By August, we were starting to think more carefully about how the sessions should work.
We limited registration to ten people so everyone would have enough time to participate and introduced a camera-on requirement to make the room less anonymous. It added some friction. We had several registrations, but fewer people joined once the requirement was introduced.
Yanina couldn't make this session, so for the first time, I led it myself. We had participants joining from Nigeria, Canada, India, and Russia.
We started with Two Truths and a Lie, pet stories, and pet peeves before moving into a discussion about AI and work. I was less interested in whether AI would simply replace jobs and more interested in how people could use it to become better at what they already do.
The smaller group made the conversation more personal.
Siri, who was just starting out in design, spoke about the difficulty she was having finding entry-level opportunities in India. Vivian, a senior UI designer, offered to help, and they connected on LinkedIn.
After everyone else left, Siri stayed on the call with me for almost another hour. She asked about my path into technology, the challenges I'd faced, and how I moved into software despite studying Mechanical Engineering. She also spoke openly about some of the uncertainty she was dealing with as someone just starting out.
I didn't have a perfect answer for that. I mostly listened, shared what my own path had looked like, and talked through some of the things she was worried about.
I'm glad I stayed for that extra hour.
It was also the first session I had to lead without Yanina there to fall back on. Somewhere between running the room and staying behind after everyone else had left, I understood a little better what I wanted these sessions to become.