Voluntarily Code Camp: Wellington - July 2019

Key Contacts

NameEmailFrom
Julian Downsjulian.downs@westpac.co.nzWestpac
Helen McLeayhelen.mcleay@westpac.co.nzWestpac
Kerry Toppkerryt@datacom.co.nzDatacom (AKL)
Cecilia LynchCeciliaL@datacom.co.nzDatacom (AKL)
Adam BarnesAdamB@datacom.co.nzDatacom (WLG)

Planning

Key messages
  • Event is open to all skill levels, and training is provided.
  • People will learn, have fun, make friends, and add value
  • Voluntari.ly - Brings people together. 

Dates

  • 27th 28th July - Open session
  • 26th July - Westpac Internal session

Getting People there

Numbers

Depends on advertising and what else is competing.

  • 10 - 20 - Plenty to achieve good work with
  • 20 - 50 - Amazing, the place will be buzzing
  • 50 - 80 - Intimidating but we can manage it.
  • 80  - practical limit, we won't be able to manage the workload effectively.

Promotion

  • Corporate network
    • Westpac
    • Datacom
    • AND...
  • University
    • Promote to year 2-4 IT students and postgrads
  • Government
    • TEC Dev Team
    • MfE etc.
  • Nerd Night welly and other Tech meet ups
  • Advertising - Linked in, Twitter, FB etc.
  • Special Invites - VIPs, reps from Govt Agencies, Sponsors etc.  MfE TEC.

Promotional Materials

  • Online - we will provide Event specific space at Voluntari.ly website.
  • Poster design.
  • Video and stuff based on the last event.

Registration

  • Sign up links on Voluntari.ly


Date, Duration and Times

  • Duration Recommend 2 days - e.g. full weekend.  
We found that with 1 day people are just getting started when they have to stop.
Something we have not tried is a weekday event. Don’t know what the turnout would be unless specific companies are giving staff time off
  • Times - These worked for us
    • 8:00 we have access to venue
    • 8:30 - 9:00 mingling and breakfast
    • 9:00 - gather and initial presentations
    • 10:00 work and tutorials
    • 4pm - day checkin/demos, 
    • Space available to 6pm  - its not an all nighter
    • Day 2 - open and breakfast from 8:00
    • Closing events around 4pm
    • End by 5pm.


Venue 

Friday will be internal at Westpac held at Westpac.

Sarah has managed to get approval for Datacom to host the public event on Saturday and Sunday at our Jervois Quay office (we’re hoping to provide some catering also – TBA).

 

Needs:

  • Room for however many you think will attend
  • Open and welcoming 
  • Space for
    • Tutorials and presentations
    • breakout / discussion corners
    • team work tables - usually 5 - 7 per team
    • Huddle / Chat areas.
  • Accessible power sockets for everyone's laptops
  • WiFi
  • Whiteboards and working pens.  Notepads
  • Easy to get to

Hospitality

  • Steady supply of tea/coffee/milo/ soda.
  • Bonus if there is proper available some of the time
  • Meals
    • Breakfast - e.g fruit. & pastries -  Helps to get people there before the start
    • Lunch - Support food preferences. 
      • Other times - plates of fruit and biscuits seem to keep everyone happy
  • Fun Things to do - games, stretching, competitions etc.
    • we did not try this yet - everyone seemed fully involved in the work. 

Activities

  • Start : Introductions, explain voluntarily, give overview of the tech, purpose and goals for the weekend
  • Form teams - around key goals and skill sets
  • Then Work and Tutorial streams
  • Day 2 - starts with stand up to see where everyone is at
  • Ends with Demonstrations and feedback.

Development Goals

These will change as we get closer but probably will include

  • Skills, Tags and Matching
  • Achievement Badges and Onboarding workflows
  • More Corporate integration - Westpac and Govt Single Sign on.
  • Content for pilot
  • Prettification
  • Server side security
  • Activity Workflows
  • Te reo Māori translation.


Tutorials 

1. Dev basics - git, get codebase, build, test, commit, pull request. Add to Contributors 
2. Tour of the Code - pt1 Client side - React components, Pages 
3. Tour of the Code - pt1 Server side - Express, Next, API and Mongo DB
4. Advanced topics:  Redux, Asynch programming
5. More basics:  Testing,  Debugging. 

Rewards & Swag

  • We have given attendees native trees but you should decide what is relevant to the locality.
  • We considered some trophies for MVP, Team Builder, Design, Inspiration etc. but didn’t get them organized. Also judging is very hard. SO I prefer to reward everyone and give time/space for people to say what they valued from the experience.
  • Any corporate swag should be of real value and not generate waste. e.g credits for AWS or iTunes etc. but its not really necessary

Sponsors

  • Someone to pay for or provide the venue
  • Someone to pay for hospitality
  • (nice to have) Someone to pay for flights & hotel for Andrew/Walt/Ete/Vaughan etc.
  • (bonus extra) Able to bring down a couple of contributors who know the code to help the teams.