From Hackathons to Developer Advocacy - Will Russel

In this podcast episode, we talked with Will Russell about From Hackathons to Developer Advocacy.About the Speaker: Will Russell is a Developer Advocate at Kestra, known for his videos on workflow orchestration. Previously, Will built open source education programs to help up and coming developers make their first contributions in open source. With a passion for developer education, Will creates technical video content and documentation that makes technologies more approachable for developers.In this episode, we sit down with Will—developer advocate, content creator, and passionate community builder. We’ll hear about his unique path through tech, the lessons he’s learned, and his approach to making complex topics accessible and engaging. Whether you’re curious about open source, hackathons, or what it’s like to bridge the gap between developers and the broader tech community, this conversation is full of insights and inspiration.🕒 TIMECODES0:00 Introduction, career journeys, and video setup and workflow10:41 From hackathons to open source: Early experiences and learning16:04 Becoming a hackathon organizer and the value of soft skills23:18 How to organize a hackathon, memorable projects, and creativity33:39 Major League Hacking: Building community and scaling student programs41:16 Mentorship, development environments, and onboarding in open source49:14 Developer advocacy, content strategy, and video tips57:16 Will’s current projects and future plans for content creation🔗 CONNECT WITH DataTalksClubJoin the community - https://datatalks.club/slack.htmlSubscribe to our Google calendar to have all our events in your calendar - https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?cid=ZjhxaWRqbnEwamhzY3A4ODA5azFlZ2hzNjBAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQCheck other upcoming events - https://lu.ma/dtc-events LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/datatalks-club/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/DataTalksClub Website - https://datatalks.club/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH WILLLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wrussell1999/Twitter - https://x.com/wrussell1999GitHub - https://github.com/wrussell1999Website - https://wrussell.co.uk/