 Now, this talk is more of a story of how I have gone through from just being a regular attendee and just worrying about my own job to kind of going full tilt and getting involved in everything. So, I'll be giving some resources at the end, ideas if you want to get involved, and all that good kind of stuff. So, first things first, my name is Miriam. I'm from Ottawa, but originally I am from Montreal, but I moved from Montreal in 1992, so I've been lived here for 26 years. I work as a lead developer for Pawnstone Digital. We are a digital marketing agency in Ottawa, boutique style, we're about eight employees right now, so it's myself, and I have two developers on my team. I am also one of the co-organizers for word camp Ottawa, so you may have noticed we did not have a camp in the summer. That's because we are still in venue talks, so stay tuned. We are currently hoping for a November camp. We still need to talk with our venue about that. As well, I've recently started speaking across North America at different word camps, Canada. It's only been Montreal and Ottawa, but I've also spoken at numerous ones across the US, and I almost had a chance to speak in London last year. And if you're wondering, yes, this dress does have JavaScript code on it. It's my lucky speaking dress. I've wanted at every presentation I've done over the past year. I don't know if the code compiles. I haven't gotten that far yet, but if it does, I'll let you guys know. So I said that I was a word camp speaker across North America, and I was an organizer for different word camps. Not different to word camps for Ottawa, but it wasn't always like this. Initially, I was just an attendee. So we're going to travel back via the TARDIS to 2013. That was the first year that word camp Ottawa started. And at the time, I was working as a developer for a global PR agency. So I had heard from my manager that this thing called word camp was happening. And he suggested that I go because maybe I could get some insights and help with our development process. So great. I went. If I recall correctly, I was at the University of Ottawa, so I just bused downtown, bused home at lunch because I needed to go walk my dog, and then I went back. So it was great. I learned a lot. I started bringing it back to our development processes. And I thought, okay, this is pretty cool. This word camp thing is awesome. So I attended in 2014 in Ottawa. 2015, Ottawa, we did not have one, unfortunately. There is a transition with organizers. So I attended word camp Montreal for the first time, and it was fantastic. So that's what I did. And then the next year, 2016, things started to change. That is the year I did my first talk. It all stemmed from a conference, the FITC conference down in Toronto for web developers. My manager encouraged the development team, myself and the other developer to speak because he knew that we both attended word camps, and he knew that we were both knowledgeable about what we did. So I decided that, okay, let's do this. I applied to word camp Ottawa.tier as a lightning talk. It was my first time speaking since I was 13 when we had a public speaking contest in elementary school. I don't remember exactly what it was. And let's be honest, it really doesn't matter. So I gave a lightning talk on multilingual plugins in a bilingual city. What better way to go than to do a hot button topic in a bilingual city? So I did my presentation. I probably rushed it, and then I had the Q&A session. I did not handle that Q&A session very well, unfortunately. It was a tough crowd, and in my mind, at that point, two years ago, I felt that they were not receptive to what I was talking about. So unfortunately, I left on the verge of tears, and after I went out of my talk, I went up to the registration table, and Megan Haines was there. She was lead, I believe, in Ottawa that year. And she asked how it went, and I said, I am never talking again. And she's like, okay, think about that, but why don't you join the organizing team? You're passionate, you're organized, you have your stuff together, and we need somebody like you. So I said, okay, for 2017, I will not talk, but I will join the organizing team, and I will help out and do whatever you need help with. So I took on the social media. That I figured was great, I'm an introvert, it's easy to do. And so we went from there. So why did I agree to join the organizing team? Because it's volunteerism. That has been something that has been very big for me since I was a kid. Like, I started volunteering at Day Camps at my YMCA in Manitoba when I was 11, so as an 11-year-old realizing that volunteerism is big, that's something that carries you through life. And me personally, I've always been about giving back. I didn't mention in my intro, but I am a black belt at my karate dojo, so I am an instructor. Now there's no rule that says that just because you have a black belt, you have to teach and give back. But I do, I'm one of the main instructors for our children's program. And let me tell you the joy of watching like little four to six-year-olds come up and go, Sensei Miriam, Sensei Miriam, look at this kick that you showed me last week, look how much better it's gotten. It's amazing. So that sense of happiness and fulfillment of giving back to your community is just amazing. It's also important to have a fresh voice because, yes, you can have the same team of organizers year after year after year, and that's great. And if they know what they're doing, perfect, but it's always good to have a new perspective on things. So that's another reason why I was super happy to join. Let's just have a word cat break. I'm sure some of you remember word camp in Montreal from a couple of years ago. So this is just a picture of my best friend's cat who decided to watch over us during the board games