cohort. So Jono describes it as an accelerator, and like most companies, it’s gone through a few stages before ending up where it was always meant to be. Jono is selective in the best way when it comes to his clients, only working with those really willing to put the effort in. Those truly excited take on and apply solutions, rather than allowing fear to come into their decision making process. We find this hugely admirable, as so much of our focus in DevRel is on getting people in the door - but the reality is that not every client is right for you, and we should all be more comfortable with walking away from something that ultimately won’t work out! One thing that is clear from this discussion is that for Jono, the devil is in the details. He tells us about his quest to unlock “low friction value” for his clients. When building communities, it’s not always the biggest moves that will add the most. So many people struggle to get people into their community, and when Jono looks at their onboarding process it’s a tiresome, confusing mess. There lies the unlocked low friction value. Streamlining that process may seem like a small, simple task. But it’s those very small tasks that add up into a huge wave of new members. If you’re currently building, or want to build any kind of community, this one is a must-listen! Reach out to Jono here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonobacon/ Check out Community Leadership Core here: https://www.communityleadershipcore.com/core Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 217 Simon & Ethan (repeat), CTO and DevRel at Vaunt

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 12:35:00 +0000

Today we’re joined by Ethan Lewis and Simon Cheng, CTO and DevRel of Vaunt.dev for a discussion on how their work enables individuals and companies to nurture their open source communities. Vaunt is a SaaS tool that was built on a key ethos: saying thank you. It’s no secret that thanking people for their work creates a rewarding environment where they feel encouraged to continue making that work. Or is it? The treatment of developers can often communicate the opposite message. Instead of thanks, hard work is often rewarded with requests for measurement and insights into revenue growth in proportion to contributions. In other words - if you want a seat at the table, you have to earn your dinner. Simon and Ethan knew that if they could use Vaunt to foster a different attitude towards developers, then they would be able to make a real difference in the open source world. Ethan and Simon reveal that a huge part of their desire to build this service, and eventually product, was their own encounters with the problems faced by open source developers. One of those problems is that open source community building, as valuable as it is, is time consuming. And it often involves a great deal of trial and error; throwing things at the wall until they stick. Vaunt’s goal is to streamline these processes into a more efficient set of steps. They also speak on what they believe is missing from GitHub, and how having developers on your side is an asset that won’t be going out of style anytime soon. Reach out to Ethan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elewis787/ And Simon here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoncheng-kc/ Check out Vaunt.dev’s services here:‍ https://vaunt.dev/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 216 Brian Douglas 2, Founder and CEO of Open Sauced

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:30:00 +0000

It's always a treat to have a returning guest on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, but especially so when that guest has done so much in the time since we last got to chat to them. We're delighted to welcome back Brian Douglas - the Founder and CEO of Open Sauced, an open source intelligence platform that helps developers and maintainers unlock their open source potential with project insights. It's a service that Richard admits would have served him well at the times when he's had a few more open source projects on the go than he could handle! A lot has happened with Brian and Open Sauced in the year since we spoke with him last. Notably, the shift in their focus towards working more with bigger enterprises. While the mid-tier projects can help you find your feet, there comes a point where bigger is better, and it's time to take a seat at the big table. Along with this, they've been working on an exciting new project called 'StarSearch', an AI tool to help developers understand the logic in code, whether it be someone else's code, or (and this is just as likely) their own code from, let's say 6 months ago. If your ears are perking up at the sound of this, you're not the only one, and Brian goes further in depth on the episode, about how this works and what it could mean going forward. A good way to look at this service is to understand that it helps to reduce the number of ‘wtf's’ per minute - which as everyone knows is the ultimate measure of code quality. Reach out to Brian here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianldouglas/ Check out Open Sauced: https://opensauced.pizza/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 215 Aravind Putrevu (repeat), Engineer and Tech Evangelist

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000

In this episode from last year, we spoke to Aravind Putrevu. Aravind is a developer advocate turned angel investor, but to leave it at just that would be a disservice. He has his fingers in many pies, including DevRel consulting, where he helps companies with their product marketing and strategy. And of course, as any good DevRel or engineer should, he also has an itch to build something valuable, so he’s working on a SaaS tool that he’s still keeping in stealth mode. Aravind speaks to us about his transition from DevRel to angel investing and his propensity for startups and working with founders. When it comes to the world of consulting, Aravind walks us through his role with a company, from strategy, to marketing, to introducing their brand to the public as a DevRel. He speaks about the culture of DevRel, how all too often a singular person gets hired to do the work of an entire DevRel team, both code and community, and how this overload leads to the inevitable cycle of burnout that he sees frequently. We also chat to him about his work as a senior developer advocate at Elasticsearch, where he had the benefit of a large developer team working with a popular product that had insane traction. He says that Elasticsearch is a classic example of how DevRel can work when the founders are the first developer advocates. Aravind is also a speaker who has given talks at many large conferences, and he tells us a little about how he coordinates a team where five people have all signed up to speak at the same conference. A happy problem to have! Reach out to Aravind here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aravindputrevu/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 214 Ciara Sheahan (repeat), Founder, Presenter, and Journalist

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 04:00:00 +0000

It’s always fun to talk about the futuristic potential of virtual reality, but it’s even more fun to talk about it with Ciara Sheahan, because she actually knows some real information about this topic. Ciara is a radio presenter, journalist and tech entrepreneur, and she joined us on the podcast last year, to provide us with proof that you don’t have to be a former coder to be a founder who does cool stuff with tech. Ciara is the founder of Orb Media, where they’re taking the cross pollination of gaming software and integrating it with ecommerce platforms to improve the customer experience. Essentially, they are game-ifying the online shopping experience, allowing platforms to better showcase their products, and giving customers that dopamine hit you would usually only get from levelling up. Ciara tells us that there are many ways to “gamify” an experience. It doesn’t have to be all zombies and helicopters (although it can be!), there’s also plenty of subtle ways to apply it to the shopping experience. Now, while Orb Media is a Web 3 company at heart, Ciara maintains that her goal was always to keep this technology accessible, so there’s no headset required for this immersive experience, all you need is your phone. She also lets us in on how she got her start, from journalism to radio to tech and the roadblocks she experienced along the way. Ciara is also a speaker, and she tells us about how she believes speakers are simply vessels carrying a message, and that focusing less on yourself and more on how the information you're delivering relates to your audience, might help you get out of your head when the nerves take over. Reach out to Ciara here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciara-sheahan360/ Check out Orb Media: https://orbmedia.ie/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: http://www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 213 Conor O Neill (repeat), Director of Product and Engineering at Axonista

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 16:30:00 +0000

Back in January, we had a familiar face on the Voxgig podcast! We’re speaking to our host Richard’s former colleague, Conor O’Neill. Conor is the Director of Product and Engineering at Axonista, an interactive video CMS, where he’s helping them transform video from a fun accessory to a key feature of their customer’s platforms. Now, as Conor explains, though video may be their bread and butter, what he actually spends most of his time focusing on, is everything around video, metadata being a prime example of what he’s interested in. Conor weighs in with us on the recent purge of DevRel jobs, and explains why all may not be as it seems in this regard. While companies dismissing DevRel jobs might help you work out exactly who you don’t want to work for, there’s also a host of people out there, Conor included, who have encountered a great deal of difficulty finding someone with the capabilities to take on a DevRel job he needed to fill. He discusses that one of the main benefits of having a DevRel on your staff, is that you can have your own “potterer”. Someone who can experiment and play the mad scientist, figuring out creative new ways of doing things, something high level Devs with immense workloads would not necessarily be able to do. This allows for your company to be continuously open to the possibility of newer, better ways of conducting things. We even take a brief trip down memory lane, with Conor and Richard giving some insight into the time they worked together, and the wonderful opportunities that have grown from that adventure. Reach out to Conor here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conoroneill/ Check out Axonista: https://www.axonista.com/about/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 212 Joe Batten, Founder of With Scale

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Joe Batten joins us for a deep dive into the world of RevOps! The tasks involved in a Revenue Operations role have pretty much always existed in some form, so it can be defined as essentially a combo deal of sales enablement, marketing operations, data analysis and business intelligence. So there’s a lot to get into! Day to day, what Joe does is this: aligning people, processes and data sets across go-to-market teams as efficiently as possible. Measurement is key here, which Joe would have been familiar with, coming to RevOps through a sales background. But these days almost everything can be measured, and it’s something that extends to almost every role within an organisation. Joe takes us through what makes a salesperson great - chief among his top qualities is knowing how to listen. There might be a perception that sales is all about talking “at” the customer, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Active listening skills, genuine curiosity and a high emotional intelligence will all make someone a better salesperson than simply the ability to do a really good pitch. Joe also lets us know that you don’t always have to be a “yes-man”. There will always be missing features, and customers that aren’t satisfied. While the instinct can be to get defensive, sometimes the smartest choice is to be honest and upfront about what it is you’re willing to offer, and go from there. Reach out to Joe here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-batten/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 211, Tejas Kumar, Developer Relations Engineer and Host of the ConTejas Code Podcast

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 11:30:00 +0000

We’re delighted to welcome Tejas Kumar back to the Fireside podcast! Tejas is a particularly relevant guest for us, as he takes us behind the scenes of his own wonderful podcast - ConTejas Code. We had Tejas on the podcast last year, and we were excited to hear about all the new developments for him in the last year. Tejas believes that when it comes to AI, it’s increasingly obvious that some developments are inevitable, and the sooner we lean into that fact, and start to work with the technology, rather than against it, we can unlock a lot of time and energy that is currently tied up in simple, yet time-consuming tasks. He takes us into his process as a podcaster. The way Tejas describes it sounds like a breeze, he sits down, talks to a guest, then uploads everything. There’s more to be done, of course, but day to day the outlines, scheduling and transcripts are all taken care of by AI. This is a perfect example of what AI can do for us when we embrace it. Add to that - it’s podcasting! The stakes are relatively low when compared to other potential AI integrations in, let’s say, the medical field for example. If your AI misspells a word, no one gets sued - or at least we don’t think anyone’s tried that yet. These adaptations Tejas has made have allowed him to focus on the very part of his job as a host that makes it interesting, and fun - hosting! We get into the nature of podcasting, and how efficient it can be as a place to create content. If you have a thirty minute podcast, then you have three or four clips that you can take from that. If your podcast has video, those clips can now become shorts, or reels, and you’ve opened up a whole new element to it that fits within your existing structure. Tejas has a deep admiration for his guests, and this is clear in the way he discusses them - there’s a reason that ConTejas Code episodes are two hours long each, he has a burning curiosity about people, and a desire to connect that is clear even when he’s on the other side of the table. For any would-be podcasters out there, this episode - and Tejas in general - might be a good place to start when looking for inspiration both practically, and ideologically. Reach out to Tejas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasq/ Check out Tejas' website: https://tej.as/ Listen to the ConTejas Code podcast: https://shows.acast.com/contejas-code Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: http://www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 209, Peter Bryant, Founder at RimuHosting

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000

It's an exciting episode today, for everyone we’re sure, but particularly for Richard, as today’s guest is none other than Peter Bryant, the Founder of RimuHosting, and something of a personal hero of Richard’s. Richard in fact, was a client of RimuHosting, and he still recalls that what first attracted him to the service was their friendly attitude to developers. Peter goes into RimuHosting’s origins and tells us all about his initial vision for the company and how they've managed to maintain that vision for all these years. As a developer working for a startup in Washington, Peter felt the entrepreneur itch. He saw a gap to fill, and inspired by those around him, he made the jump and founded RimuHosting. Back in the early 2000’s, data space was scarce on the ground, and this was something Peter knew needed to change. Despite the lack of Zoom at the time, Peter successfully launched RimuHosting in his home country of New Zealand, defying predominant business advice to “go local” before expanding. He knew that the market for what he was offering was further afield, and if he wanted them to get on board, he’d have to start making a lot of calls. Today RimuHosting prides itself on its customer retention rates. As Peter puts it, it's a good sign when your customers forget you exist - it means you’re doing your job very very well. Despite this, they still manage to remain customer-facing, and with consolidation swallowing up independent hosting services left and right, RimuHosting is an example to all, of the quality and worthiness of independent companies. Reach out to Peter here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterbryant/ Check out RimuHosting: https://rimuhosting.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 210 Michiel Mulders (repeat) Developer Advocate at Swirlds Labs

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Michiel Mulders is a wonderful example of a creative developer, driven to share knowledge and committed to quality documentation. He delivers a module on documentation and technical writing at DevRel University, free online course dedicated to Web3 DevRel. In this episode, Richard and Michiel have a thorough exploration of documentation philosophies, approaches, tools and analytics for content engagement. Listen up here, understand the real benefits of paying attention to your documentation creation and its use. Lots of food for thought here, but also practical steps and proven tools described to help get you started on your overdue Documentation Improvement Project! Reach out to Michiel here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/michielmulders/ and find out about DevRel Uni here: https://www.devreluni.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 207 Carter Rabasa (repeat), Head of Developer Relations

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 04:05:00 +0000

Please enjoy this chat from last year with Carter Rabasa! Carter Rabasa is Head of Developer Relations at Courier and joins Richard in this Fireside with Voxgig chat. This starts as a history of developer relations, but exposes a question, a gap; who were the devrel leaders in the API/cloud era? The activity of developer relations as it is recognised today could be argued to have begun from 2010 onwards and perhaps GitHub is the genesis of this stage. They also clearly emphasise the need for empathy and how to harness that superpower communicating in both directions – to developers about a product and from users back to product and technical teams. Let’s get personal. How do you understand your role and performance as a developer relations professional? Maybe it actually starts with your company and not with you! And it should involve some awareness about what your company is building and trying to achieve. Reach out to Carter via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carterrabasa/ https://www.courier.com/ CascadiaJS Fest can be explored at this website https://2022.cascadiajs.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 206 Emily Omier (repeat), Open Source Consultant, Podcast Host and Advisor

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Tune in for an in-depth chat about how companies can improve their revenue through fully understanding their open source project and software. Emily speaks truthful sense. This is a tough message for the overly optimistic among you. As Richard so rightly points out – knowing the right thing to do vs doing it are two different things! Emily outlines the many, many ways a company can leverage open source in their offerings and is beautifully frank about source available vs open source… So where does DevRel come in to this? Well – unless a company has clearly identified its positioning, then how can DevRel communicate the benefits your project, service or product deliver? You need the template – visit Emily’s website (link below) – to clearly define your company’s positioning. Now with clear positioning, the first thing you should do is raise your prices…what? Crazy! But no. It’s a real and possible strategy. Emily shares her background with us, and issues a warning about choosing journalism as a career…a good way to get comfortable with not having any money. Do not ask Emily to write a Kubernetes 101. She’s had quite enough of that, thank you very much. But the repeated requests did wake her up to the opportunity to help companies to take their messaging and positioning seriously. Reach out to Emily: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyomier/

Episode 205 Matteo Collina returns, Platformatic Co-Founder and CTO

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Our guest today is none other than the wonderful Matteo Collina. Matteo is a returning guest on the podcast, and we are so excited to catch up with him. There's a lot of ground to cover here, including philosophy, the highs and lows of being a maintainer, and the world of TypeScript. Matteo leads us in a discussion of testing infrastructure. The sequence of events should be simple. Write an application, write a test for it. But when the test doesn't accurately reflect the running environment, the results won't be of much use. Some tests may be good for determining if your business logic is sound, but do they actually do what they say on the tin? We also chat about the muddy world of aging frameworks, especially if you’re a maintainer trying to juggle everything. Picture it as a game of guacamole. You patch one bug, but now five more have popped up out of nowhere. It's an unfortunate reality. Then there's the matter of the one person thousands of miles away who was relying on that one bug to hold up their whole system, which you have now ruined, and they will definitely be letting you know about it. Strongly worded email incoming. This leads us on to the topic of (as Matteo dubs them) “open source vampires”. Those who suck the life out of open source maintainers without ever expecting to give anything back - least of all money. It can be easy as a developer to fall into this parasitic relationship, which inevitably leads to burnout, and potentially even more serious mental health issues. It's important to value yourself and your time, even when others don't. Thank you Matteo for reminding us of this! Reach out to Matteo here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteocollina/ Read Matteo’s blog about the stats on Node.js: https://blog.platformatic.dev/nodejs-is-here-to-stay Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: http://www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 204 Alvin Bryan returns, Developer Advocate at Unleash

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Today we welcome back Alvin Bryan to the Fireside with Voxgig podcast! Alvin Bryan joined us over a year and a half ago. Alvin is the Developer Advocate at Unleash, and he joins us for another chat about Developer relations, meetups and open source. We sat down with Alvin to chat about the lack of DevRel tools for individuals, and what this gap means. Alvin's work at Unleash centres on feature flags, a useful tool for making the process of integrating new features as smooth as possible. We dove into the crossover between DevRel and journalism, witn both Alvin and Richard having had experience in both fields. It might suppose you to learn that, with demands on your creativity, time and people skills, there's actually many similarities between the two areas. You'll be delighted to hear that Alvin is in the process of welcoming a new DevRel team member to his operation. Yes - it's true - Certain companies are in fact still hiring more devrels, as opposed to cutting down on their numbers! This was a great catch up for us, and we're sure it will be for you too! Reach out to Alvin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-bryan/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 203 Joe Pettersson (repeat), CTO at Banked.com

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Joe Pettersson joined the podcast last year to talk all things devrel at banked.com. Banked is a global payments network, and if you’ve ever tried to order anything online, you’ll know that the payments systems used by various websites are far from perfect. Banked is on a mission to fix that. They want to get users through payments systems as smoothly as possible. As Joe puts it, the payments industry is big, but old-fashioned. So the question for him and the team at Banked became “how would we build Visa, or Mastercard if we started in 2023?” Alongside all of this, Joe and his team have also made waves in the devrel space, and we were excited to hear about their innovative new system for measuring developer relations. At banked.com, their sales process is developer-enabled. Now you might remember our discussion about developer-first marketing with Anna Redbond on the podcast a few weeks ago. So what is the difference between developer-first and developer enabled? It comes down to whether you’re selling directly to developers, or trying to avoid the developers “nope”-ing your product when it’s put before them. Joe explains that a huge part of banked.com’s success has been down to their focus on the developer experience. From his perspective, payment systems are already complex enough without needing to pass that complexity onto developers. For Richard, this represents a huge leap in efficiency from the days when he spent hours trying to integrate a credit card payment provider with a website, and had to personally calculate the encryption hash. PTSD, anyone? Joe tells us that accounting for the developer experience while designing your product can be directly translated into increased revenue. Developers won’t always be choosing the products they use, but they are often given the power to say no. But how exactly do you measure the benefit of time and money invested into devrel? Joe and his team have a system that involves finding out what percentage of your prospect’s developers have heard of your project. It sounds simple, but we think this system is a gem that will soon be spreading to other companies. Listen to Joe explain HOW they implement this system. Thank you Matteo for reminding us of this! Reach out to Joe here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joepettersson/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 202 Robert Kaminski (repeat), Co-Founder and Partner at Fletch PMM

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:37:00 +0000

Today, we're revisiting this chat we had with Robert Kaminski from last year, where he talked us through the practice of positioning. What even is positioning? Isn’t it that thing you do when you’ve already established your company and you’ve kind of already got everything figured out? According to this episode’s guest, Robert Kaminski: Absolutely Not! Robert is the co-founder of Fletch PMM, where positioning is their bread and butter, and he’s here to tell us about his belief that positioning should be one of the first considerations when getting a startup on its feet. Fletch works with companies to adjust their website messaging. From overcrowded and confusing to simple, clear and informative. But how do you even get to that point? You need to establish your positioning. Richard admits that a common flaw in the startups he’s founded over the years was that he never sat down with the other founders to discuss positioning. A bad move, as there may or may not be a clip of him on Irish TV trying to explain what his company did through a rather unwieldy steam engine metaphor. Yep. Robert and Fletch are on a mission to stop founders from doing things like that. In an age where software building is more accessible to people than ever, good positioning and marketing are kind of the only things that can give you that much needed advantage to stand out from the crowd. And yet, it’s an area that so many overlook. Fletch often offers their clients 75 minute workshop sessions, and according to Robert, if people can’t tell you who they are and what they do in that time - they’ve got a problem. And it’s not that people don’t know what they're talking about. They do! They just don’t know how to communicate it effectively, and that’s where Fletch comes in. Reach out to Robert here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heyrobk/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 201 Jason St-Cyr, VP of Engagement at Fishtank Consulting

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:05:00 +0000

After the excitement of our 200th episode earlier this week, it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming here at Fireside. And what’s become regular for us, along with seemingly the whole world, are discussions of AI and the current and potential consequences of its use. We’re chatting to Jason St-Cyr, a returning guest to the podcast, who stands as a perfect example of the way DevRel roles might be evolving in the workforce. Last year, when we spoke to him, Jason’s title was Head of DevRel - it’s now VP of engagement. And while there’s only so much that can be contained within a title, we think it serves as a very real indication of the direction the DevRel tide is flowing. The nature of DevRel as a practice, and the skills involved, means there’s a great deal of crossover with other fields. This is something that appears to be inspiring not just just DevRels themselves, but employers in other fields, and we chat to Jason about what this means for people who may be considering making this leap. We also discuss the influence of LLMs on technical writing, and the pitfalls of worshipping the ground they walk on. Many people are eager to make the leap to fully AI-produced content. This might work for now (though not to a degree of high quality) - but what happens when all those writers have transitioned into their new ChatGPT consultant roles? The work they would have otherwise been producing no longer exists - and the LLMs don’t have anything new to train on, resulting in their redundancy as a tool of “efficiency”. We discuss all this and more in the episode! Reach out to Jason here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonstcyr/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 200 Steven Coochin, Chief Innovation Officer at Lilypad

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

It’s episode TWO HUNDRED! And what a two hundred episodes they’ve been, from public speaking, to Developer Advocacy, to our recent focus on the API space, it’s been an incredible journey, and we want to thank you our listeners above all, for sticking with us, and inspiring us to stay curious, and keep seeking out those in the DevRel world and beyond, so we can all learn from them together. Today’s guest couldn’t be more appropriate, as we feel the wonderful Steven Coochin sums up so much of what we do here on the Fireside podcast, from his bold ideas, to his empathetic outlook and his staunch commitment to an open source world. Steven is the chief innovation officer at Lilypad. A returning guest of the podcast, he joins us with quite the update on his endeavours. Lilypad, as Steven describes it, is the way he and his team intend to democratise AI, doing off-chain compute, with on-chain guarantees. I*if you've ever dabbled in creating an AI product (and we have), you’ll know the costs associated can be prohibitively expensive, due in large part to the heavy duty GPUs required. Well Lilypad acts as a sort of Airbnb for GPUs, leaving you free to build your product, instead of messing around with cloud providers who can barely support their own systems, let alone yours. They’ve recently exploded in popularity, and Steven talks us through his whiplash of seeing their user number collect a few extra zeroes at the end. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Fireside with Voxgig episode without Richard and Steven diving into the DevRel aspects of his work, and how integral an open source model is to the heart of Lilypad. Thank you again to all of our listeners, and lastly to our wonderful guests. Here’s to a hundred more! Reach out to Steven here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/developersteve/ Check out Lilypad here: https://blog.lilypadnetwork.org/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 199 Tejas Kumar (repeat) Chief Developer Advocate

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

We're nearly at our 200th episode! As that day approaches, we invite you to listen to this throwback from last year of Richard's discussion with Tejas Kumar. We'll be back next week with a brand new guest for you to enjoy and learn from! Richard and Tejas cover fresh ground in today's episode. Watch out for the discussion of DevRel vs DevSell. Tejas talks us through the difference. And he gives wonderful insights in to an often under valued need – how to pace yourself at conferences. To be able to do this is crucial for physical and mental health. Reach out to Tejas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasq/ Also mentioned in this episode: Vercel https://vercel.com/ Cloudflare https://www.cloudflare.com/ React https://react.dev/ Platformatic https://platformatic.dev/ Vitaly Friedman https://twitter.com/vitalyf Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 198 Louise Ogilvy (repeat) Specialist Recruiter for DevTools companies

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 09:33:00 +0000

Continuing our commitment to bring you voices rom across the DevRel ecosystem, we'd like to take a look back at Richard's talk with Louise Ogilvy, a recruitment specialist for all things developer related, from July of 2023. Louise defines roles clearly, helping companies and start-ups creating developer tooling to get from idea to market. She recruits for the entire product cycle: Product, build and go-to-market. What has Louise noticed in the last few years in software development? Well, pressure on developers and awareness of developer burnout is one trend, including burnout of DevRel professionals. Dedicated VCs and investors for DevTools and start-ups building tooling for developers is another positive. And Louise provides very clear expression of the confusion and challenges in getting DevRel accepted as a valuable function. Add in a difficulty of performing in an organisation that doesn’t fully understand and appreciate the value of DevRel professionals. So the setting of expectations around the role is becoming more important and through that, career progression. Marketing awareness functions are not easy to measure, so while it might be nice to say we’re not worried about measuring the impact of DevRel on the business, what about the personal contribution or performance of individuals that might wish to know how they are being perceived and supported? Listen to Richard and Louise discuss the complexities of DevRel’s acceptance in organisations. Real food for thought. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 197 Furkan Karayel (repeat), Author of Inclusive Intelligence

