The Power of Community
On the decline of online spaces and why showing up together still matters.
Some trips end up shaping your entire career.
Eleven years ago I sat in an Airbnb in San Diego, journaling my thoughts from the week. I had just finished one of my first international talks at Valio Con, a small boutique conference by the beach organised by designer (and comedian) Drew Wilson.
I was eager to return across the Atlantic to my four-month-old baby boy, but also overwhelmed with gratitude. I had spent days with legendary designers and developers I had followed online for years, and the chance to share a stage with them felt surreal.
Looking back at that journal now, it’s clear to me that this trip was a starting point for what would turn into a wonderful part of my career. Giving talks at conferences and traveling the world to connect with an ever-growing collection of amazing humans.
Last week I landed in Copenhagen after 4 days at another Valio Con. My baby boy is now 11 years old and showing me memes on the internet. 6-7.
We’d acquired a few more grey hairs, but in just 96 hours it was clear to me that the spirit of community exploded back into being at that beach hotel in Oceanside.
In fact, I have been meaning to write about this for some time.
With the decline of online design communities and ever-fragmented social media bubbles. The drama of Design Twitter™. The cultural shift from sharing fallible work in progress to the perfectly curated portfolios.
We lost something.
There was a rawness to the early web that has been optimised away. Between phpBB forums, design platforms and 2010s era twitter there existed a sense of community. An authenticity in how we shared our work with all of its quirks.
It pains me to see new creators having to find their voice in the hyper-optimised storm of modern algorithms. We’ve never had more people designing things, yet I feel we’re more disconnected than ever.
I’m sure there are many ways to fix this. But one of the most effective ways to create a more coherent and authentic community is simply to get people together. Nothing quite unravels the mysticism of the internet as sharing breakfast, listening to the same talks and having conversations face to face.
Design conferences have unfortunately largely gone extinct. Valio Con and a few others are lone beacons at the shores of the unruly sea. Interestingly enough, developers, particularly the iOS and macOS community, have been better at keeping these events alive. I have been lucky enough to speak at many such conferences and the community there is in much better health.
I think this is why Valio Con felt so special. Everyone came away with a magical glimpse into the camaraderie and sense of belonging that we could all have. I again met people that I have known online for 15+ years. OG Dribbblers. Fellow Turok fans. Rekindled friendships and made a bunch of new friends.
And let me tell you: Friendship is a powerful thing. It’s not just that it’s nice to put faces to avatars you’ve seen in your timeline. It’s making real connections and allies. If you meet people with an open mind, curiosity and kindness it will enrich your life in ways you can’t predict.
Curiously, this has happened the last two times I gave a talk: Someone raised their hand with a question afterwards and asked “if we could be friends“.
Hell yes we can be friends. I am here to make friends.
Together, friends make a community. And community is what we need to strengthen our sense of belonging and connect with the work we do. Community is the medium through which we teach, learn, and better ourselves. Community helps us weather any storm and navigate what’s ahead.
At Valio Con we had incredible conversations on our shared future with AI. How it’s already impacting the work we do and the tools at our disposal. We shared the many ways in which we are pursuing happiness in our work and our lives. We talked about the big questions of what type of society we want to live in. As a group of people designing experiences for millions of users, players and listeners these are worthwhile conversations to have outside of our respective companies. This is what a community is for.
The thing that struck me the most on my way home was how effortless it all felt. There is a reason why we’ve been drawn to each other’s work and words online. That reason becomes incredibly clear when you meet in person. It keeps surprising me how alike we all are, and yet how unique our stories unfold.
Eleven years on, I’m still learning the same lesson: community is the foundation on which everything else is built. It’s still here, waiting for us to gather around it. It’s the antidote to so much of what’s going on, and we need it more than ever.
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