My First Meetup with Tucson Web Stackers
In a modernish meeting room on the third floor of the University of Arizona library, several web development enthusiasts sat scattershot around a handful of tables making introductions and testing the waters of talking tech. This was the setting for my first web dev meetup and my first effort to take my concentrated course of study from solo mission to collaborative effort. Some take aways:
- Everyone in this meetup, save the organizer, was a first-time attendee. Started out more like an orientation than an established group, but that dynamic quickly changed as the facilitator of the meeting lead us through the lean coffee meeting method.
- The UA Coding Bootcamp was well represented by current participants and recent graduates. A bunch of really smart folks from a variety of contexts. They all spoke very highly of their experiences with the boot camp.
- Self-taught folks (like myself) were also represented, albeit to a lesser degree. Some really interesting projects and comments from this group, including some new ideas for the bootcampers to consider.
- I left the group feeling inspired to keep on my current course of self-directed study. I may pivot to a coding bootcamp at some point in the future, but until then, my goal is to hustle and hack together my own bootcamp experience through freeCodeCamp, personal networking, and meetups. The folks at the gathering today were all extremely encouraging, so I like my chances.