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:55:00 +0000

Diversity and inclusion have been firmly in the “could do better” section of The tech industry’s report card for quite a few years now. But in this episode from November of last year, Furkan Karayel is determined to change that. This was the second time we had Furkan on the show, and we were delighted to welcome her back for an update and further insight into her endeavours. Furkan is an ex-software engineer who pivoted to the diversity and inclusion industry. Her journey began fifteen years ago at an international company, where she took note of the gender disparity that was prevalent. She is now the founder of Diversein, where they provide companies with action based solutions to their diversity and inclusion problems. She speaks to us about the business side of diversity and inclusion. If companies have a problem with their environment, it can lead to major retention problems, which tend to be pretty expensive. Cutting this down by helping companies create welcoming and fulfilling environments for all of their employees is one of the main ways Diversein’s solutions can help companies shave down their expenses. To add to this impressive list, Furkan is also an author, having released her acclaimed book “Inclusive Intelligence”. If you like this episode, that’s where you can find more of Furkan’s words and advice. Reach out to Furkan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karayelfurkan/ Check out Diversein: https://www.diversein.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 196 Jock Busuttil, Founding Director of Product People

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

“You're only as good as your last delivery”. This phrase may apply best to ambitious UberEats drivers, but when it comes to providing non-food based services, it also neatly fits in the DevRel and Product Managing world. We're joined once again by Jock Busuttil, for an update on his work at Product People, and to gain his thoughts on the wider product managing space (and why Product Management is starting to look more and more like product marketing). The level of crossover between DevRel and Product Management means that we not only share our victories, but also our struggles, and Jock speaks to one of the most common problems he's seen: people struggling and sometimes entirely failing to communicate their worth to those at the top. Another issue - adaptability. Context is absolutely everything, and a solution that might have worked flawlessly for one client might be devastating to another. Knowing when to make adjustments and put the “rulebook” aside is a key skill, and one that the new influx of applicants to project management roles would do well to remember. It was great to catch up with Jock on this episode, and hear what he's been up to. We hope you enjoy it! Reach out to Jock here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbusuttil/ Check out the Product People here: https://productpeo.pl/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 195 Rory Madden (repeat) co-founder of UXDX

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 02:25:00 +0000

Rory Madden, Co-Founder of UXDX, joined Richard on this episode of the podcast from last year, to talk us through his journey to creating one of the most dynamic, barrier-free conference series’ in tech. UXDX (UX being user experience, DX being developer experience) was born from Rory’s frustration when he couldn’t figure out how to implement innovative solutions in the companies he was working in, and he was always looking for case studies of people who had done it before him, as a way to boost his colleague’s confidence in new ways of doing things. His partner Catherine had a wealth of conference experience, so they decided to collaborate. They created UXDX, under the principle of connecting people from across every stage of the development process. Rory talks about how the attendees of UXDX may work in a huge number of different fields, but underneath it all, they’re all united by a common interest - getting things done. It’s what the conference is all about. Many of their attendees have common frustrations; projects getting shelved or dropped with no explanation from their higher-ups, lack of transparency, etc. Rory feels the solution for this comes down to communication. Management sharing their vision with developers can help immensely when developers need to make decisions that require knowledge of the company’s overall goals. Lateral communication between different workers at the same level is another key element, and something that UXDX is just the place for. Rory has a varied background in product development, and he dives into the pros and cons of really catering to your superusers, or going the other direction and changing things up to try and impress the people who just feel “meh” about your product. This decision applies to conferences too, as he reveals that he himself has thought about trying to cater UXDX for more of a niche audience. But ultimately, the multi-faceted crowd is what makes UXDX such a special event. We also hear from him on the topic of community building, and how you begin that task from the ground up. The trick seems to be avoiding loaded expectations. Like product development, your desire to foster a community should stem from the desire to solve a problem that you see around you, and UXDX is truly a wonderful example of this. Reach out to Rory here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorymadden/

Episode 194 Caelen King (repeat), Market Entry & Scaling Consultant

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 12:45:00 +0000

When we relaunched the Fireside with Voxgig podcast over a year ago, Caelen King was one of our first guests and even then, it was obvious there were tech layoffs happening. But Caelen gives great advice to non-tech founders and leaders about hiring - no matter what the market dynamics may be. So we're publishing this again for new listeners to the podcast. Richard and Caelen talk specifically about how non-technical founders can find developers, build their MVP and then scale that MVP. Caelen is an angel and startup adviser, and a founder. His previous startup, WhatClinc.com, was an online marketplace for health services, and as he'll tell you himself in this podcast, that is probably one of the most difficult types of business models to make work. We learn from Caelen how to manage the development of your technology when you are a non-technical founder. And there are two key lessons that come from this podcast, the first being, don't build anything and the second being that an early-stage startup should think about its positioning with respect to hiring software developers, in the same way that it should think about its positioning when it comes to product. As a startup, you are always selling. The most effective way to sell is to sell to a niche. Reach out to Caelen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caelenking/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 193 Kris Jenkins, Developer Advocate and Host of Developer Voices

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

It’s been a minute since we’ve had an episode focused on public speaking, but we cannot think of a better person to bring the topic back than Kris Jenkins. Kris is a developer advocate, software developer and host of the Developer Voices podcast. Kris gives us some practical and most importantly actionable advice for any public speakers - whether you’re doing a one-off speech, weekly talks, or even a podcast! Kris’s approach to stagefright (many people’s barrier to the practice of speaking) is simple but effective. If you choose to run, it’s fear - but if you choose to approach, it becomes excitement. As with many things, a mentality shift, rather than a physical one, can make the difference in truly hacking your own body’s pitfalls. On composition, Kris believes in structuring ideas before and above content. After all, a speech, no matter how technical, is ultimately a story. And a story’s plot can be the most exciting innovative creation ever written, but if the structure doesn’t make sense, then sitting through it will be nothing less than painful (see Game of Thrones finale for reference). This chat is full of great takeaways, amongst them that if you want to be an interesting speaker, you must first be interested in the world around you; that it’s not your job to imitate flashiness, but to take genuine inspiration from those who you truly admire; and last but not least - that you should buy a clicker! Unchain yourself from the laptop and enjoy your freedom! Reach out to Kris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/ Check out the Developer Voices podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/videos Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 192 Carmen Huidobro, Head of Developer Education at DevCraft Academy

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

We’re back with some brand new episodes! Kicking us off in style is the wonderful Carmen Huidobro. Carmen is the Head of Developer Education at DevCraft Academy, and she’s got some amazing insights into everything from the philosophy of language and learning, to the pros and cons of being a “generalist” in tech. On this episode, we get into the question of whether nature or nurture can more deeply impact a person when picking up skills like coding. Carmen draws our attention to the phrase “A jack of all trades is a master of none” and reveals to us the second half - “but oftentimes is better than a master of one”. As a DevRel, the ability to switch between different roles at the drop of a hat, is the very thing that gives the job a purpose. However, there are of course downsides to this path. Carmen describes to us her problems with having a lack of specialist branding in her work. After being told her CV “could be three different people”, she decided to, at least on paper, put herself in a slightly more marketable box - a somewhat reductive step that all of us must surely take at one point or another, before being allowed to fully embrace our wonderful unmarketable selves. Reach out to Carmen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-huidobro/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 191 Maria Ashby (repeat), developer advocate at Botkube

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 16:30:00 +0000

Last year, Richard spoke to Maria Ashby, developer advocate at Kubeshop. She talked all things Kubernetes, community building, and how developer monoculture is a thing of the past. Back in the days of an early version of Voxgig, Richard and the team got a crash course in Kubernetes which left more questions than answers. If Maria's work with Kubeshop had been around then, that might not have been the case. Kubeshop is a Kubernetes accelerator, which applies the power of Community and collaboration to open source projects focused on Kubernetes tooling. A major benefit of Kubeshop? Speed. In a world where the first to market is essentially the "winner", speed is essential. The way we used to do this was to simply onboard more people. More people means more code, right? However, the work from Kubeshop, and other accelerators means that even the smallest teams of developers can now complete mammoth sections of work in a fraction of the time. Another element of this is community. The way of holing yourself up in a dark room by yourself for 3 days is out and the way of sending out an email is in: "Can anyone help me figure out "x"? I'm really struggling with it?" Maria touts the benefits of asking for help and support instead of trying to power through it alone. It makes sense, as before getting into DevRel, she was teaching Python to kids. A tough crowd as Richard notes, but an excellent training ground for the work she's gone on to excel in. The conversation also covers events and speaking, another notch to Maria's belt. She speaks about the power of connection online vs in-person, and how if you want people to come to your event, you have to offer them something on the day itself - something they can learn, that they can get excited about. She hits on a note we come back to often on Fireside; progress is not linear. You can have a thousand viewers one day and five the next - but if those five people are there because they care about your work, that is totally invaluable. Reach out to Maria here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-ashby/

Episode 190 Chris Chinchilla (repeat), Technical Communicator

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 09:15:00 +0000

Thank you all so much for bearing with us while we finish recording a whole collection of new episodes. For now, please enjoy this repeat of Chris Ward's episode from last year. Technical writing is an essential element of countless products and services. So why is appreciation of it on the decline? Our guest, Chris Ward (or Chris Chinchilla as you may know him), is a talented writer. Not just of technical content, but also of fiction and music! He’s here to kick our writing brains into gear with a simple piece of advice: just start. Richard agrees that he needs to hear this as much as our listeners and that it’s one of the biggest hurdles for people who want to write - sitting down and actually doing it. A lot of people in DevRel either write, or think about getting into writing. So how do you move from the group of people who want to, to the group of people who do? And why would you want to do it in the first place? There are many reasons. Whether you joined a team for your code and now you’re expected to write an eloquent newsletter on the uses of that code, or you’d like to write a book on your specialist subject to promote your expertise in it. Technical writing is a skill with endless applications. Writing a book for example, can be a fun challenge, as well as an asset you refer back to for years to come. Notice how we didn’t put “to make eye-watering profits” on that list. Yeah. That’s the first lesson in writing books, and Chris tells us all about it. The respect (and money) given to technical writers isn’t what it once was. And yet the services they provide are more relevant than ever. There’s also the small factor that when you finally publish your book, you’re going to be talking about the contents of it for months and possibly years to come. So you’d better make sure the subject matter is one that you won’t easily get sick of (Chris may be speaking from experience on this one). Chris is also a musician, and he speaks about the connections between music and coding, how pattern recognition makes these two a lot more similar than you might think. And Richard makes Chris’s day by bringing up OctaMED, a long-forgotten Amiga music programme that they both lost hours to back in the day. How far they’ve come! Reach out to Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischinchilla/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 189, Marino Wijay (repeat) Developer Advocate at Solo

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 09:30:00 +0000

We'll be back next week with brand new episodes, but for today, we hope you enjoy this episode from last year, where we spoke to Marino Wijay: Here at the Voxgig podcast we’ve decided that we’re sick of talking about DevRel all the time. So we’ve decided to switch it up with something completely different for this episode - DevOps! Marino Wijay joins Richard to talk about operator relations, and his work for solo.io as a developer advocate. Solo helps companies unite their services into functional applications using Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies. So what’s Marino’s role? To make sure developers only have one thing to worry about: developing! All the explaining and talking to people, well that’s his job - it’s why he’s on the podcast. As Richard has lamented before, Marino and Solo’s services would have been invaluable to him back in the days of combing through Kubernetes by hand. But what about their DevRel? Richard has known DevRel to be introduced to companies via CEOs or even investors, but it was Marino who was the major force in introducing DevRel to Solo. He now has two other team members working with him. He speaks about his journey of convincing colleagues to give this whole “developer relations” thing a try. He was the patient zero who “infected” Solo with DevRel and now it has successfully spread throughout the entire company. He explains why he believes Kubernetes won out over Docker. Apparently a lack of observability (which stunts improvements) can be a real nail in the coffin. Docker used DevOps to garner early adoption, but wasn’t able to keep up with the demand of its customer base, allowing someone else to sweep in and offer what they couldn’t. Along that line, he and Richard explore the recent announcement from Terraform, regarding their decision to pare back their open source offerings. Is this another death knell, or a savvy decision that will give them a competitive edge? Tune in to hear Marino’s thoughts! Solo https://www.solo.io/ Reach out to Marino here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwijay/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 188 Marc Laventure (repeat) CEO & Co founder of Scalar.com

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 08:11:00 +0000

Marc Laventure is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scalar and, we're looking back on the time we chatted with Marc Laventure last year, about API documentation, startups and accessibility. He also happens to be the latest guest whose technical background originates in hardware before morphing into product development. Scalar is a service that allows you to document, discover and test APIs, which once again begs the question - is Fireside really just a podcast, or is it a way for Richard to discover services that will make his life as a developer easier? We may never know the answer. But when it comes to Scalar, Marc tells us of his very simple mission behind the company: making APIs as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible. It started the way all good startups do, the founders realise that they all have the same frustration, (in this case it was badly documented APIs) and they set out to do something about it. After all, as Richard points out, good documentation can mean the difference between a developer wanting to adopt the service or not. We should mention, that as impressive as all of this sounds, Scalar only launched a short month ago, though in that time they’ve amassed over a thousand stars on GitHub, as well as a great deal of positive early feedback. What’s clear from this chat is that we need to get Marc back on in a year to update us on this crazy journey he’s on. Reach out to Marc here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-laventure-75618a63/ Check out Scalar: https://docs.scalar.com/swagger-editor Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 187 Julia Furst Morgado (repeat), Global Technologist and International Speaker

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 14:25:00 +0000

Today we're revisiting this career guidance episode from last year! Julia has a background in law, marketing and now is a successful developer relations guru. Julia generously shares her journey to DevRel in an accessible chat and with an achievable pathway. But be prepared to commit time and effort to community building. According to Julia Furst Morgado, if you work in DevRel, you need to be able to code. And Julia defends her position on this. How can you understand the product? How can you explain it? How can you create demos? While you might not need to be a software engineer, you do need an understanding of code and a willingness to keep learning and developing. This theme of continuous learning comes out time and again in this Fireside with Voxgig podcast episode with Julia. Her ambition and work ethic is an inspiration – but they are also motivational as her efforts have paid off in her career and continue to reap results in her amazing ability to build communities. A wonderful conversation and chance to listen to an honest discussion of DevRel as a career. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 186 Philipp Krenn, Head of Developer Relations at Elastic

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

When it comes to Developer Relations, today’s guest believes the word “developer” comes first in that label for a reason. We’re speaking to Philipp Krenn, Head of DveRel and developer Advocacy at Elastic, and he’s here to chat to us about the work he and his 20 person DevRel team are currently doing. Philipp discusses the adjustment to meetups after covid, and how factors such as distance can affect cultural differences in this realm. As Europeans we often forget that while we can be in another country in an hour, those in America face a far lengthier journey to the average in-person conference. This means what’s on offer is going to have to be good. He chats to Richard about the place of DevRel under the company system. Experience has shown us that DevRel under marketing is never really a perfect fit. It’s like trying to combine two countries that have completely different currencies. Sure, they both use money, but that’s about where the similarities end. Lastly, he takes us through his history, and how simply saying yes to interesting opportunities has taken him on a path that he could never have predicted, but wouldn't have any other way. Reach out to Philipp here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippkrenn/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 185 Tushar Mathur Founder and CEO of tailcall

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Today we're talking about bridging the gap between back end development and front end experience. Our guest is Tushar Mathur, and he's the Founder and CEO of Tailcall, an open-source platform for building GraphQL APIs on existing endpoints. As you might imagine, we take the opportunity to ask Tushar about the ever expanding API sprawl currently going on. He believes that we should perhaps abandon the holistic approach to the problem, for a solution more grounded in engineering. We also dive into the challenges of scaling as a company, and how success can sometimes make demands if you're not sure you can meet. A good problem to have, but a very real one nonetheless. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 184 Jake Ward Co-Founder and CEO of Data Protocol

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Today we’re speaking to Jake Ward, Co-Founder and CEO of Data Protocol. Data Protocol is a developer engagement and support platform that hosts and produces high quality video content to help companies effectively communicate to developers. We all know that interactive and video content has the power to teach and engage people in a way that written documentation struggles with, and this reality is what has formed the basis for Jake and his team to go about making video content accessible for everyone. Beyond that, it reduces the need for individuals to go digging through Youtube videos from 2009 to find the resources they need to use a service. Jake also chats with us about the bigger DevRel picture. Can the recent divestment in DevRel be attributed perhaps to its overlap with marketing as a whole? And if measurement is the key to securing our future, are we approaching it with the right strategy? On empathy, Jake stresses that it’s hard to see empathy standards held up while DevRel sits under the marketing umbrella, again raising the question of whether that umbrella is quite the right place for it. Reach out to Jake here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmward/ Check out Data Protocol here: https://dataprotocol.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 183 Maryrose Lyons, Founder of AI Institute

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

AI and LLMs specifically have revolutionised the world of marketing. But will the revolution be restricted to the workplace, or should we start preparing our techpocalypse survival bunkers now? Today’s wonderful guest, Maryrose Lyons, doesn't think we’re quite there yet. Maryrose is the Founder of AI Institute, and she joins us for a chat about her journey, the rise of marketing and how AI can free up time for us to spend being a bit more human. AI Institute is Maryrose’s brainchild, and their goal is to make AI accessible to specific business people looking to incorporate it into their work practices. What we love about this model is the cohort-based element to it. Marketing people get a chance to learn from marketers, lawyers from lawyers, etc. Before her current venture, Maryrose spent many years as a successful marketer, and she chats to us about how marketing has changed over the years, and how an increasingly imbalanced playing field means that unfortunately, formulas have become important than creativity for the little guy. Reach out to Maryrose here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryroselyons-aispeaker/ Check out AI Institute here: https://www.instituteofaistudies.com/about-ai-institute Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 182 David Tuite, Founder of Roadie

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

We all have that one piece of information that is absolutely key to us doing our jobs. Yet for many of us, accessing this piece of information involves manually searching a keyword in either your email or a slack channel to find the one message from 2 years ago where it was mentioned. Today’s guest is here to let us know that there actually might be a slightly better way of internally relaying information. David Tuite is the Founder of Roadie, a Backstage based hosting and services platform that helps developers in large organisations answer basic questions about the software being used within the teams around them. David’s inspiration with Roadie is clear, as he himself had the experience of working within a large company, and struggling to explain what the teams around him were doing. According to David, many companies - even those with hundreds of employees, are still using ever-inflating spreadsheets to pass information internally. This imperfect system inevitably leads to hours of time slack-scrolling, attempting to figure what the hell any of it means. But as it turns out, David discovered that if you make it really easy for your software engineers to write code, they’ll write a lot more code! Additionally, he takes us through the history of Backstage, and its journey from internal service to open source. Reach out to David here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidtuite/ Check out Roadie here: https://roadie.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 181 Chad Whitacre, Head of open Source at Sentry

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re chatting with the head of Open Source at Sentry, Chad Whitacre. Everyone knows that once a startup begins to make the move from garage band to stadium tour, they’re going to need some investors. But how do we bridge the gap between them? Chad’s background as a developer has undoubtedly contributed to his talent for communicating with developers in his current role. But beyond that, he and the whole Sentry team have slightly bigger ambitions in mind for the future. They have begun work on something they call the Open Source Pledge, and Chad breaks down for us exactly what this entails, and how it will incentivise organisations to prioritise contributing to the open source community in the same way they prioritise profits. He also takes us through the history of Sentry, and how their roots in the open source community have cemented their commitment to ensuring its continued survival. If you’re passionate about open source, and seeing maintainers get their dues, then you’ll want to hear this. Reach out to Chad here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadwhitacre/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 180 Laura Vass, Co-Founder of Pronovix and Host of API The Docs

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Awards are often maligned for being more concerned with who you know, rather than what you know. But can developer awards be an outlier in the field? According to Laura Vass, our guest on today's episode, they absolutely can. Laura is the Co-Founder of Pronovix, an open source developer portal. She is also one of the organisers of the DevPortal awards. She joins us today to chat about setting up and running an industry award, and how her own sensitivities to others has been an asset in navigating different personalities in the space. As well as all of the above, Laura is the host of the podcast API The Docs, leaving us in awe of how she has had any time to chat to us about her many pursuits. On Pronovix, she tells us about their start as a self-organising company, before it had become trendy, and how they are navigating the transition to a more organised structure amid their increased growth. Reach out to Laura here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauravass/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 179 Ryan Donovan Senior Content Marketer at Stack Overflow

Thu, 30 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

We’ve got an episode for our writers out there today! Ryan Donovan joins us to discuss his 15 years of experience in technical writing, and just how that experience is serving him in his current role - senior content marketer at Stack Overflow. One thing to know about Ryan is that he is a stickler for getting technical details right, a great quality to have in a technical writer. He even stays away from audience suggestions for topics, as he is careful to always be confident and accurate in his writing. He hosts a podcast under Stack Overflow, as well as writing their newsletter. As Richard acknowledges, you may need a technical mind to master computer science, but for a technical writer, a willingness to learn anything and everything might be a more apt skill. Ryan discusses the benefits of being your own harcore tester, treating your own technical writing as if you’ve never seen it before. If you can’t follow your own writing, then you can be pretty sure no one else will either! This a wonderful, writing-focused episode, we hope you enjoy it. Reach out to Ryan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-donovan-1477b64/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 178 Sandy Dunlop (repeat), Mythology Expert & Brand Identity Consultant

Tue, 28 May 2024 06:50:00 +0000

Don’t you just love a familiar face? We certainly do here on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, as we’ve got another guest coming back for a catch-up interview! Sandy Dunlop is a mythology expert and brand identity consultant. He helps brands to define their identity with the help of ancient myths and legends. In his last appearance on the podcast, he told us about the power of storytelling. This time, he brings us some fascinating insights on how ancient Irish communities mirror the modern advent of Developer Relations. It might seem like a jump, but this discussion is full of amazing a-ha moments of recognising connections between these two worlds! It all starts with the oral tradition. We can already see the connection here with meetups and conferences. The ancient Irish communities relied on storytelling to bond and gather socially, but also to pass on important messages to their community and their descendants. How do you make sure a message gets passed around? You write it in the format of an exciting story. As Sandy points out, the people in a community, even today, with the most respect, are not always the people in power. Often they are the people who speak directly with the community, who listen to them and actively provide resources. In fact the modern developer advocate may not be so different from the ancient bard with their harp, singing ballads of battles and romances. This is somewhat of a break from our usual discussions here at the Voxgig podcast, but in a way it's one of the most insightful and apt discussions we’ve had yet. This is a special one, be sure not to miss it: Reach out to Sandy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-dunlop-7637101/ Check out Sandy’s services here: https://www.alexanderdunlop.ie/ Or here: https://bardmythologies.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 177 Tun Shwe, VP of data and DevRel at Quix

Thu, 23 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Today we’re speaking to Tun Shwe. Tun is the VP of data/DevRel at Quix, and he came on to chat to us about Quix’s work creating real time data developer tools and he also gives us an insight as to his experience working at a completely Python focused company. Catering to only one programming language may sound like a dream (especially to those running APIs and struggling to please everyone), but there’s still a lot of hardcore engineering that goes into their daily routines. Python may be one language, but like every language it has dialects and accents, some of which are so distinct as to almost qualify as their own thing. The diversity in how and why people use the language means that Tun and Quix are very much kept on those toes, despite the concept of a singular language implying simplicity. Lastly, he goes into how his own experience learning from open source has influenced him in his staunch support of the continuing use of open source to educate and spread ideas. This is a wonderful episode for those curious as to the inner workings of a single language organisation. Reach out to Tun here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tunshwe/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 176 Stephanie Prenderville Founder and Talent Development Director

Wed, 22 May 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Stephanie Prenderville is here to tell us why and how generative AI is on its way to making us more human than ever. Stephanie is a talent development director and Founder of People, Strategy and Change consulting. Stephanie’s curiosity, and desire to understand others has taken her across so many industries, but she’s here to tell us about the work she does to improve the way teams work and what that looks like as an optimist. Stephanie is a proponent of the “people first” approach, and she walks us through the simple logic behind this mentality and why it should currently be spreading like wildfire. We were delighted to have Stephanie on for this chat, and we can’t wait for you to hear it.

