My first big event at my new job

I leave tomorrow for Portland, Oregon, where we’re producing Support Driven Expo, a conference for support professionals. I’ll be in a cab on the way to the airport at 5am Eastern, hopefully with completed slide decks on my computer and an agenda for the two days post-Expo where Scott (SD owner) and I will be planning for Support Driven’s future.

I’ve been with Support Driven for three months today, and I’m amazed by how smooth the transition has been. Maybe it’s because I was already involved with the community and helped organize the first two events, so it’s not something I had to learn from scratch. Or maybe it’s because I’ve worked with Scott before, so there wasn’t a huge learning curve with figuring out communication styles. Or maybe it’s because my primary focus is communications, which, 😍.

Whatever the reason, I’m in my element, and am feeling a wonderful balance of freedom, opportunity, and challenge. When I joined Support Driven full time, Expo planning had already begun, so I had some catching up to do. But I also got a chance to dig in and start organizing and documenting to make things easier for ourselves next time around. I’ve gotten a chance to write — a LOT — and I’m proud of the weekly Expo Updates we’ve been posting on the SD blog, the program of 80+ speakers we’ve put together, the comprehensive Expo Guide we compiled to help with any questions participants may have, and the app content we assembled to help more than 400 attendees navigate a schedule that includes talks, workshops, Support Bars, a Career Fair, and a Career Unconference.

And that’s just Expo. I’m vibrating with anticipation of helping organize Support Driven itself, which we’ve begun work on, and that I hope to accelerate progress on after Expo. I started a Support Driven LinkedIn page, which I’m super excited about. I totally lucked out on my first hire (Hi Sarah!), and I can’t wait to work with her on our next event, which is a Leadership Summit in the fall. We’ve started a new Groups section of the blog to help give some of the rich content from our community Slack a more permanant home.

The really cool thing is that while we’re doing all of this, I also feel a balance in my life. I spend time every day in my garden. I have space in my life for errands, for taxiing the kids around, for swimming and running taking breaks when I need them. After Expo I’ll take some time with my family, and go on a sailing trip with my husband.

But right now, I need to get back to the slide decks, schedule tweaks, attendee communications, packing…