EdinburghJS Revival

Last night was the third post-pandemic EdinburghJS meetup. The first we held as a live-stream only event, thanks to ongoing Covid restrictions. In February and March we have been able to welcome people to an in-person event at the Bayes Center.

I have been co-organising the event with Esteban Munch-Jones and Allan Lloyds. We’ve arranged speakers, been awarded grant funding from the Scottish Government Ecosystem fund, live-streamed talks, and welcomed attendees from across the central belt. We even managed to support a new local drinks startup “Quas” by buying a few cans for our catering.

I’ve been pleased with the response so far. I think people are still cautious about attending meetups, and it takes a while for word to spread. The events have been enjoyable, and attendance is growing.

I want to set out a few objectives, so that I can look back and record progress over the year. I want to:

• Facilitate a space for networking, mentoring, learning and knowledge sharing
• Raise awareness of job opportunities, startups and interesting side projects
• Build awareness of Edinburgh as a good city for JavaScript developers to live and work, welcoming new people to the area and supporting people in career transitions to development

To those ends we will focus on participation rather than purely technical talks. We will encourage people to introduce themselves and their “JS Stack”, helping provide a good ice-breaker for the networking. I hope this will be an inclusive space for JavaScript developers of all backgrounds, interests and experience. You can get technical information anywhere online, but you can only get to know Edinburgh developers here.