Episode 175, Julie Hubschman, Head of Developer APIs at FIS

Thu, 16 May 2024 05:00:00 +0000

We’re taking a deeper look inward on this episode of the podcast, with today’s wonderful guest, Julie Hubschman. Julie is the head of developer APIs at FIS. If you haven’t heard of FIS, don’t worry, because if you’ve ever swiped a credit card, then at least you’ve unknowingly used their services. Julie joins us for an introspective discussion on the intersections of tech and finance, building trust with developers as a DevRel in a new position, and how she takes her frustrations on her boxing coach (so you probably shouldn’t mess with her). Julie takes us through her role at FIS, and what it looks like when bankers meet developers. How different does it look from a regular bank? Apparently the main difference is the increase in jeans, but there’s also a few more interesting differences that can give us some insight into how these two industries might continue to form connections in the future. If you have any curiosity as to what the inside of this giant machine looks like, this is a wonderful, heartfelt discussion, filled with much more than just career talk. Note: Unfortunately this episode has some sound quality issues. We hope this isn't too much of a distraction, and we will be back with our usual sound next week! Reach out to Julie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliehubschman/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 174, Veronica Breene, CEO and Founder of Vesta Insights

Tue, 14 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re taking a step across the border between DevRel and AI, and seeing what the AI side of things has to offer. Our guest is Veronica Breene, CEO and Founder of Vesta Insights. Vesta is an AI startup looking to increase the availability of credit for all. Veronica began working on the company under her phD in explainable AI, and when she was rapidly approached by a potential buyer, she realised that she might just have something special on her hands. Both Vesta’s mission, and their methods are fascinating. According to Veronica, huge numbers of low-income people are refused credit every year, despite research showing that those with lower incomes often make better decisions with the money available to them. So they’re out to find the patterns in these data sets, and challenge the outdated models used by the biggest financial institutions in the world. The results of this could be huge. With millions currently locked out of the mortgage market, this work has the potential to touch a huge variety of different aspects of modern life. Veronica’s work is both fascinating and important, and we’re so glad she took the time to sit down and take us through it. Reach out to Veronica here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-breene-a908bb107/ Check out the Vesta Insights: https://vesta-insights.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 173, Jack Bridger, Engineer and Host of Scaling DevTools

Thu, 09 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

If there’s one thing to take away from this episode of Fireside, it’s this: do the scary thing. The proponent of this message is none other than Jack Bridger, fellow podcast host of ‘Scaling Devtools’. This is a great one for anyone thinking of getting into podcasting, whether independently or under a company umbrella! Jack’s background is in sales, and he takes us through how this has influenced his current DevRel practice- you don’t need to be a business whiz to be a great DevRel, but it helps to have a little bit of hustle in your blood. According to Jack, all successful founders have something in common - they did the scary thing. They went through with actions that weren’t guaranteed to succeed. This is what separates them from those who play it safe, and this is something that Jack admits he still struggles with, as I’m sure, do all of us. One of those scary things that we will all eventually find ourselves facing at some point, is asking people for money. Despite years of trying to get around this issue, there seems to be no life hack for this problem. In this vein, Jack discusses the unfortunate reality of cold calling, and how, despite sentiment, if it didn’t work - companies wouldn’t be doing it. Finally, he encourages founders to find out what they’re obsessed with. If you’re obsessed with UI, then you will found a company that has great UI. If you believe DevRel is the future, then your company’s DevRel team will flourish. As a founder, you get to set the tone - so embrace it! Reach out to Jack here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-bridger-047bb445/ Check out the ‘Scaling DevTools’ podcast: https://podcast.scalingdevtools.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 172, Brian Rinaldi, Developer Experience Engineer at LaunchDarkly

Tue, 07 May 2024 08:15:00 +0000

Building an audience is always a bit of a paradox for DevRels. You have a genuine desire to foster a community, so you begin creating content. Yet the more effort you put into that content, the less it seems to draw people in. A balance between effort and authenticity must be struck in order to grow - and today’s guest, Brian Rinaldi has managed to strike this balance perfectly over the course of seven years of audience-building. Brian is the Developer Experience Engineer at LaunchDarkly, and he joins us for a chat not just about audiences, but also about his experience at the first company to roll out feature flags as a service. He breaks down his thoughts on the online vs in person conference debate, and tells us why he believes virtual can never truly replace live events, but also - why should they? Virtual has the capacity to be its own beast, and while that can’t replicate the feeling of being a crowded room, it can open many other doors that would have been closed in other circumstances. Finally, he takes us through his history. How did his role evolve into a DevRel position, and what did that transition look like over the course of ten years? I suppose we could call it a kind of natural selection of the technology world. We’re not sure if Darwin would be proud, or turning in his grave at that analogy. Reach out to Brian here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrinaldi/ Check out CFE.dev: https://cfe.dev/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 171, Jorge Barrachina Gutiérrez, DevRel, Engineer and Developer Advocate

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Jorge Barrachina Gutiérrez may be an engineer by official title, but he hasn’t let those kinds of labels restrict him in his career, and neither should you. Jorge is our wonderful guest today on the podcast, and we’re delighted to have him in for a chat about authorship, adaptability and his work with AI. Jorge’s book, ‘DevRel Puzzle’ gives a hefty clue as to its contents. He lays out his perspective on how DevRel requires those engaged with it to fit many elements together in different ways, and in different contexts. Underlying his whole outlook, is his interest in the social side of DevRel, and how humans communicate as a whole. Jorge has spent the majority of his career between multiple fields, including DevOps, but is now focused on AI, an area that Jorge acknowledges can often be brought down by its bad actors. However this hasn’t stopped those with a genuine passion and curiosity from continuing to make strides in the space. Jorge encourages us to think less about “best practice” and more about customary practice. In DevRel, the one-size-fits-all approach is rarely effective, and that means you need to be highly adaptable, and ready to mould your approach within a specific context. This is a highly relevant exploration of ideas that we feel will be extremely helpful.

Episode 170 Christos Gkoros (repeat) API Designer at Postman

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Who said building robust, production grade APIs had to be hard? As we hope for all technology, the creation and design of APIs has only become easier and more accessible over time. This is due in part to today’s wonderful guest, Christos Gkoros, and his work at Postman as an API designer. Christos comes from a software engineering background and he speaks to us about his journey to his current role. As it turns out, API Designer isn’t just his job description, it’s his job title, something he acknowledges as slightly unusual. What it means is that his major focus is applying a streamlined process when it comes to API design, and conducting user research that can be applied in real time. Postman is an API platform that helps its users to create, test and use APIs, and as a frequent user of Postman’s services, Christos jumped at the opportunity to join their team. He breaks down how they support developers at all stages of the API life cycle, from conception to design, to testing. Christos takes us through some common API pitfalls, both in design and other areas of creation. Namely, the murky territory of competing versions of SDKs, and the chaos that can ensue when trying to get them to cooperate with your shiny new API. To top it off, Christos discusses his role as organiser of the API Athens Meetup, proving that, on this podcast, DevRel is never too far away. Reach out to Christos here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christos-gkoros/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 169 Caroline Lewko, Co-Founder of DevRel.Agency

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Caroline Lewko has an immense wealth of knowledge and experience in Developer Relations, to the extent where she’s been involved in codifying some of the now ubiquitous aspects of it, including the evolution of its name! Caroline is the co-founder of DevRel.Agency and according to her, she’s been doing community work pretty much since the day she was born - exactly the kind of thing we love to hear. Though she had a background in tech via telecommunications, this evolved into something a lot more technical in 2001, and she hit her DevRel stride just as mobile and internet devices began to merge. As someone with almost a decade of experience hosting developer events, Caroline is well placed to educate us on facilitating healthy working relationships between the different areas of DevRel. For example, you may be working with a freelance writer to develop some copy, a task which requires extensive back and forth between the writer and your developers. Over the years, Caroline has learned that a bit of hand-holding is often initially required for these connections to form, but once they have, they can form the foundation for future invaluable work. Reach out to Caroline here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinelewko/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 168 Sean Falconer, Head of Marketing and Developer Relations at Skyflow

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Today, we're sitting down to chat with Sean Falconer. Sean is the head of marketing and developer relations at Skyflow, and he brings us a fascinating inside look at the growing field of data protection. Skyflow's main selling point is their data privacy vaults, used in a similar way to an identity protector, but they've taken this concept from an individual service to one that can cater to entire companies with seemingly endless streams of PII flowing through their systems daily, vulnerable to attack from outside sources. Sean describes their journey, and how their DevRel skills helped to bring SkyFlow, and data privacy vaults to such a massive audience in such a short space of time. According to Sean, the discussion of data protection, and how organisations manage it has moved up from the water cooler to the board room, and developers are increasingly feeling questions as to the state of their data security. This is an interesting look into a really exciting area of technology, and perfect example of how a strong DevRel team can make or break a company. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 167 Andrew Grill (repeat) Futurist, Speaker and Author of Digitally Curious

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:15:00 +0000

Today, we're taking a look back at our 100th episode with Andrew Grill. We spoke to him back in June of last year all about Digital Curiosity, Andrew’s book, which came out at the end of 2023. We here are at the top of the hype cycle on AI (Generative AI in particular) it is hype that is prompting and causing government action. This is now mainstream. And Andrew had a brilliant, brief and aha! take on Apple’s Vision Pro. For SciFi fans, there are even attempts to seek answers for the future from great authors! Andrew doesn’t shy away from the risks and the needs for regulation, but does caution against hysteria. We are responsible, “we have a role” in where this goes. This is both reassuring and thought provoking, and as usual with Andrew, he motivated us to get off the sidelines and engage with technology and digital opportunities for our own work, innovation and strategies. Leaders need to dedicate time to being digitally curious. There are costs to leaving this up to everyone else. Enjoy this episode and whet your appetite for playing with and discovering new digital and technological opportunities for your business! Reach out to Andrew Grill https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgrill/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 166 Diana Walsh, Principal Customer Success Manager at HubSpot

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 14:05:00 +0000

According to today’s guest, Diana Walsh, Developer Relations, at times, does actually require some real work. Of course most of us know this, but it helps to publicise this fact occasionally. Diana is the principal Customer Success Manager at Hubspot, and she joins us for a chat about the cross-functionality of DevRel. Diana and her teams help Hubspot to manage their most valuable, and complex accounts, in a new subsection of the company’s workforce, and Diana expresses to us her happiness at being one of the first people selected for this new endeavour. She speaks to us about the value of honesty in her work, and in Hubspot as a whole. It is just one of several core tenets they value as an integral part of their ethos, and an admirable step for any organisation to take. Diana goes into her role and the joy she takes in working across multiple teams with all different kinds of people. Diana also takes us through some examples of what she feels works for companies when it comes to promotion. For example, you may think of cold calling as a relic, but modern iterations that are properly personalised and tailored can yield surprisingly successful results. When it comes from a former marketer, this is probably advice you can feel confident in taking! Reach out to Diana here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianawalsh19/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 165 Salma Alam-Naylor (repeat), Web Developer & Livestreamer

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Today, we're throwing back to when Richard spoke with Salma Alam-Naylor about all things content! Now had we invited Salma onto Fireside just so Richard could learn how to begin his Twitch streaming career? Potentially. Salma is a live streamer, software engineer and developer educator. She streams on Twitch under the moniker “whitep4nth3r” -she dives into the backstory around the name in the episode (we think it’s great, for the record). Salma gets into the weeds about live streaming, content creation and personality. Over the years, she has carefully built her viewership into a vibrant, supportive community that uplifts her. As we learn, her journey began during the first covid lockdown, although unlike whipped coffee and homemade sourdough, her lockdown passtime actually outlasted the pandemic. As someone with backgrounds in coding, performance and teaching, live streaming herself coding seemed like the perfect intersection of her talents, and we couldn’t agree more. Although coding is what she does the most, cross-stitching and live music have also made appearances on her stream, and yes, her coder heavy audience still shows up for these lives too. This point can be understood when Salma goes into what makes people engage with content online, and what’s been obvious to her is that if people connect with someone online, it doesn’t matter what the content is. The audience will follow. Salma tells us about the positives and negatives of Twitch, about the harassment she’s received, but also the incredible support from her community. There also turns out to be more similarities between streaming and working on a developer team than just the code. In both cases, a group of people come together with a common goal; whether that be to learn, to connect or to have fun. From a metrics perspective, viewer and subscriber counts can be a tough taskmaster, and it can be a challenge not to judge yourself through this very stark measure of “success”. Salma’s solution comes from Maya Angelou - people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. That metric is hard to quantify, but it’s probably also the best one out there. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 164 Mike Amundsen, Author, Speaker, Trainer

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Have you ever been on the phone to a company representative and thought “You know, if only this human on the other side of the call was instead a chatbot who would be even less receptive to my problems”? Us neither. And yet the looming threat of LLMs replacing consumer facing roles continues to do just that - loom. But today's wonderful guest Mike Amundsen is here to explain why moving away from the human side of technology may ultimately be the death knell of any community your company may have built. Mike has worked in the API space for the last 20 years. He's written many articles and books on the subject, as well as working with companies all over the world who have taught him more and more about how to use and get the most out of APIs. Mike goes into the differences between working on small scale startup APIs and the much larger enterprise endeavours. The surprising reality is that while tech might be an issue for startups lacking resources, the problem for the big companies is people. Everything you need to create great work is at your fingertips, but you've now got 50 team members to wrangle. Pick your poison. Reach out to Mike here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mamund Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 163 Christos Gkoros, API Designer at Postman

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Episode 162 Taariq Lewis (repeat) Founder and CEO at Volume Finance

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

For today's episode, we're looking back to September of last year, when Richard spoke to Taariq Lewis of Volume Finance. Let's refresh ourselves on the activity within the Blockchain landscape from a true industry insider. Taariq gave Richard work when Richard needed it many years ago. They’ve each gone on and had several start ups and overcome lots of entrepreneurial hurdles since then, but that core decency informs not only this episode but Taariq and Richard’s philosophy about hiring and people. As Taariq put it about his previous and current ventures, “if we don’t make it, my team will make it.”. And what about that team? What does it do? Well, Volume.finance started life as a consultancy to help blockchain companies get their products to market. Now, Volume Finance is the main developer on Paloma, a blockchain. So where does the DevRel come in? Well, everywhere. Taariq is very open about the challenges he and others in the Blockchain and crypto space face. For Taariq, he uses DevRel to help developers navigate the “non-stop new” and choose quality, well funded projects on which to work. Taariq and Volume spend time building credibility and trust with their community. It’s not easy, but it works and is worthwhile. This episode is important because it exposes the reality that there are decent people working in Blockchain, helping this decentralised, distributed computing become more relevant to more people and businesses - even boring insurance companies! Reach out to Taariq here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taariq/ https://github.com/palomachain https://volume.finance/

Episode 161 Tim Berglund, Vice President of Developer Relations at StarTree

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 15:32:00 +0000

“So you’re telling me that a DevRel’s job is more than just posting funny tweets and partying at conferences?” Yes. Yes we are. And so is our guest on today’s episode - Tim Berglund. Tim is the Vice President of Developer Relations at Star Tree, and he breaks down for us what DevRel means to him, and how he counteracts people’s misconceptions about the role. In today’s world, it’s as difficult as ever for a DevRel to describe their job, but Tim gives it a go on this episode of the podcast. What’s important to know is that a DevRel’s job should leave room for “fun” stuff. The whole reason the role benefits a company is that it gives a member of the team the time and space to explore new, creative ways of doing things and achieving goals. A DevRel that wasn’t having at least a little bit of fun wouldn't be doing a very good job! Though after the play hard, comes the work hard. And for DevRels that often comes in the form of justifying your own existence. Tim explains that DevRel will never be like marketing, where webinars and dinners can lead to a phone call the next day - easy to track, right? DevRel is a little more complicated than that. You might not know who’s on the other side of your video, or blog post, and might never be able to track their journey from interacting with your content, to becoming a customer years down the line. So in the meantime, you're left with making general measurements and collecting testimonies, that while helpful, could be much improved upon as a system. Reach out to Tim here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlberglund/ Listen to Tim’s Podcast - ‘Real Time Analytics’ here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-time-analytics-with-tim-berglund/id1680445905 Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 160, Sebastian Witalec (repeat), Head of DevRel at Weaviate

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

For this this episode, we're revisiting our chat with Sebastian Witalec from Weaviate. Sebastian spoke to us last year about his work at the company and his role as head of DevRel. Weaviate is rather popular in the AI space. It's an open source vector database that allows you to store data and vector embeddings from machine learning models. It's similar to putting information on an XY plane. Similar data points will have similar coordinates. This makes it easier to organise and use your data. We won't get too technical in this description, but safe to say Richard ensures that all the nerdy questions are answered during the episode. So Weaviate is a database; does this mean it's similar to the document stores of fifteen years ago? Well funnily enough, Sebastian's previous role to this one was DevRel at MongoDB. A year and a half ago, he met the CEO of Weaviate and had that lightbulb moment. He knew that this was a brand new way of doing data storage. So he jumped to Weaviate, and sure enough, a year and a half later, vector databases are all anyone is talking about, and Sebastian gets to be at the forefront of it. One of the most important things to Weaviate, and Sebastian personally, is joy. They want to not only create with it, but for people to experience it when they use Weaviate to build. They want their developers to take joy in their work and they believe that their wider community should be just as important as their customers. This is a really special perspective to have, and we were so glad Sebastian decided to join us for this discussion. Reach out to Sebastian here: https://dk.linkedin.com/in/sebawita Check out Weaviate’s services here:‍ https://weaviate.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 159 Nolan Di Mare Sullivan, Developer Relations at Speakeasy

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Imagine this scenario. You’ve created a brilliant, well functioning API. Sure, there’s a few minor issues here and there but it works the way it’s supposed to. Or so you thought until, for the first time in a while, you decided to use it yourself. Lo and behold, not only does it not work, the documentation is a total mess. Well today’s guest Nolan Sullivan doesn’t have to imagine it - he’s seen it more than a few times! Nolan is the sole DevRel of Speakeasy, a company making the integration of APIs go from grating, to seamless. They’re all about making APIs easy to create and consume, and while they’ve started on the consumption end, their long term goal is to create a full tool chain for creating and consuming APIs. Nolan speaks to us about testing, and how they’ve begun to notice an interesting behaviour in their users. When developers start building SDKs, and they use their own APIs, they very quickly become confronted with the shortcomings of their own creations. It seems obvious, but sometimes you really do have to be on the other side of the user experience to find the flaws. This episode continues our API series on the podcast and includes some fascinating insights and advice - including Nolan’s observation that integrating your API should be the easy part of someone’s to-do list - not the hardest. Reach out to Nolan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-dm-sullivan-010/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 158 Francisco Picolini, Open Source Community Manager at OpenNebula

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:03:00 +0000

We’re delighted to have Francisco Picolini on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast. Francisco is the open source community manager at OpenNebula and he joins us to speak all about his role, and shed some light on what it means to spread the word on open source. Of course we’re all converts, but how do things play out with those who aren't? Francisco speaks about how OpenNebula focuses on enterprise clients, but that doesn’t mean you can’t engage as an individual. What it does mean is that Francisco’s role looks slightly different from other community managers. He can’t rely on that passionate section of users to grow the scope of the company or create content so most of that work falls to him. It was wonderful to have Francisco on the podcast, and we know his insights will be incredibly valuable. Reach out to Francisco here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francjp/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 157, Liz Acosta, Developer Content Marketing Manager for Streamlit

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

The wonderful Liz Acosta joins us on this episode of the podcast for a slightly philosophical chat on community, the different iterations of DevRel, and why we as humans will always gravitate to the things we perceive as “real”. Liz is the new Developer Content Marketing Manager for Streamlit at Snowflake, and this provides us with a wonderful opportunity to learn from someone right in the process of determining their role in an organisation! Liz talks to us about her plans for Streamlit, all of which centre connection and community heavily. As someone who has worked heavily in DevRel, Liz has no intentions of abandoning the Developer Advocates at Streamlit to fend for themselves, and her passion for connecting with people is more than clear. Liz tells us all about the evolution of DevRel, and why she believes increased regulation and codifying of previously informal guidelines is a good thing. Not only that, but for those of you who enjoy a good philosophical discussion, she explains that while we all appreciate things that are “real”, the not-so-real can be just as valuable. Whether that be AI generated copy, or an artist who lip-syncs their way through a concert! Reach out to Liz here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizacostalinkedin/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 156 Jason St-Cyr, Developer Relations leader at Sitecore

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Jason St-Cyr is our guest on this episode of the fireside with voxgig podcast. Jason is the Developer Relations leader at Sitecore, an end-to-end composable digital experience platform, that allows brands to better connect with their customers. Jason gave us an excellent look into what it looks like when a talented DevRel leader is truly supported by their organisation. Jason’s path is one that is unique to him, but not so unique to DevRels as a group. Starting in software development, he found himself unsatisfied working as an engineering manager. He wanted to get back to independent contribution and had the common DevRel itch of wanting to help people. So when the chance arose for him to make the leap into tech evangelism, he leapt. He goes into how Sitecore has grown and changed during his time there. He got a front row seat to their evolution as a company. One of the biggest parts of this evolution was the switch from offering all customers a single package of services that would cover any needs, to a system where each individual would be offered a specific set of tools that was more relevant to them. This attention to detail has allowed Sitecore to become something of an industry standard. He also takes us into his strongest advice for those wishing to embark on their own startup journey: know the problem you are trying to solve! Without having that goal in mind, activating those around you to engage can be a struggle. But with a clear solution in mind, your goal can do all the heavy lifting for you. Reach out to Jason here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonstcyr/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 155 Frank Kilcommins, Principal API Tech Evangelist at SmartBear

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

If you’re in any way curious about the intersection between APIs and AI, and what that might be shaping up to look like, then we’re delighted to let you know that this episode’s guest is the perfect person to shed light on that very topic. Frank is the Principal API Tech Evangelist for SmartBear, where they deliver tools for application performance monitoring, software development, software testing, API testing and API management. In 2010, APIs were starting to become more popular and Frank was starting to get serious about creating reusable interfaces. He continued down this path and has spent the last 2 years with SmartBear, focusing on APIs, for which they have 3 pillars: testing, insights and observability. Frank tells us about SmartBear’s growing interest in acquisitions, and how they’ve managed to balance this facet with their continuing investment in their own organic products. Their strategy is simple: build and buy. And it seems to be working out pretty well for them. We talk a lot on the podcast about marketing to developers, both internally and externally, but Frank brings up an interesting point. Almost every company used software in some way, for something. So while he and SmartBear still value developer focused marketing, they also understand that there’s a whole world of non-technical people out there that have many of the same problems. And Frank knows that he and his team can be the ones to help fix them. Reach out to Frank here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-kilcommins/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 154, José Haro Peralta, Author of Microservice APIs

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

If you're an API enthusiast, then we can only imagine that our last few episodes have been a dream come true. Well the dream just got a whole lot better, as this episode's guest is none other than José Haro Peralta, author of Microservice APIs. José is an independent consultant based in London, and he joins us to explain all about his process in helping companies build excellent systems. José has a background in DevOps, and he cites his inherited mentality from this time as being an aid in his current position. He goes into his life as a freelancer, and touts remote working as a productivity game changer. When it comes to API vs microservices, José believes that if it gets the job done, then it doesn't tend to make a huge material difference. The main thing developers should be focusing on is security. Many people have made the mistake of thinking that a private network doesn't need a great deal of, or potentially any security. But as someone who would know better than most, José believes all systems are created equal, and if you fail to prepare for a breach, then you can prepare to fail at keeping your network safe. Reach out to José here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-haro-peralta/ Be sure to check out José's book, Microservice APIs here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Microservice-APIs/José-Haro-Peralta/9781638350569 Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 153 David Biesack, Chief API Officer at Apiture

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0000

If you enjoyed the lengthy API discussion last week, then this episode will be no different. We’re speaking to David Biesack, Chief API Officer at Apiture, where they’re using efficient solutions to hold together a network of their banking APIs for a variety of financial institutions. As you can imagine, nearly a hundred customers will have hugely varying needs. So how do David and the Apiture team do it? David explains their system of avoiding versioning, by constantly thinking about which features will always be timeless. It’s due to this attention to detail that Apiture has avoided the classic pitfall of “API sprawl”, something we went into earlier this week on the podcast. If there’s one thing to know about David, it’s that he is a lover of documentation, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this love generates from the many times he’s been assigned to tasks with documentation that, quite frankly, sucks. So it’s become a passion of his, to not just write things down in a meaningful way, but also to get people in a room, and answer questions in a judgement free way. We think the success of Apiture speaks to the immense value of this practice. Reach out to David here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbiesack/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 152 Bill Doerrfeld, Editor In Chief At Nordic APIs

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000

We've probably all heard of urban sprawl, right? The phenomenon where a city expands further and further into the surrounding areas until the final product becomes one that is impossible to control and monitor. Well this episode’s guest, Bill Doerrfeld is here to tell us about how the same principle affects APIs in the aptly named arrival of “API sprawl”. Bill is the editor in chief of Nordic APIs, a series of resources that help disseminate thought leadership on APIs. He's also a freelance tech journalist whose work on all things API has been published with DevOps.com amongst many others. Bill has a wide view of tech and is frequently more up to date on his knowledge than many top developers, which makes sense as that's pretty much included in the job description of being a tech journalist. He goes into how he ended up in this position, from studying English, to realising that the tech world would be a gold mine for a young writer to tackle. So what is API sprawl? For one, it's the thing Bill has written most extensively about, and he defines it as the thing that happens when companies and individuals have so many APIs under their belts that the ability to maintain quality, or even keep track of them all is greatly reduced. This is a fascinating subject, and Bill goes into great detail on it, as well as AI, and all the things working developers should know about. Reach out to Bill here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doerrfeldbill/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 151 James Higginbotham, Executive API Consultant at LaunchAny

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 08:00:00 +0000

We’re off to the mountains today on this episode of the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, as today’s guest, James Higginbotham calls in from Colorado. James is an executive API consultant with LaunchAny, a consulting firm that specialises in digital transformation through APIs. James takes us through the massive task of working with extremely large developer teams. He’s worked with companies that have 10,000+ developers and of course this presents a whole number of new problems as well as the usual issues that might slow down a project. We were so lucky to have James on for this episode, be sure to give it a listen! Reach out to James here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshigginbotham/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 150 Tara Walton, Test Automation Developer and Community Builder

