The culture we create at events is part of what makes us special. Simply put, our cultural values are:
When you hear “company culture”, do you think ping-pong tables and free Odwalla? If so, you might have had a little too much of the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid. The real culture of an organization comprises:
Free snacks and game areas are just one small expression of a much larger culture (one that means “you’re expected to spend a lot of time at this office.”)
Our cultural values translate to:
Pretend I ask you, “do you want ice cream?” Almost all reasonable people will say yes. Yet thousands of ice cream shops go out of business in the US each year. That’s because what people say they want and what people actually want are very different.
A lot of building culture fits into this pattern. If you simply ask an attendee to take a break, participate in an activity, or meet new people, they’ll usually say they don’t want to.
Much of our job, therefore, is finding as many ways to encourage students to participate as possible.
Culture is built by interactions. During events, we need to interact with as many people as possible, so while we’re working, we should be walking around and talking to people – we call this “patrolling.”
In fact, while you’re working, you shouldn’t need your laptop at all, and you should only sit down if you’re tired. Remember, students won’t come to us with a complaint that the event isn’t friendly enough, or they don’t feel comfortable exploring CS yet. We need to be proactive in reaching out.