BTNG In 2020
TL;DR
- A brief recap of BTNG in 2019 with links
- 2019 was a great year for us and learning point for us as it taught us the importance of focus
- We took a step back and redefined ourselves: To be the de facto community for Tech Nigerians in Diaspora
- In our 2020 Calendar, we have four main events: The Innovators Lab, Speed Mentoring, Debate Night and Hackathon.
2019 was a special year for BTNG.
Though it may not have been visible on the outside we upped our game in every capacity and it truly felt like we had put our lens in focus. Prior to 2019, we had tried lots of different ideas and events in building out the community with some hits and misses.
But in 2019, we set out to work with what we believe the community wants based on our history and we saw true progress. With that in mind, here is a brief recap of 2019.
- We hosted 3 events
- Our speaker series titled B is for Building. Read a recap of the event here
- BTNG’s Annual Hackathon- bigger and better than before. Check out the teams that participated and what they built
- For black history month and Nigeria’s independence month, we hosted a debate night. You can read about the winners here.
2. We also launched BTNG Bytes, our monthly newsletter with tailored content for the community. If you are not receiving this in your inbox, you can sign up here.
3. We listened to your feedback and created an Instagram account. We will be updating this as we go along so please follow if have an Instagram account
4. We revamped our website and gave it a shiny new look.
We would like to give a special thanks to Bayo of DoItNowNow, Microsoft Reactor, Simi of Witty Careers and all of our Ambassadors.
Now onto 2020
One of the great things about writing out your plans for the year is you can look back at the document and evaluate what you set out to do against how far you have come. Sometimes you are on track, other times, changes need to be made. There are two key pieces of evaluation from our 2019 plans:
Firstly, in our blog post, I set out to define what BTNG is and who BTNG is for. I set out to do this using lots of fancy diagrams and exuberant words as I was trying to unify and encapsulate all the different events and activities we had done so far. However, as we carried on in the year, we (the team at BTNG) realised it was hard to articulate what we do to outsiders in a clear, repeatable and concise manner. So we went back to the drawing board and we came up with a simplified version. It is as follows:
Mission:
To be the de facto community for tech Nigerians in Diaspora
What is BTNG right now:
A community for tech Nigerians in the UK focused on Entrepreneurship and Giving Back.
What is our goal for the next year?
- Increase value for the community
- Grow the community
Once we were able to simplify it, it became easy to explain it to anyone and for us to truly embody the identity we are building on. This year, we are staying focused on the mission and increasing the value we provide to the members in our community.
Secondly, If you look at our calendar plans for last year, you will notice not everything went according to plan as we hoped for the year. The general goals stayed and were accomplished but the dates changed. As it’s often said, “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray”.
It’s safe to say the Planning Fallacy got the best of us. We can’t always anticipate what will occur as we progress through the year, but in the moments of uncertainty, we were able to pull through. This year, we aim to be a bit more deliberate. As there are a lot of activities we are planning over the year and staying the course will help us tick off those items successfully.
With that being said here is our calendar for the year:
- Our first event: Speed Mentoring
- Speaker Series- The Innovators Lab you can register here
- Debate Night
- Hackathon
In addition, look out for new announcements in your inbox as go for a great 2020.
As always, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us.
Thanks
Tolu
