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ACCU Cambridge: 'So you think you can lead a team?' and From Zero to Deployed - Double Header (December 2025)

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When: Wednesday 3rd December 2025 @ 6pm

Where:  The Bradfield Centre, 184 Cambridge Science Park Milton Road, CB4 0GA

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/accu-cambridge/events/311991390/

ACCU Cambridge are making the most of me in December and letting me do a double header - two of my presentations in one night! I'll also have some copies of my book, 'So you think you can lead a team?' to sign and sell. And if I'm not enough, there's free pizza and beer too!

 6.30pm - 'So you think you can lead a team?'

 Software engineering is hard, and leading a team as an engineer can be even harder. Many of us feel more comfortable writing code than working with people, and we often believe our value lies solely in our technical output. But when you step into team leading, the balance shifts: there are more people than code, and your value changes and, often, grows.

Over the last 25 years I was dropped into team leading several times without warning, but three and a half years ago I chose to do it deliberately. It still took more than a year before I realised I was only just beginning to understand what leading a software team really involves.

This revised and updated version of my talk - now expanded to better reflect the ideas in my book So You Think You Can Lead a Team? - shares the highs, lows, surprises, and lessons learned along the way. I can’t promise a magic formula (I’m still learning every day), but I hope to help you avoid some of the mistakes I made and find your own path to becoming a better team lead.


7.45pm - From Zero to Deployed

Building and Shipping an AWS Lambda with TypeScript, Terraform & GitHub Actions

Ever wanted to build a serverless function, but felt there was too much boilerplate to write before it gets interesting? In this talk, we’ll walk through creating an AWS Lambda from scratch, using TypeScript, and show just how clean, fast, and repeatable deployment can be when using Terraform for infrastructure and GitHub Actions for deployment.

This practical demonstration will cover:

  • Writing and packaging a simple TypeScript Lambda
  • Defining and provisioning AWS infrastructure with Terraform
  • Automating deployment with GitHub Actions
  • Things I’ve learnt using Lambdas

And all in the space of an hour.

Whether you’re new to AWS or just looking to try serverless, this talk will leave you knowing how to ship robust, serverless functions quickly and reliably, with everything under version control.  

About me

Husband, father, software engineer, metaller, I have been writing software for over 40 years and professionally for more than 25. In that time I have worked for, and in, all sorts of companies from two man startups to world famous investment banks and insurance companies. I have built and run three limited companies, none of which made me a millionaire and two of which threatened my sanity on more than one occasion.

I was a founding member of both SyncNorwich and Norfolk Developers, two of the most successful tech and startup community groups in the East of England. I created and chaired the hugely successful Norfolk Developers Conference (nor(DEV):con) for seven years bringing in speakers and delegates in the sphere of software engineering from around the globe.

I am currently a Software Engineering Team Lead at Bourne Leisure, the owners of Haven holiday parks. I loathe the word Entrepreneur, not least because I struggle to spell it and it reminds me of Del Boy from the 80s sitcom Only Fools and Horses. I see Entrepreneurship as a side effect of the creative process of problem solving, rather than a career path in its own right.

Despite having dealt with the world of business from directors of the board down, I have kept both feet firmly on the ground, even when my head has been in the clouds, with healthy doses of Heavy Metal, Science Fiction and Formula One and long hair until it started falling out in 2013.

Now I can add author to the mix, having written my first book, So You Think You Can Lead a Team?, based on 25 years of lessons, mistakes, and unexpected leadership journeys.

Oh, and I love good tea too!


 

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