An unexpected invitation
I must admit I also wouldn’t expect to come up with that hook but hear me out first. If you bare with me till the end you will not witness something unique or interesting – this is not another linkedin inspiration story – you will just waste 5-10 minutes of your life but I can promise you will also share my enthusiasm while doing so. It all started with a LinkedIn post from the First of the DevNet Experts, Holder of Three CCIEs, Bearer of the CCDE, Slayer of Manual Configs. If you still don’t know who I’m talking about, for us mere mortals, I’m referring to none other than Andreas Baekdahl. Later I also had a chance to meet him in Autocon3 but I will keep it for another story!
In his linkedin post, he mentioned that he had bought a ticket to attend Autocon3, which I didn’t even know existed at the time. A quick google search returned to me that there has been a dedicated Network Automation event exists and I have been missing it for the whole time.
Three days of fun and inspiration
Now let’s fast forward to the event day and skip all the boring details. Do you remember the feeling when your family took you to an amusement park for the very first time? Folks I felt just like that when I stepped in. Sometimes you don’t know for sure but there were signs that you are in the right place. The agenda from the organisation and the people I recognize from the community were the signs that I’m in the right place.
Side quest: Sticker hunting
3 days full of exceptional speeches from brilliant minds and industry experts. If you are passionate about network automation, that alone is enough to get you excited, but it doesn’t stop there, no my friend! I learned something from every and each one of the talks delivered at the conference. Not only did I learn but also enjoyed , engaged and left the room each day buzzing with ideas. In between the talks I jumped in between the company booths to understand & learn and keep up the latest in the network automation industry. I attended multiple demos, had really cool discussions and collected a ton of stickers because that’s what you do if you grew up watching Pokémon. You must catch them all!
During my hoppings 2 things were important to me. First one was the moment I saw Roman Dodin in the Nokia booth. Spoiler alert he is cooler in real life than linkedin boys and girls! Before I met him, I honestly thought a pure network automation role was like a unicorn, mythical and nonexistent. But he was right there in front of me, living proof that they actually do exist in our world. I had a short but really helpful conversation with him about Containerlab, and he showcased me how it works on M series MacBooks. That had been a blocker for me before which is a cool way of saying I couldn’t get it working. Now let’s move on the part of how I crossed a dream off my wishlist.
A dream fulfilled
You’ve Won! Claim your book!
I have been thinking alternative titles for this blog post like “Autocon3: when a wishlist item shook your hand” but I think the one in the title reflects it best and the alternative also includes spoiler 🙂 Ever since I saw that Jason Edelman would be delivering the closing speech, I felt both excited and anxious about whether I would get the chance to meet him. Excited because he was the first person where I heard network automation is a thing 9 years ago when I was a Junior network engineer. Anxious because you know what they say about meeting with your hero just kidding. Anxious because I really wanted to meet him in person to tell him that he was the one who introduced me the network automation space back in the day. On the last day of the event I got a notification on my phone from Network to Code titled as “You’ve Won! Claim your book!”. On any other day I might have thought that it was just another one of those mails impersonating a company and trying to get me to click a link or open the attachment but not that day! Because I was expecting that mail to come. On the second day of the conference I visited the NTC booth and Jason wasn’t there at the time but I noticed they were running a contest to give away some of the books they had written, so I joined in as well. Back to the original story. I got the email while I was on the basement floor where all the speeches were being delivered. The booths were on the mezzanine floor, so I did what anyone would do. I ran up the stairs, skipping two or three steps at a time. I reached my destination and took a few seconds to catch my breath. I showed my phone to them and was handed over the book I always wanted but it was just the beginning. They said “Hey, Jason is also here. Would you like to meet with one of the writers of the book and get your copy signed?” I let that sink in for a second and said, “Yeah, sure!” He was the reason I was at the booth in the first place. I was introduced to Jason by one of his colleagues and I told him that he was the reason that I started my network auomation journey. Years later, there I was shaking his hand and having the conversation I always wanted. He founded a network automation company, wrote a book, yet he is still as humble as a junior network engineer. Kudos to him!
As can be seen above a wishlist item crossed from my list! Later that day I also met with Christian Adell and got his signature as well.
I counted it as a win for the day. Two out of four authors signed the book I had always wanted, and I got to meet many people I have been following, leaving me inspired and eager to connect. Of course the conference was not just about personal moments. As I said earlier I learned from every speech delivered and on top of that expanded my professional network. Now my linkedin feed is better than it used to be. This conference also sparked the lights for new things as well. For example there is an initiative started as of yesterday and moderated by John Howard and Bart Dorlandt. Network automation forum office hours. First one was yesterday and I quite enjoyed it. I believe one of the best things you can do for yourself is to surround yourself with smart people. You have probably already heard the famous quote “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I have seen that truth come to life many times throughout my professional career. That is also what I’m trying to do.
If by any chance you made it all the way here and read everything, drop a comment or ping me on LinkedIn. That way, I’ll know I wrote something that was worth someone else’s time. Thanks for reading and as Jason said, “Happy Automating!”
