#1. Victoria Baron. The story about tech Berlin communities and sparking collaborations. Spain 🇪🇸.

Victoria Baron is a Community Manager who builds tech-focused communities in Berlin. As the founder of IT Zdybanka, a Ukrainian tech community, she connects professionals from the Ukrainian tech ecosystem.

She also serves as Event & Community Manager at Data Natives, with over 100k data professionals worldwide, focused on driving tech innovations. Victoria is also responsible for partnerships for Dataconomy Media; she cultivates relationships with industry leaders. I think that's why we clicked, as we both have experience with tech communities and collaborate with Data Scientists, AI Researchers, ML Engineers, etc.

Victoria became a part of The Community Media project as one of the Community Managers from 42 European countries who shared with me their stories. I caught her in Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸, which will be the first pin on our European Community people map! Yay! Together, we talked about introverted Community people, the importance of partnerships, and the Community Manager's role in society.

Check the interview below! ;)

Alla: It's incredible that we had a chance to meet in Barcelona! I was thinking: I'll spend a week in Spain vacationing and I definitely want to meet some awesome Community Manager. And I'm glad we did it! :) Tell a bit about your Community management experience: how did you become a Community Manager? Are you a switcher from another domain, or were communities the only thing you always wanted to do?

Victoria: My community management experience started about 4 years ago when I moved to Berlin and joined an organisation with an already existing and well-established community of Data Scientists, Engineers, AI developers in Europe - Data Natives. Before that my background mainly was in Business Development,  B2B sales, Marketing in various sectors across IT. 

Alla: That’s so cool as the company I was working in in 2023-2024 also organised the ML/AI community in Europe, including several events and activities in Berlin! Now I know whom I will recommend Roosh Circle to collaborate with! ;) What communities are you working with?

Victoria: During my job at Data Natives, I had exciting opportunities to collaborate with absolutely diverse types of communities across Europe - from Startup Founders to LGBTQ+ tech ones. The roots of the majority of these communities lies deeply in the Berlin tech ecosystem. It will be extremely hard to find a community or a co-working space in Berlin that I haven’t collaborated with or organised / pitched an event at. 

Alla: What other side community projects do you have?  

Victoria: After the full-scale invasion in Ukraine a lot of my friends moved to Berlin. We started to organise informal gatherings in the bars, rooftops parties and charity dinners to collect donations to support Ukraine. As the majority of my friends and their friends too work in the tech sector, long story short, that’s how I came up with an idea to build an Ukrainian tech community in Berlin - IT Zdybanka - and take our gatherings to a new professional level by organising IT meetups in the offices of the leading tech and consulting companies in Berlin.

IT Zdybanka event. Photo credit: Victoria Baron

Alla: Awesome! Within this project I usually ask Community Managers about their latest achievements. Maybe some cool milestone: big or small, everything counts. What is yours?

Victoria: IT Zdybanka already exists 3 years and has 700+ active members. Our mission is to support and empower each other through collaboration, sharing expertise, giving advice, showing initiatives and providing mentorship. This year our community reached an import milestone as we’re becoming part of the bigger organisation - Ukrainian IT cluster in Germany. I am sure there are a lot of thrilling opportunities and collaborations ahead. 

Alla: Congrats! That’s amazing! What are your core responsibilities as a Community Manager? 

Victoria: As the Community Manager, I think my main role is to continue providing a safe space & platform for our community members to grow, reveal their talents, and develop their skills. It’s very important to protect the values of the community and not allow outsiders (those who do not correspond to these values) to undermine it from within. 

Another important part of this role is to establish the right partnerships with other communities or organisations that can foster new opportunities for our members. 

Alla: Can you elaborate on your perfect day as a Community Manager? I mean, the day-to- day tasks you like to do and doing anyway in the company you are working?

