the D2 collective

Monday night in Amsterdam we had our Fall Tech Mixer, and it was one of those nights that reminds me why we started doing this in the first place. I looked around the room and saw people who've been coming to our events for a while standing next to people who were there for the very first time, and everyone was just talking, easily, like there was nothing to prove. Community is not something that stays still, but actually evolves in time, with old familiar faces and new people finding their way in, and Monday was a good reminder of that. Thank you to everyone who came out 🖤

Hi Barcelona 🇪🇸 On Tuesday, September 29, we’re back at the Dynatrace office in Torre Glòries, together with Dynatrace’s Women ERG, for Reinvention as a Skill: Turning Uncertainty Into Your Next Move. Careers in tech rarely follow a straight line, and this evening is about what happens when the plan changes, whether you chose that change or not. Our six speakers have all made meaningful career changes of their own, and they’ll talk honestly about what helped them decide when to move, how they handled uncertainty, and what they learned along the way. There will be plenty of room for questions, drinks afterwards, and time to meet people across Barcelona’s tech community. As always, we hope you leave with something useful to take into your own career, and with a few new people you’ll genuinely want to stay in touch with. Save your spot: https://lnkd.in/eab-8xAA

Coucou Paris 🇫🇷 On Wednesday, September 30 we're back at Zoku for an evening on what makes you stand out now that AI can produce the output. When AI is doing part of the job, where does our value move? As the tools get better, the differentiator is becoming less about simply producing the work and more about the things that are much harder to automate: knowing what is worth pursuing, exercising judgment when there is no obvious answer, bringing context and taste, and developing a point of view that is genuinely your own. The room will be people across Paris tech who use AI and are clear about where they refuse to hand the work over and the panel discussion will be moderated by our own Vivienne Macchiarelli. Save your spot: https://lnkd.in/eEVrRRbX

Hi Amsterdam 🇳🇱 On Friday, October 23, we’re heading to the Atlassian office for a breakfast masterclass on public speaking, voice and storytelling, led by Kimberly Fuqua. There comes a point in your career when doing great work is no longer enough. You need to be able to communicate what you see, bring people with you, speak with conviction and make your ideas land, whether that’s in a meeting with five people or a room of fifty. And yet, for something that can shape so much of our careers, very few of us are ever actually taught how to do it. This morning is about changing that. We’ll explore how to use your voice with intention, tell stories people remember, and become a more confident and compelling communicator as you step into bigger roles and bigger rooms. The goal is simple: to walk out feeling more empowered to tell your story, trust your voice and use it with confidence when it matters. Save your spot: https://lnkd.in/ewjsDVQN

Friendly reminder: if you met someone at an event this week and you’re still thinking “I should message them,” do it today 🤍 That goes especially for everyone who joined our tech mixer yesterday on the rooftop at Rivvia in King's Cross, where the London community showed up in force and the conversations ran well past our two hours. But the part that matters usually comes afterwards. A new connection only becomes a relationship when someone decides to continue the conversation, so send the message, suggest the coffee, make the introduction. Thank you to Rivvia for having us, and to everyone who spent the evening with us.

The part of this week in San Francisco that mattered most to us was not that we hosted two events in two days, but it was what those two rooms represented 🤍 On Tuesday, together with HiBob, we brought HR leaders around one table for dinner. San Francisco was the second city in our partnership after Chicago, and the feedback the next morning was exactly what we hope for when we design these experiences: people stayed longer than planned, the conversation moved beyond the polite answers, and the room became useful because the people in it felt comfortable enough to be honest with each other. A day later, we were at the Okta office with Women at Okta for a panel discussion on Self-Leadership: Leading Without and Beyond the Title. That conversation felt very different, but the idea underneath it was surprisingly similar: careers are becoming less linear, organisations are flatter, and many of the milestones people used to wait for are no longer guaranteed. What came through from the panel was that influence can still grow long before a title changes, but it requires people to take ownership of their development, build relationships, raise their hand and move before somebody gives them permission. One line from the speaker prep stayed with us: at some point in your career, nobody is going to give you permission. If you are waiting for it, you may be waiting for the wrong thing - let those be your guiding words for September. There was another layer to the week for D2 too. Both events were delivered on the ground by Katryn, who joined us only a few weeks ago to lead North America. Growing D2 has never been about putting more events on a calendar. It is about being able to create the same feeling in a room whether we are in Amsterdam, Singapore or San Francisco: the right people, a conversation worth having, and enough trust that something continues after everyone goes home. Thank you to the HiBob team for continuing to build with us, to Okta and Women at Okta for opening their doors, to Alison Colwell, Andrea Faz Tucker, Anjali Arora Mehra and Suzanne Gendelman for everything they brought to the conversation, and to Katryn Kolt for carrying D2 into those rooms so graciously.

Last night we were at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Berlin, together with Uber for Business and a group of 25 leaders in tech. The game did its part, and the meaningful conversations around it did the rest, which is exactly how we like our events. A big thank you to the Uber for Business team for the partnership and the trust. Here's to the next one. 🖤

Last night we were back at the Personio office in Amsterdam for Building a Career Around What Matters for You and it ended up being a conversation about something much bigger than career progression. It was about how hard, and how important, it is to be honest with ourselves about the work that actually matters to us. Not the role that looks good on paper. Not the next title we are supposed to want. Not the version of success that makes sense to everyone else. But the work, the people, the environments and the choices that make us feel like we are building a career that is actually ours. The conversation was incredibly open: our six speakers shared the parts of their stories that are often edited out: fear, mistakes, shame, reinvention, difficult decisions, and the moments where showing up took much more courage than walking away. A few things stayed with us: ✨ When something scares you, the instinct can be to run, but so many of the careers we admire were built by people who chose to show up anyway, with courage and a plan. ✨ Everyone has made mistakes: everyone carries things they wish they had done differently. None of that disqualifies you from trying again, changing direction, or becoming someone new. ✨ And when words are not enough, actions still tell the story. What we choose to do, especially when it is uncomfortable, says a lot about who we are becoming. Maybe building a career around what matters starts there: being honest enough to ask what actually matters to you, and brave enough to make choices that reflect the answer. Thank you Anastasia Pshegodskaya, Chris Pinto, Kimberly Fuqua, Kim Weber-van Aalten, Lisa Pelle-van der Laan and Norbert van den Berg MSc for bringing so much honesty into the room, and thank you Malou Agricola & Personio for opening your Amsterdam office to our community once again. 🖤