My thoughts from the Global RedwoodJS Conference held in Grants Pass

I attended the RedwoodJS conference in Grants Pass last month. 

RedwoodJS is a relatively new OpenSource JavaScript full stack platform formed and run in Bay Area Silicon Valley roots. RedwoodJS is the latest open source project of Tom Preston-Werner, the Founder and former CEO of GitHub.

So it’s a big thing and it has the potential to be a huge thing. 

Trever from Zeal hosted the conference at his Hivve (https://www.thehivve.com/) space in downtown Grants Pass because the founders of the project wanted to host an event that was small, intimate and super cool. 

I met developers and “entreprenusers” (it popped into my head as I met so many of the platform users and dreamers in attendance) over the 2 day conference from as far away as Egypt, Singapore, England and Alaska.  For most it was their first time in Oregon. 

This was the first in-person conference for the platform and there were about 100 in attendance. I was the oldest person there. 

I found the conference enlightening and inspiring. I loved the rapid format of each session running 30 to 45 minutes each and in quick succession. 

Trever and his whole family (Trever’s “Wonder Woman” wife as well as his awesome Mom and Dad were proudly running around handling all of the details while he worked the streaming system)  did an amazing job hosting. Trever leveraged his years of experience and skills from hosting live music events and streaming as well as his innate ability to provide cool experiences that developers crave. He also created a pop up coffee-shop slash eatery with affordable yummy gourmet dishes and a shuttle service to get folks around Grants Pass with ease, because “there are only 4 Ubers in the valley”. 

There were sessions on the platform, security, and some deep dives on code as you would expect but there were about equal in number sessions on success, design theory, marketing, mentoring and leadership. 

I used to love going to DreamForce in San Francisco every year (until Covid) because even though it was a platform conference and techie, it was also about mission, education, healthcare, IOT and music. 

Where 100,000 suits show up for Dreamworks, these 100 were learning, inspiring and hanging out in a much smaller, more intimate version. 

I left wanting to learn more about everything that they touched on. 

One topic that was mentioned a couple of times was the negative aspect of all this amazing technology we develop and use everyday, somehow leading to increased loneliness. 

How can we develop all of this networking and yet how can humanity feel alone?

I can’t stop thinking about it. 

I have since found hundreds of scientific articles about the effects of the internet and loneliness that date back up to 20 years. 

How is it that we can share so much, to so many and yet feel alone?

How is it that we are empowered to voice our opinions on any subject, at anytime and find like minded people to share all of these thoughts with and yet feel so lonely?

I will deep dive on this over the next year and share with you several other topics that were shared at the conference because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you are a developer, entrepreneur or designer/podcaster/supermom you need to keep learning a mix of the topics presented, to be successful in your business and find ways to connect with others. 

And you just need to follow Trever. He’s the one ahead of us, holding the brightest flashlight, pointed at a disco ball and leading the way. 

Making sure none of us feel alone on this journey.