Hull has always been one of my favourite cities. Not only was I born there but every time I visit, I seem to be surrounded by people passionate about technical innovation. The city is hosting a digital expo this week so it was the perfect time to launch a new meetup group for techys and software developers.
A few years ago, my company had an office in Hull at C4DI, a new innovation hub offering co-working spaces and value office space for up-and-coming tech companies. Back then there was a thriving meetup scene within the city and I attended most of them as well as doing the odd lightning talk and presentation myself.
Like everywhere else in the country, the meetup scene in Hull and East Yorkshire collapsed during the pandemic and hasn't really recovered... Until this week, when the first event from the "Hull and East Yorks Software Developers" group took place. I live in York which is only an hour down the road so not much was going to stop me from attending.
I managed to get to Hull an hour early and took the opportunity to have a walk around the marina, down Whitefriarsgate (a shopping street near the event) and even managed to find a fish and chip shop open (Fish and chips on the east coast is a mandatory thing for me when I visit 😊)
The Meetup event was hosted at The TapHouse on Humber Street.
I got there at exactly 6 pm which was the due time to start and there was already a gathering of more than 10 people at the back of the bar. I was greeted by Antonio Tombanane, the meetup host who introduced himself and made me feel welcome, the secret of a good host at a meetup.
By 6:30 pm there were at least 15 people of all ages, backgrounds and industries and everybody found someone to chat to.
A little later on, everybody was called to gather around for one of the other hosts to give a short speech about Hull and his ambition for the group and to formally welcome everyone to the night. Following the introduction, everybody was given the opportunity to introduce themselves including a little about what they do, where they live and what they would be hoping to get from the meetups.
There was someone there who had travelled from Goole, I had come from York of course and because of the expo, a couple of people had even travelled from London!
The rest of the night was spent drinking (coke sadly), and chatting with various people about what they do and the technologies they use. Lots of programming languages, systems and frameworks were represented by people who specialise in C++, Vue, React, c#, Umbraco and WordPress. In addition, there were people who specialise in business innovation, investments and the blockchain with plenty of chat about WEB 3 and decentralisation as you would expect. Everybody was so friendly and outgoing and I learnt a lot about their businesses and ideas.
It was discussed that there should be some form of communication for the group, such as slack or another system so that people can communicate and continue to network away from the meetup itself. This will hopefully be set up at a later date.
The meetup was meant to finish at 8 pm and to everyone's surprise, this came around incredibly quickly. I left around 9 pm with the last couple of attendees and hopped into my car for the journey home.
This was such a good night, meeting with a friendly welcoming group of tech people and I really hope that this group continues on through 2023. I certainly will be attending regularly and contributing to the group if it does.
If you are interested, then you can find out more details about the group on the meetup page:
https://www.meetup.com/hull-east-yorks-software-developers-meetup/
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