Why community matters

Community for growth
Community for growth

I used to believe that openness, exchange and feedback from people working in the same field belonged to academia. I thought industry rewarded hoarding exclusive knowledge. I was wrong. Over the years I learned that community is not a “nice to have”. It is infrastructure for professional development.

When I was at university writing my PhD thesis I appreciated the openness of science. I liked going to conferences, presenting results and getting feedback from colleagues. I liked having insight into their work and approaches. When I left university I thought I would have to leave that openness behind because I had moved to the private sector. I was convinced I had to protect my knowledge to secure a good market position for myself and my employer.

I didn’t recognize back then that having a good market position and actively exchanging with other professionals in the same field are not mutually exclusive.

How I started in the community

I was lucky in my first job after university to have a colleague who told me about a user group working on the same technology stack we used. He told me, “If you want to make an impression, go there and give a presentation.” Being the self-confident newcomer I was, I did exactly that and volunteered to give a talk. That user group was PASS, the professional association for SQL Server, in other words the Microsoft Data self-help group.

I began engaging with the German PASS community and learned a lot. I started attending conferences, national and international events, and I met many peers from around the world. Knowing those people helped me enormously. During the pandemic the global PASS organisation dissolved, but the German offshoot continued and I joined its Board of Directors (today we call ourselves Datamonster e.V.). There I learned the sunny and shadowy sides of volunteer-run communities.

Staying in touch

The sunny sides became very clear to me in spring 2026 when we ran our SQL Konferenz. The event is organised by Datamonster e.V. and rightly has a fixed place in the calendars of many international speakers and attendees. Running an event with many participants professionally is a big undertaking, so we’re grateful to many volunteer community members and to an excellent professional event team that handles the execution.

What makes the conference (and any good conference) special for me is that it always feels a little like a class reunion. You meet many people you have come to know and appreciate over the years and enjoy exchanging with them. Speakers from all over the world bring unique experiences; each is willing to engage on equal terms. Even now, in my less technical, more architectural role at virtual7, the exchange with community members helps me grow. I learn from their experiences, meet friends, form professional connections and recharge my batteries through many old and new acquaintances.

What can you learn from this?

Whether you’re just starting your career or you’re a seasoned professional, community can help you. Your knowledge won’t shrink if you share it. It grows through feedback from others with similar backgrounds. To experience that growth I can only encourage you to go to conferences: submit talks, talk to organizers and other speakers, and build connections.

Attend events like Data Grillen, Data Saturdays or SQL Konferenz, or community events from organisations like Datamonster e.V. or DOAG. Wherever people working in your area gather, it helps to network. Find out which events offer newcomer tracks and submit if you’ve never presented before. A conference talk, I guarantee, will help you. You’ll benefit from shared knowledge, learn to formulate results or problems, and build a network that can help you professionally in many situations.

If you don’t yet dare to speak, volunteer at conferences. Working as a session monitor puts you in direct contact with speakers and organisers. The credo “Connect, share, grow” is more important than ever in today’s broad tech world. Without others’ help it’s nearly impossible to keep up with trends and find a good direction for your development.

And if you have wild ideas, be bold and do them. I have organised a tech conference with a metal theme twice now. It was an insane amount of work and I was exhausted afterwards, but it was incredibly fulfilling to see people travel to my small event, even from the US, and tell me they had been looking forward to it. That gave me huge joy, energy and confidence.

Looking back, I no longer see community as a “nice to have” but as an integral part of my professional development. The ability to exchange ideas, the willingness to give feedback and not only polished presentations, and the trust in my own skills taught me over the years to reduce the complexity of problems more than any tool or framework ever could.

Communities create feedback loops, foster resilience and encourage us to stay engaged, not only in technology but across professions. In a field that changes as rapidly as IT, the personal infrastructure you build through community is one of the most sustainable investments in your career. And like in my case, that investment often starts very small: by deciding to show up, share something and connect with others.

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Takie the first steps

To get into active participation in a community, these are some starting points

  • Check out meetup, most local communities have groups there and announce their events.
  • If a creator publishes blogs, videos or podcasts on topics relevant to your work, find out which conferences they speak at, those are likely good conferences for you.
  • Find out if conferences have newcomer tracks (many do and also offer mentorship for new speakers) or submit a session at a dedicated newcomer event like new stars of data or volunteer at events, if you do not want to speak, this will make you meet many others who are active in your community.
  • Talk to people at conferences and usergroups.
  • Create a sessionize profile. Many conferences use sessionize to manage their call for speakers, having a profile and some sessions ready to submit makes it easier for you to apply for sessions.
  • Find a mentor in your community. Many experienced speakers enjoy co-presenting with newcomers or otherwise supporting you if you have ideas to share.

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A german version of this post can be found on the virtual7 Blog