I joined OpenAI in June, and less than four months later, I found myself moderating the closing DevDay Q&A with Sam Altman, Thibault Sottiaux and Tejal Patwardhan. Quite a lot to process there 😂
Before I get to the stage, though, I want to write about the days around it.
Getting everyone together
If you haven’t come across it yet, our Codex Ambassadors programme supports people who help others learn and build with Codex in their local communities. They organise meetups, run workshops and share what they’re learning.
Some ambassadors arrived early, giving us time together before DevDay. With everyone travelling from all over the world, it felt worth making the most of being in the same place.
Dinner gave us a chance to get to know each other beyond Slack messages and weekly calls. After months of talking online, it was lovely to sit around a table together.
Our gathering even made it into a story on X, which was pretty funny to see while we were all hanging out together 😂
And then, a boat!
To show everyone San Francisco, we headed out on a boat tour, which was a hit! I’d never been so close to the Golden Gate Bridge before 🌁
Boris’s DevDay vlog
A visit to OpenAI HQ
A tour of OpenAI HQ, followed by lunch and coffee, put the ambassadors right in the heart of where it all happens.
The countries our ambassadors travelled from to join us in San Francisco
We filmed some content too. Everyone was a natural 😄
Hear from our ambassadors about DevDay
We hosted a workshop with our ambassadors that gave us space to hear what was working, what needed improving and what our ambassadors were hearing in their own regions.
I appreciated getting those perspectives from people having these conversations on the ground. They know which gatherings people attend, what developers around them are thinking and where more support would help.
A post from Dheeraj Shah
I’ve written before about the different kinds of work that go into building a community, including creating “stickiness” and making sure feedback reaches the people who can act on it.
My biggest takeaway was that we can do more to help ambassadors organise locally: give them clear guidelines to build from, while trusting them to adapt things for the people they know best.
I wrote recently about taking what you learn back to your community. I hope our ambassadors left with ideas they can bring into their own gatherings, while we take their feedback into the programme. 💫
A post from our ambassador workshop
A month in with Rhiannon
I’ve written before about how important it is to create more leaders, and Rhiannon is a great example of what that looks like in practice.
She’s taken ownership, made decisions and helped turn a big, ambitious week into something that worked. Leadership isn’t always about being the most visible person in the room; often, it’s about creating the conditions for others to do their best work.
Thank you, Rhi! I’m glad we got to share this first DevDay at OpenAI, and I’m excited about what we’ll keep building 🫶
Rhiannon’s post from DevDay
My turn on stage
Moderating the closing Q&A was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to, even though I hadn’t expected to do it when I arrived in San Francisco about two weeks ago 😂
When I started teaching myself to code, I was trying to find my way into tech. Much of what followed came from getting involved in communities, learning from leaders and accepting opportunities while I was still figuring things out.
Getting to stand on the DevDay stage all these years later is something I’m proud of. Thank you to Sam, Tibo, Tejal, Cory and Romain for trusting me with the conversation 💙
Community friends at Cerebras
We also helped organise the official DevDay after party with Cerebras. Shoutout to Diyi, who drove this partnership! Some of their ambassadors are also ours, so it was lovely to bring the groups together.
Seeing familiar faces across both groups made for a fun way to end a busy DevDay!
A moment from the Cerebras DevDay after party
Why this matters to me
When I wrote about joining OpenAI, I talked about wanting to help people become builders. Supporting people who create those opportunities in their own cities is a big part of that.
It’s pretty cool to be part of a team shipping products at the frontier, and I can’t wait to see what people build with them. If you missed the announcements, you can catch up on what we launched at DevDay.
But being around the community means the most to me. It’s where I feel I can make a real difference for people. The trust we build over time is why I believe community is the moat.
An ambassador’s own post is worth reading too, because I want you to hear what that support means to the people taking part.
A post from aastroza
Thank you to our ambassadors, teammates and partners who helped make the week happen. I’m grateful we got to share it 🫶
Come be part of it!
Showing up in communities has taken me to places I couldn’t have imagined when I started. I hope we can help create some of those opportunities for you too.
Next up for us: DevDay Exchange. See you in London 🫶
A post from dgrreen