Recapping 2016

Last year I wrote my first recap post of accomplishments, travel and presentations I did in 2015 along with some goals for 2016. Looking back at some of my goals feels a bit like public shaming myself but it’s also a helpful reminder of what’s important to me and what I should try to make more time for in the upcoming year. It’s also amazing to me the accomplishments and events I can forget in a year’s worth of time.

So much of 2016… sucked… with the upcoming 4 years not looking much better. I could write an entire recap on all the crappy things that happened this year but this particular post is only going to focus on the positive. Doing this recap is not only a helpful reminder of all I have to be thankful for but also of the privilege I have and thoughts on how I can use it to hopefully help others. So, here is a recap of my year according to my Google calendar, Instagram and Twitter.

Here’s what I did in 2016

Got to share my voice through the following presentations/publications:

  • Benefit event
    • I was invited to speak at an event in NYC for Benefit Cosmetics to talk about all of the positive impact Girl Develop It has had on my life. I’m in the process of turning that talk into a post so stay tuned for that!
  • Taught two classes at the University of the Arts
    • After completing the Web Design & Development certificate program at UArts, it was really awesome to come full circle and teach two classes there this year. I really enjoyed teaching and coming up with the curriculum for Intro to WordPress for Developers and the non-technical Website Portfolio Builder for Artists, Writers & Photographers.
  • GitHub Patchwork 
    • This event was really fun and allowed me to tell the story of how I first got into open source contribution.
  • Taught Responsive Web Design with GDI Philly
    • I’ll be teaching this one again in January as well as Intro to Web Accessibility!
  • 12 Women of WordPress We Should All Be Following
    • I was really honored to find that I had been added to Elegant Themes List of Women in WordPress to follow.
  • Write/Speak/Code alumna track
    • Although I wasn’t one of the official conference speakers, I had the opportunity to present as a member of the alumni track on a passion project I want to start. It has to do with creating an online repo for accessible presentations. My hope is that it will become a reference for speakers, conference and event organizers to ensure all presentations and events are as accessible and as inclusive to as many people as possible.
  • Wrote an article for net magazine!
    • Having the opportunity to write for such a well-known industry magazine was an amazing experience.
  • Girl Develop It Leadership Summit
    • I got to give my first ever Ignite-style talk at the Leadership Summit about karaoke and conference talks and also presented alongside my chapter co-lead on building and maintaining a strong team.

Attended some really great conferences:

  • Google I/O
  • Write/Speak/Code
  • Abstractions
  • GDI Leadership Summit
  • Ela Conf (okay, I actually co-organize this one but being a part of it and watching all the amazing talks that came out of it this year can’t go unmentioned)

VR dino selfie taken with Project Tango #io16

A photo posted by LeeAnn Kinney (@_leeanimal) on

Traveled to 11 different states and one Caribbean island:

  • California
  • Connecticut
  • DC
  • Illinois
  • Maryland
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Oregon
  • Texas
  • Vermont
  • Washington
  • St Lucia

Couldn’t help myself 📸 #tourist

A photo posted by LeeAnn Kinney (@_leeanimal) on


Some of the travel I did this past year was for conferences, work and vacation. Although there is still so much more I’d like to see, I feel fortunate that I have a job that allows me the flexibility to attend conferences, occasionally work remote, and take an ample amount of time to enjoy life outside of work.

Oregon coast sunset 😍☀️

A photo posted by LeeAnn Kinney (@_leeanimal) on

A photo posted by LeeAnn Kinney (@_leeanimal) on

Organized a bunch of events:

  • LadyHacks
  • Ela Conf
  • A bunch of GDI classes
  • Rise & Shine
  • GDI Hackathon West

A photo posted by LeeAnn Kinney (@_leeanimal) on


Our second year of Ela Conf was a huge accomplishment and another awesome learning experience. Hopefully, we will start our 2017 planning which seems to get easier and easier with all we learn each year. I also helped plan the 4th year of LadyHacks with the theme of Health & Wellness. I had a ton of fun planning and can’t wait to see what year 5 brings. On the topic of hackathons, I also got to help plan GDI Hackathon East and West, this was a joint effort on both coasts to hold simultaneous hackathons. It was really cool to be on hand helping out in Seattle while keeping in touch with the east coast organizers and following their day on Twitter.

I also helped plan the 4th year of LadyHacks with the theme of Health & Wellness. I had a ton of fun planning and can’t wait to see what year 5 brings. On the topic of hackathons, I also got to help plan GDI Hackathon East and West, this was a joint effort on both coasts to hold simultaneous hackathons. It was really cool to be on hand helping out in Seattle while keeping in touch with the east coast (Wilmington, DE) organizers and following their day on Twitter.

Professional Accomplishments:

  • Moved into another new role at work into a more managerial position. It’s been a little challenging so far but I’m learning a ton.
  • As co-leader of GDI Philly, I helped grow our leadership team to 10!
    • Adding these awesome ladies to our team is helping us to grow the organization even more, offer more classes and come up with fresh ideas of how we can impact our community.
  • Helped GDI Philly celebrate *5 years*!

Personal Accomplishments:

  • Lots of biking, 2016 allowed me to put even more miles on my bike, one of the bigger trips being Bikeout.
  • I also finally learned how to change a bike tire along with some other bike maintenance instead of relying on my partner every time I needed a small fix.
  • Became more financially responsible. For whatever reason, I never really thought too much about my financial future. Over the past two years, I’ve grown my savings substantially, paid down some debt I had and raised my credit score a ton.

First ride of 2016. 28 miles to Pennypack Park #pedalcore 🚲

A photo posted by LeeAnn Kinney (@_leeanimal) on

Donated to the following organizations:

Since I have the means to, it has been really important for me to give back to organizations I care about financially. Most of these donations recur on a monthly basis while others are annual donations. I’d also like to donate time to some of these organizations in 2017.

2017 Goals:

I’ll add those soon, my first one might be to stop procrastinating deadlines I give myself so I don’t have to write things like this in my posts 🙂

 

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