Long-post: what we did in September
September in our company was very bright and full. It can easily be proclaimed the month of events.
At the beginning of the month, on September 9, the first PyCon Kyrgyzstan 2018 conference was held which we — Attractor Software organized jointly with Neobis.
PyCon Kyrgyzstan is one of 48 conferences held around the world and the first Python conference of this magnitude in Central Asia.
On the day of the conference, seven speakers spoke on the main stage of the Asanbay Center’s concert hall. Speakers of the conference were leading developers from the companies of Kyrgyzstan, and thanks to the support of the Soros Kyrgyzstan Foundation, guests from Moscow came with their reports.
In parallel to the presentation of speakers in the gallery was a master class on the basics of programming, completing which participants were able to write their first console game from the programming school CodeGeneration.
Sponsors of PyCon were various organizations. The first and massive segment is local IT companies such as ZenSoft, Mad Devs, KSSDA. These companies provided not only financial support but also offered their specialists in this field as speakers. Also, I would like to mention the MOF “Initiative of Roza Otunbayeva” for their contribution to the IT sphere of our country. Foreign sponsors of this event were the non-profit organization Python Software Foundation and the freelance platform Toptal.
A special surprise for us was the post on Twitter by the creator of Python Guido van Rossum.
September 13th-15th, our colleagues participated in Scrum training with German coaches Sven Koble and David Grossman. These two coaches have significant life experience, positiveness, energy, and knowledge. All three days, they did their job with all dedication, wholly enchanted us and brought quite a few positive emotions.
This Agile seminar is not the first seminar of this kind, in which Attractor Software participated. But it was exciting to observe the methods, approaches, and materials that were used at the workshop. The workshop was filled with an interactive that made us think, analyze and ask questions. Also, the seminar had its own “pet” Linux.
Linux is a teapot by nature, but it is very responsible for ensuring that all rules and schedules are followed. For non-fulfillment, it devoured the funds, which he then returned to the seminar participants, in the form of tasty presents.
Probably, for our guys, all tasks were more accessible, because we already use Scrum in our work. But despite this, guys were not played with each other, so the seminar also turned out to be a kind of team building.
In addition, our certificates were replenished, and the coaches gave us an Agile box, which we have already begun to use in our daily work.
The next event in September was Startup Weekend Kyrgyzstan took place September 21–23, which was prepared by an initiative group of people from various companies that included our employees.
Startup Weekend Bishkek Women is one of the events in the start-up weekend series for women that took place simultaneously in September in more than 20 cities around the world, including Kyoto, Sydney, Shanghai, Ahmedabad, Macau, Georgetown, Dushanbe, and many others.
The purpose of the event was the development of women’s entrepreneurship. The startup format was developed for those who wanted to implement their business idea or become part of a new startup but do not know where to start.
The Startup Weekend platform provided an opportunity to get the practical skills and networks necessary for starting their own business to 60 selected girls from all regions of Kyrgyzstan.
The participants worked hard over their business ideas for 54 hours, formed groups around them, and, accompanied by business experts, developed their project.
The winner was the team that proposed the project “Airposts” — a platform for fast delivery of parcels by courier-passenger flights.
The leader of the winning team got the opportunity to participate in the Startup Weekend Women APAC competition — in Bali, in Indonesia in October 2018.
The business projects that received 2 and 3 places will have the opportunity to address potential investors at the Bishkek Investment Forum (BIF) in December 2018 with the support of the “Jash Isklerler Associations” business association.
The partners and sponsors of the event were: Madison Ave Hotel, State Agency for Youth, Physical Culture and Sports under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the “Supara” ethnic-complex, IT-company Zensoft, Gazprom Neft Asia LLC, International Labor Organization, design studio SONO , international non-profit organization Django Girls, LLC “OloloIvents”, JIA Business Association, Kumtor Gold Company, KaktusMedia, NambaMedia, “Maral FM” radio, Internet site Lalafo, marketing agency “I do marketing” and intellectual development center “Academy of Growth” and “Kyelin on the Hour “.
In September, opened the season Technovation Challenge 2019 in Kyrgyzstan! The first training was held on September 22, 2018, as part of the Technovation Camp program, which is supported by the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan. At the opening, Jennifer Buckbinder, a representative of the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan on cultural issues, delivered a welcoming speech. And the first coach was Veronika Yurchenko — the executive director of Attractor Software, a graduate of Techwomen 2016.