night in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. Anyways, let's move forward a year to 2017. And this is where it really starts to change. First of all, I need to give a shout out to three people. First is Catherine, who is here today. She was attending word camp that year, and we spoke at the after party in 2016. And she asked how I felt it went. I was still pretty upset, and I told her that I'm never gonna speak again. And she's like, are you sure about that? I said, yes, she's like, okay. However, here are some resources to help you become a better public speaker. She pointed me to Toastmasters and a bunch of resources that she had gathered. I don't exactly remember which ones they are at this time. So I put that in the back of my mind. And then there's Sean Hooper, one of my friends from Ottawa. He's our lead organizer for word camp Ottawa. He was at the desk when I told Megan that I was never gonna speak again. He's like, okay, but think about that again. And he was always a supporter of me. He was speaker Wrangler, and when he sent me my speaker feedback that year, he's like, I know you thought it went bad, but read this. And it was all positive reviews. And then there was Rick Ratko. He leads the Ottawa WordPress Meetups, and he approached me a couple months after word camp that year, saying, okay, we're featuring lightning talks and showing people what they are. Would you like to do your presentation from word camp? I said, okay. And I went, and my laptop decided not to work, so I had no slides. So I just said, screw it. I slammed down my laptop lid, and I did it all from memory. And it went fantastic. So a light bulb went off in my head. Maybe I can talk, and I can be a speaker, but not on such technical matters. So that year, I had the idea of panels. So I thought, what's a good topic? Let's feature women in the WordPress sphere in different roles, and let's talk about our struggles and our achievements and how we can encourage others to get involved. I did it for the first time at WordCamp Ottawa last year, and the reception was fantastic. We had such a good conversation from the audience, and I felt raised up. It felt fantastic, and I thought this panel idea is one of the best things that I thought of. So I decided to put forth that panel to other word camps. I did it in New York City. I did it in Seattle. I did it in Rochester. So I thought, different word camps, opportunities to travel. So when I went to New York City, I went to a Broadway show. When I went to Seattle, I went to Pike's Place Market, and I got to see all these places. So I figured, why not nip my travel bug in the butt and go to WordCamps and kill two birds with one stone? So I did that, and I started to meet new friends. And it's amazing. Just in the past year, the friendships that I've built just from attending WordCamps and meeting other speakers has been amazing. And through that, I've had the opportunity to get on podcasts. So has anybody here heard of hallway chats? No? Right, one person. So hallway chats is a podcast hosted by two people, Tara and Liam, who are based in the U.S. And it's an opportunity to feature those in the WordPress community and just learn their stories. So I was on hallway chats this year. And then there's also kind of a YouTube show slash podcast called WP Blab. They have a section called Community Connections. And so Bridget Willard, who is one of the hosts there, I met her at WordCamp Ottawa last year, sent me a Facebook message shortly after I started doing the panels. And she's like, do you want to be on this? Sure. So that was an opportunity. So two opportunities in the span of a couple short months to share my story and to help educate others. And the reason why I actually ended up applying to New York City was because my co-workers encouraged me too. So peer pressure almost. But wait, there's actually more than just speaking and just organizing. There's a greater WordPress community as a whole. So when I was in New York City, somebody came up to me afterwards and said, you know what? You should look into the community deputy program. So for those who don't know, there's different teams in the WordPress community from makewordpress.org. One of them is community. And so the community deputy is somebody who essentially works to help make sure that WordCamp Central runs smoothly, which is kind of like the aggregate of all the WordCamps across the world. And they just basically help provide support to the organizers of both WordCamps and the meetups. There's also the outspoken women program. Now outspoken women is a program started by my friend Tessa Creasel who is in Minneapolis. And it's a resource for women speakers or for women who want to get involved in speaking. It's a listing of speakers and it's also a listing of events. And they offer mentorships for women who want to get involved. I act as ambassador manager. So I reach out to different WordCamps or even Drupal events. And this is completely open source. So we're not limited to just WordPress and WordCamps. And I reach out and I just share the program and how we can get more people involved. And there's also the diversity outreach speaker group. It's a working group within the community group of WordPress and it's essentially a way to help get WordCamps and meetups to get a more diverse speaker lineup. So this is the perfect team for me because of my own journey. So it's great because this way you can see full representation. Not just women but those of more minority groups and who may be underrepresented instead of seeing just, for example, just your typical white male speaker who's always speaking. This way we can get women speaking. We can get people from the Black community, the Asian community, Latino community. And it's fantastic. But again, why are we doing this? It's because