The 10th GopherCon took place the last week of September and it was a blast. In this episode, weâre talking about our experiences at the conference from several different viewpoints. Angelica as a conference organizer, Johnny as an emcee and workshop instructor, Kaylyn as a speaker, and Kris as a regular attendee.
Matched from the episode's transcript đ
Kris Brandow: Yeah, yeah. Except for when people heard me talking, and theyâd be like âHeyâŠ! Do I know you?â Oh, there was one [unintelligible 00:48:46.25] thing that happened though at the United Go meetup, where I was talking to one of the guys there, Matthew⊠And we were just having a chat, and I was like âHey, Iâm on Go Time.â Because what had happened is there was a pile of books on the table, and someone else who listens to the podcast was like âOh, Kris, you should do a reading, because you have like this podcast voice.â And I was like âUhhâŠâ But you know, this other guy I was talking to, heâs like âOh, youâre a podcaster? What podcast are you on?â âOh, Iâm on Go Time.â âOh, thatâs so cool. Hey, I listened to Go Time.â Iâm like âOh, okay.â âBut I havenât heard you before.â Itâs like âOh, okay. Well, thereâs a whole bunch of us⊠Maybe you just werenât on the episodes Iâve been onâŠâ Somehow⊠Because Iâve been on like every episode in the last two months, but⊠I was like âYeah, maybe you havenât.â And then weâre still talking, and heâs like âOh, yeah, I really liked the opinion of that guy when he said that tech debt is malpracticeâŠâ And I was like âOh, thatâs me. I said that.â And he looked at me, he looked at my badge, he was like âOh, youâre Kris!â I was like âYeah, Iâm Kris.â It was just like this kind of wonderful moment, because for a bit there it was just like, yeah, even someone who listened to the podcast doesnât really know who we are sometimes. And thereâs a lot of people like that, I think, that just have the podcast on when theyâre mowing the lawn, or doing the dishes, or whatever, and they donât watch us live on YouTube⊠Like, our dedicated watchers right now, I think we have both Thomas and Dylan who are watching along⊠But yeah, they never see our faces, they only hear our voices⊠Which is another interesting and strange thing. But it was just very nice to be in that space and get to meet people from these different perspectives, that have different, you know â I donât really know where Iâm going with this, but like different ways of knowing who we are, but we still kind of get to be⊠Like, it didnât feel weird. It didnât feel like I was a celebrity walking around, because I absolutely donât want that. I just want to be a normal, regular gopher, like everybody else. Not special.
[00:50:39.12] But that was really nice⊠And I feel like even interacting with the Go team was like that. People would go up to like the Google booth, and be like âOh, hi, who are you?â to like Robert Griesemer, or Ian, or Ross. Theyâre like âOh, cool. Can I just get a T-shirt?â and then go. And itâs just like âOh, man⊠You donât know who youâve just talked to⊠But also, itâs really cool that you donât know who you just talked to, and you just had this super-normal interaction with them.â