For Adrian
Today is Adrian's last day as part of this team, and I thought it would be crazy to let him leave without a send-off post on the OG staff forum.
My first shift working support for Vanilla was 2am to 10am and that made my interactions with everyone at the company super limited - just Slack (or Hipchat, at the time) and the occasional meeting where I was more of a background character.
The first time I was shipped up to Montreal to meet everyone, I remember feeling anxious about meeting everyone and making a good impression. Laura gave me the grand tour of the old Montreal office, and right then, you were talking to me like I had been there forever and telling me about yourself and your city and made me really feel like I was a part of the team and not just a weird nightshift contractor that no one had actually ever seen.
You have touched every single part of Vanilla, and I have learned so much from you. The number of times that I've been stumped by a client's ticket and had someone say 'That seems like something Adrian would know' or 'I think Adrian wrote a blog post about that' is insane. The support team for Vanilla is one of the best, and so much of it is because of this foundation of knowledge you built up that we've been able to draw from.
"SEO" is much less of a scary topic to me now because of our talks.
I appreciate everything you've done to get this crazy platform to where it is today, and I'm excited to see what you do next. Keep in touch!! You will be missed!
Comments
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I met Adrian before I came to work at Higher Logic. I can't remember precisely when we did meet. :( Adrian has the knack for making another person feel comfortable and seen. When I was hired, one of the most exciting things for me was that I'd get to work with Adrian.
I've learned so much from you over the years and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next. You got this!
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Adrian was the special sauce of Vanilla. A little bit of everything and was always happy to lend a helping hand. A true Montrealer to his core he was always ready for a conversation on a variety of topics. Whether it was community, baseball, crypto, or his favourite pizza, you could surely learn something from a chat with Adrian.
I appreciate that I got to travel with you a couple of times like Orlando or San Fran and get to know you a little better that way. Likewise, professionally, I always appreciated that you had always been about community since your early years and even the fact that you had been a fan of Vanilla prior to officially working here.
Best of luck with everything, you have a lot of blessings coming in your future, and no need to ever be a stranger if you need something.
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This is definitely the end of an era.
Adrian, you were there when I stepped off the elevator almost 8 years ago. I remember you were working in marketing but you knew everything about the Vanilla platform: you hosted your own instances of Vanilla, you managed communities, you had written plugins, you knew about integrations (you talked to me about Zapier years ago), you saw the evolving technological landscape and the community space. You are a communicator and a facilitator. I don't think anyone, ever, in the history of Vanilla, was more knowledgeable in as many aspects of our business. Which is what gives me nothing but hope for your future. That ability to be curious about and to learn about so many things is a rare gift in this world of hyper-specialization. The world needs more Adrians. And this Adrian, you, are a guy who is charming, disarming, personable, and human. A very rare specimen.
Enjoy this time of transition. Decide where you want to go, and go there. And let me know if I can ever do anything for you.
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Thanks @BrendanParm @pwilson@higherlogic.com @Andrew_D @patrick_kelly and everyone for these wonderful words and memories. I wish you all the very best in the future. I'll be rooting for you ❤️
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I remember Derrick sending me down the hall to visit with Adrian on the first floor of St Jacques to talk about SEO, and we ended up chatting for over an hour. It would be the first of many, many long chats.
You've always made yourself available to talk with me or my customers and always down to help with a million and one things -- and you always had an answer, even to the craziest things (and we've seen some crazy things, haven't we? :P )
I know you are going to kick butt at whatever you do, and I'm sure it's going to be amazing. <3
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