As part of our onboarding, after two months, we ask our new OSUG organizers to write an article about what they have learned as an organizer and share their journey with their fellow community members.
Below you can find João's testimonial:
Hello all, my name is João Pereira and, in this article, I want to talk to you about my journey as a London OSUG organizer. My background is pretty simple, professionally I got lucky to start with OutSystems in 2016 so I’ve worked from 9 to 11 versions and made my path from junior to senior over the years. Also got experience of working with clients around the globe from different businesses.
Before even thinking about joining as an OSUG organizer, I already assisted at several events in the community - even lin-person! - when I was living in Portugal, and got the opportunity to go to 2 Nextsteps in the USA:
- The first in Boston, in 2018, representing the company I was working for at the time.
- The second in Denver, in 2019, as a speaker to talk about Mobile Synchronization Patterns for Large Volumes of Data.
And the one thing that is common in all these events is the OutSystems Community and the people within it that are open, friendly, and do not judge even if you are a newcomer in the OutSystems world.
Since I receive so much from the community, I have this feeling that makes me think in ways that I can also give back and contribute. One way of doing this is as an OSUG organizer, in this case in London, which is my current region.
The process to join an OSUG is pretty simple, just need to fill a form on the OSUG website saying that you want to become an organizer in a certain region and then you will receive an email from the Community Manager of that area suggesting a meeting to explain the objectives the purposes of the OSUGs, discuss your ideas and why you want to be part. In the end, you decide if you want to continue with the process.
If you decide to continue, then the other organizers, should you have them, will evaluate your profile and decide if you fit in that region. After being accepted, you have a very good onboarding process that will give you all you need to be part of the team quickly and start organizing the events.
For me having a strong community is the first step to having great technology because all the ecosystems around that will evolve to a greater path.
Since I started as an organizer, I learned that preparing, organizing, and arriving on the day of the event is like a journey and teamwork is essential: you need to discuss ideas - we can share our proposals without any problems! - plan, work on it, and at the end of all enjoy what was done.
For what is needed in the background, you can count on the work of the Community Managers. In my case, Catarina Pereira has been amazing, making sure all my requests are attended, and coordinating with the other organizers in my region. Which is a task that many people that assist the events don’t even imagine!
And the path to achieving my first event is still to be reached but finally, book for the 10th of February! It will be an amazing experience to see all the work described before, that started with an idea, transformed into an event for our great OutSystems community around the globe.
João Pereira, London OSUG organizer