My plan was to write a blog post after I finished the Techwell Conference this week. As I sat down to summarize my thoughts about my two tutorials, I decided to check out twitter first. There it was a tweet about Jean Tabaka passing away. My original plan for this blog post is trashed.
I started attending conferences around 2007. Yes, you gain a ridiculous amount of content and ideas from a week long conference. Yet, that’s not what keeps me coming back every year. It’s the people that I meet. These days, I’m honored that I’m inspiring others because I hope that I pay forward what others have done for me…inspired me then and now. Jean Tabaka was one of those people that had a significant impact on me (and just read twitter…she made a huge difference in the lives of many people). She was intelligent, funny and had this way about welcoming people into the fold. She made a difference.
As I think about my two tutorials from this week, all I can think is “I hope I made Jean proud”…that I highlighted the value of collaboration….that I demonstrated ways to collaborate effectively…that I made people laugh…that I invited people into this community…that I paid forward what she gave to me.
I’m not even sure this is going to completely sink in until we get to Agile 2016 – I know she was on the program. I looked forward to what she would bring to the Stalwarts track. Just typing this is breaking my heart.
So I will go to sessions Wed and Thurs, to learn and be inspired. I will run this Leadership Summit with my full passion on Friday. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t want it any other way.
Thank you Jean for making a difference!
Here’s my summary of the conference…go to them. Time is too short and you just may miss an opportunity to meet someone amazing.
