The intersection of technology and leadership

XPand Conference in Amman, Jordan

The XPand Conference (Amman, Jordan) invited me to speak on one of my favourite subjects. It’s the first big tech conference for Amman, organised by Propeller, a local investing and accelerator company.

Xpand Conference Logo

About the conference

The conference organisers assembled a fantastic program. Some speakers came from around the Middle East area. Others, like myself, traveled much further. The conference had a very well rounded agenda. It covered everything from the state of JavaScript, observability, chaos engineering, serverless and more. I spoke on one of my favourite topics presenting my most recent talk, “Talking with Tech Leads.”

The organisers wanted to accelerate building a strong tech community. They accomplished that as well! Amman seemed to have many startups and smaller tech companies. Expedia has an office of about 100 people there as well as some tech giants like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM.

About the attendees

I detected a heightened energy with the audience. Everyone was young and engaged. People interacted with each other throughout. They had a great gender diversity as well. From what I could tell it was almost a 50-50 split. Speaking to someone from Expedia, they also have a similar gender split in their office. Impressive!

I spoke early on the first day. After that, I found myself inundated with many questions. Many people said the talk resonated with their own personal experiences. Others shared how they were transitioning through this mindset shift. Moving from Maker to Multiplier. Many other non-engineers told me my talk resonated with their own leadership paths.

When I stepped outside, people approached me with questions or comments. People were very engaged and wanted to interact. People found no question too small or awkward. I found it very humbling and a testament to the local culture. I was very pleased I could offer some target questions to reflect or coach. I was happy I could offer advice or share my own experiences.

About the tech scene in Amman

It seemed like Amman’s tech scene is blossoming. People I spoke to used languages like PHP, Python, JavaScript and Java. Many people worked for startups. The startups focused on industries like mobility, last mile delivery, and fintech. Others worked for local consulting companies and a global company like Expedia.

Although I didn’t see too much of Amman, I was very impressed by the city, its people and growing tech scene. I was also grateful for the invite to help share my knowledge and contribute to Amman’s tech scene. I am especially grateful the organisers arranged for me to visit the ancient site of Petra.

It’s a moving and amazing experience, one I am unlikely to forget. Thanks to Tambi for the invite and Mohammad for the amazing logistics.

1 Comment

  1. Sumit Mishra

    it all seems like an adventure in it’s own way, technology is becoming a key player to bring diversity globally and a connected world.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© 2024 patkua@work

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