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

On this podcast, we’re always a fan of our guests, but it’s not as often that our guest is a fan of us! This episode, we’re speaking to Tara Walton, herself a listener of the Fireside podcast. Tara is a test automation developer and a community builder, and she joins us to talk about how being a jack of all trades means Developer Advocacy might just be the right step for you. Tara has done a lot of work in testing and quality assurance, and she takes us through the history of how this space has evolved over the years. One constant seems to be the ebb and flow of a particular company mindset: Step 1: Hire testers. Step 2: Watch the quality of your product go up. Step 3: Realise you have such an amazing product that you probably don’t need testers anymore! Step 4: Fire your testers Step 5: Realise you made a terrible mistake and hire them all back. And so the cycle continues. Tara goes into detail on why, as a test automation developer, preventing a mistake is much easier than fixing one. Documentation is key, as information that lives in someone’s head doesn’t do much good for anyone except that person. Finally she gives us her thoughts on how testing and QA will continue to grow and change now that AI has entered the playing field. As always, things will need to be road tested before hitting the highway, and Tara will certainly have her hands full over the next few years. Reach out to Tara here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarawalton/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 149 James Cook, Microsoft MVP and Director of DevOps at Coyote Software

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

We’ve all heard the phrase “herding cats”, but could it be replaced by the equally apt “herding developers”? James Cook is on the podcast to let us know. James is Director of DevOps at Coyote, a PropTech SaaS provider serving the real estate sector, as well as being a certified Microsoft MVP. He joins us for a chat about his role, his outlook, and why communication has been his most powerful tool to success. One of the biggest topics James gets into on this episode is the issue of communicating with developers, and getting them to communicate with each other. The need for effective documentation plays a huge part in this as well, as no one wants to end up having a talented developer leave your team, only for you to realise you can’t begin to decipher the code they left behind. According to James, having a team that’s ready and willing to come together and solve problems is the ultimate way of efficiently making work. And while meetings may be tedious, James has found ways to restructure them for his team, with the purpose and result of wasting less time, and getting more done. Finally, he speaks to us about writing, and how structure and discipline have been what has kept him on track for his personal writing goals. Writing doesn’t have to be spontaneous to be interesting and high quality, and James lays this out for us in no uncertain terms. Reach out to James here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cookjames/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 148 David Cramer, Co-Founder and CTO of Sentry

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 16:23:00 +0000

We’re fortunate on the Fireside podcast to be able to speak to so many people at the top of their game, and this week's guest is no different. David Cramer is the Co-Founder and CTO of Sentry, the app monitoring platform designed to quickly help developers get to the root of code problems. David has helped bring Sentry to the top of the pile in this category - to the extent where, in his words, they don’t have competitors, they have “ankle-biters”. But does “heavy is the head that wears the crown” have any bearing for a company at the top? We’re excited to find out. David has worn many hats at Sentry since its founding, but as a software engineer at heart, he’s currently taking up the position of CTO. He dives into how strategy helped set Sentry apart in the early days, and how they manufactured the way they wanted the business to run, as opposed to simply responding to hurdles as they came up. The Sentry team, ultimately, is made up of developers, and David explains how this fact has led to the creation of a platform that is highly developer focused, in both user experience and in sales. He tells us about how yearly price hikes are not something Sentry wants to engage in, and how valuing affordability has allowed them to skyrocket in popularity since their first launch. Community is at the forefront of David’s current plans for Sentry, and he talks us through this, and other aspects of what he hopes to achieve with the company the future. Reach out to David here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmcramer/ Check out Sentry here: https://sentry.io/welcome/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 147 Rex St John, Founder of Taroko Technologies

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:00:00 +0000

This episode is a slightly futuristic one. Or potentially not futuristic? We’re talking about AI with Rex St John and he’s here to tell us why the "future” of AI is looking more and more like it will soon be the present. Rex is the Founder of Taroko Technologies and an experienced DevRel and Technical evangelist. Rex takes us through his history, from marketing, to software engineering to a technical evangelist, a foray into crypto, and now founder who’s running his own company. Taroko Technologies builds web and mobile apps that combine the most useful parts of design and technology. Rex explains that while the AI space may feel quiet, it’s simply because the snowglobe it's contained in has been violently shaken, if not shattered, and those who existed in the space previous to the recent shakeup are now scrambling to match the industry with breakthroughs of their own. Rex created Taroko with a focus on developers, but according to him, by necessity they have now had to branch out and divide their attention amongst the numerous new roles that have cropped up due to AI and the complex needs of large systems, notably he denotes his own role as “creator relations”, an interesting evolution of former terms that don’t quite cover Rex’s full role. It was a pleasure to have Rex on the show, to explain why Star Trek: The Next Generation now looks old in comparison to the technologies Rex and his colleagues have been developing. Reach out to Rex here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rexstjohn/ Check out Taroko here: https://taroko.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 146 Conor O Neill, Director of Product and Engineering at Axonista

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 14:15:00 +0000

We’ve got a familiar face on the Voxgig podcast today, if not yet to you, then to us, as we’re speaking to our host Richard’s former colleague, Conor O’Neill. Conor is the Director of Product and Engineering at Axonista, an interactive video CMS, where he’s helping them transform video from a fun accessory to a key feature of their customer’s platforms. Now, as Conor explains, though video may be their bread and butter, what he actually spends most of his time focusing on, is everything around video, metadata being a prime example of what he’s interested in. Conor weighs in with us on the recent purge of DevRel jobs, and explains why all may not be as it seems in this regard. While companies dismissing DevRel jobs might help you work out exactly who you don’t want to work for, there’s also a host of people out there, Conor included, who have encountered a great deal of difficulty finding someone with the capabilities to take on a DevRel job he needed to fill. He discusses that one of the main benefits of having a DevRel on your staff, is that you can have your own “potterer”. Someone who can experiment and play the mad scientist, figuring out creative new ways of doing things, something high level Devs with immense workloads would not necessarily be able to do. This allows for your company to be continuously open to the possibility of newer, better ways of conducting things. We even take a brief trip down memory lane, with Conor and Richard giving some insight into the time they worked together, and the wonderful opportunities that have grown from that adventure. Reach out to Conor here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conoroneill/ Check out Axonista: https://www.axonista.com/about/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 145 Cassandra Faris, Community Strategist and Technologist at Veeam Software

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:30:00 +0000

We’re continuing to kick off the new year in style with this episode’s wonderful guest, Cassandra Faris. Cassandra is a Technologist and former community manager with Veeam. You might remember that our previous guest Julia Furst Morgado is also a technologist Veeam, so we can only assume that Veeam has a well kept secret for recruiting highly talented DevRels. In her own words, Cassandra focuses on the human side of technology. Although now a technologist, for many years she worked as a community manager. Going into her backstory, she tells us that she was doing community management before she even knew what it was, or that it was a role she could occupy! In her early roles as a technical recruiter, she was honing her skills of community engagement, connection and passion for the things developers actually cared about. Cassandra takes us into her process of community building - and yes, she does have a process. In fact it’s a pretty remarkable one, as she can ensure visible results in 6 months, although the full process can take a few years. She places much emphasis on “power users”, and how every community has them - so why not use them? And she’s a fan of meeting an existing community where they’re at, instead of trying to move them to a whole new platform against their will. Finally, she gives us practical, usable tips for how to survive the day to day of DevRel. Travel and nights alone in hotel rooms can be a downside. But with a myriad of experience, for Cassandra, they’re a breeze. Reach out to Cassandra here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassandrafaris/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 144 Andrew Maclean, Developer Relations Manager at DevCycle

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Fireside with Voxgig is back! A new year means new opportunities to speak with amazing people and share their insights with you, our audience. This episode’s guest is Andrew MacLean. Andrew is the developer relations manager at DevCycle, a feature flag management platform for developers. If you’ve never heard of feature flag management, that’s probably because it’s a relatively new space, despite feature flags having been around forever. If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of feature flags, one of their main benefits is allowing you to update your platform without having to deploy so many versions that you lose the ability to maintain quality. As with many of the people we feature on Fireside, this service could have been a game changer in some of the startups Richard has worked on over the years. Andrew dives into the history of feature flags, and what launched them into the mainstream. From Github devs, to articles, to implementation by major SaaS companies, word of mouth popularisation has made feature flags the staple they now are. Andrew also gives us some insight into his history. It’s a typical DevRel story, of falling into the industry somewhat by accident, but in Andrew’s case his starting point was studying for a career in forensic science. With a background almost as interesting as the work he does now, Andrew makes for a fascinating interviewee. Reach out to Andrew here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdmaclean/ Check out DevCycle: https://devcycle.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Charlie Robbins, Founder and Engineer

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

We’re taking a deep dive into the history of Node with this episode’s guest, Charlie Robbins. Charlie isn't just a greatly experienced engineer, who now lends his advice and consultancy skills to others - he was also one of the earliest adopters of Node, and is uniquely placed to give us a lesson not just in history, but also in the unique factors that gave Node the dominance it now holds. So how did Node take over the world? Well unlike movie supervillains, it wasn’t with a ray gun or a mind control serum, it was by being really good at what they did in the face of competitors asleep at the wheel, a natural selection process to which Charlie had a front row seat. Charlie went into financial services in the wake of the financial crash, when most people had either been pushed or jumped off that ship, but because of his knowledge of a brand new service called Node, he ended up working with people ten years his senior to figure out this new frontier. Charlie speaks about the conflation of jobs like accountants with engineers. People tend to think engineering is purely a numbers game, but as many will tell you, engineers are often brimming with creativity, and the variable is whether or not their boss will let them express it. This is a great discussion on how small actions can lead to big waves. Reach out to Charlie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlierobbins/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 142 Liran Tal Director of Developer Advocacy at Snyk

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000

The practice of DevRel is something that can vary hugely amongst those who engage in it, so it’s always fascinating to see how different companies approach DevRel. In this episode, we’re speaking to Liran Tal, director of developer advocacy at Snyk, about how his team makes use of DevRel. Liran is a big believer in empathy, and infuses it into every aspect of his developer advocacy work. It’s a theme that has come up repeatedly on the podcast recently, and Liran is another proponent of empathy being at the centre of how we engage with developers. Like many people, Liran came through the engineering pipeline, and made the jump to DevRel when he started at Snyk, but he explains why this “jump” was actually more of a step, as he had already used his engineering work to initiate community events and public speaking opportunities, so DevRel felt like a natural place to take those skills. As an engineer using JavaScript and open source, Liran began to see the immense value of a hive-like community, connecting hundreds, or thousands of people to collaborate and share information, and he knew he wanted to live in that space. And luckily, as he explains, no one needs permission to start being a DevRel. No matter what specific area you work in, you can stealthily start practising public speaking, or building communities, and then when you’re ready to officially start looking for that DevRel job, you’ll already have some idea of what you’re doing. Liran speaks about the “DevRel’ ladder, and the common question of how those who want to can climb it. DevRel is one of those fields with endless room to grow. You may start out knowing nothing about the technical side, and end up with a whole new set of skills that are now available to you. But for most of us, the ladder thing is secondary to doing something you’re really passionate about, and speaking to Liran has only increased that passion for us here at Voxgig. Reach out to Liran here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talliran/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 141 Suze Shardlow repeat broadcast of DevRel 101

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000

At this time of the year, evergreen trees and plants are brought indoors as we cling to reminders of freshness and hope for freshness to return in the spring. Here's an evergreen podcast episode on developer relations. Suze Shardlow is a freelancer with the strategic thinking your organisation needs if its going to develop and implement developer relations as a key business function. At the time of recording, Suze was Developer Community Manager with Redis, but has since moved to consultancy as a marketer, coder, published tech author, speaker and event emcee! In this conversation Suze offers really great insight in to the relationship between sales and DevRel and how you have to be really careful in your organisation not to position DevRel as just another part of the sales funnel because nothing turns off developers and damages a community of developers as trying to sell to them directly! We also discover how Suze got started in public speaking and the differences she sees between delivering a talk at an event and acting as emcee. Listen to this chat to get a very good understanding of how your organisation could think about DevRel and its DevRel strategy. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Ciara Sheahan, Founder, Presenter, and Journalist

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 07:30:00 +0000

It’s always fun to talk about the futuristic potential of virtual reality, but it’s even more fun to talk about it with Ciara Sheahan, because she actually knows some real information about this topic. Ciara is a radio presenter, journalist and tech entrepreneur, and provides us with proof that you don’t have to be a former coder to be a founder who does cool stuff with tech. Ciara is the founder of Orb Media, where they’re taking the cross pollination of gaming software and integrating it with ecommerce platforms to improve the customer experience. Essentially, they are game-ifying the online shopping experience, allowing platforms to better showcase their products, and giving customers that dopamine hit you would usually only get from levelling up. Ciara tells us that there are many ways to “gamify” an experience. It doesn’t have to be all zombies and helicopters (although it can be!), there’s also plenty of subtle ways to apply it to the shopping experience. Now, while Orb Media is a Web 3 company at heart, Ciara maintains that her goal was always to keep this technology accessible, so there’s no headset required for this immersive experience, all you need is your phone. She also lets us in on how she got her start, from journalism to radio to tech and the roadblocks she experienced along the way. Ciara is also a speaker, and she tells us about how she believes speakers are simply vessels carrying a message, and that focusing less on yourself and more on how the information you're delivering relates to your audience, might help you get out of your head when the nerves take over. Reach out to Ciara here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciara-sheahan360/ Check out Orb Media: https://orbmedia.ie/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: http://www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 136 Patrick Akil, host of Beyond Coding and DevRel at Xebia

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:30:00 +0000

Two podcasters go head to head in this episode, as we invite Patrick Akil, host of Beyond Coding to speak with Richard about his personal journey and insights into the art of podcasting. Patrick works in the software development unit at Xebia, and he talks about how their value of knowledge sharing led to their desire to support a podcast. When he heard about it, Patrick jumped at the opportunity. This episode will be invaluable to anyone thinking of starting that podcast they’ve been thinking about, whether they work within DevRel or not. Patrick runs us through some of his initial pitfalls, as well as giving plenty of reassurances as to how much he, and all podcast hosts, improve over time. It’s a learn-on-the-job kind of business, this podcasting thing, something Richard knows all too well. One of the things Patrick highlights is the importance of quality. If you keep improving your quality (both in terms of literal sound quality, and the quality of your content) then you can also improve the quality of your guests. Quality of guests is something important to consider. It’s a point we frequently return to in DevRel discussions - quality over quantity. Twenty committed listeners are generally better than fifty listeners with a monthly turnover rate of a hundred per cent. Patrick doesn’t come from any kind of performing background, and he explains how the ability to be confident and articulate in the face of nerves was an ability he honed over time. Things that would have seemed impossible to his younger self, are things he now completes with ease. This one is full of valuable tidbits, whether you’re a budding podcaster, or just want a look behind the sound booth curtain. Reach out to Patrick here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-akil/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 135 Christina Monti Senior Technical Product Manager at PayPal

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 17:30:00 +0000

On this episode, we’re joined by developer advocate Christina Monti. Christina is the senior technical product manager for PayPal, and she brings us not just her expertise, but also an insight into why she chooses to centre empathy in her work with developers. Christina joins our list of guests from a slightly unconventional background. Christina came to DevRel through a career in finance, and she’s quickly become one to watch. Speaking on the topic of DevRel careers, she has three words: just do it. You don’t need permission to start working as a DevRel - and that work may look very different from person to person. Part of Christina’s job is empowering developers to take steps into creating educational content through potentially unfamiliar mediums, and as you can imagine, this role requires a lot of patience and empathy. Luckily, empathy happens to be one of Christina’s top priorities, and she dives into exactly why this value has served her so well. Lastly, she goes into the importance of believing in the projects that you work on, and how this is equally as true for developers as it is for DevRels. She feels that when most of the developers working on a product freely admit that they wouldn’t use the product themselves, you’ve got a big problem - and a lot of work to do. Reach out to Christina here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-monti-4a491685/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 134 Alvin Bryan Developer Advocate Contentful (Repeat)

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Today we bring you a repeat of Alvin Bryan's conversation with Richard for a few reasons. Alvin is Developer Advocate with Contentful, and they came on board several months ago as sponsors of the Dublin DevRel Meetup we organise. (Join us next Wednesday, link below!). Their support of the meetup makes a lot of sense as you listen to Alvin discuss meetups and the challenges around creating them. And in the run up to next Wednesday's online meetup, where we'll have a discussion on DevRel careers and job hunting, Alvin's description of the 3 Cs of DevRel and his analysis of the role is well worth listening to again. Especially if you're a developer, but you feel you need a change of role, but not industry. In this episode we talk to Alvin Bryan, Developer Advocate at Contentful and a coach at Codebar, a really interesting initiative to help people learning to code and starting out in various languages. Alvin generously and openly walks us through how he moved from being a frontend developer to his current role. We talk about when organisations just don't get the value of developer community building and supporting meetups, something he and Contentful very much have in their plans! Listen to hear about the 3 Cs of DevRel, and a little frustration at our own industry for our perhaps lack of attention to details when it comes to SDKs. Reach out to Alvin here https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-bryan/ Learn more about Contentful here https://www.contentful.com/ And learn more about Codebar here https://www.codebar.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 132 Kelly M, Founder of Sweet Trades, Senior Software Engineer and Data Scientist

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000

We’re joined for this episode by the wonderful Kelly M. She’s the founder and Executive Director of Sweet Trades, a non-profit focused on helping individuals land living wage jobs, a Senior Software Engineer at a fortune 100 company, and a Data Scientist at a U.S. National Lab. So you can see why we were excited to book her in for a chat. Kelly switched into DevRel from technical writing, but before all of that she got a degree in left-handed puppetry. Well, not really. She jokes that it would have been just as useful as her actual degree, which was in HR. Kelly is a huge advocate for following your own path, and believes that a colourful background can only come to serve you well in DevRel. She speaks about how DevRel, while holistic in a sense, also needs to be practical. There comes a time when DevRel’s need to put on their business hats, especially in the current climate. Metrics aren’t everyone’s favourite thing, but Kelly believes that knowing the value you add to a company will not only increase your confidence, but genuinely help you with job security. She also tells us about her current project, her non-profit, Sweet Trades. Kelly became attracted to tech initially for the reason a lot of people do: adequate compensation. But she went on to learn that tech doesn’t have to be the bastion of a financially secure career. Many roles in various trades can be higher earning positions than a lot of tech roles, and Kelly is on a mission to bring light to these roles and make their presence known. Not just to graduates, but to young adults in urban areas that often have even less access to information about these jobs. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 131 Wesley Faulkner, Podcast Co-host, Snr Community Manager AWS

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 15:00:00 +0000

On this episode of the podcast Richard speaks to Wesley Faulkner. You may have heard Wesley described as the philosopher of DevRel, and true to his moniker, he brings the deep questions with him to this chat. The nuts and bolts of tech is all very interesting, but equally important to the success of DevRel is the ability to step back and take in the big picture. Wesley has us covered in this department. We get straight into one of the biggest issues DevRel has faced in 2023: layoffs. We’ve talked about it a lot this year, which isn’t surprising considering the almost fifteen per cent cut in DevRel jobs. It’s not something we haven’t been through before, but it still has quite the effect on morale. Wesley discusses this practice of “trimming the fat” that is beloved by CFOs in times of high interest rates. And we can see why. On the surface, it’s simple - sure, you lose a few talented people, but you also lose those pesky salary payments that have been weighing down the budget. But in these situations we must ask ourselves why DevRel is seen as such an easy target. As Richard tells Wesley, he’s often wondered why DevRel must spend so much time justifying its existence, but Marketing and Sales and Customer Service departments don’t have to. According to Wesley, what DevRel needs is to make the PR machine work for us. When the people at the Harvard Business Review, and other publications decide to write about us, others will follow. We can see where he’s coming from. Tech people are like magpies, they like to collect shiny things. Whatever's cool, whatever’s trending. So if there are any celebrity publicists out there looking for a new client, I think DevRel might just need your help. Reach out to Wesley here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley83/ Check out Wesley’s podcast: https://www.justworktogether.com/podcast-season-2/episode-1 Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 130 Julia Furst Morgado, Global Technologist and International Speaker

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0000

This is another career guidance episode! Julia has a background in law, marketing and now is a successful developer relations guru. Julia generously shares her journey to DevRel in an accessible chat and with an achievable pathway. But be prepared to commit time and effort to community building. According to Julia Furst Morgado, if you work in DevRel, you need to be able to code. And Julia defends her position on this. How can you understand the product? How can you explain it? How can you create demos? While you might not need to be a software engineer, you do need an understanding of code and a willingness to keep learning and developing. This theme of continuous learning comes out time and again in this Fireside with Voxgig podcast episode with Julia. Her ambition and work ethic is an inspiration – but they are also motivational as her efforts have paid off in her career and continue to reap results in her amazing ability to build communities. A wonderful conversation and chance to listen to an honest discussion of DevRel as a career. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 129 Daniel Bryant (Repeat)

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0000

This time we dip back in to the recent archives and repeat the conversation with Daniel Bryant, who has got Richard into a lot more conferences than he cares to admit. Daniel is a self described technical storyteller and is a news manager at InfoQ. At the time of the interview last year, Daniel was head of DevRel at Ambassador Labs. Daniel was pretty much there from the start and has had the experience of building an integrated developer relations function inside a company that works really well with all the other functions within the company. But we start the discussion with the banal: swag, the place of swag in the modern developer conference. A question of great importance for your times. Where does one get T-Shirts if not as swag?! Richard and Daniel then get a little philosophical, because the word community has come to mean a great may tings and almost nothing now. And what does it mean to have a developer community, and what does the word community mean in that context? Daniel talks about why he prefers the word ecosystem. Finally, they talk about product-led growth and how creating the right operational structures, and in particular, working really well with your data science team, can be super effective at making the whole organization work together functionally. Reach out to Daniel via LinkediN here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbryantuk/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 128 Niall Cusack co-founder and CTO Outcaster.io

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 21:00:00 +0000

On this episode of the podcast we’ve got Niall Cusack, Co-Founder and CTO of Outcaster, to chat with us about the problem of ‘posting-fatigue’; having to post essentially the same messaging to a slew of social channels, and individually tracking each of them to measure engagement. It’s a problem that plagues DevRel and tech companies, as well as just about any business that has a social media presence. So what can we do about it? Well, this is where Outcaster comes in. It’s a platform that allows individuals and companies to create progressive web apps that will collate their content into a one-stop-shop. This allows you to curate all of your content directly, rather than having to tailor all different messaging for all different channels. This is music to our ears here at Voxgig, as like many startups, we face this problem too! If your job involves anything to do with DevRel, you’ll know that part of the brief is not only creating content, but getting it out there to the right eyeballs. And sure, there are services that let you post to multiple channels at once, but you still have to track all of those channels. Outcaster removes the burden of this task. Niall tells us a little about his history, from developer, to startup employee, to startup co-founder. He talks about the inevitability of audience loss when switching platforms (it’s not you, it’s just the system), but how this might not always be a bad thing. While audience loss seems like a setback, it also gives you an opportunity to focus more on the members that you’ve retained, and pour the support they’ve given you back into the community. This was a fascinating discussion that will ring true for all the multi-channel posting people out there. If you want to know more, just remember to follow @Voxgig on Twitter… or Mastodon… or LinkedIn… oh dear. Reach out to Niall here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niallcusack/ Check out Outcaster here:‍ https://twitter.com/Outcaster_io Check out Aaron Francis https://www.youtube.com/@aarondfrancis DevRelCon, check out Snyk's measurement talk: https://developerrelations.com/management/building-resiliency-into-your-devrel-program Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 127 Debbie Forster CEO Tech Talent Charter (repeat)

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:30:00 +0000

So many good reasons to dip in to the archive and bring this podcast episode with Debbie Forster back to the top of the list. One reason is to promote again the work of Tech Talent Charter. In this episode, Richard sits down with Debbie Forster, CEO of the Tech Talent Charter. Debbie is an American who has lived in England for over 30 years. Her fascinating career is full of twists and turns, from being a head teacher to her current high-profile role. She tells Richard about her eventful journey, and explains how all her experiences have influenced her public speaking and have helped her create her career. Debbie gives us her insights into why it’s important to always bring yourself into your performance, and how to deal with and learn from negative speaking experiences. She goes through an interesting history of diversity (or lack of it) in tech and explains why transparency around this issue is so important. All of this ties in with the Tech Talent Charter, a UK-based initiative that drives organizations to commit a set of undertakings that aim to deliver greater diversity in the tech workforce (Voxgig has taken the pledge, as have many other tech companies). And Debbie's background as a teacher and her determination to help others is another reason to bring this episode back to the top of the list. It's timely. Education is a thread that connects the two speakers at the next DevRel meetup, details below. Reach out to Debbie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/forsterdebbie/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 126 Sebastian Witalec, Head of DevRel at Weaviate

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 07:40:00 +0000

On this episode, we've got Sebastian Witalec from Weaviate to chat to us about his work at the company and his role as head of DevRel. Weaviate is rather popular in the AI space. It's an open source vector database that allows you to store data and vector embeddings from machine learning models. It's similar to putting information on an XY plane. Similar data points will have similar coordinates. This makes it easier to organise and use your data. We won't get too technical in this description, but safe to say Richard ensures that all the nerdy questions are answered during the episode. So Weaviate is a database; does this mean it's similar to the document stores of fifteen years ago? Well funnily enough, Sebastian's previous role to this one was DevRel at MongoDB. A year and a half ago, he met the CEO of Weaviate and had that lightbulb moment. He knew that this was a brand new way of doing data storage. So he jumped to Weaviate, and sure enough, a year and a half later, vector databases are all anyone is talking about, and Sebastian gets to be at the forefront of it. One of the most important things to Weaviate, and Sebastian personally, is joy. They want to not only create with it, but for people to experience it when they use Weaviate to build. They want their developers to take joy in their work and they believe that their wider community should be just as important as their customers. This is a really special perspective to have, and we're so glad Sebastian decided to join us for this discussion. Reach out to Sebastian here: https://dk.linkedin.com/in/sebawita Check out Weaviate’s services here:‍ https://weaviate.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

