The Power of Community: My first MuleSoft Meetup Experience in Sydney

In June this year, I attended my first in person MuleSoft Meetup. As someone who has witnessed first hand what the power of community can do, it was an amazing experience to be amongst like minded individuals who all are passionate about integration. 

I once owned a Latin dance studio. Over 11 years, I built a community from zero into one of the largest Latin dance communities in Australia. This was where I first learnt the importance of community. 

A strong community can entice, encourage, inspire and teach others. It plays a vital role in introducing new people, sharing knowledge and experiences with others, and inspiring current and future generations in the MuleSoft and integration landscape. MuleSoft’s Ambassadors and Mentors are those inspirational people. They are always looking for ways to help and teach, and others aspire to become and learn from them. 

A community truly is the lifeline of any group, project, or special interest. 

Covid has prevented in-person Meetups for the past few years, so it was my great pleasure to be part of the first one back! 

I reached out to the Meetup Leader, Royston Lobo and told him I’d love to help in any way I can including sharing MuleSoft’s Training and Certification programs. Royston said that this topic had always been popular because people love to learn about new course offerings and how to prepare for their certifications. I also got to build the Trivia game and help out with registration. 

The Meetup was hosted by one of the fastest growing Partners in our region, Cloudwerx, who I work closely with. I can vouch for their team’s grit, determination and aspiration in the integration in the MuleSoft space. As a rapidly growing Summit-tier Salesforce partner who's betting heavily on MuleSoft, their blood runs blue. I met some of their team including Gaurav Kheterpal (Chief Technology Evangelist), Chris Baldock (CTO and Co-Founder), Toby Wilcock (CEO) only a few weeks before the event where they shared their journey with their integration practice. They went from 50 people last year, to 190 + and counting this year, and their goal is to become one of the largest MuleSoft practices in the region by 2025. With multiple certified Developers, Integration Architects, Platform Architects and Goto Market Champions  They are a very driven team! Most importantly though, they are a humble and passionate group who want to see their customers succeed. 

The night started with a great introduction to what being part of the MuleSoft Meetup community is all about. I presented the latest and greatest in MuleSoft training and certification, including the announcement of our newly released MuleSoft Certified Developer - Level 2 exam. 

My absolute favorite part about this evening was Kate Black’s announcement that one of our top instructors, Wayne Cook, had just passed this new exam! Gaurav Kheterpal from Cloudwerx also passed this exam and it's no surprise that Cloudwerx are early movers in this space. I’m looking forward to seeing many more developers share their success in achieving our very first level 2 exam. 

Next up was Cloudwerx integration architect Bhavyesh and their customer Steven and Jackson from Brightside Co, who shared their very candid account of their integration journey. 

To tie it all together, MuleSoft Senior Technical Architect Harshana Martin walked us through the highlights of the newly launched Universal API Management and Flex Gateway. 

It wouldn’t be a Meetup without a bit of trivia, a lot of laughs, and swag giveaways, and we finished the night with some great food, drinks and networking. 

There was such great energy from everyone who attended, and they all left feeling very happy and inspired. 

Developer Advocate  Alexandra Martinez says it best “It’s about bringing the community together so that we can combine our knowledge and grow as professionals” 

For those of you who live in Sydney, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about future Meetups by filling out our MuleSoft Training Request Form here. 

With over 120 Meetup groups happening globally, there is a Meetup group near you! Find your group and register on our website.

If you do attend a Meetup, be sure to share your experience with #MulesoftCommunity. 

Author

Raquel Paez Ricciardo, Training Advisor at MuleSoft