 Hi. So my name is Despo and today I'll be talking about CodeBar and how you can also help bridge the diversity gap in the tech industry. So my Twitter handle is Despo and that's my full name if you can pronounce it. I really like Pugs. I thought I should just get that out of the way. And I normally work as a Ruby developer. So about the year ago I started running CodeBar on my free time. So essentially I started running workshops every week in different venues, got developers participating in the workshops in an effort to help out and open them up to women, LGBT and other minorities that are underrepresented in the industry. So yeah. Okay. So our goal obviously is to try and change the numbers in the industry. So we try to do that by running weekly workshops, by offering a friendly and encouraging environment where people can come to learn without being afraid of not being good enough or not being able to become hardcore programmers within two days. We try to encourage everybody to participate. And as I said, our goal is to just eliminate the fear of programming. So our goal is to create a more inclusive tech community. We want to give people the skills and the confidence to be able to go out there and try to get jobs. We want to create informal networking opportunities and mostly to strengthen the diversity of the industry. So we started running workshops in London about a year ago in October. At the first workshop we had around 16 people. It was all words of mouths. So we mostly had people who were in the tech industry one way or another, maybe not in programming roles, but by doing other jobs, other relevant jobs. So within two months, we went from having 16 people attending to 40. Obviously this includes not just the students but also the coaches because we try to have a ratio of one to two. So for every two students, we try to have a developer available that can sort of help and guide them through the tutorials. In May, we started running workshops in Brighton. They take place every two weeks. About two weeks ago, we started running workshops in Cambridge. So the Brighton and the Cambridge workshops are a bit smaller in Brighton. We get around 30 people and in Cambridge, like 10 people. But we don't have any marketing. So I think even reaching 30 people in Brighton was not something that we anticipated. We were expecting to have maybe 10, 15 people at most. So this is like at our second workshop. Unfortunately, this is one of the venues that we are unable to use anymore because of the limited space. So at the moment, we have around 50 people attending each week, out of which around 35 are the students and the remaining are coaches. We are trying to prepare like West London workshops. Obviously we always need more people to be involved so they can help organize more venues, more food. But you know, I think that's a small problem to deal with in order to be able to just help more people and not just the ones living in East London. And in October, we'll be doing the Brighton workshops weekly due to demand. Okay, so I think I'm repeating myself a bit with the number of students. But in London so far, we've ran 46 workshops. I think it's quite an achievement that we've went from 16 to 50 people because when we started, we just never expected to get anywhere close to this number. And now our biggest issue is finding venue space. Venues who can also provide food because that can be quite hard. Code bar is quite, it's run mostly on my free time. There are other people who help a bit, but we don't have any structure. It's all volunteer. And in Brighton, we've so far done 10 workshops and have around 30 students and coaches attending every week. So I suppose you are all aware about the massive diversity issue in the industry. Less than 20% of people in tech are women, even less than that are developers. And a much less lower percentage are black, LGBT, or part of other minorities. I mean, I think you can have a look around you and see the problem really. So part of the reason why we want to change this is because ultimately technology affects how we all live our everyday lives. So being able to have an input and hear different perspectives means we can make things better. And ultimately it also means that companies will be able to shape their products for wider markets, which I suppose is what most people are interested in. Our students come from a variety of backgrounds. We have university graduates, non-university graduates, designers, moms, really whatever you can think of. We have people who just want to understand what programming is because they hear so much about it, but they don't really get it. Others just want to learn a couple of things just for fun. We have students who want to be developers, and this for us is a way to also help them and give them guidance in moving into those roles. Some people just want to create their own products and learn how to make things on their own. So the workshops. In our workshops, we usually spend the first half an hour having food and just socializing. We try to pair one to students with a coach so that they can get direct assistance and feedback. You know, a lot of people are just not comfortable in asking questions. They always think that they're the ones in their room who are just not good enough to get there. So this way just makes it, I think, easier for everybody to move forward. We have some tutorials. The tutorials are mostly friendly for beginners, but what we try to do as well is to have one coach with two students so we can have at the same session people who are more advanced, people who are just starting working through whatever tutorial they want, or just getting advice on other things that they're interested in. We have students who want to do more data analysis or are looking for jobs and don't know how to get started. People who also finished academies paid for three-month courses and then weren't able to... I'm not saying that in a negative way. I'm just saying, though, that we just need to provide more support for the people out there, right? So our tutorials, they become progressively advanced. So far, they only go through HTML, JavaScript, and