125 Simon & Ethan, CTO and DevRel at Vaunt

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Episode 124 Sandy Dunlop, Mythology Expert & Brand Identity Consultant

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Episode 123 Matthias Wagner Chief Skywalker at Flux.ai

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Manifesting things in physical space – this one is for the makers! Matthias and Richard discuss the genesis of Flux.ai, which was created to help democratise hardware design following the example of software development. The Flux.ai website is impressive and is a testament to the progress Flux have made since the very early days when they had to communicate to their first project users and manage expectations! There’s also a very good discussion on the overnight success which was a decade in the making. Building their community, giving their community updates and sharing their progress, using Slack channels; this is a lesson in pragmatism. Go where your users are. But there’s also a frustration about the costs involved with Slack and the view (which is changing) that Discord is blocked by corporates. The conversation takes in the usefulness of LLMs for searching and querying the super detailed specifications documentations for hardware designers. And they have an amazing view of component availability globally, a real-time index. This is a wonderful episode to get us thinking about the progress in hardware design, 3D printing and motivating us to think about embracing our inner maker! Reach out to Matthias here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthias-wagner-5220b047/ And Flux.ai can be explored here: https://www.flux.ai/p Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 122 Jono Bacon, author of "People Powered"

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 09:30:00 +0000

What to do if you don’t have magic pixie dust to sprinkle on your role in devrel? Jono Bacon and Richard discuss this and other relevant career conundrums in this entertaining episode. There needs to be clear understanding of each role within the many parts of developer relations function. Founders and executives needs help and support to understand the good fits for each role and the expectations. Too many professionals in developer relations have not fully managed the business aspect of their role. If you’re a business owner r founder, you need every function in a business to work and be seen to work. While DevRel has a value, it must be easier to map out that value. In the Community Core accelerator they help the people in these developer relations roles and the impact on the business. Don’t make Jono sad. Do what gives you energy. Did you realise that enshitification is a gradual change? We’re back at the business function impact again. Hold your fire on marketing and sales roles, there are great teams in marketing and sales that understand the value of devrel. Don’t dismiss them. And you don’t also have to climb the career ladder unless you WANT to. It’s a valid option to be good at what you enjoy and stay doing what you’re good at. Jono is a fabulous guest, an experienced founder and an enlightening figure in our community of developer relations professionals. Check out his accelerator, Community Leadership Core to benefit more from his wisdom…now that’s he’s older! Community Leadership Core accelerator. https://pages.jonobacon.com/core Reach out to Jono here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonobacon/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 121 Carter Rabasa, Head of Developer Relations at Courier

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Carter Rabasa is Head of Developer Relations at Courier and joins Richard in this Fireside with Voxgig chat. This starts as a history of developer relations, but exposes a question, a gap; who were the devrel leaders in the API/cloud era? The activity of developer relations as it is recognised today could be argued to have begun from 2010 onwards and perhaps GitHub is the genesis of this stage. They also clearly emphasise the need for empathy and how to harness that superpower communicating in both directions – to developers about a product and from users back to product and technical teams. Let’s get personal. How do you understand your role and performance as a developer relations professional? Maybe it actually starts with your company and not with you! And it should involve some awareness about what your company is building and trying to achieve. Reach out to Carter via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carterrabasa/ https://www.courier.com/ CascadiaJS Fest can be explored at this website https://2022.cascadiajs.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 120 Marino Wijay, Developer Advocate and Organiser

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Here at the Voxgig podcast we’ve decided that we’re sick of talking about DevRel all the time. So we’ve decided to switch it up with something completely different for this episode - DevOps! Marino Wijay joins Richard to talk about operator relations, and his work for solo.io as a developer advocate. Solo helps companies unite their services into functional applications using Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies. So what’s Marino’s role? To make sure developers only have one thing to worry about: developing! All the explaining and talking to people, well that’s his job - it’s why he’s on the podcast. As Richard has lamented before, Marino and Solo’s services would have been invaluable to him back in the days of combing through Kubernetes by hand. But what about their DevRel? Richard has known DevRel to be introduced to companies via CEOs or even investors, but it was Marino who was the major force in introducing DevRel to Solo. He now has two other team members working with him. He speaks about his journey of convincing colleagues to give this whole “developer relations” thing a try. He was the patient zero who “infected” Solo with DevRel and now it has successfully spread throughout the entire company. He explains why he believes Kubernetes won out over Docker. Apparently a lack of observability (which stunts improvements) can be a real nail in the coffin. Docker used DevOps to garner early adoption, but wasn’t able to keep up with the demand of its customer base, allowing someone else to sweep in and offer what they couldn’t. Along that line, he and Richard explore the recent announcement from Terraform, regarding their decision to pare back their open source offerings. Is this another death knell, or a savvy decision that will give them a competitive edge? Tune in to hear Marino’s thoughts! Solo https://www.solo.io/ Reach out to Marino here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwijay/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 119 Rohit Ghumare, Developer Advocate, Community Builder, Public Speaker

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

We’ve invited Rohit Ghumare to speak with us in this episode of the podcast, not just to ask him about his impressive Twitter following (although this will come up), but also to find out how he organises his time as a community organiser and developer advocate. As Richard knows all too well, startups require everyone to become a multi-hyphenate. But even in bigger organisations, with a whole team surrounding you, the work of a developer advocate can never be categorised simply. So Rohit talks us through what an average day looks like for someone in his position. From advocacy meetings to speaking at conferences, to coordinating between large groups of people. You’ll see why people skills are a must-have. As we mentioned, Rohit has built up an impressive network across a variety of social media platforms. He’s fortunate in this regard, as follower numbers have become more of a concern for developer advocates in recent months - no thanks to the increase in job openings with follower requirements. How does Rohit feel about these roles? Well… they’re a bit of a red flag. And although he says not to quote him on that, we can’t help but agree. For him, it’s about what kind of person you are. Hiring someone with a high follower count may get your company some engagement, but it doesn’t mean that the person themselves will gel with your team. He also has some great insights on the point of internal vs external hiring. What are the pros and cons of both? When it comes to speaking, he prefers to bring in people who already possess those skills. But for other devrel positions, he believes that people already working on your team have knowledge and interpersonal skills that would take an outsider months to grasp. By giving them a chance to prove themselves, you potentially unlock parts of people they themselves wouldn’t have thought to access. We think this logic checks out pretty well! Reach out to Rohit here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit-ghumare/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 118 Robert Kaminski, Co-Founder and Partner at Fletch PMM

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

What even is positioning? Isn’t it that thing you do when you’ve already established your company and you’ve kind of already got everything figured out? According to this episode’s guest, Robert Kaminski: Absolutely Not! Robert is the co-founder of Fletch PMM, where positioning is their bread and butter, and he’s here to tell us about his belief that positioning should be one of the first considerations when getting a startup on its feet. Fletch works with companies to adjust their website messaging. From overcrowded and confusing to simple, clear and informative. But how do you even get to that point? You need to establish your positioning. Richard admits that a common flaw in the startups he’s founded over the years was that he never sat down with the other founders to discuss positioning. A bad move, as there may or may not be a clip of him on Irish TV trying to explain what his company did through a rather unwieldy steam engine metaphor. Yep. Robert and Fletch are on a mission to stop founders from doing things like that. In an age where software building is more accessible to people than ever, good positioning and marketing are kind of the only things that can give you that much needed advantage to stand out from the crowd. And yet, it’s an area that so many overlook. Fletch often offers their clients 75 minute workshop sessions, and according to Robert, if people can’t tell you who they are and what they do in that time - they’ve got a problem. And it’s not that people don’t know what they're talking about. They do! They just don’t know how to communicate it effectively, and that’s where Fletch comes in. Reach out to Robert here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heyrobk/

Episode 117 Pavan Belagatti, Developer evangelist, tech writer and content creator

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0000

There’s a large population of technical writers in devrel. And a big number of these technical writers don’t necessarily come from technical backgrounds. So how do they do it? In this episode, Richard has a fascinating discussion on this topic and more with developer evangelist, Pavan Belegatti. Pavan transitioned from a marketer to a highly skilled technical writer. He’s a self-taught developer and he gives us an insight into the marriage between writing and coding. In developing, there’s often either a developing to writing pipeline (Richard’s path) or a writing to developing pipeline (Pavan’s), and as someone who came to writing later in his career, Richard picks Pavan’s brain on the discipline of writing. How do you move from being a ten pages on Monday, one page on Tuesday kind of writer, to someone with a more consistent output? Pavan explains that a common oversight in technical writing is not knowing the product well enough. As the saying goes - in order to sell something, you have to buy it yourself first. And how can you do great technical writing without great knowledge of the subject matter? Pavan is also a content creator and a conference speaker and organiser. All of this as he explains, is a key aspect of a career in devrel. It’s all about building trust with potential colleagues, and having a reputation you can refer back to. When it comes to all of this, consistency is key. It’s easy to feel down about low view counts, but what Pavan explains is that a small number of followers who love engaging with your content is so much more valuable than a thousand eyeballs who don’t. With the devrel community in India growing rapidly, Richard asks about the recent advent of people leaving devrel to go back to developing. Is this just a micro-trend, or an indication of a bigger shift? According to Pavan, it comes down to knowing what industry you’re going into. He’s found what he loves to do, and he’s happy here. We couldn’t agree more! Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 116 Chris Chinchilla, Technical Communicator

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Technical writing is an essential element of countless products and services. So why is appreciation of it on the decline? Our guest, Chris Ward (or Chris Chinchilla as you may know him), is a talented writer. Not just of technical content, but also of fiction and music! He’s here to kick our writing brains into gear with a simple piece of advice: just start. Richard agrees that he needs to hear this as much as our listeners and that it’s one of the biggest hurdles for people who want to write - sitting down and actually doing it. A lot of people in DevRel either write, or think about getting into writing. So how do you move from the group of people who want to, to the group of people who do? And why would you want to do it in the first place? There are many reasons. Whether you joined a team for your code and now you’re expected to write an eloquent newsletter on the uses of that code, or you’d like to write a book on your specialist subject to promote your expertise in it. Technical writing is a skill with endless applications. Writing a book for example, can be a fun challenge, as well as an asset you refer back to for years to come. Notice how we didn’t put “to make eye-watering profits” on that list. Yeah. That’s the first lesson in writing books, and Chris tells us all about it. The respect (and money) given to technical writers isn’t what it once was. And yet the services they provide are more relevant than ever. There’s also the small factor that when you finally publish your book, you’re going to be talking about the contents of it for months and possibly years to come. So you’d better make sure the subject matter is one that you won’t easily get sick of (Chris may be speaking from experience on this one). Chris is also a musician, and he speaks about the connections between music and coding, how pattern recognition makes these two a lot more similar than you might think. And Richard makes Chris’s day by bringing up OctaMED, a long-forgotten Amiga music programme that they both lost hours to back in the day. How far they’ve come! Reach out to Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischinchilla/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 115 Taariq Lewis Founder and CEO at Volume Finance

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Content warning: laugh out loud moments and irreverent attitude to “boring” insurance companies. In this episode Richard chats to a very positive blast from his past. Taariq Lewis gave Richard work when Richard needed it many years ago. They’ve each gone on and had several start ups and overcome lots of entrepreneurial hurdles since then, but that core decency informs not only this episode but Taariq and Richard’s philosophy about hiring and people. As Taariq put it about his previous and current ventures, “if we don’t make it, my team will make it.”. And what about that team? What does it do? Well, Volume.finance started life as a consultancy to help blockchain companies get their products to market. Now, Volume Finance is the main developer on Paloma, a blockchain. So where does the DevRel come in? Well, everywhere. Taariq is very open about the challenges he and others in the Blockchain and crypto space face. For Taariq, he uses DevRel to help developers navigate the “non-stop new” and choose quality, well funded projects on which to work. Taariq and Volume spend time building credibility and trust with their community. It’s not easy, but it works and is worthwhile. This episode is important because it exposes the reality that there are decent people working in Blockchain, helping this decentralised, distributed computing become more relevant to more people and businesses - even boring insurance companies! Reach out to Taariq here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taariq/ https://github.com/palomachain https://volume.finance/

Episode 114 Rory Madden, Co-Founder of UXDX

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Rory Madden, Co-Founder of UXDX, joins Richard on this episode of the podcast to talk us through his journey to creating one of the most dynamic, barrier-free conference series’ in tech. UXDX (UX being user experience, DX being developer experience) was born from Rory’s frustration when he couldn’t figure out how to implement innovative solutions in the companies he was working in, and he was always looking for case studies of people who had done it before him, as a way to boost his colleague’s confidence in new ways of doing things. His partner Catherine had a wealth of conference experience, so they decided to collaborate. They created UXDX, under the principle of connecting people from across every stage of the development process. Rory talks about how the attendees of UXDX may work in a huge number of different fields, but underneath it all, they’re all united by a common interest - getting things done. It’s what the conference is all about. Many of their attendees have common frustrations; projects getting shelved or dropped with no explanation from their higher-ups, lack of transparency, etc. Rory feels the solution for this comes down to communication. Management sharing their vision with developers can help immensely when developers need to make decisions that require knowledge of the company’s overall goals. Lateral communication between different workers at the same level is another key element, and something that UXDX is just the place for. Rory has a varied background in product development, and he dives into the pros and cons of really catering to your superusers, or going the other direction and changing things up to try and impress the people who just feel “meh” about your product. This decision applies to conferences too, as he reveals that he himself has thought about trying to cater UXDX for more of a niche audience. But ultimately, the multi-faceted crowd is what makes UXDX such a special event. We also hear from him on the topic of community building, and how you begin that task from the ground up. The trick seems to be avoiding loaded expectations. Like product development, your desire to foster a community should stem from the desire to solve a problem that you see around you, and UXDX is truly a wonderful example of this. Reach out to Rory here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorymadden/

Episode 113 Joe Pettersson, CTO at Banked.com

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Joe Pettersson joins the podcast, to talk all things devrel at banked.com. Banked is a global payments network, and if you’ve ever tried to order anything online, you’ll know that the payments systems used by various websites are far from perfect. Banked is on a mission to fix that. They want to get users through payments systems as smoothly as possible. As Joe puts it, the payments industry is big, but old-fashioned. So the question for him and the team at Banked became “how would we build Visa, or Mastercard if we started in 2023?” Alongside all of this, Joe and his team have also made waves in the devrel space, and we were excited to hear about their innovative new system for measuring developer relations. At banked.com, their sales process is developer-enabled. Now you might remember our discussion about developer-first marketing with Anna Redbond on the podcast a few weeks ago. So what is the difference between developer-first and developer enabled? It comes down to whether you’re selling directly to developers, or trying to avoid the developers “nope”-ing your product when it’s put before them. Joe explains that a huge part of banked.com’s success has been down to their focus on the developer experience. From his perspective, payment systems are already complex enough without needing to pass that complexity onto developers. For Richard, this represents a huge leap in efficiency from the days when he spent hours trying to integrate a credit card payment provider with a website, and had to personally calculate the encryption hash. PTSD, anyone? Joe tells us that accounting for the developer experience while designing your product can be directly translated into increased revenue. Developers won’t always be choosing the products they use, but they are often given the power to say no. But how exactly do you measure the benefit of time and money invested into devrel? Joe and his team have a system that involves finding out what percentage of your prospect’s developers have heard of your project. It sounds simple, but we think this system is a gem that will soon be spreading to other companies. Listen to Joe explain HOW they implement this system.

Episode 112 Danielle Krage, writer and The Remote Speaker Coach

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Danielle Krage is back on the podcast to give us some more invaluable speaker advice. We first had Danielle on Fireside two years ago, so we’re eager to hear her thoughts on what’s changed for speakers in the last two years, and what could be coming up next. She tells us all about her company, The Remote Speaker Coach, and her journey to founding it. While working on education projects, Danielle kept running into the same problem; she was meeting people with great ideas and amazing knowledge about their subjects, but when they got up onstage to speak - they froze. Sound familiar? As someone who trained in theatre, Danielle knew she had the skills to help these speakers tighten up their talks, and bring the audience in with their presentation, rather than alienating them - an extra challenge when speaking remotely. It’s not just taking out an “um” here and an “ah” there, instead Danielle has a clear and systematic approach to maximising your talk to its full potential. As it turns out, a lot of this comes down to structure. After all, even though you're not performing a piece of fiction, you are still telling a story. And a story needs a beginning, middle and end. This is where Danielle starts when she works with a speaker. But there are many pitfalls beyond this. Richard explores a particular problem that he has with slides - he pre-empts what they're going to say, making them miss their mark when he clicks onto them. Danielle drills down into the minefield that slides can present and tells us what to ask ourselves when putting them together. Are the slides adding to what I‘m saying, or just repeating it? Is each slide earning its place in the presentation? What’s my plan B if things go wrong? As she puts it, a lot of what Danielle helps people to do is cut, cut, cut. She’s worked with speakers that have decided their talk should last for sixty minutes. Danielle says, why? What are you trying to say, and is there a way you can say it in forty-five minutes instead? It’s not simply about cutting time. It’s about streamlining, about keeping that momentum going and only including the most important information necessary to get your message across. All this said, speaking is a highly individual craft, something Danielle emphasises. It’s important to listen to advice, but equally to assess your own weaknesses and strengths. What’s going to make you feel your best before speaking? Are you someone who benefits from keeping focused on yourself, or do you feed off the energy of a crowd? Knowing what works for you is a key piece of information in putting together speeches, and building a routine for when you get up onstage. If you can’t get round to hiring Danielle as your personal speaking coach, you can at least get a sample of her wisdom in this episode. Reach out to Danielle through Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellekrage/

Episode 111 Salma Alam Naylor Web Developer and Live Streamer

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Did we get Salma onto Fireside just so Richard could learn how to begin his Twitch streaming career? It's possible! Salma Alam-Naylor is a live streamer, software engineer and developer educator. She streams on Twitch under the moniker “whitep4nth3r” - and she dives into the backstory around this name in the episode (we think it’s great, for the record). Salma gets into it about live streaming, content creation and personality. Over the years, she has carefully built her viewership into a vibrant, supportive community that has her, and each others’ backs. As we learn, her journey began during the first covid lockdown, although unlike whipped coffee and homemade sourdough, her lockdown pastime actually outlasted the pandemic. As someone with backgrounds in coding, performance and teaching, live streaming her coding seemed like the perfect intersection of her talents, and we couldn’t agree more. Although coding isn’t all she does on her stream. Cross-stitching and playing music have also made appearances and yes, her coder heavy audience still shows up for these lives too. This can be understood when Salma goes into what makes people engage with content online. And what’s been obvious to her is that if people connect with someone online, it doesn’t matter what the content is. The audience will follow. Salma tells us about the positives and negatives of Twitch, about the harassment she’s received, but also the incredible support of a community. There also turns out to be more similarities than just the code between streaming and working on a developer team. From a metrics perspective, viewer and subscriber counts can be a tough taskmaster, and it can be a challenge not to judge yourself off of this very stark measure of “success”. Salma’s solution comes from Maya Angelou herself - people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. That metric is hard to quantify, but it’s probably also the best one out there. This is Salma's valuable advice on Developer Relations and Community building using Twitch and live streaming. Not to be missed. Reach out to Salma via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitep4nth3r/

Episode 110 Maria Ashby, developer advocate at Botkube

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Today, Richard speaks to Maria Ashby, developer advocate at Kubeshop. She talks all things Kubernetes, community building, and how developer monoculture is a thing of the past. Back in the days of an early version of Voxgig, Richard and the team got a crash course in Kubernetes which left more questions than answers. If Maria's work with Kubeshop had been around then, that might not have been the case. Kubeshop is a Kubernetes accelerator, which applies the power of Community and collaboration to open source projects focused on Kubernetes tooling. A major benefit of Kubeshop? Speed. In a world where the first to market is essentially the "winner", speed is essential. The way we used to do this was to simply onboard more people. More people means more code, right? However, the work from Kubeshop, and other accelerators means that even the smallest teams of developers can now complete mammoth sections of work in a fraction of the time. Another element of this is community. The way of holing yourself up in a dark room by yourself for 3 days is out and the way of sending out an email is in: "Can anyone help me figure out "x"? I'm really struggling with it?" Maria touts the benefits of asking for help and support instead of trying to power through it alone. It makes sense, as before getting into DevRel, she was teaching Python to kids. A tough crowd as Richard notes, but an excellent training ground for the work she's gone on to excel in. The conversation also covers events and speaking, another notch to Maria's belt. She speaks about the power of connection online vs in-person, and how if you want people to come to your event, you have to offer them something on the day itself - something they can learn, that they can get excited about. She hits on a note we come back to often on Fireside; progress is not linear. You can have a thousand viewers one day and five the next - but if those five people are there because they care about your work, that is totally invaluable. Reach out to Maria here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-ashby/

Episode 109 Anna Redbond, CMO at Flagsmith

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what marketing people think of developers? As it turns out, it’s very positive, at least according to Anna Redbond, CMO of Flagsmith. Anna joins us to talk about the world of marketing in a technical space. As someone who works with words, how does she market towards people who work with numbers? Anna and Flagsmith find ways to bridge the divide with their work helping companies eliminate risk and increase efficiency in their development process. The first thing to say about Flagsmith is that it's obvious they know how to market. Just have a look at their website. Jargon-free, easy to follow, and clear about what they offer. This is Anna's magic recipe when it comes to developer-first marketing. Speak to people in the language that they themselves use: this may seem obvious, but it’s a key factor in how Anna delivers marketing to coders as someone who’s not from a technical background. She speaks about how she draws inspiration from the very conversations she has with developers about what they do. The reason for this? It’s the simple truth that no-one wants a stack of flashy adverts dropped in their inbox - spam folders were invented for a reason! So Flagsmith avoids speaking down to developers, instead it simply gets on their level. It’s a thin line to walk. Avoid jargon, but don’t simplify your language to the point of vagueness. Be specific, but keep things accessible to someone just glancing at your materials. If you’ve ever seen an advert or a piece of marketing that made you physically cringe, you’ll know that it’s a challenging task. Lastly, Richard broaches that awkward preconceived notion held by us all; if a product is good, I’ll hear about it! Why does it even need marketing? Well Anna has the perfect response to that idea - it keeps a fire lit under her. At the end of the day, Anna believes marketing is just about talking to another human being. We were certainly glad she spoke to us. Reach out to Anna via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-redbond-580a0511a/

Episode 108 Zachariah Peterson, conference speakers, electronics designer, strategic advisor

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 10:50:00 +0000

The first thing to know about Zach Peterson is that he’s a hardware guy. Richard is not. Can this divide be bridged by a friendly Fireside chat? Well as turns out, bridging the divide between these two industries is pretty essential for the tech world at large. It may seem obvious, but you can’t really have one without the other - until they learn how to install Twitter in our brains that is, and thankfully that seems to be a long way off yet. So what’s the solution? DevRel, of course. This is something that Zach highlights so well for us in this episode. Meetups, conferences and social media have changed the game for developers in all fields, creating opportunities and connections that wouldn't have resulted otherwise. Zach speaks about his start in the electronics industry, and the work he saw between the people creating software and the people creating the physical devices they exist in. From there, he moved into consultancy, where his work now focuses on making sure that software and hardware developers are working with materials and code of high quality and compatibility. He speaks about the pipeline from an idea to a manufactured product. According to Zach, when it comes to vendors, it’s in their interest to work with developers who want to innovate - as they have the chance to integrate their products into pieces of hardware that may prove to be exactly what the market is looking for. Lastly, he talks about content - Twitch, Youtube and even Webinars. Whichever avenue you choose to prioritise is perhaps not so important as consistency. Building a following that likes what you do, and being reliable in uploading the kinds of things they want to see from you matters more than the specific medium you deliver it through. It’s all about connecting in this episode, whether that be with developers, customers, or your wider audience. Make sure to tune in! Reach out to Zachariah Peterson https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachariah-peterson/

Episode 107 Jonathan Reimer, co-founder, crowd.dev

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 09:10:00 +0000

This time we welcome Jonathan Reimer to the podcast. Jonathan and I dive straight into his company 'crowd.dev', where they are working hard at building an open source developer data platform that they hope will help customers get a clear picture of how developers engage with their brand, their tools, and the developer community in general. Continuing on theme from Emily Omier's episode last week, we discuss the magic word "profitability". With over five thousand open source products on the market, not everyone can bank on being the next Red Hat - so how can the rest of us do it? Few people would know better than Jonathan and the team at crowd.dev, as not only do they specialise in finding revenue opportunities for open source companies, they’re an open source company themselves. Like many of us, Jonathan stumbled into the world of developer relations, meetups and open source products somewhat by accident. With a background in economics that became a career in sales and marketing, Jonathan realised that developers had a huge influence over the products their companies ended up purchasing. If he wanted those developers onside, the product had to be open source - from there, he co-founded crowd.dev and the rest is history. He also informs me about a system called ‘accounts-based marketing’ that crowd.dev has had a lot of success with. How do you prove that your services are either making or saving money for a business? Accounts-based marketing is a new way for companies like crowd.dev to get proper attribution from customers, and display the value they add to the companies they work for. For anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of life as an open source company, this one's for you.