Victoria: My perfect day as a Community Manager would probably start with monthly planning: event and social media calendars. I check what other cool events or conferences are happening in the town and find opportunities to collaborate with them. I would follow these activities with an inspiring team meeting, where we brainstorm new ideas and launch new concepts and formats of activities to engage our community. And then, I’d create a brief plan, a roadmap to add accents, priorities, and sharing tasks. Also, it is important to define a timeline with anticipation to make all these brave ideas into reality. 

Alla: Probably that's all about attentiveness to the details... So much planning. What other soft skills are essential for a Community Manager, in your opinion?

Our meeting with Victoria in Barcelona. Photo credit: Alla Zhdan

Victoria: It’s tough for me to imagine a Community Manager who is an introvert. I think openness, communication, and initiative play a big part here. 

Community manager is a connector, so networking skill is “must have” here too. 

Alla: What are the top 3 hard skills a Community Manager should possess? 

Victoria: My top is :

1. Events are an integral part of Community Management. A badly organised event can spoil the whole experience for your community members.  So, you need to know how to organise them and have Project Management skills.

2. SMM skills and moderation are no less important, as a lot of communication is happening online, including announcements and promotions of the events. 

3. And the last but not least is public speaking and presentation skills - because if you're a community leader you’re in the center of attention, so you need to communicate things clearly and confidently. 

Alla: It’s cool that you mentioned Project Management skills, as according to the research I made for MetaSpilnota, this skill was in the top 5 among Ukrainian Community Managers in 2024. Among the questions we asked also was one dedicated to the teams. So, I would like to ask you too. Are you a part of a team of Community Managers, or do you work with the community alone?

Victoria: We have community members and volunteers who help us, but the majority of the responsibilities at the moment are only mine.  

Alla: That's both challenging and rewarding. I have been mentoring Community Managers for several years, and I can tell that this "loneliness" imprints the Community person. It's either helps to gain leadership skills or nags you and makes you feel less confident... I have worked both ways and think a Community Manager needs various experiences. Right... What can you tell us about the support of some big players in the market? Do you collaborate with other Communities (companies) in your domain?

 Data Natives and Ethics in Entrepreneurship, photo credit: Victoria Baron

Victoria: We collaborate with the key players in the Berlin tech ecosystem: companies (Capgemini, Sumup, Wooga, Porsche Digital etc.), conferences ( WeAreDevelopers, Data Natives), other communities (Unicorns in Tech, MotionLab.Berlin), and hopefully very soon with the German or Ukrainian government as well. We collaborate by co-organising joint events, conducting campus tours, cross-promoting events, and giving our community members free conference tickets. 

Alla: That’s interesting… what are the terms of collaboration? How do you pick the potential partners? And what are other benefits for community members aside from tickets? Sorry, I have too many questions… Maybe we can divide them into two…

Victoria: Usually, when a space or a company hosts our meetup, we promote them on our social media channels or share their open positions with our community members looking for job opportunities. This way, the members can get a referral or a warm introduction to the company.

Alla: Lovely! What do you like the most in your work? Why is it rewarding for you?

Victoria: I’m all about bringing people together, and nothing excites me more than seeing collaboration spark and ideas come to life. When we build strong, connected communities, we can make a real difference and positively shape society. Change doesn’t just come from the top - it happens from within, driven by people coming together with a shared purpose. When we support and inspire each other, the impact goes beyond just our circles, creating lasting change that ripples through society. That’s why I think community managers play an important role in our society, and we need to have more mindful and purpose-driven people. 

Alla: That's inspiring, thank you! It was a pleasure to get answers to my questions from you, Victoria, and to meet you in Barcelona. This lovely Corgy Cafe not far from Sagrada Familia, where we were, is definitely a must-visit!

---

Spain appeared to be the first country on my European countries map, as I had a chance to visit it in March. And it was amazing! Still, I have already done several other interviews... so, I look forward to sharing insights from Croatia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other countries with you.

Learn more about my Community Managers' Strories project to gather insights from Community people from 42 European countries here.

Do you have a story, and I haven't "visited" your country yet?

Drop me a line on LinkedIn!