Ruby. We do usually direct the new people at the HTML tutorials because it's just an easier way of getting something out there, being able to get feedback and move forward. But from there on, we are always open to whatever the students are interested in learning. Some people just want and want to do JavaScript. They don't care about HTML. That's fine by us if they can move forward. Our goal is to build knowledge and not to solve specific problems. So in general, we try to discourage people who come with their project a very specific problem and just need somebody to help them get through it. We're not there to build anyone's product, but to give them the skills to do it on their own. And as part of the tutorials, we do aim to get students building things. So the tutorials are quite basic. They try to explain concepts, give some background information, show examples, and ultimately get the students working on things. For example, like in one of the JavaScript tutorials, people build a color picker or interact with BBC's API just to see what they can actually achieve. But yeah, we don't only run workshops. We also try to run one-day courses. Some of them we've already run. Some we're planning to run. We hope that by being able to offer more specialized knowledge to people that will help them more forward. Because again, it's so much easier to have developers coming from every background in the workshops every week. But for the courses, we can have an expert presenting things to people. So I suppose for us, you know, this is the way that we are able to do more to give back. Just a question about the speaking. It seems like it's different than the rest of the world. Yeah, I know. But again, because we do have this big diversity issue in the industry, we think that helping people be more comfortable in speaking in front of others is also very important. Because I am a very uncomfortable speaker as well, and I'm usually really struggling to stand in front of people. And I think there's a lot of value in it. Because unfortunately, unless you have the people who can go out there, you know, be loud and speak to others about the issues, then we just can't make the progress we want. And I think that's it. I suppose it goes a bit with self-presentation and being able to get a job as well because of the aggressiveness of the industry too. So I mean, you know, we are always open to opinions and ideas as well about the tutorials. So if you have anything, feel free to email me or speak to me about it afterwards. So obviously, you know, I only have good things to say about CodeBar. Since I started it, and you know, I spend a lot of my personal time on it. So I'll just read some of the feedback that we got back from students. You know, obviously, yeah, it's not all extreme. We do get feedback about, you know, how we can help people, you know, integrate better or get started, how to guide the coaches. Because for that quote, but you know, it's not something that it's out there and it's perfect and it's just happening. We want to make sure that the people are actively involved in helping shape what we do as well. So yeah, if anyone wants to read more feedback, like you're more than welcome to ask me and I'll give you access. So I really enjoy the workshops. I think it's brilliant that the organizers and the coaches are taking their free time to help others. It really helps me a lot and it's fun to attend. A great place to meet other people too. The tutorials are easy explained and I feel I'm learning a lot. Really good. No question was too simple to ask. And I think I really got to grips with the module. It was really friendly and fun, but I also learned a lot. John answered most of my questions and whilst we didn't strictly follow the tutorial or even completed, I feel like he gave me some great insight in getting into the mindset of a programmer. Yeah, first time at Code Bar and left it will definitely be coming back regularly. Great supportive environment and Tom was really fantastic, very patient and explained problems in a very clear way. I had a great time and had lots of one-to-one help with my project. My coach was able to give me some new approaches to try and we made some progress to implementing this. I'll definitely hope to make it along again. Thanks for organizing. So to be able to manage to have Code Bar going on for so long, we've had like a lot of great companies who have been helping us out by offering us either their venue or food or both. Just as a small thank you, I suppose, if you're able to help us, then we'll also put your logo there. That's one of the little things that we can do to give back. But yeah, as I said, we still face a lot of challenges despite of being able to keep the workshops going so far. So trying to get weekly space and food is not as easy. There are different organizers in Brighton and Cambridge, but everybody is employed full-time and it's something that we actively need to do all the time. There is no end to this. Finding coaches with free time. I mean, actually in London, I think for the last month, we've been extremely likely to have like a waiting list of coaches as well. But you know, things change. We are on every week. We are trying to roll out West London as well. So if you could sign up and just come along to one workshop, it will help everybody a lot. I think it will also give you a better perspective of things. And trying to get enough funding to keep things going. So it costs us around eight grand to run workshops in London every week for a year. And in Brighton and Cambridge, it costs even less. I think it's about four to five K, simply because finding venues there is not as easy as London. So the costs are slightly different. So ways that you could help us out are you can come and coach at our workshops. You can suggest or write a tutorial, improve the existing tutorials. Everything is open source and in GitHub. And you know, we always like taking on suggestions and ideas. You can run a course if there is something that you feel really comfortable with and that you think could benefit others. You know, it could be something like a UX course or