A letter to New Django Girls Organizers in Nigeria

As more workshops spring up, because more amazing people want to impact and change the lives of many women across the nation with technology; we decided to write a brief piece on things every new organizer should know, peculiar challenges, how to go about overcoming them and having a great workshop.

We don’t intend to almost replicate the organizer’s manual but we plan to highlight challenges organizer’s face peculiar to Nigeria that the manual doesn’t cover.  At the time of this writing a total of 30 DjangoGirls workshops have/or about to happen.

Before you Apply to Host a Workshop

I can’t stress this enough. Read the organizer’s manual; Okay that might seem obvious but 60% of all you’ll ever need to know is contained there. From editing your website, finding sponsors, possible ideas for a venue e.t.c. While this might seem over flogged it is honestly your first step to your future successful workshop.

Another first and a half step would be to check if a workshop has happened in the same city before. If it has, reach out to the former organizers. Chances are if they have time they would be happy to join you in organizing. If not, they could be your organizing mentors and your go-to person for questions you might have throughout the course of your event. The fact is, if they organized before they have more experience and have faced similar challenges you would face. It helps to have a go-to person you can ping if you have any questions. 

If a workshop hasn’t happened before you can also reach out to previous/ current organizers in cities close to you. For example, a new workshop happening in Taraba state can reach out to previous organizers in Maiduguri and Jos.

Your Venue:

This might not be the next obvious step, but trust me when I say having a free or almost free venue would save you a lot of future pain. Finding a free venue would drastically reduce your expenses by 30-50% depending on your state. We know how finding a venue for at least 50 people, with internet, electricity and other basic amenities can be quite difficult. This is not including the fact that getting a venue helps you secure a date which has a ripple effect on all the other things you need to do.

You might ask, so where can I find a free venue? If you are hosting your workshop in a city with a high number of tech companies, it’s probable that if you approach a couple they would be really happy to host you. Having a company give you their office space more often translates into providing you at least internet and seatings for attendees. Another option might be a university lecture hall, classroom or computer room. It sometimes happens you might be requested to pay for fuel to run the generator throughout the workshop, and/ or bring your own internet. It is important to find out the mobile network operator with the best quality of service for data at the workshop venue if you will be providing connection to the internet yourself. One organizer used a mobile wifi modem to connect the participants to the internet while another provided data for the coaches who in turn created mobile hotspots on the phone for the participants to connect to.

P.S.: We understand you might not have already secured a venue before applying to host a workshop, but if you start the process way beforehand chances are you would secure a venue way earlier than if you started looking after you got your workshop accepted

Security:

A DjangoGirls workshop translates to 30 participants and 10 coaches at the very least which translates to 40 laptops at your venue. Providing adequate security for workshop venues (especially in institutions of learning known for petty robberies and northern parts of Nigeria plagued with insecurity) will give the participants and coaches confidence in their safety and the safety of their gadgets during the workshop. This can be arranged by making an official request to the security unit of the organisation/institution hosting the workshop or to any security agency with outposts close to your venue.

Locating a community of Programmers

If you found a venue in a university, you might find a community of programmers already in the school; and it could be easy as just reaching out to them, and there you go when you convince them to coach at your workshop. Having coaches from the city where the workshop is taking place comes in handy for planning post workshop meet ups between coaches and their mentees. For others it might not be as easy as this. The Python Users Nigeria Group mailing list and slack group avails you a platform where you can meet python developers across Nigeria; and both previous and current organizers of DjangoGirls across the country where you can reach out to coaches who are based in a city close to your workshop and would be happy to make the trip to travel to your city. It goes without saying if you have coaches that would travel all the way to coach in your city helping to arrange a shared accommodation to spend the night, and feeding for the day would go a long way to show how much you really appreciate their time, energy and effort. As an added resource the Python Nigeria slack group has a DjangoGirls channel where organizers can ask for help or questions from other DjangoGirls attendees and organizers.

Where do I find Coaches?

While locating a community of developers already seems to answer this question there are some extra tips that can help in finding coaches. It can be difficult to find the number of coaches you need. Especially when you find a community of developers who don’t know Django. One organizer organized 2 separate meet ups for the coaches to go through the tutorial taking them through Django before the workshop. If you find that you have to bring coaches from outside your city,  reaching out to coaches who coached at workshops close to your city, and even attending these workshops is a good way to meet other coaches or new attendees who would also like to also become a coach. Telling them in person about your workshop coming up would go a long way. Plus there is just something about showing up to speak to coaches in person. It makes it more personal and you have a higher chance at convincing them to make that journey to come coach at your workshop. You should be prepared to assure the coaches that you will assist in take care of some of their logistics (e.g transportation, accommodation and  feeding) at the very least. But this would depend on your budget and if you are able to get enough sponsors. If you can only provide feeding and accommodation that is also fine. Coaches in the past have even offered to pay their own transportation and accommodation fees.

And Sponsors?

By now you have a lot of logistics figured out. You’ve scored yourself an almost free venue, figured out where to find coaches, obviously have your website fully edited and ready to go accepting applications. How do you get Sponsors? The Python Software Foundation and Github are known global sponsors who have supported a lot of workshops and that might be your first point of call. You would need to also reach out to local sponsors. Sponsorship doesn’t always mean money. You can find sponsors who give you a free venue, say they would provide feeding during the workshop, sponsor t-shirts or anything more specific in your budget. This could even be an individual in the community wanting to donate to your workshop. Another place to look is to look at previous local sponsors for other workshops. If they’ve sponsored a workshop before it should be easier to convince them to sponsor yours as well. But don’t limit yourself to only previous sponsors, look for new ones. There are more and more tech companies and startups day by day, don’t be afraid to reach out. Sometimes even non-tech companies are willing to help any cause that empower women in Nigeria. An example is how a Jewellery company sponsored a workshop, or even the lady chef at the cafeteria gives you a massive 50% discount in catering because she appreciates the dream. The point is don’t limit yourself, look around you and see resources available to you and use it in your workshop.

Getting the Word Out

These days Twitter and Facebook seems like the go to place to get the word out. But popular bloggers including tech bloggers have been known to publish DjangoGirls media release for free on their blog as a way to give back. For example, Blogs like Techpoint, Tech Cabal, Bella Naija, Olori Supergal, Rhoda and a host of many others. Having your press release shared on a blog helps in getting the word out about your workshop and might also be an avenue for potential sponsors to know and reach out to you.

Extra Words of Advice:

If a workshop is happening in a city close to yours, and you intend to invite coaches; give at least 2 weeks in between from the previous workshop so the coaches have some time to recuperate before your workshop. This would give them some time to rest before having to make another journey. Plus you don’t want to have your workshop at the same time as another city closeby, because there might be a chance that some coaches would prefer to be in the other city than to be in yours, because it’s probably more convenient.

P.S: This article is written mainly for intending organizers in Nigeria who face special challenges. We hope it helps you on your journey to an amazing workshop.