🎁 That’s a wrap! And what a year it has been.
We started the year bright-eyed and bushy-tailed like many of you, and kickstarted with our first Code & Tell at Zendesk in January and Social at Kicks Bar with Iress at end of February. Here are some happy snaps to prove it too:
As the crew got together in early March, we ran through how our year would look, filling up our Trello board with plans for more in-person events, bookclub, workshops, and anticipating our track at the DDD Conference later in the year. Little did we know this would be our last crew meeting in person, a week before everyday life was put on hold.
The uncertainty of the situation did dampen our hopes early on, as major events and conferences were canceled and rescheduled. We wondered how we were going to have Meetups at all this year.
Like many other communities, we pivoted to hosting online events, after a month of consideration and preparation. Coincidentally, we were already recording our Code & Tells and putting them on YouTube in 2019, so it was a no-brainer to try out the Livestream function. We came back with the Online Edition of Junior Dev Melbourne in early May! From then on, we had a Meetup every month through to October (and until Melbourne finally opened up again in November after our second lockdown).
Much kudos to our one and only Jordan with his video-wizardry that made our Livestream so so so seamless and impeccable. Stay tuned for an upcoming behind-the-scenes post!
Unlike the damper of the year, our amazing speakers delivered a range of topics, from Pair Programming (Emily), Personal growth (Matt), Machine Learning (Akanksha, James, and Bac) to Serverless (Patrick), Blockchain (Sirani), Developer APIs (Andrei), Data Analytics (Ramon), and all the way to Open Source Intelligence (Yianna). Then as part of our Junior Dev Open Source Day, we also had a run-through of some supercharged tips in Github (Mish Manners) and how to build our Coding Portfolios (Richard). Check them out here on our YouTube and Twitch channels.
A huge thank you to all our speakers this year, especially for adjusting to the new online format, for making time for the talks and the rehearsals, and most importantly, for sharing with the community.
If you’re looking to speak with Junior Dev next year in 2021, hit us up via this Form, Slack, Twitter, or email us at hello@juniordev.io
This year, our monthly newsletter also made a comeback in June, as we are re-utilising new ways to stay connected with the community (some of us have gotten bad cases of zoom-fatigue). On a similar note, we’re also bringing back our Medium Blog — just like this one!
We are going to explore more ways to keep the community engaged, supported, and connected in a range of mediums that are just as diverse and inclusive as the community itself.
We may not have had in-person events for the majority of this year, and it has not yet been possible to bring them back in Australia, but we’re thrilled you’ve tuned in, joined in on our chats during the Livestreams, and even been brave enough to meet us on our Zoom Socials.
📺 Making Virtual Connections
Transitioning to online events has meant we were able to reach further across the country — some of you have joined us from New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT! We also understand that there’s a limit to video calls as they can be a bit too big to engage and we can’t all talk at the same time. If you’d prefer to have a yarn (🐨 Aussie slang for “to chat”) with the wider community, please do not hesitate to reach out on our Slack group or on Twitter. We have some channels on #melbourne-general, #melbourne-jobs, #coding-help and #global-general to get you started!
We hope we were able to provide you with a bit of connection during this challenging and isolating year.
🙌 Other wins
In other but just as exciting Junior Dev news — we have also helped launch a chapter in Myanmar and re-launched our chapter in Canberra! You should check them out on our website.
This year, we have also launched a Junior Dev Merch store on Redbubble, so you can deck yourselves out with JD gear in the new year!
🚀 To 2021 and beyond
2020 had it like none of us ever imagined, but the Junior Dev Community didn’t go down with the rest of the 2020 bin-fire after all. As we look forward to the new year, we’re looking for your continuous support to make this community better, as we continue to evolve to suit our community’s needs.
Reach out to us about talks or writing submissions, company sponsorships, and (virtual) event hosting that can help Junior Devs grow.
Be sure to keep up to date with us via our Newsletter, Twitter, and Slack. We have some amazing plans in the works.
Thank you for all your support this year, Junior Devs!
We hope you continue to stay safe, wash your hands, and see you all in 2021! ✌
