Make with Notion - 2024
A Lego, Adrift from the Set
Last week I had the chance to attend Make with Notion. Notion launched a bunch of amazing new features, and I got to meet the Notion team and my fellow consultants and ambassadors in person. As exciting as the experience was, it also exposed that it's been a long time since I've had to socialize at that level. I was surrounded by people but felt quite alone.
Firstly, I need to preface this edition with the fact that this is the first event I have been to since the start of the pandemic. I don't just mean convention, conference, or similarly large-scale group gathering—I mean first event that is not family-related. Crazy, I know. Since mid-2020, I have done most of my work and personal interactions through video calls. I have facilitated a few in-person meetings and workshops, took an ASL class, and had a few meetups with friends, but nothing that was work + socializing. Clearly, I am out of practice. I'll get more into this later; let's first go over Make with Notion at large.
Make with Notion Recap
I flew into San Francisco after a short flight from Portland. When arriving, I had the chance to head right to a meetup with other Notion ambassadors, but I opted for roaming San Fran with my wife instead. Oh yeah, this trip overlapped with my 10-year wedding anniversary. And our honeymoon was in Sonoma, just a stone's throw from SF, so hanging with her was higher on the list of to-dos.
Later that night, I met up with the ambassadors and Notion team over a dinner at NotionHQ. While it was surreal to be there, I started to feel a bit out of place. I had a quick realization that the week was going to be challenging. Nearly no one recognized me, and few had anything to converse with me about, other than the default pleasantries. Overall, the experience was nice, getting to see people in 3D and feel the palpable energy about Make from the Notion team.
The next morning, the day of Make with Notion had arrived. I had a quick breakfast with my wife and then walked thirty minutes over to Pier 27, where Make was being held. Notion put on a great show. It was organized, there were swag bags, and endless coffee and snacks. I roamed around for thirty minutes before finding faces that I knew. After bouncing from person to person for twenty minutes, I found a small clique of ambassadors to hang with. We had the traditional conversations that you would have if you saw a coworker for the first time. This lasted right up until the first keynote.
For the opening keynote, Ivan Zhao was on stage and the energy was high. Ivan set the scene elegantly and delivered feature after feature for ninety minutes. Notion released Forms, Layouts, new automations, updates to Notion AI, Notion Mail, and teased offline mode. As an ambassador and consultant, I knew about and had been testing all of these features for weeks and months, but the exciting part was seeing and hearing other people's reactions. While there were a lot of Notion employees and ambassadors there, there were even more users and partners. When they heard and saw each of these demos, their eyes lit up. As Ivan put it, Notion creates "Beautiful tools for your life's work. → For people who build”; and users knew it.
After the opening keynote, it was lunchtime. This was where I got to select my box lunch and wander for twenty plus minutes until I found some familiar faces to sit near. Yeah, not converse with, just be in the presence of them. I got to spend the next five hours going through these highs and lows. Great keynote, followed by wandering, catching small chats, and repeating.
After Make, I spent the next couple days in SF. My wife and I walked countless miles, did a few touristy things, but mainly just wandered, ate good food, and relaxed.
Reflecting on Make with Notion
Why am I telling you this and not just rambling about all the cool features that dozens of others have written about?
The overall experience was enjoyable, but more so, valuable. The reason I use the word valuable is because it provided me the obvious rewards: networking and learning. But it also taught me that, post-pandemic, I have become sensitized to these types of social situations. I am not an introvert, I am an ambivert, but this type of experience made me feel like I was in a shell the whole time.
Why am I telling you this and not just rambling about all the cool features that dozens of others have written about? Because there are other people like me that need to read this. There is nothing wrong with you if you don't feel like you "fit in," especially in situations like these.
Firstly, you don't have to fit in. Secondly, you don't have to stand out. Just be you, in that moment. Thirdly, life is overwhelming, even for the extroverts and ambiverts. And the last few years have not set us up for success.
I Need to Learn
I am going to make some cool shit with these new features. My clients and templates will benefit immensely. But more importantly, I need to brush up on old skills and learn some new ones. Not technical skills, but soft skills, like excelling in these types of social situations.
I did go out of my way to chat with people. I approached them, tapped them on their shoulders, and struck up conversations, but when they were timid or not reciprocating, the conversations fizzled fast. This is where I hope to hone these soft skills.
While I cannot make people like me or feel compelled to converse, I can be the bigger person and be equipped with the skills to dull the tension and break the silence. As Ivan phrased, new Lego blocks to do my best work.
As an initial step, I plan on reading The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day. It has been on my Kindle list for months, and now I have the perfect catalyst to read it. Next, I am going to stop skipping my local tech meetups. I've had the opportunity to go to a bunch of these but skipped them every time due to… excuses. No more of those.
Notion launched really great features last week. The last feature they mentioned and the one that got the biggest rise and fall was offline mode. They did not launch it, but they did mention they are working on it. Ivan noted that offline mode is a challenging technical feat due to their data model, and it will take some time. So, I leave you with yet another analogy: After Make, I learned that I need to work on my online mode.
Have you been in a situation like this, surrounded by your "tribe" but ever-so alone? How did you find a way to overcome this situation in the future?
Quick San Fran food tip: If you like amazing dim sum bakery items, go to Good Mong Kok Bakery in Chinatown. The owners are a bit angry and impatient, but the food is to die for.