Imagine expecting 20-30 people at your event, but over 50 showed up - that's exactly what happened at our first GDSC RUN, physical meetup!
Earlier this month, Google Developer’s Student Clubs Redeemer’s University (GDSC RUN) held its first physical event and I gave my first Tech Talk.
The theme of the event was Choosing your Tech Track
The Origin
In my first year (200lvl or sophomore year) in RUN (Redeemer’s University), I didn’t notice a heavy tech presence and most people I met who wanted to get into tech weren’t sure where to start or how.
The Idea
So, this burden led to our desire to help people make the right choices. Most importantly, we aimed to create a large community where we could connect, network, and learn across various niches, from Engineering and Design to Product, etc.
That was where the idea of bringing GDSC into RUN came from.
The Journey begins
I started doing my research into how I could make this possible and that was how I met my current Lead, Rejoice Oguntunwase.
He had similar ideas and we decided to push for it. Fast forward, 6-7 months later, Rejoice was selected to be the Lead and I was offered the Co-Lead which I gladly accepted. It was an opportunity to start something great.
We started by forming our core team consisting of 7 other members, we had our onboarding session and from there we held several virtual events.
Impact?
We had resumed fully, it was January and we needed to start making an impact before our tenure was over. We had a couple of meetings and decided to start with educating people about the Tech Tracks, both code and non-code opportunities and how to choose.
Yes, this could be checked online, but we were also going to create a platform for them to learn some of these tracks and connect with others in the community physically. So we planned to have the event in February but had to move the date due to reasons beyond our control. So we concluded on March.
Exceeding Expectations
March came in a flash. Since most inaugural events don’t attract a large number of attendees, we weren’t expecting many people to be there. In addition, exams were starting the following week, and it was on a Saturday after the Holy Ghost Congress (HGC).
We weren't expecting a large turnout (20-30 attendees) since the HGC ended around 3 am, and people might still be resting at 10 am when the event was scheduled.
I kid you not, we had over 50+ people in attendance. I was even hoping more people wouldn’t arrive because we were already spending out of our budget, which we had contributed to the event and we wanted everyone to go back with the best experience they could have. We were overjoyed! 🥺
My First Talk
I also went for the HGC the night before and returned to my hostel around 4 am. So I could only get 3 hours of sleep to ensure things went as planned and finalise my slides.
I was the 3rd speaker and came up just after our Event Coordinator had spoken about non-code opportunities in Tech. I gave a 15-20mins talk on Backend Development, I
- told a short story about how I started
- explained what Backend Development meant with real-life examples
- described what you’d be doing as a backend developer
- mentioned the possibility of combining it with other tracks, and
- concluded and answered a couple of questions
Unfortunately, due to power issues, I couldn’t use my engaging slides with a couple of on-point Layi Memes 😅
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We were so excited that our first Physical event was beyond our expectations.
After the event, people stayed around for a while and connected. Some who weren’t on the community’s platform also joined.
Someone even came to me and said I had inspired him to embark on the Backend Development journey. It filled my heart with happiness.
We hope to continue making an impact and can’t wait to do more.
Please follow us on the following socials, as we journey on and strive to make an impact
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It is safe to say, I crashed my bed after the event.
Thanks for your support as always.
TechEmmy ✌️