In January, news reports began to emerge of Coronavirus. The news was shocking, upsetting, and evidently very serious. But while we watched the news anxiously, we were still weeks away from understanding just how frightening the chain of events would be, and how they would impact our working lives.
As the weeks went on, we began to have discussions in the office – what if we had to postpone Lead Dev, and what was our responsibility in a time of pandemic? What started as a one-in-a million scenario, soon became a possibility, before rapidly becoming a necessity. We were committed to running events, but only when we could ensure the safety of everyone involved.
In this session, I’ll discuss the journey that the team at White October Events travelled through in the weeks before deciding to postpone Lead Dev New York and London; from initially assessing the situation, putting into place contingency plans and extra safety measures, to finally making the difficult decision to postpone the events.
But I’ll also talk about the way the team came together and rose to the task, about how our community supported our decisions as they evolved and about why we chose to put on Lead Dev Live, pulling it together in just under four weeks.
