It’s the People

You know one of the coolest things about Summit? The people.

Nearly every single one of us is a major introvert. Take our Monday evening reception and Wednesday evening party. Legally, we probably shouldn’t even use the word “party”. The reality is that folks tend to stake out some space, whether they’re standing in a small group or sitting with one, and enjoy the conversation. Plenty of us just kind of sidle up to a group and listen in. It’s fine!

The key thing is to force yourself to take part. Force yourself to shake two new hands every day, and learn one new name each day. Force yourself to hang out with us Monday evening and Wednesday night, just to hang. If it all gets to be too much, it’s cool — you’re free to bail with no judgment.

But a decade of Summit events has shown us clearly that you’re around your people. Summit attendees are some of the friendliest, dorkiest, smartest, nerdiest, most caring people we’ve run across. It’s worth a lot of effort to hang out with them, because — and again, we’ve gathered tangible evidence of this — they’re really worth the effort. Most of them had to force themselves to hang out the first couple of years, too, and it’s why we value our alumni so much. They’ll be patient with you and give you your space.

You won’t find a drunken bacchanalia at Summit. Yeah, there’s maybe that one guy who had a bit too much, and maybe we get a little loud around the pool table, or the put-put green, but at the bottom of it all we’re just a bunch of computer geeks.

Thanks for deciding to join us, and please — if you see any of our organizers, who wear little name pins instead of badges, come up and say hi. Tell us about yourself, because we can always use a new friend.