WordPress is open source. And as a whole, we all make it better. Whether we're just attending a WordCamp and sharing ideas or a meetup or we're actually contributing, every little bit counts. And as I mentioned before, I have a strong community outside of my technical life. I have my karate community. I have my dance community. And I just have all my other friendships that I keep up. So when you grow up with having community as something that's very important to you, it's something, it becomes a passion of yours and something that you really want to share. It also gives you a sense of belonging. And like I said, every little bit of contribution counts. So some of you are wondering, what can I do? I mean, great, this is what you've done. But really it comes down to what can each person do. Well, you've taken the first step. You're here at WordCamp. So you're here, you're learning, you're networking, and you're meeting new people. That is community. If you want to take it one step further, you can speak. You can go, you can speak at your local meetup. That's a great way to get involved with speaking in the WordPress community. But if you're nervous, it's usually a smaller group. I know in Ottawa, we tend to go to a more beginner level, and it's great. Want to go one step up? Speak at a WordCamp. This is my second year in a row speaking here in Montreal. And it's a fantastic opportunity because you get to share your knowledge. And if it's something you're passionate about, it's super easy. And if you're scared, there are definitely mentors out there available. I'm sure if you speak to anybody attending here, not just anybody. If you speak, you can find somebody here at WordCamp Montreal 2018 who would be willing to help you mentor. I guarantee it. You might have to ask a few people, but there's somebody out there. And if you don't find that person here, reach out on social media. And then if you don't feel like speaking, there's other ways. You can volunteer at your WordCamp. WordCamps are run by volunteers. They cannot happen without the volunteers. And, hey, you get in for free and you give a few hours of your time. You get to see amazing speakers, learn stuff, and you're giving back. I mentioned the community team for MakeWordPress.org. They're not the only team. If you're a developer, you can join core or themes or plugins. If you're a marketer, there's a marketing team. If you're a translator, there's polyglots and there's so many other themes, theme teams, other teams that it's almost like if you want to contribute, there's going to be a team for you. I mentioned the podcast. There's different podcasts you can go on if you just want to share your story. And you can travel to other WordCamps. I mean, that's a bit pricier, but if you're like me and you like to travel and you enjoy doing that, then it's pretty good. And WordCamps really aren't that expensive anyways. They're like $50 local currency, max usually, $20 for one day. So here are a few resources. If you want to take a picture of this slide now, they will also be included in my slide deck, which I will be tweeting out shortly after we're done here. So you have your community deputy program. You have the outspoken women website. And you have what the diversity outreach speaker team working group is about. So in conclusion, contributing made me a better developer, made me a better speaker and overall a better person. And despite being an introvert, it helped me recharge. I feel that when I come back from WordCamps, yes, I'm tired, but I feel so energized the week after I come back from a WordCamp. At work I am super productive and super energized and it leads into everything else in life. And most of all, community makes sure that you don't feel alone. It can be hard if you're new to WordPress or new to technology, you feel like I'm alone here, but you're not. There's a sense of community and if you're scared, that's understandable. But you don't have to because there's always people out there who are like-minded and who are there to help you and just stand by you. So that concludes my talks. That is my adorable dog who I am obsessed about if you follow me on social media. So does anybody have any questions? Yeah, we have one back there. Do we have a mic? Yeah, I'll just repeat the question. Yeah, so the question was do I have any strategies for when I receive negative reviews and how it doesn't undermine my strategy for the future? That's a very good question because I've gone through that. Basically, I just pause. I get emotional at first, granted, who doesn't, but then I put it aside. I go do something that I enjoy. For me, it's usually if I get a negative review, I usually go work out. Whether I go to a karate class or go to a dance lesson, doesn't matter. I clear my head. And if I don't have the opportunity to go work out, then I go for a walk or I go to the pool. And then afterwards I just sit back down once I have a clear head and the emotional overload is gone and I think, okay, let's find the nuggets in this negativity and help make me a better person. If somebody says, if it's a technical talk and I'm talking too much about myself, then, okay, valid point. Cut that out. If somebody wants to hear more of something, they say, oh, they didn't talk enough about this. I put more of that particular topic in the future. So it's more of a matter of separating yourself from it and then returning to it with a clear head. Any other questions? Comments? So I know that this was short and I kind of apologize for that, but that's pretty much it. There's another picture of Sasha with actually the WordCamp Central schedule listing on my laptop. I think that's when I was deciding where I was going to go apply and that's where you can reach me. So if you want to chat with me afterwards, I will be around. And thank you.