Someone recently asked my advise about raising their professional profile – as if I would have some kind of insight given I have a certain notoriety in some circles I guess.

I waved it off a bit as it was easier in ye olde days – especially at the height of the Twitter community, that it is also easier without much in the way of a life or responsibilities that get in the way – especially as a straight, white, middle aged bloke!

…but also for somebody who identifies as a lazy so-and-so I’ve been pretty active over the years;

Published 1500+ blogposts

Emailed out 440 jobs newsletters

Given 37 in person talks or panels

Co-organised 8 Product for the People meetups

Planned and hosted 3 meetups under the old Bathcamp Nights banner (including GovWest)

Organised 2 BETTr events (an unofficial ‘fringe’ event for the BETT trade show)

Organised FUKOER (the UK Open Education Resources conference ‘fringe’ meetup)

Organised Pubcamp – the minimal viable meetup

Attended 14 Govcamps, 4 Govcamp Cymrus, 3 LocalGovCamps, 2 OpenDataCamps, 3 ProductCampSWs, 3 Bathcamps, 4 Mozilla Festivals, 3 OneTeamGov events and other Barcamps and meetups long forgotten

Spent thousands of ££s on stickers to give away at those events

All the £££ conferences I’ve attended on my own dime in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United States and New Zealand

Not to mention the day jobs which have consisted of something like 20 different public service ‘employers’ (either perm, contract or consultancy assignment) with the occasional notable success.

Honestly it is no wonder I am starting to slow down 😂