Wonderful Experience Of Hospitality To End ÜberConf Experience

Last Friday, Jamie and I had a wonderful week in Colorado at ÜberConf. The week was full of good conversation, laughter, and an opportunity to meet some pretty amazing individuals. Among those individuals was a speaker and developer named Venkat Subramaniam. Venkat has bit of a legendary status in the conference space, and spends a large amount of time teaching and sharing at conferences, and also keeps a blog here for folks interested in learning more from him, a great place to start is his blog, “AgileDeveloper”.

What made the end of this week especially sweet was that Venkat invited a number of the presenters along with Jamie and myself into his home. Venkat had invited us for the last three years, but this was the first time we were able to accept his offer of hospitality. Not only did we have an amazing time connecting with many of the No Fluff Just Stuff speakers, many of which have become good friends of ours over the years. But we also had the privilege of meeting Venkat’s parents as well.

In my experience, one of the kindest gestures of care and welcome from a person is an invitation into one’s home. Venkat and his family made me and Jamie feel like family. We felt a very welcome part of this gathering of software developers in spite of the fact that we know very little about the space (particularly when in the presence of some of the top speakers/consultants/writers on the subject).

Venkat’s family had prepared a wide array of Indian food (including dessert), and they ensured that no one would leave their home hungry. Words can not fully express the depth of my gratitude to Venkat and his family for opening their home and sharing a meal with me and Jamie.

And this gesture has not been unique to Venkat. Jamie and I have had the privilege of sharing our home with many friends and family members, and we have also been frequent beneficiaries of the hospitality of others during our travels.

There is something truly special about sharing a meal with friends in a home and this kind of hospitality is quickly becoming a lost art. May we all take time to break bread in the homes of our friends, and may we have an open door and invitation to friends near and far as we exercise the practice of hospitality in a world that often seems to busy to slow down for this kind of camaraderie.

Sharing Nuru At ÜberConf 2015 in Denver Colorado

Last week was a pretty amazing week for me personally, and for Nuru as well! Among the awesome highlights, Jamie and I had the privilege of sharing Nuru with an incredible group of some top notch software developers at ÜberConf. This was the fifth straight year we were invited to share Nuru’s story at this conference, and every year it just keeps getting better.

For some, it seems like a strange connection to be made between software development and ending extreme poverty, but the more time I spend around this group of men and women, the more clear the connection is to me. You see, these men and women who attend the conference believe strongly in integrated approaches, building on best practices, rigorous testing, and using metrics to evaluate the quality and impact of solutions. These beliefs align perfectly with Nuru’s approach to addressing extreme poverty, and because of that, I believe we all end up having a deep respect for one another’s work.

A philosophy, a lifestyle, and a work ethic of continuous improvement, failing fast and adapting and iterating quickly defines this community as well as our culture at Nuru. For me, being able to share Nuru with a room full of like-minded individuals is an amazing gift! The folks who attend this conference, the speakers, and the organizing team have all become incredible advocates for Nuru. In fact, each year, the conference provides attendees with uniquely designed Nuru shirts. It’s pretty amazing to me that the day after the shirts are made available each year, at least three out of five attendees are wearing them. In addition, people who have attended the conference in previous years will wear Nuru shirts from those years during the week as well.

This year was extra special with regard to sharing Nuru because it was my fifth year sharing at this conference. These folks have believed in and supported Nuru from our earliest efforts. I remember sharing with the attendees in 2011 that they had helped Nuru impact the lives of more than 10,000 people. And now, in 2015, I was able to share with the more than 700 attendees that Nuru has now been able to help more than 80,000 men, women, and children lift themselves out of extreme poverty permanently.

The folks who organize and share at this conference have been incredibly generous to Nuru, and they have become some very dear and treasured friends for both me and Jamie. It almost feels like a mini-reunion each year as we share updates from life, vocation, and mission. And this year, the conference is giving an incredibly generous $40,000 donation to Nuru to help further our work in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Every time I have an opportunity to share with the wonderful people who have helped move this mission forward, I am inspired and encouraged, but when I get to share with our friends at ÜberConf, that inspiration goes even deeper. These incredible people have been huge advocates for Nuru and they use the conference to help connect even more people to our life changing mission to end extreme poverty in remote rural areas.