Empowering Communities with Aileen Lecuona – Techstrong Unplugged EP26

Hey everybody, and welcome back to Techstrong Unplugged. I'm your host, Atan Solomon, and this is episode 26 of our series. In this episode, we're taking you to vConf 2024 at vConf.

Our co-host, Cassandra Chen met up with Eileen Laquana, a passionate software developer and advocate for women in tech. Cassandra and Eileen discussed the challenges of organizing meetups, the importance of building a supportive environment for learning, and the impact of these communities on fostering diversity in tech. Without further ado, let's over to Buon 2024.

Welcome back to Text Journal Unplugged. My name is Cassandra Chin, and today we have Eileen. Hi.

Nice to be here with you. Cassandra. Yeah.

Can you introduce yourself? Sure. So my name is Eileen.

Um, basically I'm from Mexico. Uh, been a sober developer for a while now, and yeah, I'm really just really interested in tech and community. I think it's really great.

Um, you said you're like, how did you get interested in technology? Yeah, so it's kind of an interesting story. Um, it goes back to I first wanted to be a doctor, so I tried, uh, but I felt it wasn't my thing.

Uh, and then I just wanted to do things. I'm a very curious person, uh, and so I think into, okay, maybe I wanna be an ambassador. And I started, but I just didn't feel like I, I I could do more.

Right? And so when I, uh, decided to file a study in engineering, uh, I focused mostly industrial when I learned a little about art programming for the machines. And so, um, while I was studying, I met a friend, uh, who was into computer science, and he taught me a little about how he was learning Java at the time, what he was doing.

And that really got me really interesting because since I was young, I was really always with a computer at the house. Uh, but just using it, right? I never thought I could build a career upon that.

And yeah, basically I said, okay, this looks interesting. And, um, I didn't, uh, I continue and I finished my engineering in industrial, but on the side I started an internship in a, in a factory and I just didn't feel the click. But I got an internship in computer science.

And so that's how I started, like I started in a co consulting company back in my city. And yeah, from that day on I've been building software. You said you were involved in like the women in tech community?

Yeah, so in my city, uh, there's, there was this, uh, amazing community called Women Who Code that unfortunately this year got closed because of sponsorship. I think, um, that was my first approach also to a community that was built by women. Uh, I also gave a talk, it was 2019 before covid, uh, a local in my city.

And I was really pumped to see, uh, they didn't, I mean, even with, with Covid, they were every month creating a meetup online. So, uh, Google also has a program called Women Take Makers, and I decided to apply and I got in and uh, with, uh, other friends that I got back in my city, we are building meetups every month to try to create this environment so women can feel safe. I'm also part of, uh, GDG in my city.

So we're very engaged, uh, and diverse. We are three women, three men, uh, so it's, we everyone with different backgrounds. So I think we provide a diverse environment for everybody that wants to go there and, uh, learn.

So what kind of, like, what's the topic of the meetups? It depends. So we make like a call like, Hey, do you have something?

We also need to reach, uh, companies so we can have a space to have the meetup. 'cause after Covid, I think people want to meet, people want to know each other. Uh, most of the meetups and the communities with Covid died in my city.

And we wanted to rebuild that community. And I think it was, it's very important to have it on site so you can get to interact and network with people. So our first approach is we need a space.

So we go to companies, Hey, um, we are this community, we have this many people. Uh, would you be able to go submit it for us? Like, okay.

So they sometimes provide their own speakers like, Hey, I wanna talk about something that we're building. Um, and so it may be varied. It we are, we, we are an open space, an open mic for anybody, like, wants to talk about something.

So there's always this call for either a company to talk about their products, invite everybody, uh, or just a company that offers the space and we can look for anybody to fill that space. So we're really open to any technology, uh, that is related to computer science. So you go to these meetups once a month?

Yes, we host them once a month. We have host them. We are making like small ones every month, but we have like special seasons where we actually go big and bring people from around the world, uh, to speak because I think, um, we need to foster that community locally.

But it's interesting that they can know that there's a huge ommunity out there. So that's why we also make sometimes big events for, uh, international folks. I think it's a really great program to kind of extend it a bit.

Yeah, definitely. And I think it's open. Uh, you can just find that community in your city if it's available.

Uh, but yeah, I think, uh, people, it's interesting in learning, uh, not outside of school, outside sometimes from the internet, of course there's a lot of resources, but I think that the fact that you can network with people, um, that kid is like a big plus. Do you have a, do you make friends at meet meetups? Yeah, I think so.

I get friends at work and I sometimes like, Hey, let's go to a meetup. So I think that way, 'cause it may be hard. I think if you go to a meetup and you don't know anybody, it might be hard to, you know, get to talk to people.

So I usually, uh, as I'm an organizer, I just try to reach people, Hey, where do you come from? Where are you doing? Where do you work?

Or there could be students. We have a very, uh, big audience. So sometimes there's students, sometimes there are people that's been in the industry for 30 years.

And so, uh, for your question, as if I have friends, I think I, I take my, my people from work, my organizers, I think, uh, we're friends already since we struggle with, you know, getting budget, getting everything. So I think you build really interesting relationships. I'm surprised you get students to come to the meetups.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, um, it's a, it's hard. Uh, it's a lot of work, but I think it pays off when people are always worrying like, Hey, when's the next meet up?

What is it gonna be about? So it pays off to see people actually reaching out because they want, they want those meet ups. Um, you said you also do consulting?

Yeah, so, um, I have couple of years experience working as a software developer. I've done consultant companies. Uh, I've done, uh, I've worked at product companies too.

