Adventures in New People
Looking back on 2023 and focusing on what I know what I need in the New Year
This past year was a whirlwind of travel, new experiences and striking balance between two cities and family. I spent more time by myself reading and painting, hiking and writing. But something I did differently this past year was jumping into groups where I didn’t know anyone.
While I was compiling this list I realized that while I met and had amazing conversations with a lot of people, I wasn’t prioritizing meeting people in the fields I’m truly interested in (art & design, food, nature, music). So that’s a primary focus for the new year. But there’s a positive; I didn’t compare myself to other people too much.
Here is a list of things I tried out in San Francisco to meet new people, network, stay busy and test out new things.
Stripe Conference
This was a one-day conference that was held at Pier 48 to showcase new features and a talk with Sam Altman. I was offered a free ticket and thought well, why not? A round-trip airplane ticket was $150. I flew down to SF and back to Seattle in one day, which was exhausting but saved me hotel fees. I sensed the tech community trying to change the narrative around SF’s decline and revamp with more activities. I stood in line for an hour and a half to get an amazing set of headshots with a professional photographer while talking with interesting people. (Someone told me good headshots are like $300-400!) The free food was amazing.
Figma Conference
This was a two-day conference that I also got into for free. I again sensed the City of San Francisco’s desire to get people back downtown and paying for hotels while frequenting restaurants. I went to one amazing talk (on Duolingo), one good talk, and two that were background noise. The food was not great but did the job to keep me from leaving the Moscone Center. I took a morning phone interview that didn’t work out with Apple, but as if to balance out that karma of disappointment my friend emailed me out of the blue to ask if I was apartment hunting and if I’d want to check out one available in her building. Yes!! Everything happens for a reason!
A Lady Beer Hall Meetup
I joined a Discord community focused around getting women in SF to socialize. I haven’t had any friendships that stick yet from this community, but I’ve enjoyed every in-person activity I’ve attended so far. I met an interesting journalist and listened to a lot of chatter about work situations and neighborhoods.
Sunday Writing Group
This was a heads-down but open and honest writing group I working in for a couple of weeks. Everyone was friendly. I’ll do it again.
A Women in Tech Sales meetup
I challenged myself to go to this as someone that’s always worked on the engineering and product side of things in tech. Overall everyone was friendly and talkative, but after the main inspirational talks I felt a great rift: people that wanted a job from those there to socialize. I was surprised how many women were there that claimed to not know nothing about tech. The free food was simple but delicious.
A Hackathon
I wanted to see how a hackthon works from the inside. Was pleasantly surprised by how speedy and knowledgable everyone was! I was not so happy the winning team was entirely composed of people that work at the same company but I guess that’s what it takes to win.
An AI meetup
Well, not doing that again. Showing up at a bar without a friend and free drinks with an audience composed of mainly men was not my scene. I left after 5 min to get dinner.
A Spirituality Gathering
I was truly surprised by how much I like this. Everyone at the small gathering was open, friendly and while I kept waiting for a sales pitch it was truly just a get-together to open ourselves to positive energy and possibility. If you told me I would lay on a stranger’s couch with my eyes closed with 4 other women while listening to meditation music a year ago I wouldn’t have believed you. I drank a glass of water filled with intention. I talked about the importance of the right art on your home’s walls with others. Would do again.
A “Pathless Path” meetup
Two great takeaways from this short meetup was the realization that there are a *ton* of 20- and 30-somethings trying to find a balance between career and creativity. Also the new “unemployed” is “on sabbatical”. Absolutely loved the host’s emphasis repeatedly on having authentical, no-bullshit conversations.