This post was written by our lovely incoming president for 2020, Elyse Segebart, who attended this event on December 9th.
Web Geeks isn’t just for Web Geeks. It’s for everyone, and as a first-time attendee of this event (and most tech events in general) I wasn’t sure what to expect. It is co-organized by one of our ladyDev members, Tori Machen, so I felt a little less awkward attending. It was held at The Forge by Accenture Industry X.0.
Now, by the name of the event, one would assume that everyone would be wearing ugly sweaters, so I found my best ugly sweater and walked in. Looking around, I was the only one wearing an ugly sweater. Well, that’s hilarious. I was so afraid of feeling awkward and that just added more reason to be! Just kidding, I love talking to people and no one seemed to mind that I was wearing a sweater that looked like it was pulled from a 90’s family Christmas photo.
The event started right away with sharing our projects. This didn’t have to be a tech related project, it could be any project you are passionate about, or one you would like to receive constructive feedback on. I was not initially going to share a project, but decided to and encouraged Michael to do so also since he was on the fence. We had a Rock, Paper, Scissors-off and with everyone watching we literally tied 12 times in a row! I had met my match, but I won and ended up presenting first. It was intense. Here’s a recap of the awesome projects that were presented:
- Tori shared her soldering skills with light up kitty ears she soldered herself and gave a presentation (with slideshow!) on how she did it! They were super cute kawaii ears and the lights were embedded in the headband.
- Craig showed how to learn python using a Tic-Tac-Toe game. He has been programming for over 25 years and designed this program to show how you can learn python using it.
- I spoke about my Slack channel I started, Moms in Tech, as a place where women can help mentor others, women who are career transitioning can ask questions and grow, and a place to speak about mom related things, recipes, coding challenges, and goals! We are a global channel with 105 members!
- Michael shared Figma and how you can use it to create frosted glass looking layouts with shapes. He also shared a DIY photo cube project he’s making for gifts. Different photos are placed on the sides of the cube and in a Rubix cube fashion, you can keep folding it and get different photos!
- Josh shared Barkpass, a site he and his wife designed for Waukee to register dogs for the dog park. The site was previously very difficult to use for management and users. The new site streamlines the process, is very user friendly, and shows analytics on how many people are registering!
- Nate shared his work on the new site design he did for Shift Interactive! Shift Interactive sponsored the meeting that night. The site turned out REALLY awesome! I highly recommend checking it out at the Shift Interactive website. There was a lot of asymmetry and animations, and is also very clean!
- Forrest showed us a song he wrote on a really amazing instrument I have never heard of, and unfortunately cannot remember the name of it! I do, however have pictures of it, here. The instrument is played upright on a stand and with two bows. The song was beautiful. Asking how he came to play this instrument, he likened it to a fantasy story where you enter a mysterious shop and when you come out of it you are never able to find it again, but come away with an invaluable piece of merchandise. This is that piece!
- Justin brought his screen press and button-maker and we had shirts made! The screen printing had four different designs and I came away with a very cute Christmas-y Web Geeks tee! The neat thing about the button maker was cutting out pieces of comic books and turning them into wearables.
Overall, I had an excellent time and if you have never been to a Web Geeks Event, make sure to attend!
Web Geeks
Web Geeks is a group of web enthusiasts with diverse interests covering the full spectrum of web and mobile design, development and marketing. They meet monthly to cover a wide range of topics related to the web and build community. Anyone who is excited about the web is welcome to their events. Find out more about them and when they’re planning an upcoming event on the Web Geeks site.
Shift Interactive
Shift Interactive is team of technologists developing solutions that change the way business gets done. Learn more about them on their website or on Twitter, @shiftdsm.