5 Things I Learned Organizing Django Girls Aba
This blog post was written by Agbo Amarachi. Thank you Agbo!
I like to consider myself as one who is not fazed by challenges …well for the most part, but organizing Django Girls Aba (on 18th and 19th August 2017) tried to prove me wrong. Boy was I challenged? The good news is through all the craziness, I was able to pull it off and in the process, here are the 5 truisms that I have come to hold dear.
You can do anything you put your mind to, really.
I was intentional about organizing this workshop in Aba because the Tech community here is green and worst still there are only a handful of girls involved. So I set out on this journey, first with a lot of euphoria which died somewhere along the line (when reality hit) while passion, commitment and dedication took over.
Attending three Django Girls events (in Lagos, Minna and Abuja) did not quite prepare me for the task of organizing a Django Girls Workshop in Aba. You could fault me on my previous statement but believe me when I say a lot of work is done behind the scenes to make these events happen. Getting local sponsors, handling logistics, making swags, sending out emails, publicizing the event were a few of the tasks that had to be done.
Somewhere in between making all these happen, doubts and fears sprung up but the end goal of introducing the Aba ladies to Tech kept me and propelled me forward. In the end, Django Girls Aba was a huge success!!! We had ladies smiling at the end of the workshop and I left with a feeling of accomplishment :).
To achieve results, you change your strategy when it is obviously not working
:)During the process, there were times I encountered road blocks and I had to go back to the drawing board and make some changes. One that stands out to me was getting the girls to sign up. First, I thought it was a really good idea to put up a blog post about the event (shout out to MissTechy.com for coming through) but I soon realized with the really low numbers that I was not going to reach the target. After consulting my co-organizer, we decided to use Facebook Ads and within one week, the numbers doubled. In addition, we took to twitter and our personal facebook accounts and at the end of the registration period, we were able to get about 40 girls to sign up.
Passing down knowledge is one of the best things you can do
The highlight of this event was observing the girls code all day with the help of their mentors. All the girls who attended the event had no prior experience working with Django or any other web technology for that matter. However, at the end of the workshop, two of the girls were able to host their Django-powered blog on PythonAnywhere and as a result; they earned a mentorship program from Rad5 Technologies, an IT firm in Aba. The rest of the girls who were really excited about the event promised to finish up with their blogs at home.
And that is how we got more ladies involved in tech.
You need a great team to achieve success
At this juncture I would like to give credit to whom it is due. Django Girls Aba would not have happened without the help of first, my co-organizer, Prince Kwekowe. Though our relationship started out via a mail in which he reached out to join me as a co-organiser, I have come to value his input a great deal. In addition to holding me accountable and contributing his own quota to the project, he served as the meta-coach during the workshop.
A major thank you goes to our catalogue of coaches: Afape Ruth, Johnbosco Ibemere, Onose Ogaga, Trust Onyekwere, Damilola Omoyiwa, George Udosen, David Onoh, Thelma Dike, Emmanuel Chimaobi, Vincent Iroleh for taking out time from their busy schedule to mentor the ladies that attended the event.
Our team of sponsors - Crunchies Fried Chicken, Kingdom Kings Praise Ministries, Python Software Foundation, GitHub, Rad5 Technologies and Give n’ Take Lottery- came through for us by providing the necessary support and for that, I am thankful.
Finally….
It is always bigger than you
When I think about all the people that their lives were impacted by the event, I am happy that I didn’t give in to defeat. I am very pleased to be part of the Django Girls initiative aimed towards bringing more females into Tech. The vision is far bigger than me and all I have done is to drive it onward. I am grateful to Django Girls for providing me the opportunity to host a Django Girls event in my city!!!
P.S: You can view the Django Girls Aba event through the lenses of a few of our coaches who have written about their experience. Check out Damilola’s Post, Thelma’s Post and Vincent’s Post.
Django Girls is a non-profit that teaches programming to women all around the world. Want to help us? Support us!