NHQ at DDD South West 2023

Richard Jackson, Cloud Software Engineer here at Nightingale HQ (NHQ), gave his first ever conference talk at DDD South West 2023. “.NET, Azure & Umbraco: The First Twelve Months” saw Rich reflect on his past year working in the Microsoft tech stack, informed largely through his experiences at NHQ.

DDD South West has garnered a reputation as a warm and welcoming conference and this year’s event was no exception. Held at The Engine Shed, Bristol, who also provided the exemplary catering, the one-day event saw twenty speakers present a variety of talks on tech-based subjects, such as Eli Holderness’s “User testing in production: how to run a public beta” and Dylan Beattie’s “There’s No Such Thing As Plain Text”.

Rich’s own talk received a warm reception, with an eye-opening and constructive Q&A session afterwards. Using the “hard skills” of the Microsoft technical infrastructure as its starting point, the talk primarily focused on developing “soft skills” such as empathy, compassion and communication, with its central intention that of improving the on-boarding experience for new starters within the industry.

DDD South West continues to be a special event. A huge NHQ “Thank you!” has to go to the organisers for working tirelessly to create such a smooth experience for all involved, and we’re already looking forward to the next one!