Episode 106 Trish Lynch, News Anchor, Presenter, MC, Reporter, Anxiety Coach

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 17:50:00 +0000

From the pitfalls of rote memorisation to microphone technique - news anchor, presenter and anxiety coach Trish Lynch talks us through some common sense ‘dos and don'ts’ of speaking in front of an audience. The rest of us can take heart in Trish’s reassurance that even she experiences stage fright, and that (clearly) it can be overcome. There are a number of valuable tidbits here. Trish’s wealth of experience translates to a deep understanding of the psychology behind audiences. Are we saying you should purposely add mistakes to your speeches to make you seem more “relatable”? Not exactly - but it turns out that it might not be such a crazy idea. When listening to Trish, what comes to mind is the power of saying yes, and what can result from taking the opportunities that come across your path- you never know where they might lead! For Trish, it led from being an attendant at conferences to being the one speaking on stage, and getting a part on a TV pilot because it was raining and no one else showed up to the audition. Post-covid the challenges for speakers are slightly different, and from Trish we can learn how to give our audiences the best experience possible, and how virtual speaking can still connect with people oceans apart from each other.

Episode 105 Emily Omier, Open Source Consultant, Podcast Host and Advisor

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 17:00:00 +0000

Episode 104 Natalie Gray Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Codurance

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Richard talks to Natalie Gray, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Codurance. Natalie is a former colleague and an expert community builder, previously with Voxgig and now with software consultancy Codurance. In Codurance, Natalie and her colleagues are inherently linked to the Software Craftsmanship manifesto– a mindset to software engineering. Can your software scale with your business? Natalie explains that the Software Craftsmanship mission is to raise the bar in the software industry through professionalism and technical excellence. Ingrained in this mindset is the desire to always be and do better—to continuously push the limits in pursuit of excellence. The genesis of Codurance is in the Software Craftsmanship community founded by Sandro Mancuso and Mashooq Badar. With a community of over 6,000 developers in London alone, this is a living manifesto in a thriving community. With regard to community success, Natalie is a firm believer in the need for integrity in your community purpose. A lot of people want to focus on quality and are proud of what they do, so a space for them to share and come together without a commercial reason allows new tech ideas to be born. An important aspect of preventing things to feel commercially driven is in your approach to content – are you producing resources and content people need and want rather than just selling stuff? DevRel measuring gets touched on again, specifically on community, how do you know its sustainable? Natalie’s advice is to talk to your community. Ask them, is this what you want? And watch out for the core groups, the committed returning members, their enthusiasm is the thing to measure, not the size of the attendance. All in all, this is a focused discussion on creating and supporting communities to ensure and recognise success and impacts. Reach out to Natalie Gray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliejgray/ Codurance: https://www.codurance.com/services Software Craftsmanship: https://sc-london.com/ Find out more about Sandro Mancuso and Mashooq Badar here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandromancuso/ https://www.codurance.com/publications/author/mashooq-badar Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 103 Louise Ogilvy Specialist Recruiter for DevTools companies

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 17:00:00 +0000

Continuing our commitment to bring you voices rom across the DevRel ecosystem, this week Richard is joined by Louise Ogilvy, recruitment specialist for all things developer related. Louise defines roles clearly, helping companies and start-ups creating developer tooling to get from idea to market. She recruits for the entire product cycle: Product, build and go-to-market. What has Louise noticed in the last few years in software development? Well, pressure on developers and awareness of developer burnout is one trend, including burnout of DevRel professionals. Dedicated VCs and investors for DevTools and start-ups building tooling for developers is another positive. And Louise provides very clear expression of the confusion and challenges in getting DevRel accepted as a valuable function. Add in a difficulty of performing in an organisation that doesn’t fully understand and appreciate the value of DevRel professionals. So the setting of expectations around the role is becoming more important and through that, career progression. Marketing awareness functions are not easy to measure, so while it might be nice to say we’re not worried about measuring the impact of DevRel on the business, what about the personal contribution or performance of individuals that might wish to know how they are being perceived and supported? Listen to Richard and Louise discuss the complexities of DevRel’s acceptance in organisations. Real food for thought. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 102 Adam DuVander, author and Principal Consultant at EveryDeveloper

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 12:00:00 +0000

This week’s podcast-as-a-resource is focused on your technical content strategy. Richard talks to Adam DuVander, Principal Consultant at EveryDeveloper. Are you developer first or developer enabled in the way you sell software. Discovery is Adam’s bread and butter. He helps companies understand how to be discovered in the first place – so what are developers or developer advocates trying to solve in the first place and then how Adam’s clients can describe how they can help. So why can’t people do this themselves? This is the classic over-expectation – a developer will write about features, not benefits. And marketing without a technical competence will need a translation layer – that’s Adam and EveryDeveloper. Forget asking for phone numbers or long forms to submit. Adam will bring you through how to market to developers, and the currency he has identified is knowledge. Yes, Code is important, but the experience that’s gone in to creating that code and the decisions and choices made to create that code is very interesting. How about use cases? Bring them on! Another interesting approach is tell developers how to solve their problems without you, but also if they wish, you’ve built a tool to do it for them. The example of this in action is Edith Harbaugh’s Launch Darkly. Then they have a detailed chat on developer first or developer focused – reaching developers directly, digging in to their problems and connects to this audience. Not scattershot, targeted help for specific problems. The developer enabled approach comes in to play when the buyer is other than the developer, but the developer is the user of the technical tool, and therefore must act as a champion for your solution. So they have to be armed with the language and explanation they require to get this discovered tool or service. Can all the stakeholders agree to move forward? Use cases, documentation and sample apps etc. can make all the difference here. The developer first or developer enabled model for Adam’s clients has been a game changer for their marketing strategies. Reach out to Adam DuVander https://www.linkedin.com/in/duvander/ Developer Marketing Does Not Exist: an Authentic Guide (everydeveloper.com) Get the books: https://everydeveloper.com/developer-marketing/book/ Great blog post here on how marketing and developers can collaborate https://everydeveloper.com/how-marketers-collaborate-with-dev-rel/ An example of how to tell developers how to solve problems without you! https://launchdarkly.com/

101 Oisin Lunny Professional speaker, MC, Radio Presenter & Journalist (Repeat)

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Recently, guests have mentioned the public speaking side of the DevRel role, especially as in person conferences are back! So we've dipped back in to our archive to bring you this VERY helpful episode from March 2019. Here, Richard speaks to Oisín Lunny, professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine. In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early PR career led him to public speaking and his ‘aha moment’, when he realized that speaking with authenticity and passion can make even a seemingly insignificant speech great. He also explains why stepping outside your comfort zone can be a brilliant way to learn; being put on the spot can sometimes lead to great creativity. Learn more about Oisín https://oisinlunny.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 100 Andrew Grill, Futurist, Speaker and Author of Digitally Curious

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 11:00:00 +0000

We celebrate our 100th episode welcoming back Andrew Grill to talk about Digital Curiosity. Are you allocating enough time to think about what’s happening, trends and the future? Andrew’s new book, coming out later this year, is titled Digital Curiosity. Yes we are at the top of the hype cycle on AI (Generative AI in particular) it is hype that is prompting and causing government action. This is now mainstream. And Andrew has a brilliant, brief and aha! take on Apple’s Vision Pro. For SciFi fans, there are even attempts to seek answers for the future from great authors! Andrew doesn’t shy away from the risks and the needs for regulation, but does caution against hysteria. We are responsible, “we have a role” in where this goes. This is both reassuring and thought provoking, and as usual with Andrew, he motivates us to get off the sidelines and engage with technology and digital opportunities for our own work, innovation and strategies. Leaders need to dedicate time to being digitally curious. There are costs to leaving this up to everyone else. Enjoy this episode and whet your appetite for playing with and discovering new digital and technological opportunities for your business! Reach out to Andrew Grill https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgrill/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 99 Johannes Dienst Dev Advocate, askui & Apoorva Tiwari Community Manager

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 11:00:00 +0000

This episode is almost a case study in how askui.com engages with their developer audience. Johannes Dienst is the Developer Advocate and Apoorva Tiwari is the Community Manager with askui. How to get a developer to install and run the askui tool? And they’ve run a remote, online, hackathon overall several days…. There’s a revelation and an innovation here that is worth learning from. Reach out to Johannes Dienst here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannesdienst/ Reach out to Apoorva Tiwari here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apoorvatiw/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 98 Tejas Kumar Chief Developer Advocate

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 08:00:00 +0000

You won't need coffee after this! Plug in to Richard & Tejas's chat and soak up the energy. Richard and Tejas cover fresh ground in today's episode. Watch out for the discussion of DevRel vs DevSell. Tejas talks us through the difference. And he gives wonderful insights in to an often under valued need – how to pace yourself at conferences. To be able to do this is crucial for physical and mental health. Reach out to Tejas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasq/ Also mentioned in this episode: Vercel https://vercel.com/ Cloudflare https://www.cloudflare.com/ React https://react.dev/ Platformatic https://platformatic.dev/ Vitaly Friedman https://twitter.com/vitalyf Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 97 Steve Coochin Senior Developer Advocate, Lumigo

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Richard first encountered Steve DeveloperSteve Coochin when Voxgig experienced first hand Steve’s and Lumigo’s incredible developer relations and developer support. So did Richard get lucky or is this just how Steve rolls? Turns out – it’s just how Steve rolls. Getting an answer to a problem is central to Steve’s work ethic, and he’s pretty good at it. And this dedication to solving problems has a benefit to his developer evangelism – when Steve absolutely understands the ins and outs of the tools and services, he can talk confidently about it and run workshops on it. Win-win. Steve also has clear thoughts on WHERE DevRel sits within organisations, grounded in his experiences and training. Makes a lot of sense. Mentioned on the podcast: https://openapi-generator.tech/ https://lumigo.io/product/ https://rubykaigi.org/2023/ https://developer.ibm.com/callforcode/ Reach out to Steve here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/developersteve/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 96 Alex Lakatos CTO at The Interledger Foundation

Thu, 25 May 2023 10:00:00 +0000

A two-for-one deal here! A tutorial on how international and card payments work. And then DevRel discussion on APIs and SDKs involved with Open Source projects and bringing in contributors and building the community. The power of Open Source communities as an incredible recruitment channel. Richard also challenges Alex to detail his journey in DevRel, from Mozilla onwards, building DevRel functions and the tools, and the team from four to 42! Wow! Alex and his team learned by doing. So then he arrived back at the beginning again, but now with a system! Alex uses metrics, but his awareness that the role has so much that must be done, he has taken a company wide approach, bringing in a developer relations culture company wide. This is ultimate holistic approach. Finally, a discussion on the long, long cycle Interledger has to go through with clients, and how they can actually become their own set of committed community. Alex is passionate and committed to Interledger’s mission and it was great to welcome him and Interledger as the first non-profit guests on the podcast. https://interledger-foundation.breezy.hr/ https://developeravocados.net/ https://community.interledger.org/ https://www.vonage.com/ Reach out to Alex here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlakatos/

Episode 95 Megan Slater CTO Craft

Thu, 18 May 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Listen closely and you’ll hear the wheels turning in Richard's brain as this conversation goes on and he gets the how to guide from Megan on community building. They get in to the weeds on community building tools, especially Slack channels, Commonroom webapp and Discord. Megan chats about the “old guard” of devrel, with one of the old guards! This conversation is a true guide to practical community building for your organisation and product or service. Using CTO Craft as an example of a start up with the sole purpose to build community, their success reflects just how possible and valuable communities are. Richard has used CTO Craft’s Slack channel and understands the loneliness at the top which Megan and CTO Craft aim to lessen. As proof of success, the upcoming CTO Craft conference is sold out! This first in person conference in London, on 23rd and 24th of this month may be sold out, but they are announcing a November conference, so you can check out the outcomes of the May conference to make sure you book early for the November version! Links discussed: https://ctocraft.com/ https://www.commonroom.io/ https://discord.com/ https://slack.engineering/ Reach out to Megan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megankslater/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 94 Tim Nolet CTO & Co-founder @ Checkly

Thu, 11 May 2023 04:00:00 +0000

This was another enjoyable episode for Richard where he gets to talk to the Co-Founder of a service he uses, regularly and with great success! Tim Nolet is the CTO and Co-Founder of Checkly, a synthetic testing tool. Don’t worry – Tim explains synthetic in this context. Tim built Checkly through bootstrapping. This was a side project that grew out of control! And of course, developer relations makes an appearance. Tim needed to make a conscious decision to dedicate 50% of his time to developer relations (again, before it really had a name) and this consistent focus on Checkly’s voice, useful, teaching resources like longer blogs etc. …and now they have over 800 customers and a growing team! More proof, if required, of the value developer relations. This podcast is for everyone, but is a great example to both tech and non-tech CEOs of tech companies to reassure them that devrel works. https://www.checklyhq.com/ Reach out to Tim here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnolet/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 93 Michiel Mulders Developer Advocate at Swirlds Labs

Thu, 04 May 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 92 Sid Maestre VP Developer Relations at APIMatic

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

It’s possible we generated more questions than we answered in this episode. This was straight from the practice of developer relations. Sid is the VP of Developer Relations at APIMatic which has ben around about eight years but has a start-up energy. Sid’s role is to improve their explanation and communication of their SDKs and APIs. This includes a glorious description of a date format fix got softly rolled out to “hide” technical debt through a SDK. And as for a steering committee on API governance? API versioning? You have come to the right place! We believe we are moving to a world where attitudes to APIs and SDKs have matured. These discussions on specifications and documentation is valuable. Meaningful, better feedback from customers through specification mocking. But at the heart of everything is the developer experience so your software will be adopted and loved. Reach out to Sid here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidmaestre/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 91 Chris O'Neill Developer Relations at Stytch

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Richard was delighted to talk to Chris O’Neill, the first Developer Advocate at Stytch for this week’s Fireside with Voxgig podcast. Why? Well, recently Richard and the team at Voxgig had the very great pleasure of using Stytch – and it worked a dream. So to be able to share a practical discussion about DevRel after experiencing the DevRel and the product first hand was rewarding. But apart from the product, this discussion gives a three step playbook on how to succeed as a developer advocate. … and the developers you’ll meet in Heaven! Meanwhile back on earth, this is another open and honest conversation with an experienced DevRel professional giving both the technical details of a product and the strategic actions that contribute to successful DevRel and developer advocacy. Dive in and thrive! Connect with Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-o-neill-3a407048/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 90 Jason St-Cyr Developer Relations leader at Sitecore

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

This episode looks at how DevRel works at very large organisations. Jason St-Cyr, Developer Relations Leader at Sitecore, one of the largest digital experience providers in the world. With such a large ecosystem, it’s no wonder that DevRel looks different here than in a SaaS start-up! Jason tells us about ambassador programmes, the starting point for his career in DevRel. And he shares his metaphor of DevRel professionals with us – do you see yourself as a human router? Maybe you should! We also cover developer portals that work, and of course, the old chestnut: measurement. Listen and learn and share - which is kinda Jason's approach to his work too. Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Episode 89 Brian Douglas Founder & CEO at OpenSauced.pizza

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Brian Douglas wants to understand where contributions to Open Source projects are coming from. Brian was the first official Developer Advocate in GitHub! Brian is also another example of a degree in something not computer science. With a finance degree, he taught himself to code and is now running his own startup via DevRel role with GitHub, He’s learned the importance of scaling through developer advocates. Brian has built a myriad of devrel tools and his opensauced.pizza. Brian shares some great advice for both developers and their organisations especially now in the light of industry layoffs: you need to advocate for your company’s product internally too. Is there a feature no one is using? Cut it! If you maintain an open source project, you need this podcast and OpenSauced.pizza.

Episode 88 - Lewis Meyers, Developer Advocate for hire

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 04:00:00 +0000

In this podcast we talk to people from across the spectrum of developer relations, from vice presidents, to experienced developer relations professionals, public speakers, event organisers and community builders – and to those just starting out on their developer relations career. This week, Richard talks to Lewis Meyers in an open, honest and fascinating conversation about breaking in to the tech industry from a military and martial arts background. Lewis did a bootcamp, and they discuss the attitude towards bootcamps and his experience as a bootcamp student. They also discuss in depth the wide divergence of approaches companies take when hiring developer relations. As Lewis puts it, they tend to lean more heavily on one or two of the 3 Cs (code, content and community), and some will be explicit, others won’t really know until they are part way through the hiring process! So you need to be clear on what you are and what drives you in developer relations. Lewis thinks so deeply about his craft and his career choices, that he and Richard have a discussion on how the tech industry could be improved with perhaps a bit more professionalism - and intentional humility and willingness to serve. Reach out to Lewis through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/devrellewis/ or Twitter @DevRelLewis

Episode 87 Jono Bacon Community Builder Guru repeat

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

This episode starts out with a reassuring tale about a rock gig…with more people in the band than in the audience…. So as a conference speaker or community builder, remember that everyone has started out somewhere and not every moment on every stage has been perfect. It all takes practice. Jono takes us through his approach to conference speaking. This is gold. This podcast is dedicated to helping DevRel professionals to be the best they can be in this complex and diverse role. This episode is a repeat from our archive of public speaking podcasts from 2020 and is being re-released as it is timely and relevant as the in-person events are ramping up well and truly this year. This podcast will help you bring your presentation skills to the next level. Reach out to Jono here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonobacon

Episode 86 - Adam Christian, co-founder and CEO of Stateful, March 2023

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Readme Ops. I love it! And wanted to find out more. So Adam Christian, CEO of Stateful kindly joined me to explain the phrase they have coined. Ah, documentation! Imagine a Readme where the samples you run actually work? Runable commands should become runabale – out of the box with Runme. It’s not magic, it’s the passion of Adam Christian and his team at Stateful to address the epidemic of non-maintained documentations. Richard and Adam discuss the ideal customer and target market for this Readme Ops product. Open Source projects and larger enterprises are ideal, but really there is a need for this in many, many scenarios. So what’s their DevRel strategy?

Episode 85 Julia Furst Morgado Global Technologist @ Veeam

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Episode 84 Courtney Stanley

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Courtney Stanley, a keynote speaker, MC and meeting planner, talks about why it’s important for virtual event organisers to offer people an authentic live experience online. As virtual experience improves year by year, we reflect on the Fireside Chat with Courtney we had two years ago where she talks about her transition from live events to virtual events and how to make this happen. She has plenty of experience in the technology and marketing behind successful events. She encourages event organisers to leave the comfort zone of Zoom, and explore platforms that allow them to offer people an authentic live and interactive experience online. Courtney Stanley is all over social media. You'll find her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, on her website, and on the #OUTSPOKEN Facebook group. Learn more about Colm here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneystanley To get a weekly dose of the experiences of DevRel professionals or news on DevRel meetups sign up to the Voxgig newsletter. View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com. If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 83 Martin Woodward

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Fun Fact: Our guest this week is a once-developer who, believe it or not, registered Microsoft’s first Github account! Martin Woodward has been helping first Microsoft and then Github build, sustain and support their respective open-source communities. There are a lot of highlights in his long distinguished career as he is now the Vice President of Developer Relations, #DevRel has influenced him throughout his career. With Martin as our guest and Richard Rodger as our host, the topics discussed are practical things such as what recording we use for preparing a content, and similar. We talk about the impact of AI, coding and how it can improve tooling. Tooling plays a very significant role as the help of a #DevRel to be more effective and - more importantly – productive. This is when the quality of product comes into play. The product, as we know it, is used by the developers and, then, there are the people who make the product. #DevRel is about creating a bridge between the two parties so as to make the product better. If you ever wondered what would be one of the most considerable impacts you can have in #DevRel, it is helping others to purse or further their careers. In this podcast, listen to what Martin has to say that can help you take on this assignment accordingly. Learn more about Martin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinwoodward To get a weekly dose of the experiences of DevRel professionals or news on DevRel meetups sign up to the Voxgig newsletter. View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com. If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 82 Colm Doyle

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Motivation, Advocacy, and Leadership are the three themes for this week’s #DevRel podcast. This time around in our #DevRel podcast series, Richard Rodger speaks to Colm Doyle. We bring up some big tech company names such as Microsoft, Apple, Open-air, Slack, and Facebook and zero in on what it takes to making #DevRel work. One of the most important things, in that regard, is leadership. Colm is an experienced Developer Relations and Engineering Manager and is, currently, head of Developer Relations at Intercom. As we jump to some API discussions, we get into the role of the leader when it comes to setting up a #DevRel team. Once an API takes off, how difficult it is to manage it as a #DevRel person? Having worked for big tech companies and with a lot under his belt, Colm can tell us a thing or two about that – such as the management and distribution of API long-term, the importance of leadership and much more! Learn more about Colm here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colmdoyle/ To get a weekly dose of the experiences of DevRel professionals or news on DevRel meetups sign up to the Voxgig newsletter. View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com. If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 81 PJ Hagerty

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Be warned: this podcast contains kindness and care and a decent description of how Guns&Roses are a guide for startups! With that being said - this week, we have an inspiring chat with PJ Hagerty as he brings the spirit of Guns&Roses and Buffalo, New York! PJ is a developer, writer, speaker, musician, and Community Advocate. He shares with us his life story of getting into tech and founding one of the first DevRel communities. In his journey to DevRel, the combination of luck and curiosity came in very handy – when back in the day you could do only so much with computers. As a member of a musical band, he learned the first bits and pieces of how a community can contribute to a lot of success and how people, rather than computers, are the heart of everything. PJ Hagerty was there at the dawn of Developer Relations – the primordial ooze from which DevRel grew in 2012! Is DevRel even a career choice and how to get into DevRel?! This is about the journey in to DevRel and the ethos that can make you successful in the role. It is also about community care and finding the person in the room who feels they don’t belong and help them to feel like they should. Learn more about PJ here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pjhagerty To get a weekly dose of the experiences of DevRel professionals or news on DevRel meetups sign up to the Voxgig newsletter. View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com. If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 80 Andrew Grill

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

This week, we decided to revive the 2018 podcast with Andrew Grill as we bring up public speaking, the rough journey of becoming a public speaker and such. If you are in DevRel you are probably a public speaker, or want to be one. Listen to Andrew for some great advice. Andrew Grill calls himself a ‘practical futurist’. He is a professional writer, blogger and conference speaker—which means he gets paid to talk. And he wants to help you do the same. You’ll learn why the first 90 seconds of a talk are vital, how clichés kill your talk, and how to tell when you’ve hooked your audience. Andrew also gives us tips on how to survive when the tech lets you down (something many of us can identify with). He shares his insights on why Blackberry failed, why we need to broaden our understanding of quotas, and why digital diversity is the next big idea in tech. In this day and age, we can use smart devices to perform better as speakers, so we touch on how technology can benefit us when adversity kicks in. Learn more about Andrew here. To get a weekly dose of the experiences of DevRel professionals or news on DevRel meetups sign up to the Voxgig newsletter. View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com. If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 79 John Lynch

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

When we talk about Developers' Relations, we often talk about the three Cs: Code, Community, and Content. This week's podcast talk makes a turn at bringing those three together. Service design helps us achieve that with its principles for DevRel strategy. Delivering and designing a service is critical in making your DevRel coherent. In this podcast, John Lynch who is a Service Designer breaks down the service design thinking in the technical world with real-world examples as well as his experiences. With John as our guest, we get to discuss: - Types of Design - What defines a service? - Are services all around us? - What defines a product? - Reading and Maintaining Documentation - Working with APIs and third-party services

Episode 78 Vicky Twomey-Lee

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

A how-to guide on building a community and successful event creation! Spoiler alert: it takes work, commitment and patience. Vicky Twomey-Lee is a diversity in tech & community veteran. You need community BEFORE you have an event!

Episode 77 - Alvin Bryan

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

So, you're a developer, but you feel you need a change of role, but not industry. Well you've come to the right podcast today! In this episode we talk to Alvin Bryan, Developer Advocate at Contentful and a coach at Codebar, a really interesting initiative to help people learning to code and starting out in various languages. Alvin generously and openly walks us through how he moved from being a frontend developer to his current role. We talk about when organisations just don't get the value of developer community building and supporting meetups, something he and Contentful very much have in their plans! Listen to hear about the 3 Cs of DevRel, and a little frustration at our own industry for our perhaps lack of attention to details when it comes to SDKs.

Episode 76 - Joan Mulvihill

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Breaking out of the DevRel bubble - our conversation with Joan Mulvihill, Digitalisation & Sustainability Lead at Siemens. We discuss the big company perspective and how large organisations need help innovating and dealing with developers. We also discuss the openness so valued by developers and embraced by Siemens to tackle sustainability and every other challenge and responsibility facing their customers. A breath of fresh air!

Episode 75 - Daniel Bryant

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Daniel Bryant is the Head of Dev Rel at Ambassador Labs. In this fast paced conversation, Richard and Daniel discuss several aspects of developer relations and developer advocacy. From changing attitudes to swag through to the art of positioning (hat tip to April Dunford) via open source, real vs pretend community and the recurring question of where developer relations sits in a company or is a sales cycle, this is a DevRel tutorial not to be missed. Daniel and Richard are deeply knowledgeable on the practical challenges of, but also the opportunities afforded by, implementing consistent and professional developer relations function in your organisation. We know you'll find it informative.

Episode 74 - Suze Shardlow

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

In this week's episode, Richard talks to Suze Shardlow, marketer, coder, published tech author, speaker and event emcee! Suze is the Developer Community Manager at Redis. In this conversation Suze offers really great insight in to the relationship between sales and DevRel and how you have to be really careful in your organisation not to position DevRel as just another part of the sales funnel because nothing turns off developers and damages a community of developers as trying to sell to them directly! We also discover how Suze got started in public speaking and the differences she sees between delivering a talk at an event and acting as emcee. Listen to this chat to get a very good understanding of how your organisation could think about DevRel and its DevRel strategy.