And I think it's, um, in this industry we have a lot of languages, a lot of frameworks, and uh, it's hard to know which one to take or which one is the best one. I think there's no best. I think it's sometimes we feel that there's something new and we need to learn it, and I think that's good.

But sometimes the, the industry, the business is going to ask you for another thing. Something that's been in the market for years. And so when I got into consulting companies, I got the feeling of different things, like very old Java, very new at that time.

It was Angular, the first version. It was magic for me because there was only jQuery back then. And, um, seeing the evolution of the JavaScript community, that it was, uh, it got big because of the community.

All of the frameworks that we see today, it's people just thinking, Hey, I think I can do it better. I think that we could pick some stuff. So being and a consultant company has helped me, uh, try different projects.

But also, uh, I've worked with product companies and it's amazing to feel, um, how a product can reach people. How it, you can provide new features. You listen to the customer, you actually see if it's useful.

So I think, uh, there's no good or wrong. I think it's, uh, what do you feel? What do you like to do?

Do you like to work in a variety of projects? Um, maybe for a year, maybe less, or you want to see how your product grow across time. 'cause their products have been in the market for 20, 30 years and there's always something to improve.

So I guess, uh, being in a consultant company has helped me look at, uh, different, uh, different perspectives of it. You enjoy this job or are there like other jobs you have done before which you also enjoy? I enjoy my job, uh, and I enjoy just building things.

But sometimes, you know, one thing is the job and one thing is I want to build something cool from my side. Like I wanna try that technology. And then you build, uh, something from scratch.

So I like to take the time to come to conferences, speak about a project, a small project I did outside of work that's nothing related to work. Uh, 'cause sometimes you could find a company that empowers you to build things like, hey, this, this contest of innovation, let's build stuff. So you can have like a hack week to build amazing things.

But some companies don't have it. And uh, and that's okay, right? I mean, I think, what do you want to do?

Is it just building software for a company? Or if you want to also build software that could later turn into a project. Many people that build small projects later have companies based on that.

So, um, and I think I, I like both. I like working in my company, but I also like doing things on the side. What kind of small projects do you build?

So I, I got really interested with machine learning and ai. So I just started like how, how hard it is. 'cause I come from a JavaScript background, right?

I'm not a data scientist. And I wanted to know how can I get into that world And, um, this amazing people already creating books about how transition, not transition because um, just at least build things from the JavaScript perspective. And so what things have built are small demos, like trying models, like, uh, detecting objects kind of thing or building an agent.

Um, and those kinds of projects are the ones that I try, um, in. Some companies have participated and created innovative projects, like, uh, we build something that could be, uh, it could generate images and help marketing teams. So yeah, those kinds of things.

Do you have a favorite projects? I think the marketing one, it was really interesting to hear that people needed a tool because it was a very scattered team and they needed a tool so everybody could interact and uh, could make like a follow up of all the things that were happening. So, um, I like it because I also got to choose the technology of how to build it to go faster.

Can you describe more about how the tool actually works? Um, sure. So it was basically, it's a problem actually, I found.

So you might have a Santa or you might have, um, deer or whatever, but they are licensed, so they charge you for each of the license. So if you have a team of a hundred, you'll need to pay that license for a hundred people. So the companies usually don't pay that much and they just give certain licenses to certain people.

But what that does is it creates, um, not a agile environment because there's no place for people to see things. So some people have the access, some people don't have the access and they need to see what's globally happening. And they have links on SharePoint and they have links on Google sheets.

So there's a lot of places. And what this tool did was, okay, we will no longer need to pay it, let's build it. We have sub words, let's build them.

So it was, it worked like any other license product. But the thing is that we were gonna build it locally so we wouldn't have to worry about paying the licenses of them. So kind of overcoming a price barrier.

Yeah, it was basically that. Right. Are there any topics or things which you wanna talk about?

Um, no. I'm just, uh, really pumped to be here in, uh, Butte camp. Um, have you been to be camp before?

This is my first time and also my first time in New Orleans. But, uh, yeah, I think, um, since last year I started speaking at conferences. This is something really new to me too.

Um, do you enjoy speaking? You know, the work that it takes when I'm doing it, it feels like, okay, this is a lot of work, why do I do it? Um, but then at the end when people approach and ask questions and tell you, whoa, I didn't know you could do that.

That's the feeling after the conference that you say, yes, okay, that's why I do it. But then the previous days and then, uh, that's why, like, why do I do this? But I think it's, uh, it's not about me being on stage, it's about sharing what I know.

Like, hey, I know this. I know how to show it and just tell like, Hey, if I can do it, you can also do it. So it's really the feeling after like when people come talk to you, you know, if you've made an impact on those people.

Exactly. Exactly. 'cause there's, it's very difficult also to make a video and, um, share what you're doing and you just get comments and that's good.

But when you get people approach, that's another kind of thing that's really rewarding. And if people recognize you because you've been doing stuff, um, I myself go for people that I've seen that have impacted my career, I go and tell them, Hey, thank you because of you, I learned those things. 'cause I think it works both ways.

There's people that invest a lot of their time creating content, teaching people, and um, it benefits us. I, I feel very benefit. I mean, I hope I can bring that same benefit that I've received from other people.

And I think even for the people who approach you, it takes a lot of courage to talk. Yeah. For me to approach people, it's also hard.

So I believe it's, it's the same thing, right? Where for people approached to ask questions and look, we've had a really good talk today. Yeah.

Thank you Eileen.