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The Women's Online Spring Festival is currently taking place. If you're participating, hope you're having fun! You might just cross paths with a few members of the BBO Team. Here's an opportunity for us to introduce some of the women who work behind the scenes at BBO.
Please keep in mind, though, that while these team members are participating and adding to the fun, they won't be eligible for any of the prizes. It's all in the spirit of fair play and ensuring everyone has a nice experience at the festival!
Jessy Misfa
BBO Username: fmjssy
Jessy has been working with us at BBO for 2 years now. She is part of the marketing team and manages the social media, as well as the communication for some online events. She focuses on bridge-related content (She is the best player out of the whole marketing team) and replies to your comments across our social media and our blog.
She met her husband through bridge. They played tournaments together and have not stopped to play since then. They now have a son, Benji. During her free time she loves being with her family 👨👩👦.They like to travel around Indonesia, where they live, either to play bridge in person or to try new foods. 👩🍳
Jessy is dedicated to her work and family. As sweet as a pie, she is always willing to help her coworkers with a smile on her face.
BBO Username: Reni
Reni Kurnia Dewi is a tester in the QA Department, which means that she checks bug reports, tests features, coordinates with the Operation and Dev Departments to help prepare new software releases.
She started playing bridge during her Senior year of High School, back in 2004. 20 years! That's loads of experience.
She says her job is 'beyond a dream come true' as a bridge player. Sharing new features with her friends when they're released is an exciting experience and working at BBO helped her improve her bridge skills. Sometimes Reni even forgets that she's supposed to just test the games and not play it! 😂
In her free time she enjoys playing bridge, watching anime and traveling. She confessed that she'd love to go to Paris someday! ✈️
BBO Username: Lady Luck
Lelani joined the team almost 5 years ago. She works in customer service and support.
Being a bridge player for 15 years, she stills find it challenging; 'especially when a hand opens and it looks a train smash about to happen.'
When playing bridge, she likes to be kept on her toes. Although she follows the basic guidelines of bridge, there is always an odd surprise now and then. 'It's kind of like life. All planned out to some extend with a hint of gold and glitter that comes along at times.'
In her free time, she is involved in projects regarding children in need for medical assistance. A journey she started when her niece was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 4.
She's also part of an organization called 'Warrior Women - South Africa - Namibia'. The group provides personal assistance, medical care and harbor to women who has been severely abused.
Lelani channels her creativity by painting, baking (not cooking) and dancing with her loved ones to her favorite music. 💃
Here is a story she shared: One of the memories that I have, which makes me smile every time, was when I directed a tournament many moons ago. I received a direct phone call from a player asking 'Why are my scores so bad?!'. Although the answer was pretty obvious, my reply was 'The dealer is open to bribes in case you are interested'. 😂
BBO Username: diana_eva
Diana has been working at BBO for the past 17 years. She discovered BBO while on bed rest during her pregnancy with twins. At first, she didn't know much but she learned quickly with the help of many patient and nice BBO players and countless boards played online.
Now, she is one of the Swiss army knives of BBO. She oversees operations, which encompasses a variety of tasks from advanced support to liaising with players and clubs, suggesting new features and games, and ensuring daily operations run smoothly.
Diana likes to work on new features and games for BBO users. She finds it "especially rewarding to observe Lorand Dali’s experiments with robots and to watch BBO's team grow into a new generation of younger, fearless, and innovative people."
Click here to learn more about Lorand Dali and the innovation projects at BBO.
She started playing bridge with her husband. Even though it seemed complex and led to fights and arguments at the time, she grew to love it. Diana enjoys any form of bridge (playing socially, with friends, online) but she especially likes to play against robots because it is a learning experience every time. Besides, the numerous friendships she made through bridge and BBO are very valuable to her.
In her free time, Diana loves to spend time with her dog, Masha, her three cats, her guinea pig and of course her two teenage kids. It seems like a lot of excitement! 'My husband and I often joke that, with teenagers at home, at least the dog is always happy to see us. But in all seriousness, my kids are wonderful, and I feel lucky to have such good children.' 😂
She shared a couple of anecdotes with us: 'First, learning the hard way that Romanian humor doesn't always translate well online, leading to several misunderstandings and a lesson in the nuances of digital communication.
The second, a unique inquiry from a shaman player about the ethics of using his mind-reading abilities in bridge, left me with more questions than answers. Is it legal to use information acquired from reading your opponents' minds? How about your partners' ? Do you have to disclose it? I don't know, what do you think? Both experiences highlight the diverse and unexpected nature of working BBO's global community.'
Aurora has been working at BBO for the past 12 years now. She's part of the Operations Team and is involved in the BBO Festivals, manages the Vugraph Theater, replies to the BBO comments and most importantly assists BBO users with any issues they might encounter.
Her love for bridge also started with her husband. But his teaching style was not the best fit for her learning style. She took matters into her own hands and tried BBO. While finding a game that met her needs proved to be difficult at first, she soon met bridge players who took the time to teach her the intricacies of the game.
Determined to learn, she set herself a challenge: read about a new bridge convention every week and try it out with practice tables. It worked wonders, and she highly recommends it to anyone who'd like to enter the the fascinating world of bridge.
When she's not immersed in the world of bridge, she likes to spend quality time with her loved ones. And, of course, her furry friend! A dog with a surprisingly insatiable appetite for apples! But as she says 'Luckily my laptop is safe - it's not an “apple” after all!' 🍎
She loves making new friends and distance doesn't matter to her. 'Whether from across the country or from another continent, all bridge players have a lot of nice stories. Maybe one day our paths will cross at a virtual table!'
Thank you Team, I enjoyed this format hugely as I could dip in and out. I played 18 tournaments, not enough to amass a great score, I see you have to play at least twice as many....but it was my granddaughters half term. Visits to London and lots of tennis, between the bridge. Fun!