Episode 73 - Matthew Revell (repeat)

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

In this repeat from 2019, Orla speaks to Matthew Revell, founder of Hoopy, and DevRelCon, an important event on the DevRel calendar. This year, DevRelCon is in Prague from Dec 6th, but this interview, carried out before the pandemic, gives wonderful insight in to Matthew's own interest and pedigree in events, but also the genesis of DevRelCon. Listen to Matthew's perfect description of developer relations too!

Episode 72 - Eoin Boylan

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0000

In this episode we are in a detailed conversation with Eoin Boylan the CTO of Evervault, a company that does encryption as a service. This is a Developers Relations how-to guide! We discuss the challenges of getting developers to use some pretty complex APIs. Eoin speaks to the effectiveness of private Slack channels per client. As a use of Evervault systems in the service of one of our own clients, I see the value of this approach! We also discuss their really excellent documentation flow documentation and the importance of this documentation flow to Developer Relations. The first part of the conversation is a brief explainer of Evervault encryption service. Then Eoin walks us through how they discovered, tracked and optimised their product through a specific developer onboarding step originally. This shoulder-to-shoulder onboarding has evolved in to private engineer-to-engineer Slack channels.

Episode 71 - Matteo Collina

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0000

For Richard, Matteo Collina was an amazing colleague he had the pleasure of working with, and in this podcast, they get to talk about what they've been up to since. Matteo is well known from his Fastify project (https://www.fastify.io/) one of the fastest webservers written in Node.js. Matteo has just launched a start-up - Platformatic (https://platformatic.dev) and in this podcast he'll discuss how his experiences led him to not only form the company, but to structure it and grow his community in very specific ways. Richard and Matteo also have a detailed discussion of different ways companies treat developer relations, DevRel, with wonderfully frank opinions on how best to enable DevRel flourish in an organisation - without creating jealousy. A fascinating and honest chat from experienced leaders in DevRel. You can read the transcript of this podcast by visiting https://www.voxgig.com/podcast

Episode 70 - Asim Aslam

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Asim Aslam is a CEO who codes. His company M30.com offers a universal suite of microservices, offering a full business logic layer for building applications; the purpose of microservices! This conversation openly and honestly discusses the challenges and experiences of maintaining open source projects but also of commercialising a start-up.

Episode 69 - Joe Drumgoole

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the Voxgig Podcast. We talk to people in the developer community about developer relations, public speaking and community events. For more details, visit voxgig.com/podcast. All right, let's get started. Today my guest is Joe Drumgoole. Joe is a senior dev rel person at MongoDB. I first came across Joe when I saw him pitch a startup at one of the very early Web Summit conferences and I thought to myself, I gotta get to know this guy. He was impressive then and he's pretty impressive now. We talk about the development of developer relations, how critical it has been to the success of MongoDB – which, by the way, is really cool these; I use it myself. We talk about developing skill of speaking at conferences, and how it is a skill and something that you can learn. And we talk about the importance of identifying the economic reason for why someone uses your software and how important that is in developer relations. Take it away, Joe. You can find the transcript of this podcast and any links mentioned on our podcast page at Voxgig.com/podcast. Subscribe for weekly editions, where we talk to the people who make the developer community work. For even more, read our newsletter. You can subscribe at Voxgig.com/newsletter, or follow our Twitter @voxgig. Thanks for listening. Catch you next time.

Episode 68 - Caelen King

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 02:00:00 +0000

In this episode Richard speaks to Caelen King, Angel, advisor to start-ups and founder. They discuss advice for non-technical founders and domain experts seeking to build their MVP. Listen for two important learnings.

Fireside with Voxgig with Ovidiu Matan

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Richard chats with Ovidiu Matan a creator of technology events and conferences. Ovidiu sources speakers and content through his successful Today Software Magazine. Based in Romania, Ovidiu explained to Richard in February 2022 about the impacts of the pandemic on his business, the changes he was forced to make and which of these changes proved to be lasting pivots. about the changes he's made to his conference business and the successful move to online events, and indeed his new hybrid model. Ovidiu outlined his upcoming schedule of events, including IT Days in November this year in Romania.

Episode 66 - Willie Nicol

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 05:30:00 +0000

Willie Nicol is a life coach with an unusual background – he was a police officer in the Scottish police force for thirty-one years. In a Fireside Chat with Richard that crackled with dynamism, he shared his no-nonsense approach to life coaching. As a member of the National Speakers Association, he helps people overcome public speaking nerves and turn fear into fun. He chats to Richard about turning public speaking fear into fun, and about how watching yourself on video gives you the edge when you're preparing your speeches. He also reveals his ambition to give a TED talk in the future.

Have a look at Willie's vlog about overcoming fear of public speaking on the Techno Dinosaur YouTube channel.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews, and more, sign up for the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 65 - Mike Acker

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 06:30:00 +0000

Mike Acker is a man on a mission to teach the world to speak without fear. He's written a bestselling book, Speak With No Fear, and coaches people all around the world to break down the fear barrier around public speaking. He reveals that public speaking isn't just about skill – it's about mental preparation. And it's about knowing who you are as a speaker. He also reveals a brilliant technique for overcoming the fear factor when you're asked to give a talk at short notice – or no notice at all.

If you want to find out how Mike can help you speak without fear, check out his website.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews, and more, sign up for the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 64 - Christina Aldan

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 05:30:00 +0000

Christina Aldan is definitely a woman who follows her own path. She struggled with computers at college, but she's now a digital advertising consultant with Arana Software. And one of her first professional talks was a TEDx talk. In her dynamic, positive podcast chat with Richard, she talks about how she misses her speaker tribe. But she's keen to embrace the opportunities that virtual platforms give – like the chance to chat with your audience for an hour after a talk because no-one's shooing you out of the conference room.

Want to get up close and personal with Christina Aldan. We've teamed up with Christina to offer you a masterclass series called Better UX with EQ. It's all about how to bring emotional intelligence to the creation of brilliant software. These won't be your ordinary webinars – they'll be live and interactive, and Christina's looking forward to some great conversations with you. Book your spot now.

Thanks to Simplecast for making it possible for us to bring you brilliant speakers like Christina Aldan.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews, and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 63 - Jock Busuttil

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 05:30:22 +0000

Jock Busuttil is a product manager who believes that if there was more common sense in the world, there would be no need for product managers! This blend of honesty and humour was a feature of his Fireside Chat with Richard. Jock gives an insight into the world of a product manager and shares how he turned his product management experience into a successful speaking career. He also tells Richard how he set up his home studio following the COVID lockdown, with a couple of lights, a camera – and an old television!

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews, and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Find out more about Jock Busuttil at The Product People

Episode 62 - Courtney Stanley

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 05:30:14 +0000

Courtney Stanley has a background as an event planner and she specializes in the technology and marketing behind successful events. She’s now also known as a keynote speaker and MC. In her Fireside Chat with Richard, she talks about taking a strategic approach to speaking and event management and about the future shape of digital events. She encourages event organizers to leave the comfort zone of Zoom, and explore platforms that allow them to offer people an authentic live and interactive experience online.

Many thanks to Simplecast, whose sponsorship of our podcast keeps the show on the road.

Courtney Stanley is all over social media, here's where you'll find her:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/courtneyonstage/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/courtneyonstage/

TW: https://twitter.com/courtneyonstage

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneystanley/

Website: https://www.courtney-stanley.com/

#OUTSPOKEN Facebook Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/micdropmoment/

Episode 61 - Dan Ram

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 05:30:03 +0000

Dan Ram has worn so many hats in his career that he could stock a department store, but he’s best known as a professional speaker and MC. He shows wannabe speakers how to dominate the world of the screen, and his specialty as an MC – secret handshakes with speakers. He believes any speaker can create great content that has a real impact, as long as you work at it.

Simplecast helps us bring you brilliant speakers with their brilliant sponsorship – thanks, guys.

Have a look at Dan Ram’s website, a hub for all his activities. https://www.iamdanram.com/

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews, and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 60 - Jay Allen

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 05:30:02 +0000

Jay Allen, who has a military background and also ran a health and safety business, became a professional public speaker overnight when he was asked to step into the breach at a charity event. In a Fireside Chat that crackled with dynamism and energy, he talks about how great speaking is about more than the words you say and why a good speech is like a business plan.

Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcast – we couldn’t do it without you.

Have a look at Jay Allen’s website, where you’ll find out about all his great services. https://jayallen.uk/

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews, and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 59 - Rachael Robertson

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 05:30:12 +0000

In a Fireside Chat that packed a punch, Rachael Robertson shares her experience of leading a team of ‘crazy people’ in the Antarctic, where she learned that being respected is more important than being liked for leaders – respect trumps harmony. She also speaks about how the COVID situation inspired her to launch a new product, speaking to audiences from the comfort of her own professional home studio.

Rachael is also an author and she’s going on a virtual book tour for her latest leadership book, Respect Trumps Harmony. You’ll find out more about Rachael’s book here.

Thanks so much to Simplecast, who help us to bring the wisdom of speakers like Rachael to your ears.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 58 - Stephan Murtagh

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 05:30:10 +0000

Stephan Murtagh is best known as the Exhibition Guy, the guy who shows exhibitors how to make trade exhibitions work for them. In a full-throttle Fireside Chat with Richard, he tells Richard that audiences are more interested in relevant content than in famous speakers. He also stressed the importance of following your leads – if you do, you’ll be in the top 20% of successful exhibitors.

Follow The Exhibition Guy on LinkedIn:

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 57 - Paul Savage

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 05:30:03 +0000

Paul is Chief Operating Officer of Conjura, an innovative start-up that helps other companies harness the power of their data. He’s also a veteran of the speaking circuit and credits elocution lessons for his success as a speaker. In their friendly Fireside Chat, Paul looked to the future of the events industry. He and Richard explored the role virtual reality will play and the best ways to recreate the magic of real-world events in a virtual space.

Check out Paul’s innovative start-up, Conjura.

Many thanks to Simplecast, whose sponsorship helps us harness the power of the podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 56 - David Gonzalez

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 05:30:41 +0000

David Gonzalez is a dynamo, a DevOps engineer, lecturer and public speaker who’s not afraid to take risks during his talks. His attitude is, if it hurts, do it more, and he encourages wannabe speakers to just go and do it – and if it hurts, do it more. He also talks about the challenges of speaking in your second language, and how he pulls off live coding demos on stage.

Thanks to Simplecast for helping us to bring you dynamic speakers like David for your listening pleasure.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 55 - Derbhile Graham

Thu, 28 May 2020 05:30:07 +0000

On this week’s Fireside Chat, Richard chats to Derbhile Graham, author, public speaker and content creator for Voxgig. She’s also a celebrant and has the joy of officiating ceremonies for every stage of life. Derbhile shared her experiences as a member of the public speaking organisation Toastmasters and highly recommends it as a stepping stone for wannabe speakers. She also reveals the secret to public speaking success – being visually impaired. It’s a lot easier to handle nerves when you can’t see the audience looking at you.

Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcast – we’re delighted to have them on board.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 54 - Jono Bacon

Thu, 21 May 2020 05:30:02 +0000

Jono Bacon is a heavy metal guitarist who once played in the place where Iron Maiden played their first gig. He’s also a public speaker, a consultant and the author of books about building communities. His mission is to help companies create successful communities. In this Fireside Chat with Richard, which crackled with dynamism and cool vibes, Jono talked about the value of building a brilliant community around yourself as a speaker – it’s not egotistical at all. He also outlined how to package your message in a way that audiences can understand.

Find out more about Jono Bacon on his website and on Wikipedia. You can also find out more about his books on Goodreads.

We’re delighted to get support from Simplecast for our podcast – thanks, guys.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 53 - Melanie Parish

Thu, 14 May 2020 05:30:07 +0000

Melanie Parish is a Canadian coach, a public speaker and the author of The Experimental Leader. In her Fireside Chat with Richard, they had a highly stimulating discussion about how to be an innovative leader during a crisis, which she sees as the Olympics for leaders. She encourages leaders to break down the barriers to innovation in their companies, so they’ll thrive in the long term.

Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring this podcast – your help keeps the show on the road.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 52 - Freddy Freundlich

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 06:30:12 +0000

Freddy Freundlich is a colourful character. He trained as a nurse and was ordained as a rabbi, but he is first and foremost a salesman. He’s the author of two books, Born on the Right Side of the Tracks and The One-Call Close. And he’s a straight talker, as you’ll hear for yourself when you listen to his Fireside Chat with Richard.

His advice to wannabe speakers and salespeople is simple. Great public speaking and sales are all about great conversation. Find one person in your audience and deliver your talk to them. That’s how you make a connection with your audience. Freddy also shows you how to add sizzle to your steak – in other words, it’s not enough just to have a quality product. You’ve got be able to tell people about it too.

You’ll find out more about Freddy on his Rabbi Freddy website. Or you can just email freddy@rabbifreddy.com and he’ll be delighted to answer your questions.

We’d like to thank Simplecast who help us to bring you brilliant thinkers like Freddy Freundlich.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 51 - Danielle Krage

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 06:30:04 +0000

Danielle Krage is the power behind The Remote Speaker Coach, a company which nurtures new speaking talent. Her warmth and empathy shone through in her Fireside Chat with Richard, as she encouraged wannabe speakers to take the fear out of public speaking by breaking down their talks into bitesize parts. She’s also passionate about diversity and calls on conference organisers to make room for new and exciting voices in their conference lineups.

You’ll find out more about Danielle on her Remote Speaker Coach website and on LinkedIn.

Big thanks to Simplecast for their support of our podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on

Fireside with Voxgig

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Episode 50 - Bonnie Williams

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 06:30:14 +0000

For this podcast, we’re delighted to welcome back actor and performance coach Bonnie Williams. This time, she’s talking about how to make killer pitches to investors. In a highly insightful Fireside chat, she reveals that great pitching is not like Dragon’s Den. It’s all about pitching to the right people. Bonnie and Richard also chatted about virtual conferencing and how to make a connection with the audience when they’re not in the room with you.

You can check Bonnie out here

And here.

Thanks to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcast – we’re so happy to have you working with us.

Episode 49 - Roger Edwards

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 06:30:10 +0000

Roger Edwards is a high-impact public speaker on all things marketing. He’s also a blogger, a vlogger, a podcaster and a fitness instructor. He’s a man who’s full of energy, and he knows how to fill his audiences with energy too. During his Fireside Chat with Richard, Roger revealed his secret for grabbing and holding an audience’s attention – he gets them to shout, ‘The cat sat on the mat.’ In other words, keep it simple.

Big thanks to the brilliant Simplecast, for helping us keep our podcast show on the road.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 48 - Andrew Davis

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 06:30:05 +0000

In this Fireside with Voxgig podcast, Richard talks to Andrew Davis, owner of a fantastic bow-tie, who has gone from working with the Muppets to building and selling his own marketing agency fuelled by the power of speaking. Being a keynote speaker is now his main job, and in this podcast, he shares his secret weapon when selling products – giving speeches.

You’ll find out more about Andrew Davis at AKA Drew Davis.

We want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Simplecast, who have kindly come on board as our first-ever sponsor.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 47 - Sandy Dunlop

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 06:30:02 +0000

Sandy Dunlop is a global branding expert who draws on the world of myth to tell compelling stories about the brands he represents. In an intellectually stimulating Fireside Chat with Richard, Sandy inspires listeners to trust in storytelling as a tool for getting your message across. He encourages aspiring speakers to distinguish between what he calls the ‘blue rhetoric’ of facts and the ‘red rhetoric’ of storytelling. Sandy’s ultimate message is that it is feelings that win audiences over, not facts.

Take a look at Sandy Dunlop’s branding consultancy to find out more about his storytelling genius.

We’re delighted to work with Simplecast to bring you Fireside with Voxgig podcasts that stimulate your brain and inspire you to become a brilliant speaker.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on

Fireside with Voxgig

, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 46 Lesley Tully

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 06:30:10 +0000

We’re always interested here at Voxgig in how people get into public speaking in their careers. Lesley Tully started off studying Film. She tells us how this training gave her an understanding of visuals, which turned out to be a great asset in her subsequent career and in the role she is now in: an expert on Design Thinking.

Orla and Lesley get into the subject of evangelizing for your own job; in other words, how to convince sometimes sceptical colleagues - who may be in the organization a lot longer than you - that your role and your expertise can enhance their work and output. This takes persistence, belief in what you’re doing, and a good dose of authenticity. If you’re authentically passionate about what you do, people eventually will be won over by what you have to say.

Using a great mortgage analogy based on her days as Head of Design Thinking in Bank of Ireland, Lesley reveals how putting the human being at the center of everything is the key to good business. This applies across all industries and sectors, including the world of tech startups.

Learn more about Lesley here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 45 Allan Kelly

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 06:30:01 +0000

Allan Kelly is a conference organiser, speaker, author and a coder who’s on a mission to help other coders get in touch with the world around them. His Fireside Chat with Richard had a wonderfully warming feel, just like his Agile on the Beach conference in Cornwall. He began by revealing that he actually apologised for giving a new talk at a conference, He believes strongly that repurposing conference talks helps you reach new audiences and reach existing audiences in new ways. He also revealed how he spread rumours of Russian cargo ships landing on a Cornwall beach to attract people to Agile on the Beach

If you’d like to find out more about Allan Kelly and his agile approach to technology and to life, check him out at Agile on the Beach.

We’re delighted to partner with Simplecast for our Fireside with Voxgig Podcast, which helps us bring you the most brilliant people in the events and conference field.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 44 - Onyi Anyado

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 06:30:13 +0000

Onyi Anyado is a global leadership speaker from Hackney in East London, and he’s on a mission to achieve distinction, for himself and for wannabe public speakers. He’s written two books and delivered a powerful TEDx Talk called From Detention to Distinction. His Fireside Chat with Richard crackled with dynamism and passion. He revealed that he feels divinely inspired to help people find their own distinctive voice as speakers. He talks about how he developed his own distinct message as a speaker. He also tells us why he stopped going to his barber, and how he turned that to his advantage.

You’ll find out more about Onyi’s quest to achieve distinction at Onyi Anyado Media House.

We’re delighted to receive sponsorship from Simplecast. They’re the fuel that keeps our Fireside Podcast crackling.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 43 - John Collins

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 06:30:25 +0000

John Collins is Director of Content with Intercom, the customer messaging platform. He’s a man who knows how to spread a message effectively, having worked as a tech journalist for more than 20 years. He’s now responsible for producing the award-winning content at Intercom, including the blog, the podcasts, the books and the social media communications.

In our Fireside Chat, John talks about how Intercom has introduced a silent podcast disco to keep conferences fresh for audiences. He also shares a great analogy that Intercom came up with to help people learn to speak – that brilliant public speaking starts with a cupcake. When you’re learning to bake, you don’t plunge into making a wedding cake. You start with a cupcake and you perfect your skills. Similarly, in public speaking, when you start small, you achieve great things.

Find out more about Intercom’s cupcake-centric philosophy of developing skills, products and services here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

We’re proud to bring you this edition of Fireside with Voxgig, sponsored by the brilliant Simplecast.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 42 - Mairin Murray

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 06:30:01 +0000

Should innovators kick over the table or just rearrange the things on it? Does it even make sense to regard the question in black and white? TEDx speaker Máirín Murray joined Orla on this episode to share her passion for technical products that produce a positive social impact.

Máirín is a tech innovator and ethics evangelist. Previously, she was Senior Digital Content Producer at the BBC. She is a co-founder of Tech for Good. This Ireland-based community of more than 1,750 people showcases projects and technologies that are solving everyday problems and having positive impact on people, communities and the planet.

Tech for Good Dublin was a 2018 finalist in the Innovation for Change category of the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards.

Learn more about Máirín here and Tech for Good here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 41 - Alex Staniforth

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 06:30:17 +0000

Alex is a record-breaking adventurer, keynote speaker, published author, brand ambassador and charity fundraiser from Cheshire, England. He is dedicated to inspiring others to achieve their own ‘Everest’ in life.

Alex is not your typical Everest speaker. After single-handedly raising over £35,000 in corporate sponsorship whilst still at school, his first attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest in 2014 was abandoned following a tragic avalanche that took sixteen lives. Aged just 19, he returned to Everest a year later and survived an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall, triggered by the Nepal earthquake, which trapped his team on the mountain for two days.

He is no stranger to adversity, having overcome epilepsy, bullying and a stammer in his early life. These experiences have re-defined his view of success and failure to develop a humbling realisation that success lies not just in reaching the top but our journey to get there. Alex understands first-hand how our circle of control is sometimes no bigger than two metres below our feet, and that so-called ‘failure’ is just another opportunity to win.

Learn more about Alex here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 40 - Richard Rodger

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 05:30:20 +0000

Richard is an international conference speaker, serial entrepreneur, published author and CEO of Voxgig. He also writes a weekly column, ‘Startup Diary’, for the Irish Independent newspaper.

He tells Orla how he never envisaged himself as a public speaker in the earlier part of his career. He found, though, that he “always ended up on stage, one way or another”! As he found himself being asked more and more to give talks, he developed his love for “the story” - the narrative arc that captures and holds the audience’s attention, which he feels serves him well to this day.

Richard lets us in on some things he’s learned the hard way in his speaking career, and what to do when you’re asked an awkward question! He also has some tricks he’s learned over the years for balancing work as a start-up CEO and life as a parent.

Learn more about Richard here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 39 - April Dunford

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 05:00:25 +0000

April Dunford is a positioning consultant. In plain English, that means she tells companies where their brand belongs in the market and what customers they should target. Her knowledge comes from 25 years of experience running tech startups and working for global tech giants. She is the author of a brilliant book on positioning called Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Positioning So Your Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It.

In her podcast chat with Richard, April tells Richard how she uses cake to help people understand the power of positioning. She also reveals how taking on a ton of conference speaking engagements helped her sell a ton of books and win new clients for her business.

Learn more about April Dunford here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 38 - Mick Colliss

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:30:02 +0000

Mick tells Orla how he fell into public speaking as a career. He has made a virtue out of the underdog story; according to him, he has failed at everything he ever tried, and the keynote speech he now travels the world delivering is the culmination of that. Having finally achieved his dream of representing his country, he and his team came last in the World Sudoku Championships.

But he has made quite a success of his failure: a documentary was made about his team’s trip to the World Sudoku Championships in India, he has written a book about his experiences, and he’s still capturing audiences everywhere with his self-effacing, brutally honest talk. And he’s honest in real life, too; he tells us exactly how he did it, and makes it sound easy!

Learn more about Mick here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 37 - Petra Kindler

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 05:30:04 +0000

Petra Kindler is a spoken word artist, a comedian, a literary translator, playwright, and freelance creative director. She’s a German who has been living in Ireland for over thirty years and she specialises in pointing out the ridiculous in everyday life.

Petra tells Orla how she went from being a high-level creative director at German advertising agencies to the pretty unique position of being a German-Irish comedian (among her many other activities). She also speaks about how she deals with the cliché of Germans being humourless!

We get a glimpse into Petra’s family background, which takes in some of the major political and historic events in twentieth-century Europe. She tells us how she made it through school as a creative person with her sense of humour and self-worth intact. Fascinatingly, she reveals how some of her most recent work has enabled her to connect with young artists in Ghana and bring their work to European stages.

Learn more about Petra here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 36 - Peter Hopwood

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 05:30:02 +0000

We usually feature top public speakers on Fireside with Voxgig, but in this episode, we decided to speak with a top public speaking coach. Peter Hopwood describes himself as a pitch and presentations coach, and he supports public speaking professionals at every stage in their speaking career.

During our thought-provoking Fireside Chat, he revealed that speakers can always learn something new, no matter how experienced they are. It’s tempting for speakers who have some experience to believe that they have nothing left to learn, but Peter helps them break through to the next level.

Peter Hopwood is also an MC, and he has helped speakers through some very sticky situations – the stuff of nightmares. He saw for himself that if speakers, can find a way out of that crisis and carry on, the audience will be right behind them. For Peter, the biggest lesson any speaker can learn is resilience.

Learn more about Peter Hopwood here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 35 - Bonnie Williams

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 05:30:06 +0000

Orla chats to Bonnie Williams, a dialogue and performance coach for actors, public speakers and other professionals. Bonnie describes herself as a “Amsterdam-based American European”. She’s also an actor and a TEDx speaker coach, and was featured in Marie Claire magazine.
Bonnie has worked for many years helping business people apply the skills of acting to the corporate world. She tells us how engaging with intercultural differences is so important for people doing business outside their own country. However, she shies away from using terms “training” and “coaching”. What she focuses on with clients, she reveals, is “connecting speakers to their message”. Her overarching goal, she says, and the thing she loves doing most, is “helping people be the best they can be”.
Bonnie also delves into the subject of networking. She advises aspiring public speakers not to underestimate the power of “who you know”. A lot of her clients, she tells us, struggle with exposure; getting out there and meeting people is key at events like festivals, conferences, or just standing at the bar somewhere! She has a nice alternative take on the traditional “elevator pitch”; she calls it “cocktail pitching”, which is much more about a conversation. Bonnie gives us valuable insights into how speakers can make casual connections.

Learn more about Bonnie here.

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If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 34 - Russ Miles

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 05:30:01 +0000

Russ Miles is a tech and microservices whizz who can define chaos engineering in ninety seconds. He is an international keynote speaker at tech conferences and he is CEO of ChaosIQ, which builds commercial and open source software for companies that are engaged in chaos engineering.