responsive and mobile design, for example. And obviously everything we offer is completely free. We have like a five pound charge for the courses simply to make sure that people attend rather than to make any profit. And everything goes back to code bar. You could also help out by spreading the word, talking to other developers about what we do. Try to get them to attend if you can't. You can speak to your boss and maybe help us by sponsoring one of our workshops. That costs around 180 pounds at the moment. So it's all for food mostly. And to encourage your friends to try programming. You know, it's important. A lot of people out there, they just don't see programming as an option for them. And sometimes it takes for them to be dragged along by somebody else or, I don't know, just to come for no reason, to realize that actually this is something that they could see themselves doing in a couple of years. Again, you can help us by donating to code bar on GitHub, even though hopefully it will be a way to move away soon. And you can read more on code bar.io and sign up as a coach or as a student. You know, encourage your friends, your female friends, your partners to just sign up and attend once. You know, there is no commitment for them either. And I think, yeah, I've just seen so many people come just to try it out. We're more interested that it's worth it. Everything, all of our resources are on GitHub and we are code bar HQ on Twitter. And that's it. Questions? Your corporate sponsor list looked impressive. I didn't hear anything about government sponsorship. It seems like a topical area that the government would be interested in sponsoring. Yeah, so I work, right? And I started code bar as something that was running once a week. To be honest, I've not really had the time to invest in anything like that. I do have people who are trying to help me more. I've hired a PA last week who will be doing something like four hours for us and will be funded by the GitHub money that we've been gathering for six months. So I am hoping to put a bit more structure. But so far, yeah, I suppose you need the right person to do the right thing. I'm more from first a developer and then a business owner or an entrepreneur. We are completely unfunded and haven't really saved any funding so far. Come talk to me afterwards about grants. I run a code club for kids and there's money out there. You just got to deal with paperwork. Yeah, it was interesting because I haven't looked at the feedback like for a couple of weeks as well. And I had a couple of students who gave me links for applying for funding programs. However, you know, I still think, you know, I mean, maybe we can get funding for the food, but I still find that having like the venues, having the companies actively involved also, it just makes it changes things. It changes their perspective. You know, I remember talking to some of the sponsors at some point and asking, you know, are you hiring? Maybe you would be interested in getting like an intern or a junior or somebody from code bar. And, you know, for me hearing things like, oh, you know, but we want the best. It was quite disheartening. But I find that that's an approach that has started to change because they do have their developers more involved. That makes sense. I think it's more of an and situation. You know, there's no reason why you can't. As long as the paperwork isn't overly takes too much time. Of course, I mean, I would love to speak to you about it. This is something I'm trying to, you know, know that I quit my job and have all the free time in the world. I can start things out. So yeah. Cool. So you said you don't do any marketing. How have you found that people have found code bar? How have they discovered code bar? So by being a being a developer meant that I had people that I could try and drag along at the first couple of workshops that told other people that told other people talking right under me where we at the end. Again, like a couple of small talks here and there. Rosa. So the organizer in Brighton is a person who started by attending as a student back in November last year. And like in three months, she applied, got an apprenticeship. She's now working as a developer and is also running the Brighton chapter. She has been amazing by doing public talks. Definitely like a much better work than me. But I think, you know, that's the difference also of helping people with things like public speaking, encouraging them and pushing them a bit to just get out there because it is a hard industry, right? And you just have to deal with some things. But yeah, it's all words of mouth, right? No marketing. Actually, it would be great if we could get some marketing money because I think we, you know, at the beginning it was mostly women who work in marketing in the tech company or some other role in the tech company. And that's okay. But imagine like how many more people we could reach out to. By the way, I think you're a good speaker for this. Today, I haven't been very stressed. I don't know why. Do you seek a bar growing across the country or I think it would be great if there are smaller, like local chapters, because ultimately London is like the land of opportunity. You know, I mean, my husband is like from Scotland for a small town, for example. The opportunities in that place are like completely non existent, for example. If I could see the problem is you just need to find the developers. If you don't have the developers, then so many people who started things like that, but because they didn't know the developers, it just went nowhere. You know, they tried for a couple of weeks and then. So I do hope to do that. But at the moment, we definitely don't have like, I think the marketing outreach that we showed in order to achieve this. So how did the one in Cambridge start up? Cambridge. It was through an email I sent to Aida's list. So Aida's list is an all women in technology list. And some women got interested. And Brighton, it was a coach and a student from London. Can I just have a quick show of hands of who in the room is thinking now about signing out to be a coach? All right. Thank you.