I’m very excited to be taking part in some events coming up where I will speaking and running workshops etc.
First up is Coding Evening in Twickenham next week – the lovely Stokes and Moncreiff pub are hosting yet another Coding Evening for us on Thursday 19th May in their upstairs function room. The folks from Pi Top are hoping to pop over and we’ll have lots of cool ideas to help teach computing so come along to find out and get some inspiration for teaching computing whether you’re a complete novice or an experienced programmer!
Next up is the annual CAS conference in Birmingham on Saturday 18th June, I’m going to be running a workshop to show teachers how to use Scratch GPIO on the Raspberry Pi – the conference is looking to be a fantastic event with loads of exciting talks and workshops running.
On Sunday 26th June, along with Albert Hickey of Egham Jam, I’m helping to launch Wimbledon Raspberry Jam – we’re aiming to make the event as family friendly as possible, with talks about Primary Coding from me, Astro Pi from Richard Hayler and various others, including a very special talk from 10 year old Izzy, who is going to share why she finds coding so interesting and exciting. We’re also going to be running Minecraft workshops and Scratch workshops to show off some cool physical computing ideas.
On Saturday 23rd July (two days before my birthday), I’ll be travelling down to my home county of Cornwall to launch the first Truro Raspberry Jam at the Truro campus of Truro and Penwith College. We will also be hoping to run talks, workshops and show & tell tables – I’m really excited as the Cornish tech community are eager to share their excellent work. The Truro Jam is being launched in collaboration with Cornwall Tech Jam, Software Cornwall, Truro and Penwith College and various other groups!
Pycon UK is moving venue this year and will be held in Cardiff City Hall from Thursday 15th to Monday 19th September and I’m hoping to be there helping out with the Education Track on Friday again. The previous two years have been incredibly good fun and great for networking and getting ideas for teaching Python in schools.
In early November, I will hopefully be helping out at Mozfest and there are various other events coming up that I hope to be involved with too so keep an eye out for announcements on twitter about other events where you can find me talking and helping out.
There are also several upcoming events that I wish I could be a part of, but am unavailable due to various other commitments so I want to mention them and urge you all to go along if you can!
First up, Grace Owolade and her son Femi are hosting their third autism and tourettes friendly Raspberry Jam in South London on Saturday 14th May. Unfortunately I volunteered an afternoon of robot building to a charity auction and so am fulfilling my promise on Saturday so I can’t go, but I really hope to be able to support Grace and Femi more in the future as I think what they are doing is so important!
On Friday 17th June, the education team at Roehampton University is hosting a Festival of Computing with lots of great workshops and talks – it should be a great day! I was lucky enough to be invited to talk, but it’s on a school day so I can’t attend!
Finally, on 11th June, the amazing Carrie Anne Philbin is hosting a CAS #include Diversity & Inclusion in Computing Education Conference in Manchester. I really wish I could attend this event as I’m sure it will be super, but I’m fulfilling yet another aucition promise and taking some children for a picnic in the park. Make sure you go if you can!
So, lots to look forward to in the coming months! Very excited and hope to see some of you at some of the upcoming events.
Cat Lamin 