Mind the Gap: Our First Open Mic Night
On Thursday 28 May, Alistair Grew and I hosted GDG Cloud Manchester: Speak Up, an open mic evening in Manchester. The idea was simple: anyone with a tip, a trick or an idea could take the floor. I asked a room of people to mind the gap with me. They showed up, and they delivered.
My talk: Mind the Gap
I opened with a talk on translating business requirements into technical impact. My point was that the gap between business and tech isn't a people problem. It's a translation problem.
Then the room took over
Alistair brought Google I/O to life: quantum AI, Cloud Run, cross-cloud features, and a slide about puppies nobody saw coming. Then came the open mic:
- AI security in practice
- Explainable AI, and why it matters
- How your prompt brings out different AI personalities, and why people who don't speak English get a worse deal
- Claude tokens, context limits, and what falls through the gaps
- Doomer predictions (this one got spicy)
Six people took the mic, and every single one had something worth saying. Thank you, Damilola, David and Tom. And thank you to my pizza co-pilot Elang Monang and to Antony Lowe for helping me get the room ready; you made it a safe, comfortable space for everyone.
What's next
Watch this space: GDG Cloud Manchester is just warming up. Everyone is welcome, whether you come to listen or to share. Upcoming events are on the GDG Cloud Manchester page, and there's more about how I got involved in Organising GDG Cloud Manchester.
First shared on LinkedIn.