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2017 – My Year in Review

by paatriciaa

Following the first article, I published in 2016 (available only on Romanian) – “2016 – My Year in Review“, I decided I would keep this going every year since it’s a very good method to analyze my year, my activities, my progress. And I will start with the review I love most – books. 😀

  • 12 books read from 30 planned in my Goodreads Reading Challenge – It’s true that this wasn’t one of my main focus because I was more oriented on the learning side: workshops, online courses, practical experience. However, my library grew with dozens of new books (mostly in English), which makes me very happy, and eager to read more, next year. I also managed to find an almost daily reading habit, on the second part of the year, which I want to keep going. (Create of Hate, by Dan Norris, it was the first book I read in 2017, and I totally recommend it. It was the perfect book, at the right time – which made me write down my plan for this year and start implementing it right away). I also got more addicted to reading, and my performance improved thanks to Cristina’s Friday Reading and her new project, The CEO Library.

  • #CoworkInTheMaking was one the things I was focused on – I can proudly say I contributed to the opening of the second coworking space from Timisoara, Cowork Timisoara. Thinking back, the year of 2017 started with a lot of cleaning and renovations, at FITT Timisoara. We opened our doors on February 10th but held our first event on January 26th, with only 70% of the space, ready to run. We worked intensely the night before the event, up until 4:00 AM, and had everything ready for the presentation of the national accelerator program, MVP Academy. Right now, we are preparing the 1 Year Anniversary Party…and I can’t believe how fast time flies.
  • Went to Linked Culture conference – This is the first regional conference dedicated to marketing and management focused on cultural projects. It was a good event, where I heard some interesting presentations, projects, campaigns, and I also got to meet amazing people, one of them being Pyuric aka Cristina Chipurici.
  • Joined 150sec team as a contributor – Meet my first article about Yodel, a startup that integrates the business phone with chat platforms. Meanwhile, 150sec was acquired by the international media incubator, Espacio. If I couldn’t keep up with articles too much around 2017, I want to go back as soon as I can and contribute again to the community.
  • Moderated my first event – It was the first edition of WordPress Timisoara Meetup held this year, that reunited some of the local WordPress business owners in a panel where we discussed how WordPress grew over time, how they built their businesses, which were their biggest challenges, what could have been better, and which are some the next WordPress trends. I am glad that the team put their trust in me, it was my first experience of moderating a discussion, and it was a great challenge & learning opportunity. I am also glad that I started with a small event because I still have to train my public speaking skills.
  • Participated in my first Startup Weekend event. Visited Cluj. – We started our business idea from shiny shoes and together with other two team members, we pivoted until we found a solution that would help both doctors and parents monitor children with gait abnormalities. It was an interesting idea, in which we saw a great potential, but unfortunately, we didn’t take our idea further, after the event. However, it was a great learning experience, an amazing trip, and Cluj-Napoca is a great city, I would love to visit again.

At Startup Weekend Cluj I also heard one of the funniest pitches, and until now it still on the 1st place. Take a look below:

  • Attended an intense Product Management Workshop delivered by Adrian Pica, Product Manager at Telenav – Though I didn’t attend as a regular participant, but mostly as a Cowork Timisoara organizer, and Adrian’s Helper with the participants’ interviews, I got to listen to his presentation. There were almost 200 slides filled with a lot of new information, on which I am still chewing on.
  • Attended another workshop dedicated to Open Education – From Theory to Practice – Here, I was again Santa’s Helper, and executed the Social Media Presence during the event. However, I got some key takeaways from the event such as “Learning without motivation doesn’t work. You have to be present & engaged, for the process to happen”, “Repetition is the mother of learning and by this, it means there are lot shapes available to convey your message, not only repeating again the same information” and “Both leadership and teaching work very well together and can have many positive outcomes”. I am still glad to confirm all of them.
  • Built and delivered a new type of event in Timisoara – together with the Cowork Timisoara team, which was Timisoara Startups Demo Day.
  • Attended and organized two different 1 Million Downloads Party, both in Timisoara. I hope their numbers will grow over the next years.
  • I attended and graduated two technical courses delivered by [es-spres-oh] Academy, lately rebranded as Decode Academy: Web Projects from zero to hero, and Introduction to Web Development.

  • Attended other events: HackTM Hack Talks, Banat It BBQ, TechFest Timisoara, WordCamp Bucharest (from the sponsor perspective), Business & Open Source with Martin Dougiamas (founder of Moodle) – during which I also meet new & amazing people.

