What's Your Favorite N87 Moment?

The NANOG Programming Committee (PC) shares personal stories that made our most recent meeting memorable.

My Favorite NANOG 87 Memory Was… 

Anna Valsami

Without a doubt, Moira Johnson's Lightning Talk, "My first professional conference." I can't imagine how much courage it must have taken her, at 18 years old, to get up on that stage and open up the way she did. I won't lie; tears were shed! As a woman in tech, I saw myself in her words. I grew up on a small Greek island when STEM didn't even exist as a concept. At 18, I had no idea what to do with my life. Besides my parents' unconditional support to become whatever I wanted, I rarely had any career guidance. My path in tech has been solitary and a trial-and-error process. Like her, I've always been the only woman in the room and repeatedly had to prove my worth. I am incredibly proud of her for finding her voice at such an early age, and I'm confident that she will find the right guidance and connections at NANOG and grow into a successful professional. Our community is responsible for nurturing and promoting the next generation of engineers, especially women! We need more Moiras! Congratulations to her and her parents for supporting her dreams and raising a strong woman!

Alex Latzko

That can be published? Oh, that would have to be playing the audience in Network Engineering Jeopardy. I had read the script beforehand, but purposefully didn't read the questions, so I was doing those cold.

 

Michael Voity

My favorite moment was the event: Network Engineering Jeopardy!

It was crowd-engaging, funny, and fun! Lots of laughs and good people.

 

Mike Starr

My favorite memory was when I was heckled on stage during my ChatGPT talk. 😀

I was talking about how ChatGPT lied to me about being able to generate network diagrams, and an audience member started making suggestions (from his seat) to optimize my prompts. He eventually came to the mic to offer his opinion.

 

James Shank

We were able to get three generations of Unwanted Traffic Removal Service Architects together!  With me leaving Team Cymru, I am handing off the future stewardship to John Brown (middle).  Also, John Kristoff is the original architect of it (left).

 

Kam Agahian 

For me, the top moment was the presence of one of our first all-female Hackathon teams from CU Boulder. Strong and bright! This aligned with our efforts in the previous events, including the panel we had in N85 about Women in Executive Leadership.

 

What's Your "NANOG 87 Moment"?

Email us your moment at [email protected].