Merge pull request #910 from sgibson91/brown-bag-tech-talks

Document the "Brown Bag" Tech Talk series

cross-functional/index.md

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 workflow.md
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cross-functional/tech-talks.md

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+# "Brown Bag" Tech Talks
+
+## Summary
+
+A "Brown Bag" session is intended to be an informal meeting or training session[^1].
+They are also referred to as "Lunch and Learns", but since 2i2c is very geographically spread and it'll never be lunchtime for everyone, we've opted for the looser "Brown Bag" terminology.
+
+There are many different formats that these types of sessions could follow to achieve different objectives, but we have chosen a "Tech Talk" format to facilitate technical discussions.
+The objectives for the Tech Talk series (not in any particular order) are:
+
+- **Facilitate knowledge sharing between staff members** specifically of technical subjects,
+- **Break down internal siloes between arms of the organisation that do more/less technical work**,
+- **Acknowledge that technical work does not only happen in one specific team or group of people**, and
+- **Value the technical work done by staff members who don't hold a 'traditional, engineer-like' role title or description**.
+
+Please turn up to these sessions when you are able to, and ready to learn something new!
+
+## Who...?
+
+- **... Can attend?**: Everyone in the organisation is welcome to attend!
+- **... Can present?**: Everyone in the organisation is welcome to present!
+- **... Manages the series?**: [Sarah Gibson](https://2i2c.org/author/sarah-gibson/).
+  Please reach out to her with any questions or if you would like to help her out!
+
+## Where, When, and for How Long?
+
+```{admonition} Schedule not fully set
+:class: warning
+It is intended that this meeting will happen monthly to begin with, and that schedule can changed as needed.
+For example, if the org grows and we have a larger pool of presenters to pull from, we may want to increase the frequency.
+
+Once the schedule has been established, it will be added to the [](calendars:team).
+```
+
+These Tech Talk sessions will be a 45min long video call, including the presentation and any questions from attendees.
+_Link TBD._
+
+## Topics
+
+We want to uncover and celebrate as much of the technical work going on in 2i2c as possible, regardless of where in the organisation it happens.
+AirTable automation counts!
+
+Here is a list of topic areas that could generate a Tech Talk _in order of preference_:
+
+1. Ongoing or completed technical projects within 2i2c
+1. Ongoing or completed technical projects within 2i2c's upstream partners, e.g., MyST or JupyterHub
+1. Practising external talks to gather feedback
+1. Ongoing or completed technical projects from open source who aren't direct 2i2c partners (maybe they could be?)
+1. Hobby technical projects
+   - e.g., What framework did you do a deep dive on to realise your dream of remotely brewing coffee so it'd be ready in the time it took you to walk from your desk to your kitchen?
+
+## Tracking the sessions
+
+There is a [wiki page](https://github.com/2i2c-org/meta/wiki/%22Brown-Bag%22-Tech-Talks) within the `meta` repository (so requires GitHub org membership to access) which tracks the upcoming schedule and topics.
+We also maintain a list of requested topics on that page.
+
+For posterity, there is also a [previous talks wiki page](https://github.com/2i2c-org/meta/wiki/Previous-%22Brown-Bag%22-Tech-Talks) which will record
+
+## Presentation formats
+
+To be decided by the presenter!
+
+While traditional slide decks are always welcome, we encourage presenters to think beyond the traditional and produce walkthroughs, demos, live coding, stand-up comedy, interpretive dances, _whatever_ medium best conveys the story of your learning.
+Let's make these sessions a safe space to experiment and _fun_!
+
+## How do I sign up?!
+
+If you would like to give a talk, simply add your name to any free slot in the [schedule on the wiki page](https://github.com/2i2c-org/meta/wiki/%22Brown-Bag%22-Tech-Talks#schedule)!
+
+[^1]: https://geekbot.com/blog/brown-bag-session/