Networking and Hackathon

A great couple of weeks just passed by and here is my experience and what I gained from it.
 
I never really understood the real meaning of networking before the past couple of weeks but now, I have a better clue about what it is and how one approaches it. I was fortunate enough to attend two great networking events that took place last weekend and the amount of knowledge I took from each one, was massive. Not only was I able to listen to two CEOs from Forbes 30 under 30 but I also had a great conversation with Mr. Shawn Sullivan, co-founder, and CTO of Phase Genomics, for more than 30 minutes. The phrase sounds cliched now but truly, the experience is the greatest teacher and hearing from the experience of some great professionals is a great lead for every student about how to approach college. What I took away from my conversation with Mr. Sullivan was how should I have strong fundamentals if I want to be involved in Data Science and what all technologies from the wide array I can choose to start off with. Also, I learned about all the different ways to approach problems when you are the one managing a group of great technical experts in a constructive manner.
 
Another major task I have been involved with lately has been organizing Defhacks, Seattle. Defhacks is a student-run non-profit that organizes hackathons across the US and also outside the US. On March 24-25, we are organizing the second annual Defhacks Seattle at Microsoft’s HQ. It has been a great experience till now of getting the venue, attendees, mentors, sponsors, and caterers. I look forward to getting more people involved with the event, at both high school and college level in addition to getting more passionate mentors who are looking out to help the students. This event too has taught me how important it is to have a good network, something that I able to achieve too through this event. The only part that I feel sad about is that a couple of days back I got an idea related to Blockchain that I would have loved to work on at Defhacks but being an organizer I would not have that opportunity. Anyways, I look forward to working on the same during the spring break and get to know more about a topic that has been envisioned to revolutionize numerous fields.

To wrap it up, here are the few reads I recommend: Michelle Obama portrait puts black Baltimore artist in the spotlight, A New Leg for Joan, This Route Doesn’t Exist on the Map, and These psychedelic stickers blow AI minds.