DEV Community: Bethany Loft

Nevertheless, I changed my goals

Bethany Loft — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 10:23:28 +0000

Reading my submission from last year, published on the 5th of March 2020, unaware of what was to come, it included the lines “looking forward, I hope to see the standards of inclusivity and accessibility at events continue to rise” and “I hope the rest of your year includes a strong community”.

And in some ways, it absolutely did. With the moving of events online, this year more people than ever were able to access talks from amazing speakers from across the world on a whole range of topics. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is Choose to Challenge, but this past year has already been challenging us all. We know that women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID and we can all lend our support to the community around us in helping those impacted however we are able. As folks are starting to plan physical events, I hope we can keep the increase in accessibility and inclusivity practices that virtual events have enabled.

On a personal note, my 2020 plans were as follows:

As for me, I am spending the rest of this year with the challenge of coding my own book blog from scratch to share the numerous books I read in my spare time and with the hope of connecting with a new community.

Did I complete this? Absolutely not! Whilst it’s true that I have been reading a lot and talking about books with my friends, I realised I had no interest in starting a blog post and adding any pressure to experience books in a way which had to be shared with others afterwards after all! I’m okay with having changed my goals, in the space of the last year I have gained skills in coding, got accepted into a Digital Anthropology masters course starting in September and applied to join a mentoring programme for community managers. We need to normalise goals changing and not being achieved for whatever reason.

My message for others is to take time to rest amongst challenging situations, protect your energy and if you have some to lend, spread it around your community to those who could benefit. I think of the women in my company and the folks who support us, ally themselves with us and spend their time challenging to make for better futures and I feel grateful for my community. To reiterate from last year, utilise your sphere of influence, spot where you can make a difference and start there, take on an intersectional approach and be proactive about recognising and using your privilege and resources to include others.

Hey CodeLand, we’re Vonage and we can’t wait to meet you!

Bethany Loft — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 11:52:28 +0000

Hi! We’re Vonage, a global cloud communications platform, providing APIs and SDKs for messaging, voice, phone verification, advanced multi-channel conversations and video calling with the Vonage Video API.

With our Messages and Dispatch APIs you can now integrate with various communication channels including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Viber. We support open source libraries for PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.JS, Java and C# .NET enabling you to build scalable communications features.

We’re super excited to be here supporting CodeLand!

Have you heard of Vonage Voyagers?

We recently launched our new developer champions program, Vonage Voyagers.

Vonage Voyagers is a one-year program for developers who want to get their hands on new communication technologies first and be part of a group of like-minded peers who support and learn from each other. It’s an opportunity for us to reward and recognise the valuable contributors in our community; those who write or stream content, provide feedback on our documentation, help others on online platforms and do many other inspiring things.

To become a Voyager, you can apply directly or nominate a colleague, friend or other member of your community.

Do this by August 15th 2020 for the chance to be included in the inaugural Voyagers crew, launching in September!

Have Questions? Let's chat!

We'll be at the conference all day so stop by our DEV Connect channel and say hello! We'd love to meet you.

Credits for CodeLand 🙌

Want to explore building apps with SMS, Voice or Chat Bot integrations? Get started today with €10 credit!

Whether you want to use our Voice API to make and receive phone calls with code use our Messages API (and its accompanying Dispatch API) so that your applications can reach users by the messaging platform they prefer or ensure that users provide the correct contact details with Verify API, we've got you covered.

Start building your connected application with our free credit for CodeLand attendees! Sign up and redeem your €10 credit with code CODE10LAND until the 24th August.

Vonage is hiring!

We’re looking for a Developer Advocate (APAC) who will be responsible for building relationships and supporting technology communities through learning, creating, sharing, and helping others. You will be the interface between developer communities and the Vonage API product teams to ensure that Vonage continues to build innovative products that provide a great developer experience. You will empower local and international developer communities, demonstrate the benefits of communications functionality and inspire others to innovate with them. Click here to find out more about this role.

See all our open positions here: https://www.vonage.com/corporate/careers/

This community is unlike any other and I am proud to be a part of it.

Bethany Loft — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 17:47:35 +0000

I got here (I’m a developer community event manager) by an odd chain of events which I can trace back step-by-step to the beginning. I ran for the role of part-time volunteering officer at my students’ union whilst I was in my first year of studying an Anthropology and Media degree. By running in the elections, I was introduced to Kevin (who I now work with here at Vonage) who was running for another position and who also became the university’s tech society president. He encouraged me to join their committee and get involved in organising hackathons. Prior to this, my only interaction with the tech society was asking one of their members to help get my laptop connected to the uni’s wifi. I wish I was joking!

Though the computing landscape was new to me, beyond being an avid user of a computer, I quickly became intrigued, then immersed, then amazed by the tech society’s wider community, it’s values and its spirit. I would prioritise being at the hackathons and surrounding myself with keen hackers. I hung around at events so much that computing lecturers often mistook me to be one of their students. I picked up knowledge on a wide range of topics, including running really kick-ass events and combined my passion for volunteering to host my own social hackathon in partnership with local charities who shared the goal of using tech to create valuable impact for their community. I witnessed such awe-inspiring levels of passion from the other committee members for providing opportunities to learn, grow and connect with other folks, that when the opportunity to continue working with the community and its events came about (once again with encouragement from Kevin, who believed in me more than I did myself) I was thrilled. Without this chain of events, I would not be here at Vonage in the community team today. I am the product of saying yes to an extracurricular activity which turned into a career.

Being part of the community team means I enable our wider team to go out and support events, deliver talks, run workshops and ultimately showcase all the really cool things people can do with our products. This usually means my day-to-day consists of coordinating logistics, communicating between events organisers and our team and ensuring that everything and everyone gets to where they need to be. It’s interesting to work on the peripheral of developers and I am often surprised by how much I absorb simply through hearing our team interact, something we do very well as a remote-first team who champion supporting and including each other.

I want to take this opportunity to be thankful to all the members of the community, from those first hackathon days to my growing team now, who have made me feel so welcomed and supported and who continue to do so. I also take this opportunity to renew my pledge to pay it forward. Whether it was a message sent on a postcard at an event telling me I belonged there and that I was one of them, encouragement to try out new gadgets, or patience with explaining concepts and potential uses of tech to me, the support I’ve received from this community has been fundamental to my personal growth and I wish everyone has the opportunity to experience the same levels of encouragement. I’ve not encountered such high levels of passion and spirit in any other community I’ve seen, it’s remarkable.

Looking forward, I hope to see the standards of inclusivity and accessibility at events continue to rise. There is some amazing work being done and some super helpful resources that are being shared and I am often inspired by the level of care members of the community take to make all people feel included. I hope to play my part in this progress by advocating to support events and initiatives that place these values at the forefront of their work. This community is something special and I will rave about it to anyone who will listen. My message for others is to utilise your sphere of influence, spot where you can make a difference and start there, take on an intersectional approach and be proactive about recognising and using your privilege and resources to include others. Listen, learn and contribute to this community however you are able.