We Are of One Blood

You and I are #OfOneBlood!

I have written more than once that, thanks to an invitation from Airat Khusnutdinov, I am a member of “я-ИТ-ы”, a community of digital executives. Over the past year, I have attended one of its in-person events and taken part in its managerial duels.

This weekend, the community held one of its biggest in-person events: a New Year celebration! I missed the informal part, but devoured the entire official programme from beginning to end.

This was my first in-person conference organised by the community, so I was not very familiar with all its traditions. That made the atmosphere even more striking: the warmth, the openness, the genuine desire to engage with one another. Everyone was clearly on the same wavelength, enjoying one another’s company, and networking happened entirely naturally.

On the one hand, every talk—and I attended every single one!!—was informative and fascinating. Not once did I feel like checking my watch to see when one would end. I learnt a great deal. On the other hand, the atmosphere was friendly enough for people to tease one another and call out comments from the audience without turning the whole event into a circus. You could sense that everyone had travelled a similar path, from education through hands-on work to senior management. That meant everyone was in on the jokes: a hint was enough, with no need to tell the whole story from beginning to end.

I had an absolutely wonderful time at the conference because I was among my own people.

“я-ИТ-ы” has a slogan: “the freedom to speak as equals”. It is not just a slogan; it is exactly how things are. From the moment I stepped inside the hotel where the conference was held, I felt part of a community whose members do not impose hierarchies on one another. They simply live, talk and enjoy being together. And because most of us have more or less the same background, our conversations take on an entirely new dimension.

I greatly enjoyed meeting people in person whom I had previously encountered only online.

Thank you to everyone at the conference for an unforgettable atmosphere!