4 days - 33 workshops - hundreds of new friends
Wow, that was an intense and a very exciting week. When we first got offered the possibility to have a presence at Campus Party [link] we thought it would be a nice addition to their program to hold 2-3 workshops there. We were just in the planning state for our very first workshop and didn’t know where our journey would take us.
Now we know that not only our Javascript workshop [link] was a big success but also our OTSCamp [link] at Campus Party. With 33 workshops ranging from a reiteration of the Javascript workshop, over HTML/CSS Helpdesks, Ruby, Python, OOP in Java, Git up to Go, and even Biopython, we covered a lot of ground. Our volunteer coaches were very eager to help and offered to repeat their lessons or adapt the curriculum to the participants needs. Whenever you passed by our lounge area you saw people from all around Europe learning a new, or even their first, programming language or just studying the schedule. It was heartwarming.
Another highlight was on Friday when Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, came by to inform herself about our initiative and RailsGirls Berlin. She was very interested and encouraged us to go on:
All in all it was a very tiring yet fulfilling experience to be part of Campus Party. We never expected so many coaches and such a big interest in our movement! We are full of ideas and energy to move on and make the next coaching event even better.
Since the “open” in OpenTechSchool is sincere, you are invited to comment or to contribute even more: Come to our biweekly team breakfast to get involved.
We are already thinking about new workshops and other formats to try out and can use every helping hand. See you at the breakfast or maybe you got a seat for the “Introduction to programming with python” next weekend and we’ll see you there.
Keep on learning!
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/08/looking-back-on-otscamp-at-campus-party-berlin.html