Redgate regularly holds an internal conference called Level Up week. In 2020 and 2021, this conference has been scaled to include multiple Redgate offices using a remote learning approach.

While this is an internal conference, I can share my drawings and notes from sessions I attended. I hope these inspire you with ideas on how you can contribute to learning in your own organization, or perhaps simply inspire you to give sketchnoting a try.

Why Sketchnote?

I like sketchnoting for a couple of reasons:

• Sketchnoting during a talk helps me focus more on the content and think more deeply as I listen. (I struggle to focus while sitting completely still.)
• Looking at sketchnotes by other people often makes me interested in a topic which I might not otherwise look into at all. This often results in further reading on my talk, or deciding to attend talks or watch videos on those topics.

Basically, I find sketchnotes interesting and inspiring.

The Shape Up Product Development Methodology

Tom Walsh shared his learnings and experiences using the Shape Up working methodology.

This Product Development methodology was created and shared by by Basecamp in 2019. (From what I can tell, this isn’t at all related to current events at Basecamp, but dig in and have your own critique.)

Design Sprints

Redgate’s Tushita Gupta gave a terrific session with an overview of running a successful Design Sprint.

How to Delegate and Be Delegated To

We all know that delegation is a good idea. But most of us also don’t think enough about how to delegate well.

This workshop, co-taught by Jose Lima, got me really thinking about how to do better with delegation, whether I’m the delegator or the delegatee.

Programming with Types

Jeremiah Peschka gave a talk about using types build intelligence deep within a program.

Remote Workshops That Don’t Suck

Neil Turner gave an excellent meta-workshop on giving workshops.

I don’t know about you, but I personally prefer remote workshops to in-person workshops. However, all workshops are hard work: they can suck whether in-person or remote. I thought these were great tips on the remote variant.

I also really appreciated that the first question Neil had us start with was asking us to always consider whether a workshop is the best option, or if perhaps this is a meeting that might be an email. (Or a document co-created asynchronously. Or a mural board contributed to asynchronously. Etc.)

Thanks Redgate for a Great Level Up Week

I feel very grateful to get to attend and participate in such a terrific conference each year. Thanks to all the Redgaters who sponsor, organize, and participate in this event.