We leaped into 2019 with enthusiasm and optimism, thinking big and trying to figure out how to make it an unforgettable year for you. 12 months on, it is incredibly rewarding to see all the events that we made happen.
We knew that we had 12 months:
- to organise a one-week meetup marathon we later decided to call the Kiwi.com Tech Week
- to repeat the Forum on Women in Tech and make it even bigger and better
- Make some tweaks to the Summer Camp in Barcelona and bring it to you once more
- organise a Global Hackathon
- fit in as many educational weekends as possible into the calendar year
- top it all off with meetups, workshops and other fun and educational events
We ended up organising or supporting a staggering 133 events! Let’s have a closer look at what we achieved in 2019!
The Forum on Women in Tech
Once again, we sold out the Forum on Women in Tech ????
This time, we welcomed 300+ attendees and 30+ speakers from across the globe including (the US, Czech Republic and India). We added an extra round of talks, two panel discussions and multiplied the number of workshops available at the event.
If you want to refresh your memory of the event, you can read a few lines on our blog or check out the video recordings here.
Kiwi.com Tech Week
22 meetups, 30+ speakers, 3 cities.
From 8 April to 12 April we brought to Prague, Brno and Bratislava engineers, designers and tech enthusiasts from AirBnB, Mapbox, Badoo and many more.
We never underestimate food for thought, but we also know that it’s impossible to focus with an empty stomach. That’s why there’s always something tasty you can grab when you get to one of our meetups!
The Global Travel Hackathon
Since introducing our travel hackathon on an actual train, we have been pushing our hackathon ideas further and further down the track. Originally, the global travel hackathon was supposed to happen in the late Autumn of 2018 but back then the Travelling Salesman Challenge was a priority.
Nevertheless, it turned out to be a really good thing.
We connected the global hackathon with a celebration of World Tourism Day, teamed up with Google Developer Groups and brought the Global Travel Hackathon to 13 locations worldwide, connecting 250+ people from all over the world.
Shh, keep it a secret, but our dream is to introduce a hackathon on an airplane one day. We wonder if Ryanair charges extra for this privilege?
Educational Weekends
What started as an initiative by a few Kiwi.com Python enthusiasts back in 2016 has now become our signature event.
Python weekends are still the most frequent and popular educational weekends, especially when it comes to the number of applications. The Christmas edition in Brno attracted nearly 300 people and we managed to get over 100 successful solutions.
In 2019, we organised 12 educational weekends in total:
- 6 Python Weekends,
- 3 JavaScript Weekends,
- 2 Cloud Weekends,
- and we also introduced a Mobile Weekend.
Unsurprisingly, there are a significant number of coffee lovers among the mentors of Python Weekends. They’re not only spreading their love for Python but also their adoration of quality coffee beans!
Summer Camp in Barcelona
It’s similar to an educational weekend but it’s longer and more intensive and near a swimming pool!
This year we prepared three different tracks of content — Python, JavaScript and Cloud technologies — chose 24 attendees out of 300+ applications and invited them to sunny Barcelona.
You can read about the event from the Cloud perspective in an article by one of the attendees, Katie Gamanji.
Meetups, workshops, more hackathons and many other events
Security Meetups, UX Travel Sprint, BrMo, Design System Meetups, Tech Writers Meetups, Devs Drinks, hackathons and more. 2019 was quite a journey.
Literally, the longest of these in 2019 was the Python Tour happening on the Iberian Peninsula.
The 20’s for code.kiwi.com? New talent needed!
The next decade will bring a lot of changes to what was known as Kiwi.com’s Community Team. We have rebranded to become The Employer Branding Team and our scope has been widened.
Some of us in the team are moving on to pursue different career opportunities and we’re searching for dedicated people who will help us bring to you all the activities and fun events that you’ve become accustomed to.
Check out the Senior Employer Branding Specialist role and stay tuned, we’ll be opening further positions for an Employer Branding Communications Coordinator as well as an Employer Branding Engagement Specialist too. The positions will be announced soon. If you wanna apply, you can drop us a few lines about yourself here.
