The Software Hero's Journey

In all of classic literature and mythology, there is a central theme: The Hero's Journey. Joseph Campbell outlined the steps in this epic journey in 1949, and it remains as relevant today as it was groundbreaking in his era; particularly to we Software Engineers. As a Hero, you'll need to understand the quest ahead of you, how to slay your dragons, and return with honor to code another day. Consider this your Call to Adventure!

DevRel with Disabilities, and Other Frightening Tales

Living with a disability can be difficult, and it is made even more so when the nature of ones work butts up against ones abilities. How do you navigate advocating for yourself, accommodating your needs, and delivering quality work when asked to complete tasks with which you struggle? This session digs into various learning differences and ways of thinking, and gives solutions, so you can be your authentic self, deliver your best work, and feel more peaceful about your role.

The Product Doesn't Develop Itself: A Business Case for Taking Care of Developers

In our industry, there is a lot of pressure to deliver high quality, tested, fast, scalable, innovative software. We focus on deadlines, product requests, and metrics to ensure quality. But what of the people actually doing the work?

Join this session to learn how, as a manager, one can support your resources to deliver their best work. As an individual contributor, this session will guide you through pinpointing your needs, advocating to have them met, and how to handle self-care so you can be your very best.

Deploying on Google Cloud: a Guide for People Who Despise Deploying

While some of us delight in the process of getting code out to the end users, not everyone feels that joy. Join me to learn the easy way to let GCP do the work for you!

Disaster Recovery and You

Does your team have a disaster recovery plan in place? What even is a DR plan?!

Bad things happen in this world: tornadoes take down data centers, laptops break, office buildings get damaged. Join me for a practical guide to anticipating and mitigating disaster. Your boss will thank you!

Mothering A Dev Team: How Wardley Maps Saved Me!

Proper execution of a project is always easier with proper planning beforehand. Wardley Mapping is one of the best tools in our arsenal for seeing the road ahead clearly, and getting to where we need to be. Having learned a lot about planning while being a stay-at-home parent, Valarie has a unique take on how to manage time and resources, and especially children… I mean, coworkers.

During this presentation we’ll cover the basics of Wardley Mapping, in the context of both an automation process, as well as a life project. Because the best tools are multitaskers, and should be able to be used for more than one purpose!

Oops! We're so Agile, We're Waterfall Again!

On your quest towards true CI/CD and DevOps culture, you've implemented processes and procedures designed to get you there. But instead? You're accidentally even farther from the goal than before!

In this session we'll go over how to determine if your team is wasting time on unnecessary procedures, and how to determine which form of Agile actually meets your team needs!

Rebuilding Together

Since March 2020, the world has changed, and the tech community has changed right along with it. Where do we go from here? How do we regain some of what was lost, while moving forward in both thinking and action? We move forward in tech together, and with compassion.

Listen to Your Mother: Getting a Great Job in an Unfair World

Job hunting is a full-time job under the best of circumstances. Let a former stay at home mom who broke into technology tell you the ins and outs of getting your dream job when your resume is a mess. Don't get overwhelmed! Mama's here to help.

I did a 40 minute delivery of this talk at We Rise Tech in Atlanta this June, and it was well received. My talks tend to feel like part advice, part comedy show, part chat with a friend over coffee.

Own Who You Are: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome: a global problem in the sphere of technology. What causes it? How do we stop succumbing to it and thrive in our careers?

Together, we'll explore myriad paths towards being the developers we probably already are, but imposter syndrome tells us we'll never be.

Proper Care and Feeding of Jr. Developers

Jr. Devs require more than just a job; they need help from YOU. More than just a weekly coaching session, or an occasional email with feedback. This talk will focus on actionable tasks which can be implemented by mid- and Sr. Devs to help their Jr. teammates be more effective and efficient team members.

DevOps: A Love Story

This romance involves the partnership of Docker, Kubernetes, and Jenkins. These technologies are a huge part of the DevOps movement, and are making the heart of many development teams flutter. Let me introduce you to these three. You’re going to fall head over heels.

The talk requires the ability to share my screen, as there are demonstrations involved. I have spoken at a few conferences, and have had glowing reviews; I deliver my sessions in a comical way, and engage the audience with humor. This session (30-45 mins) is targeted at developers of any skill level who need to be familiar with DevOps in a general sense, and the specific technologies mentioned in particular.