  • Published my first tutorial article in a known WordPress publication – How To Build Paid Membership Community with WordPress Membership Plugin. Thanks, WP Mayor and Cozmoslabs for this opportunity and challenge.
  • I traveled outside the country for the first time & spent two amazing weeks during that time – June 2017 caught me in Paris, France, where I went for the WordCamp Europe conference, speaking of which I can say that it was the most interesting event, held in three different buildings, an open area for lunch, and two great expo halls. The people I meet there were the most open, and this is a characteristic I would always appreciate at the WordPress community, being very open to everyone. Speaking about Paris, well…with all the adventures we had there, I would definitely want to go back, I only saw some of the amazing things about this city: The Eiffel Tower, The Sacre Coeur Basilique, Chateau Versailles, and Musee Du Louvre. Six months later, November caught in Lisbon, Portugal, where I went for WebSummit, which was by far the biggest event I ever attended, and which is leading as the largest tech conference around the world. No joke, with 60.000 people in the same place for almost a week. I can’t describe my whole experience in a few words, because it was too intense, too crazy, and Lisbon too beautiful. Since two months I am working on an article, to sum up, everything, about the conference, the talks, the networking opportunity, the tech community, the leading giant companies, the innovative startups, but it’s just too much to say…and I didn’t feel like pushing the Publish button yet. However, I promise I will do it soon. Better later than never. I can’t end this one, without a big thanks and lot of kudos to the Cozmoslabs team, which made possible both of the experiences.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWGTfm4FKao/?taken-by=paatriciaa.b

  • Attended my first radio show as a guest, with another teammate from Cowork Timisoara, where we had to present the various projects we are working on during one hour – Now, looking back I am glad it was a recorded one, not live. It was a great challenge for me, as a communication specialist, and somehow I would want to do it again, in the future. Along the way, I started to like public speaking, but I have a lot to learn and practice, to master this skill.
  • Went to my first Music Festival – Summer Well – This one really deserves his headline “A Festival Like a Holiday”. I still have mixed feelings about the experience. By the morning, when everything is quiet, it’s a great time to spend alone and wander around the Stirbey Domain. However, during the concerts it’s a good idea to have your best friends around, it would help you enjoy the event. It also helps to find a silent and good accommodation in Bucharest during the stay. Picking a shared room in a hostel and coming bink on the morning, may not be the right choice. Especially when after two sleepless days, on Monday morning you go straight from the festival, to the airport, and then work. 🙂 But maybe that’s just me. I started to appreciate more the rest and sleeping, and I want to allocate the necessary time. We are young and restless, but when we are abusing this, health would only give us signals, when it’s too late, All in all, it was a very relaxing weekend, to which I would want to come back next year, and can’t wait for the line up of the bands and singers.

  • Shared my experience as a Communication and Marketing specialist and delivered a motivational speech to master students from the first year of Communication, Public Relations and Digital Media, master I will also graduate next year.

  • Delivered my first PR workshop focused on PR For Startups during the second edition of Startup Survivor – Education, an educational program focused on entrepreneurship for young people, we have built from scratch at Cowork Timisoara.
  • We just launched the first accelerator program in Timisoara, that would take place next year. Registrations are open, so if you are an entrepreneur or know others that should apply, guide them to Survivor Accelerator.
  • I also was selected in the Google Developer Challenge – Front End Web Development scholarship launched by Google and Udacity, and around this time I am scratching my head with some programming projects I need to finish soon.

  • Together with my colleague, Alex and thanks to the DefCamp team, we had the opportunity to publish two interviews with Konrad Jędrzejczyk and Yury Chemerkin – two security specialists, speakers during the conference, in Bucharest.
  • And I also joined a new team, of AudioNow Digital as Marketing Account Specialist. Another challenge and learning opportunity that I can’t wait to see it unfold from now on.
  • Last but not least, I bought myself this domain and decided to write more. Though it started more like a school project, for which I have to come up with some content, I have some big plans, and a long list with inspiring people I want to reach out and publish interviews because we all love stories…don’t we? 😀

Long story short, it was quite an amazing year, and I got a lot of new plans for 2018. Looking back with such an in-depth view, I realize that it was far more amazing than 2016, and it gives me courage and curiosity for 2018.

Let it be a challenging, beautiful year for everyone, always filled with positive learning experiences. 🙂

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