Learn Teach Code l Mentorship Mixer
⭐️ “Hi Liz, could you please introduce yourself and both your organizations?”
I’m the organizer of two different groups that have been collaborating and doing virtual events on WorkAdventure. The first one is Learn Teach Code, a group that I started in 2015 as a meet-up group in Los Angeles for people who decide to go into tech and start coding, but who often are from different backgrounds. We used to have a very strong in-person presence. That’s why we wanted to start experiencing virtual events, and trying to recapture that same feeling, as in person.
The second organization is Women Who Code, it’s a global NPO. It has similar goals, although it really focusses on people who identifies themselves as women. It’s a good network for making new friends. We are basically collaborating between these two groups currently.
⭐️ “How have you started using WorkAdventure?”
We’ve been networking on WorkAdventure, and we’ve called our monthly virtual events ‘Mentorship Mixer’. We wanted a platform that felt more informal, just kind of fun and social. It’s the default for many events these days that have been in Zoom or similar platforms just for video: very professional, a totally different vibe. We just wanted to recapture the feeling that we had when we used to hang out in person.
The very first events that I’ve hosted with Learn Teach Code was in my apartment, and I’m still friend with a couple of people from those days. I think it’s so important to have a feeling of comfort, being comfortable and friendly. I think a platform like WorkAdventure where we can have graphics and patterns inspired by the 2D video game nostalgic is playful and cute - avatars are actually very cute! I think that it just makes people feel at home. And that’s the feedback that we’ve got as well. It’s just fun to be in a place that looks like a video game, it looks like we are playing together, and the game is to get to know each other, and making friends and not being in a scary networking event.
⭐️ “Tell us a bit more about your Mentorship Mixer virtual event”
Our 3 or 4 first events gathered probably about 40 people attendees each time. This event is the first one that we’re doing virtually and on a regular basis, and it is going well so far. It’s a networking event where you can meet different kind of people: volunteers from the tech industry in different roles and positions, CTOs and people who are at their first year of studies for example. Volunteers help people out, they’re happy to give you advice and answer questions. So, I guess the main goal of our virtual event is to connect tech people between them, share knowledge and make some friends also!