When I attended my first tech event, it was an iOS Code Camp organized by DevCon Philippines. That time, you can only count with your fingers the tech events happening in a month. Five years later, my fingers are not enough to count the events happening in a week!
26 leaders from 17 tech communities convened at the Philippine Tech Community Leads Meetup last May 5 hosted at Google Philippines HQ with the goal of sharing plans of each group and explore opportunities for collaboration this year.
Among the communities who attended are Google Developers Group (GDG) Philippines, DevCon (Developers Connect) Philippines, Philippine Web Developers Organization (PWDO), Python Philippines, International Game Developers Association (IGDA), Mozilla Philippines Community, VR Philippines and more. It’s the largest union of Philippine tech community leaders yet!
Here are the five things you should know:
1. Leads of the Philippine Tech Communities have been meeting since May 2016. The meeting was just an idea until John Paul Sibug, the Audience and Platform Evangelism Manager of Microsoft Philippines, became the key to push it through. He sponsored the first meetup while I, then director of DevCon, managed the RSVPs of the different tech communities leaders. The goal was to make further impact to the tech and developer ecosystem in the country through collaboration.
2. There exists a Philippine Tech Community Calendar. Credits to Josef Monje of Python Philippines who diligently curates the calendar. The tech leads share access to the calendar to manage activities and to avoid schedule conflicts especially for big events. You can view the calendar at http://communities.devcon.ph/events.
3. The communities share resources a LOT. We share speakers, volunteers, contacts, freebies, and, sometimes, expenses. We also have a bunch of shared lists such as list of venue partners, suppliers, and even a list of regular no-show registrants or “team freebies” (yes, such list exists).
4. 3 Major Tech Roadshows have been completed and plans are being made for the next one. Entitled TECH Caravan, it is an initiative led by Mac Valmores of Philippine Android Developers Community (PADC) where tech communities reach out to provinces to teach different technologies. It has reached Baguio, Dagupan and Zamboanga. Next stop is Puerto Princesa.
5. There are over 60 technology groups in the Philippines and growing. With the support of big and small companies, local and national government, more and more groups are formed by geeks with passion for technology and learning. The direction of communities now is to drive more activities to cities outside Metro Manila and the provinces, bringing more opportunities for learning and assist them as they build and grow their own local tech community. This will hopefully highlight the locals’ own potential and grow its own tech industry.
With a strengthened collaboration and realigned goals, the future of the Philippine Tech Community is bright. If you’re leading a technology group from anywhere in the Philippines, kindly fill up the form http://bit.ly/PHTechCommunityDirectoryForm.