In a lively Fireside Chat with Richard, Russ revealed how he taps into the power of story to captivate his audience. He believes that we learn with our brains, and our brains love stories. When a speaker tells a story, your brain gives you the feeling that you are in that story. That’s why storytelling is so engaging for audiences.

Anyone who has heard Russ Miles speak will know that he likes to break out the guitar and sing his talks, to tunes by ACDC and other rock bands. He told Richard how he began playing his guitar as a way of calming his pre-talk nerves, and how he weaves his guitar playing seamlessly into his talks.

Learn more about Russ Miles.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 33 - Deepa Mann-Kler

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 05:30:03 +0000

Deepa Mann-Kler is an artist, entrepreneur and public speaker. She’s also the creator of the very cool Neon Dogs installation that has lit up the night sky in London, Amsterdam, Derry/Londonderry, and various other parts of the world.

In her Fireside Chat, Deepa shared a reassuring message with aspiring speakers. Don’t worry about making a fancy presentation. Just strip back to the real story you want to tell, and you will captivate your audience. Deepa herself learned the hard lesson that being authentic is the best way to go.

Deepa and Richard also talked about overcoming nerves, a favourite topic in our Fireside Chats. Virtual reality is growing in popularity as a way to prepare for talks, because you can experience the venue before you even go there. But Deepa has a simpler cure for nerves – all you need to do is breathe.

Learn more about Deepa Mann-Kler here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 32 - Wojciech Kolodziejczak

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 05:30:07 +0000

In this episode, host Orla Shanaghy talks to Wojciech Kolodziejczak. Wojciech specializes in cross-cultural communication, networking, and negotiation skills for British, Polish, and other international businesses. He also lectures on cross-cultural networking skills for the Federation of Small Businesses, London Metropolitan University and other organizations.
Wojciech opens up to Orla about the challenges of not only transplanting oneself to a different culture, but successfully doing business there. Communicating across cultural and language barriers is about so much more than simply saying the same words in a different language. Businesses are often surprised to find that they struggle with cultural differences far more than language.
He also lets us in on stories from his own fascinating family background, and on how wheeling and dealing with people from different walks of life is in his blood.

Learn more about Wojciech here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 31 - Lauren Currie

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 05:30:09 +0000

Lauren Currie is an award-winning European designer who is a champion for diversity. She has received an OBE for her initiatives to achieve diversity through design. As a regular public speaker on the subject of design, she’s also passionate about bringing diversity to the speaker line-up at conferences.

In our podcast, she reveals how a bright red sofa has helped reduce the nerves of more than 500 wannabe speakers. It’s a simple concept – people who are nervous about public speaking can apply to sit on a red sofa during conferences. There’s no pressure on them to speak or perform – they just sit there. And it completely changes their attitude to public speaking.

Lauren shared her passion for bringing new voices to the conference stage – more women, more people with disabilities, and more people of colour. She dreams of a day when a conference speaker line-up reflects the diversity of the audience watching. And the red chair is just one way she’s making that happen.

Learn about Lauren Currie here

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 30 - Martin Brooks

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 06:00:17 +0000

Martin Brooks describes himself as an impacttologist, and he has spent decades studying the theory and implications of impact. He runs a training company that helps managers, media personalities and politicians discover the impact of great communication.

In a thought-provoking Fireside Chat, Martin and Richard explored whether great public speakers are born or made. Martin believes that your experiences of public speaking will shape how successful you are as a speaker. Martin and Richard also had great fun analyzing Mark Zuckerberg’s speaking style.

Martin was also full of insights about what to do when an audience throws a curve ball of a question. He warns that hope is not a strategy – but preparation is. You can anticipate the questions you might be asked in advance and have answered ready, so you won’t be thrown when that difficult question comes.

Learn more about Martin here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter. View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com. If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 29 - Emily Ross

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 04:00:04 +0000

Emily Ross is an entrepreneur, public speaker, and founder of Inkvine Consulting, which helps tech and commercial companies to scale and grow. Emily has never been afraid to play with fire – she was a fire dancer and was regularly seen at event venues throughout Ireland, juggling balls of fire. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also an advisory board member for South by Southwest this year.

Emily is also co-founder of a non-profit called Sportstech Ireland, which brings real meaning into her life. In an uplifting Fireside Chat with Richard, she advises aspiring public speakers to share their expertise with organisations that have meaning for them. Not only will they grow their network, but they’ll deliver talks that will bring real meaning to their audiences. She also reveals the secret of finding time to prepare speeches when she’s juggling so many balls in the air – she does it while she’s driving.

Learn more about Emily Ross here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 28 - Andrew Vorster

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 08:57:37 +0000

In this podcast, Richard enjoyed a highly stimulating, thought provoking and honest chat with Andrew Vorster. Andrew is a thought leader and innovation catalyst, and a full-time professional public speaker. Andrew grew up on a farm in South Africa and immersed in African storytelling traditions from an early age. As a young child, he was gifted with the honorary title of storyteller by his local Zulu community.

Andrew tells aspiring speakers to have fun and ditch the script. That’s what he did, when he was crippled with nerves at the thought of speaking to huge audiences. His mentor gave him a valuable nugget of advice – the audience doesn’t know what you’re supposed to be saying. just relax and concentrate on saying the things you know need to be said. So, just relax and say what needs to be said.

Value was the central theme of this fireside chat – giving value to audiences and knowing your value as a speaker. To give value to your audience, you must first know who we are. Andrew gets to know his audience using avatars, and delivers takeaways that will add value for them. Andrew advises aspiring speakers to stay away from conferences that ask you to pay for the privilege of speaking at them.

Learn about Andrew Vorster here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 27 - Gina London

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 06:00:13 +0000

Gina London has made communication the cornerstone of her career. She spent 20 years as a top TV correspondent with CNN and regularly reported live from the White House. Now she runs The Language of Leadership, a company which trains Fortune 500 CEOs and other business leaders to become brilliant communicators.

Gina told Richard how she borrows from the world of magic to grab the attention of her audience. She thinks of her audience at every stage of her talk preparations and shows you how to factor them into your own preparations. Gina also revealed her magic formula for preparing talks: strategy, structure and deliver.

Gina is a powerful and dynamic speaker, but she’s anxious to reassure wannabe speakers that they don’t have to be brilliant speakers from the get-go. You learn how to be a great speaker little by little, by paying attention to how we communicate with people every day. You can then bring the skills you learn during those small human interactions onto a bigger stage.

Learn about Gina London here.

We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 26 - Anna Jordan

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, host Orla Shanaghy chats to Anna Jordan, founder of ModwordsFest, Ireland’s first open mic festival for spoken word artists. Anna is also a freelance festival programmer, playwright, creative writing facilitator and publican.
Anna tells Orla how growing up as a budding writer in a small city prompted her to set up her own creative writing groups and direct her own plays. She describes how, over the course of her career so far, she has become a public speaker almost by default. Orla also gets Anna to tell us about how she became an evangelist for spoken word on the national level in Ireland, to the point where she founded and runs an entire festival every year for spoken word artists.
Anna and Orla also chat about growing up in an Irish pub, the role of the bar owner, and how the Irish pub, both at home and around the world, has become a mecca for the spoken word in all its forms.
Learn more about Anna here.

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Episode 25 - Andrew Macadam

Wed, 15 May 2019 16:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Richard speaks with Andrew Macadam. Andrew is currently the Managing Director for startups in Western Europe at Microsoft. He has also held a myriad of other roles, including being an Evangelist, which at Microsoft means you go out and get people excited about new technologies.

Throughout Andrews diverse roles he has experienced a lot of public speaking. He discusses with Richard that terrible moment most public speakers encounter when their minds go completely blank and how strange it is to realize that the audience doesn’t notice because they interpret that pause as time to think. They discuss the adrenaline rush you experience right before speaking and how your body goes into a serious flight or fight mode. They also delve into what it’s like speaking with different accents and how you have to keep this in mind when performing to different audiences.

Learn more about Andrew here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

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Episode 24 - Neil O'Brien

Wed, 08 May 2019 16:00:00 +0000

In this episode Richard speaks with Neil O’Brien. Neil is the founder of the company Time to Fly and is currently one of Ireland’s most sought after professional conference speakers and life coaches. He focuses on the topics of mental fitness, mental health and wellbeing. He has many corporate clients and has coached elite and professional sports people in the past.

Neil tells Richard about how golf actually led him to his public speaking career and that his first public speaking gig was actually at a wedding! He discusses how he loves to make a game out of all of his speeches and how inserting humor into speeches is a definite must. Neil also explains how the arrival of the Celtic Tiger, also known as the Irish economy during the period of rapid economic growth that characterized the 1990s, encouraged him to branch out from his day job as a professional trainer and speaker at a bank and create his own business.

Learn more about Neil here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

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Episode 23 - Kwame Nyanning

Wed, 01 May 2019 16:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Richard speaks with Kwame Nyanning. Kwame is the founder and CEO of Dangerous, a venture studio focused on developing financial products and services for millennials and generation Z.

Kwame tells Richard about his interesting start in public speaking, which involved him on stage doing hip hop! They discuss how incredible it feels when you actually succeed at a talk—and how, unfortunately, you can always bomb, even when you are well established in your speaking career. Kwame also explains that it is a lot harder to give a talk to people you know. Expectations are a lot higher, so if you don’t do well, it can affect you on a much deeper level.

Kwame describes how he likes to use a ‘storyteller’ approach to speeches. By telling a story, you can convey truths to the audience, which makes them engaged and interested in what you have to say. He also explains something that he learned while working for McKinsey in London: the Minto Pyramid principle of top-down communication.

Learn more about Kwame here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

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Episode 22 - Mary Carty

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 16:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Richard speaks with Mary Carty, co-founder of the ground-breaking Outbox Incubator and a professional keynote speaker. You will hear how Mary’s mother sparked her public speaking career by encouraging her to speak in church every Sunday, and how this fostered her self-confidence.

Mary gives interesting insights into how public speaking can come in handy when you are trying to present your vision to the people around you. She also shares the process that helps her improve her speeches: recording herself—even when it’s hard to hear.

She also discusses Outbox Incubator, which she set up to give entrepreneurial women a place to go to build their business ideas. She explains that it is important for these women to be surrounded by other women who are similar to them so that they can encourage each other and lift each other up.

Learn more about Mary here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 21 - Pat Dwyer

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:00:00 +0000

Pat Dwyer is an award-winning improv comedian who is also a professional public speaker and facilitator. Earlier in his career, Pat moved to Chicago, where he worked and toured with the world-famous Second City Theater and iO Theater, among others. Now, in his speaking and facilitating roles, he works with organizations to show them how laughter and comedy can improve a company’s profit, culture and daily interactions.

In this episode, Pat talks to Richard about how, in improv comedy, you have to accept that you will ‘bomb’ a little bit every single time! He describes his impulse reaction of nervously talking way too much when panic sets in. He also describes his career journey from teaching English in Mauritania, West Africa while serving in the United States Peace Corp., to what launched his improv comedy career, and how all of this eventually led to his career right now facilitating public speaking programs that he designs personally.

Pat describes how he’s always wanted to help people and that this has heavily impacted the trajectory his career has followed. He also describes touring to different colleges during his improv comedy career, which taught him about the importance of connecting with the audience. He uses this in his current career as a professional keynote speaker.

Learn more about Pat here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 20 - Natalia Wiechowski

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 16:00:00 +0000

Natalia Wiechowski is a certified digital marketing professional and a Forbes Coaches Council member. She also holds a PhD in philosophy and social science. At age 29, Natalia decided to drastically change her life and career by moving from her native Germany to Dubai and becoming a personal branding strategist. Natalia believes that personal branding can be the key to having a dream life and a career of purpose.

In this episode, Natalia talks to Richard about how she found her quirky speaking style (by breaking the rules during her first speech, which was met with extremely positive feedback). She discusses how much of a role Toastmasters—a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs—played in her development as a professional public speaker.

She delves into her worst public speaking experience, which involved an unbelievably small audience and ants! She also explains why she encourages everyone to do something that scares them every day, and how this applies to public speaking.

Learn more about Natalia here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 19 - Oisin Lunny

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 16:00:00 +0000

Oisín Lunny is a professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine.

In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early PR career led him to public speaking and his ‘aha moment’, when he realized that speaking with authenticity and passion can make even a seemingly insignificant speech great. He also explains why stepping outside your comfort zone can be a brilliant way to learn; being put on the spot can sometimes lead to great creativity.

Being an MC has become a big part of Oisín’s public speaking career and life in general. Oisín shares with Richard his first MC experience—at a music festival—and the positive things he learned from the experience. He also shares his secret to remembering hundreds of people’s names: good old-fashioned printed notes!

Learn more about Oisín here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 18 - Danielle Brown

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 16:00:00 +0000

Danielle Brown MBE is a double Paralympic gold medallist and five-time World Champion in archery. She successfully transitioned from the United Kingdom disabled team onto the able-bodied team. Besides her sporting achievements, Danielle works to help others achieve their ambitions through her work as a professional public speaker, trainer and coach. She is writing a book titled Be Your Best Self.

In this episode, Danielle talks to Richard about how to deal with your mind going completely blank in the middle of a talk. She draws a connection between the adrenaline you experience in elite sports and in public speaking. Danielle and Richard also briefly discuss the isolation of archery and how it is actually very similar to public speaking.

She also gives very helpful advice on what to do when the person speaking before you is killing it: don’t let it intimidate you—use it as a learning opportunity! She also explains how practice is important but it is absolutely not the be-all and end-all of becoming a great speaker.

Learn more about Danielle here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 17 - Furkan Karayel

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Furkan Karayel is a software engineer, founder and CEO of Diversein.com, a global diversity and inclusion platform, and a professional tech speaker. Among the many accolades Furkan has received are the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Role Model in Business’ award by the International Diversity Leadership Awards, and the ‘Trailblazer’ award by the Women in Tech Dublin Awards.

In this episode, Furkan tells Richard how her interest in public speaking started as a child with her love of poetry in her home town in Turkey. Her first adult public speaking gig took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University. She discusses the disastrous conference she had to organize at the last minute in winter in New York city and the important lessons she learned from that.

Furkan describes the difficulty she faces in finding diverse speakers and why they should be an integral part of all conferences. She also gives five encouraging points for budding speakers who speak English as a second language.

Learn more about Furkan here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 16 - Kevlin Henney

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Kevlin Henney is a professional public speaker and the highly regarded author of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know. He also runs his own software consultancy firm.

In this episode, Kevlin tells Richard how he started his career as a software developer and quickly made the transition into public speaking. He explains the struggles he went through trying to figure out his unique speaking style, which he did without any guidance. He also stresses how important it is to learn from every talk you give.

Kevlin describes the evolution of speaking to tech audiences, including how technological advances like PowerPoint have made public speaking much more accessible to the general public and have allowed individuals to have more on-the-spot creativity.

Learn more about Kevlin here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 15 - Jim "Flash" Gordon

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Jim Gordon–universally known as “Flash”– is the founder of Boxworks co-working space in Waterford, Ireland, where Voxgig has its headquarters. Flash is also proprietor of the award-winning Revolution, a gastro bar and events venue in downtown Waterford.

In this episode, Flash tells Richard what it was like to fall into the business sector after many years as a hard-working chef. He describes the difficulties he encountered navigating murky business waters after the global financial crisis of 2008. Flash emphasizes the importance of being able to multi-task when you are running a business; this helps you to keep up with the learning curve. He also believes passionately that you are never above any job at a place you run.

Flash is full of wisdom about public speaking. A trick of his is to pretend that whoever you are talking to is your best friend. This helps you feel more comfortable. He also advises that speakers must always make sure to know the ins and outs of what they are speaking about so that they are able to confidently answer questions.

Flash also gives fascinating insights into what life is like in Waterford, Ireland, home of Voxgig.

Learn more about Flash here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 14 - Florin Cardasim

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Florin Cardasim is a software architect, an Agile coach, a corporate trainer, and a community and corporate speaker. He is also founder of CodeCamp Romania, an initiative for young software developers in Romania and Moldova.

In this episode, Florin and Richard discuss Florin’s trial-and-error style of speaking. Using this style taught him the importance of understanding the audience, and that it is important to speak regularly so that you do not end up back at square one: afraid of speaking.

Florin discusses how small things—like the time of day at which you are speaking—can impact the reception of your speech. He also explains why he prefers speaking to smaller groups and tells us that it’s okay to have a preference like this. He also describes the excitement and stress of finalizing a series of 12 conferences for CodeCamp, and where this conference’s future is headed!

Learn more about Florin here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 13 - Dov Baron

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Dov Baron is a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, a professional public speaker, and author of the bestselling Fiercely Loyal: How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent and One Red Thread: Discovering the Purpose Already Woven Into Your Life.

In this episode, Dov describes his first speaking experience, which was comical and moving, yet surprisingly successful. He also explains that although it is important to be practised and rehearsed as a speaker, it is dangerous to lean on this too much, as it can make you come off as wooden and unauthentic. He delves into the different philosophies and psychologies that he weaves into his speeches, and discusses why communication is such an essential part of speaking.

Dov also gives an extremely helpful tip on how to turn the inevitable fear that most of us experience before speaking into excitement that is completely backed by science!

Learn more about Dov here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 12 - Karina Ochis

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Karina Ochis is a serial entrepreneur, an international professional speaker, and a life coach and trainer. On top of all this, Karina is author of the bestselling The Influence of Social Media on US Presidential Campaigns and co-author of Cracking the Code to Success. She has lived all over the world and currently resides in her home country of Romania.

In this episode, Karina takes Richard through the different steps involved in personal branding. She explains why elite personal branding is extremely important in order for all of us to truly succeed. She describes what it was like being on TEDx, where she presented her formula, ‘The Olympics of Life’, and what she gained from that experience.

Karina has conducted the majority of her speaking career in English. She delves into the difficulty of transitioning between English and her native Romanian. She also tells us how important it is for speakers to incorporate different cultural norms into their talks, based on different audiences.

Learn more about Karina here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 11- Doug Thompson

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Doug Thompson is a Texan who gets to travel all over the world with his job as Senior Technology Strategist with the Microsoft Education sales team. In other words, he gets to speak for work!

In this episode, Doug tells Richard why he finds it important to know your own personality in order to become truly comfortable with speaking in public. He goes into why he uses improvization in his talks, and describes his coaching methods for his sales team—which, interestingly, include having each team member tell him a story.

Doug also tells Richard about his experiences giving speeches in parts of the world where, on top of having to present a speech, he also worked with an interpreter.

Lastly, he discusses his fascinating career at Microsoft and the struggles he is now encountering while writing his first book in technical sales.

Learn more about Doug here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 10 - Andreea Wade

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Andreea Wade is the founder and CEO of opening.io. She is an event organizer and public speaker—an unusual combination—with many different passions. She has started several different businesses in a variety of sectors.

Andrea relates how she had a panic attack during her first public speaking experience. She tells us that she still experiences stage fright but it reminds her that she cares. She also discusses the variety of events she curates, and how being a public speaker and an event organizer can clash at times. She also gives advice on what conference speakers can do to help events run more smoothly and to make things easier overall for event organizers.

Andreea and Richard also delve into conference logistics, and how logistics can make or break a potentially great event. Andreea offers the advice that public speaking is a key skill for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, especially if you are taking an old idea and putting a new spin on it. When your message is important, she says, you will be asked to share it, so you must be able to present it in an engaging and relatable way.

Learn more about Andreea here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 9 - Oscar Santolalla

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Oscar Santolalla has been working in the tech sector for over 10 years. He is currently a sales engineer at Ubisecure. A Peruvian living in Helsinki, Finland, Oscar hosts his own public speaking podcast titled ‘Time to Shine’. He has also authored the book Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo.

In this episode, Oscar explains how Toastmasters changed his life by allowing him to practice his public speaking in English and to experiment with different topics to engaged audiences that gave honest feedback.

He also discusses how his public speaking career was born when he became a lecturer in telecommunications and information security in Peru. He discusses with Richard the difference between being a lecturer and being a conference speaker, and how—surprisingly—lecturing can be substantially harder. He also imparts the advice that when presenting your speech, it is important to not hide behind too much content or too many slides; simple is always better.

Learn more about Oscar here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 8 - Tanya Butenko

Wed, 02 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Richard speaks to Tanya Butenko, founder of NodeGirls, an organization for women and other gender minorities in the tech world. Tanya is a native Ukrainian who now lives in Australia.

She delves into the story of one of her first presentations. The topic of that presentation was a personal one that made her extremely emotional. She discusses why this topic was a bad choice for her first experience, not least because she did not have the strength to control her emotions on stage.

Tanya also describes what it was like to begin coding later in life, and what her first experiences in coding were like, especially live coding presentations.

Lastly, she emphasizes the importance as a speaker of picking conferences that chime with your personal ethical values, and conferences where you are going to have fun.

Learn more about Tanya here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 7 - Dylan Schiemann

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 17:00:00 +0000

Dylan Schiemann is a professional conference speaker and the founder of Dojo Toolkit. He is one of those lucky human beings who does not get nervous before talks! He attributes this confidence to his early speaking experiences, which he tells us about in this episode.

Dylan also explains what conference talks, sales discussions and venture capital pitches have in common, and tells us how his own impressive conference talks have helped the success of Dojo Toolkit. He discusses why a speaker's ability to read and adjust to different audiences is key to a successful talk, and why he personally likes to give either one of the first or one of the last talks at a conference.

He also touches on why community is so important to him, and how this led him to start his Javascript meetup, HalfStack, which he still runs today.

Learn more about Dylan here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 6 - Vicky Lee

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:00:00 +0000

Vicky Lee is a self-described ‘Pythonista’. She’s a software engineer and community organizer who began organizing events in order to bring people together and create a sense of community.

In this episode, Vicky describes how she fell into the diversity-driven sphere of tech, and tells us about her first venture into organizing meetups—which, perhaps surprisingly, stemmed from her forum for Irish-born Chinese people and the difficulties she encountered with her first tech event, Python Ireland.

Vicky also delves into why you should never ever put all of your eggs into one basket, discusses the importance of working well with business partners (even if they are your actual partner!), and why a great community is so crucial for a great event.

Learn more about Vicky here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 5 - Karl Hyden

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000

Why do introverts make great public speakers?

Karl Hyden, a mental toughness coach for the professional introvert and self-touted Texan from Western Ireland, explains why. He has mastered the art of overcoming the personality barriers that can keep us from the success he believes we all deserve.

You’ll learn about the four different types of introverts, the core differences between introverts and extroverts, and why many leaders are not necessarily extroverts. Karl also gives insight into how introverts can slowly build themselves up to doing something big, and describes the different exercises we can all do to increase our mental toughness.

Learn more about Karl here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 4 - Pauline Kwasniak

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000

For the past several years, Pauline Kwasniak has been diligently working to establish herself in the events organization industry. She has recently started a tough, fascinating trip into the event organizers’ public speaking sphere.

In this interview, Pauline tells Richard what lead her into event organizing and public speaking. She explains how living in a country that is not the country of her birth has affected her journey. Having an ‘accent’ isn’t as big a deal as people think, she says. The most important thing she’s learned is to slow down when delivering speeches.

Pauline also touches on the topics of how stressful it is being an event organizer, why it is important to maintain your cool, and to always remember that the things that are most important to you as an organizer are not necessarily important to others.

Learn more about Pauline here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 3 - Simon Gibson

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000

Every great speaker needs a great speech. In this episode, Richard speaks with Simon Gibson, high-profile speech writer and founder of World Speech Day. You will hear about how Simon transitioned from being a script writer to a speech writer, what exactly a speech writer does, the history of speaking, and how great speeches have the power to change the world.

Simon also provides some insights into the US political family, the Kennedys. What makes them such amazing speakers?

He also opens up about his immense fear of public speaking and gives us some back-story on the inception of World Speech Day (WSD), an annual event that celebrates speeches and speech-making through live speaking events across the world.

Learn more about World Speech Day and Simon here.

To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.

View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 2 - Andrew Grill

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Andrew Grill calls himself a ‘practical futurist’. He is a professional writer, blogger and conference speaker—which means he gets paid to talk. And he wants to help you do the same.

You’ll learn why the first 90 seconds of a talk are vital, how clichés kill your talk, and how to tell when you’ve hooked your audience. Andrew also gives us tips on how to survive when the tech lets you down (something many of us can identify with). He shares his insights on why Blackberry failed, why we need to broaden our understanding of quotas, and why digital diversity is the next big idea in tech.

Learn more about Andrew here.

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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.

If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.

Episode 1 - Debbie Forster

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 16:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Richard sits down with Debbie Forster, CEO of the Tech Talent Charter. Debbie is an American who has lived in England for over 30 years. Her fascinating career is full of twists and turns, from being a head teacher to her current high-profile role. She tells Richard about her eventful journey, and explains how all her experiences have influenced her public speaking and have helped her create her career.

Debbie gives us her insights into why it’s important to always bring yourself into your performance, and how to deal with and learn from negative speaking experiences. She goes through an interesting history of diversity (or lack of it) in tech and explains why transparency around this issue is so important.

All of this ties in with the Tech Talent Charter, a UK-based initiative that drives organizations to commit a set of undertakings that aim to deliver greater diversity in the tech workforce (Voxgig has taken the pledge, as have many other tech companies).

Learn more about Debbie here.

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