Techstars Startup Week Tampa Bay 2018

When you’re doing what you love, it’s so easy to give it your all. However, if you want to maintain your health and personal relationships, it’s important to carve time out for them in order to maintain a full, rich life. This discussion will be devoted to important guidelines we should all follow.

How is Tampa Bay adressing the tech talent gap in Tampa Bay and the need for this workforce? Hear from founders about why this type of disruptive educational model works and the need for these workforce initiative programs in our ecosystem. What's in it for your community and why have these founders chosen specific cities to launch this education?

Conferences are full of talks about the hot new framework, the latest innovations in JavaScript, the new tool you should use. But there's a bunch of stuff the web development community decided was good and useful 5, 10 or 15 years ago and is still useful, but we don't give talks about it, because we expect everyone to know about it. But how are you, a junior web developer, supposed to hear about best practices established before you got started? This talk is an attempt at a solution. Boiling down 22 years of web development best practices into 2 hours, this is the fast-forward button for your professional development.

Hear from four Tampa Bay developers who are also entrepreneurs working in Florida startups. Each of them chose to invest in themselves (and their companies) and learn to code but aren't full-time developers. So why did they choose to learn to code for the startup world?

Some of the discussion points will be around:
- Did you consider outsourcing your tech needs?
- What were some of the challenges before, during and after learning to code?
- How how has code education helped your startup?
- Why did you choose to attend an in-person code school?

Panel members each attended code schools to learn web development.
Rachel - Fullstack Academy, Chicago
Adam - The Iron Yard, Orlando
Mark - The Iron Yard, Tampa Bay
Shuchi - Code Institute, Gainesville 
Stefani - Tech Talent South, Atlanta

The session will be moderated by Gavin Stark, CTO of Suncoast Developers Guild, a local tech ed startup. 

When software is the core of your new idea, it is important to build a system that can pivot and scale with your company. Serverless websites are a great way to help manage the challenges that come with growing a new software business. Join Senior Software Developer and Core Instructor, Mark Dewey, as we explore the benefits of building a product on serverless architecture.

This case study is aimed toward tech-minded entrepreneurs that are looking to build a new web-based product.

Are two startup behemoths Paul Graham (Y-Combinator founder) and Mark Zuckerberg at odds with their philosophies of “Do Things that Don’t Scale” and “Move fast on Scalable Infrastructure?” Speed-to-knowledge is the gold standard for any startup. As founders and early members, we ideate and iterate products to discover new value propositions; this is the mission of all startups.  
My experience as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur has proven that both are right, but how? Come learn the business strategy and some hands-on instruction to get you started building a digital business platform. You’ll discover how to use Google-Scale technology like Kubernetes to build a simple scalable platform which allows you to do things which don't scale. Confusing? Everyone in a tech company, from non-tech founders to engineers, will walk away with a cohesive approach for building a quick learning-in-market digital platform.

Conferences provide a great learning opportunity for adults, but what about future programmers? Suncoast Developer's Guild Jr. and Start Up Week are excited to present a fun night of coding for kids ages 8-12. In this one night class, the students will be learning the basics of programming through fun activities and MIT's Scratch software. Upon completion of the course, kids will be receiving a certificate of achievement!

This is a FREE 1 night course on Thursday, February 15, 2017.

Please sign up and tell us the name and age of your child(ren) attending.

If you sign up and later find out your child cannot attend, please let us know immediately, so that your RSVP can be changed and opened up for other students.

Please read the FAQs below as they may answer your questions. For additional questions, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Liz Tiller at suncoast.developers@gmail.com.

FAQs:

1. What ages are the classes open to?
We welcome all ages 8-12 years old. Please remember, a parent or a guardian is required to remain with the student for the entirety of the course for students under the age of 16.

2. What kind of computer will the students need?
Both Macs and PCs are welcome! Please bring a fully-charged laptop and a laptop charger to every class. Please make sure that the laptop is in a working shape; we don't want to spend the class trying to fix computers when we can be learning.

4. What is the cost of the class?
FREE. Suncoast Developers Guild believes strongly that programming must be accessible at all ages, and kids classes are one way we inch toward making that belief a reality.

5. Do the students need to know how to touch-type?
Basic typing skills are helpful, but we will go at a slow enough pace for students that are not as familiar with typing.

6. What do students need to know before taking the class?
The course is for beginners. Imagination and love for computers are the only requirements for the class.

7. Are there homework/tests/grades in the class?
Our goal is for students to have a great time learning and playing with new tools and ideas. There are no tests, grades or homework. That said, we do expect students to be engaged in every class.