I wanted one spot to hang out with similar peeps - LGBTIQA+ peeps in cybersecurity.
Before setting up Pilar I had one channel in a slack that was very quiet, a few peeps I followed on twitter or looked at their websites. It felt scattered and I still found myself feeling isolated. Some communities are really big and too noisy.
I wanted a safe, supportive place for peeps to post selfies, chat about work stuff and share cool projects. The safe place to post selfies was a big motivator. I saw peeps posting selfies online and quite often there was little reaction. I wanted them to know that they looked amazing. I didn’t want them to have to defend their choices but rather be acknowledged for the fabulous steps they were making and to know they looked beautiful and handsome. There can be a lot of hate towards peeps transitioning and I really wanted to provide a safe, supportive place for sharing that.
With a new puppy on my lap I started pilar. I reached out to a few peeps I knew and they were keen to join.
What is grown is so much more. We love sharing pics of our pets and funny memes. We share gorgeous selfies but also ask questions about career stuff, coding problems. We are a bunch of super smart, funny peeps. We’ve found out how similar a lot of us are - introverted, ADHD, trans, a bit damaged from family stuff, working with homo/trans phobic people.
At the beginning the discord channel was pretty quiet and it was sometimes tricky to find topics that were engaging to talk about.
Sixteen months on, it’s great to open up pilar and see people asking for tech help and getting detailed advice. We have organised meetups to share cool projects we are working on. But also in person events in Canberra and Brisbane. It feels really cool to see so much engagement happening organically. It's still a buzz to log on and see peeps posting selfies, chatting, answering tech questions in depth. ✨
One of the reasons I went to CrikeyCon in March was to meet up with some of the pilar peeps. The CrikeyCon organisers even sponsored a lunch for all the pilar and LGBTIQA+ attendees. It was pretty cool to have a super large table at lunch and get to meet peeps during the lunch break.