We’re almost 8 months into a global pandemic. The last time we gathered to discuss COVID-19, we were mere weeks in and scrambling to figure out how to adjust. Given how much has changed since then, it was time for another Community Pulse LIVE! Our questions include “What have we learned?” “How the pandemic has changed our perception of attending in-person conferences?” and “How does this uncertainty impact our budgets for the years to come?”. Guests Rahmona Henry (HubSpot Developer Advocate) and Floor Drees (Microsoft DevRel Program Manager) join us to discuss how they’re approaching their 2021 event strategy.

After chatting with our guests, Wesley, SJ, and Mary are joined by PJ to talk about early stage DevRel and their views on experiences in the startup world.

As companies are starting to realize that Developer Relations can be a competitive advantage, we’ve been noticing more and more job descriptions for Developer Advocates or DevRel Professionals who are the first non-engineering hire at early-stage startups. But when you’re an early hire working alongside the founder and a few engineers, what does your role look like? How is it different from joining a company as employee #30, 120, or even 1432?

Mary, SJ, and Wesley chat with David G Simmons, Taylor Barnett, and Aydrian Howard to talk about being DevRel number one.

Your hosts gather together to discuss tactics, goals, and to break down everything discussed in episode 50!

Developer Relations needs to be put into perspective for people outside the team or community. When your Developer Relations department comes under fire, how do we switch from advocating for our community to advocating for ourselves? When DevRel is new, how do you build on activities to show the importance of having a dedicated team working with the communities your organization is involved with?

SJ and PJ sit down with Elizabeth Ruscitto and Jaime Lopez to discuss the ins and outs of explaining DevRel to folks on the outside.

These past few weeks have brought us to what we hope will be an inflection point with regard to systemic racism in the United States. We’re now asking the question: How can we work as a community in DevRel to ensure we not only address this critical moment, but actively work toward eradicating systemic racism in our industry?

Mary, Jason, and PJ officially welcome new host SJ Morris to the show! We all take the opportunity to review what we've done this year, talk about some trends we've noticed within DevRel, and generally put our final thoughts on all things 2019!

Your hosts sit down to discuss the finer points of the episode - what does happen after DevRel? We take a look at some of the antecedents leading to leaving DevRel and the options we've heard folks consider in our travels and conversations.

Jason, PJ, and Mary grab a post episode chat on titles, Open Source Community Management, and hills people seek out to raise their flags.

Jason and PJ get together after the show to talk moving in and out of communities, meetups, when things change, and reflect on the episode and guests' input in general.

PJ, Jason, and Mary recap the conversation with Bear Douglas and Jeremy Meiss. They touch on how the growth of the industry has impacted Developer Relations job titles as well as salaries before meandering into personal brand. At the end of the day, is it really our job title that matters or is it more about how we interact with others?

In this episode, our hosts are joined by Aaron Aldrich and Quintessence Anx, both of whom are Developer Advocates who also have experience organizing community events. Together, they discuss the challenges, lessons learned, and tips for organizing events for a technical audience.

Mary and PJ join Jason to sync up on the recent episode that he hosted about Codes of Conduct. We cover a lot of ground: from the purpose that Codes of Conduct serve, to the fact that we agree to these standards in day-to-day life without realizing it, to the recent news stories about CoCs.

One important part of the Dev Advocate lifestyle is content creation, which can range from penning the perfect tweet to blog posts to docs and tutorials. Content matters when it comes to interacting with the Community. In this episode, we talk with Lorna Jane Mitchell about content creation and the process of working with folks who are not content creators to make the best of your project or community’s written record.

PJ, Jason, and Mary sit down with J. Paul Reed (@jpreed) and Greg Bulmash (@yiddishninja) to chat about team dynamics, working between departments, and setting boundaries for your DevRel team.

PJ, Jason, and Mary joined up with Kelsey Hightower from Google Cloud Platform to chat about imposter syndrome:

- What is imposter syndrome?

- Is it a "thing"?

- How can we overcome imposter syndrome in ourselves?

- How can we prevent imposter syndrome in others?

PJ and Jason sit down with Matt Broberg, VP of Community at Sensu and Jill Jubinski, ‎Senior Manager of Tech Recruiting at ‎Fastly to talk about hiring a Developer Relations team. From how to find the mythical creatures that form the right team to who your first hire should be and what recruiters screen for, you'll learn about the who, how, what, and when of pulling together a Developer Relations team from scratch.

Jason, Mary, and PJ do an end of year wrap-up on the highs, lows, and day-to-day of 2017. We talk about the tough parts of being in DevRel, the importance of diversity, and other topics we've seen this year.

Episode 18 finds Jason and PJ in Pittsburgh at Uptime Conf! We took the opportunity to sit down with Community Organizer and Pittsburgh Advocate, Justin Reese.

After all 3 hosts being in the same physical place at the same time, Mary, Jason, and PJ come together to recap DevOpsDays, talk about different communities, and chat about all the things we're thinking.

While none of our guests for this episode have "Community Manager" in their title, these folks know a lot about building local communities. Jason and Mary chat with some of the top people behind Ignite Talks (ignitetalks.io) about building communities, drawing people together, and how to know when your plans need to pivot.

In this Halloween-ish episode of Community Pulse, PJ and Mary talk to Coraline Ada Ehmke and Ed Finkler. We explore the the two sides of the same coin that are the life of technical advocates.

The one where we introduce PJ Hagerty, the new guy. Jason and Mary talk about why they’ve decided to add a third person, as well as their plan for the next few episodes and their hopes for the podcast going forward.

In this episode of Community Pulse we were joined by Nathen Harvey (VP of Community Development, Chef) and Phil Leggetter (Head of Developer Relations, Nexmo) to talk about learning to scale a community role.