Hi guys,

I hope you recognise my name, as I have already written to the community a couple of times since the team at RecWorks started helping with the organisation of the GGUG community. I work with the communities we here at RecWorks support, arranging events, answering members questions and hopefully making sure the communities provide what our members want from them..

Something we do for the other communities we support is to circulate email updates, one every two or three weeks, with details of free events we’ve heard of for people in tech communities. Some are events people want to attend themselves – others are events their family and friends might be interested in. People in the London Java Community (LJC), London CTOs and Front Endgineers London (FEL) have told us that roundups like this save them time and help to pick out the best events to attend. Here’s my first email for the GGUG - I hope you’ll find it helpful too.

You’ll see two events in the list organised for the GGUG, jointly with other communities. There’s a big event on Interview Skills organised for the LJC/FEL/Graduate Developer Community (GDC) and GGUG. We have over 80 developers coming along from the other communities – but no one yet from the GGUG. The events have been run for the LJC and GDC several times in the past and we’ve been asked to run another, so this is a repeat made available to a wider audience. It is definitely not a recruiting event as most of the experts on the panel are not recruiting at the moment. It is all about helping people who might be thinking of applying for a new tech job in the future prepare themselves for the interview, through knowing more about the interview process. Please do come along if you are interested!

The second GGUG event is another held jointly with the LJC and this is a tech talk about Spock. Ivan Lopez of the Madrid GuG got in touch at the end of last week to let us know he’ll be in London. We’re glad we could get a venue at such short notice, and we hope this is an event GGUG members will want to come along to. 

So – let’s get to the event details. First I have some news of coding challenges and a shout out for conference talks that you may like to know about… 

From 1st June

The Future of Retail Challenge         

A new coding challenge for 2016 has been launched: develop a winning retail app and gain access to up to £750,000 of investment and business acceleration support. The details are all available via the link.

TechLondon/Venturespring

http://bit.ly/1t0NBP0

17th - 19th June         

FLIR Hack The Heat: Hacker and Maker Challenge London 

FLIR, Angelhack and Caterpillar are turning up the heat in London with a software hacker/hardware maker challenge like no other. Sign-up and compete for the grand prize valued at over £5000.

The 36 hour competition will crown at least five winning teams.

“HACK THE HEAT” and become a superhero with the power of FLIR one and lepton or use the world’s first thermal imaging camera and create something truly unique.

FLIR, Angelhack, Caterpillar  

http://hacktheheat.com/

Until 30th June          

Shout Out for Talks:  Code Mesh - Alternative TECH in the UK!     

The Code Mesh 2016 conference will be happening later this year (3-4 November) and the call for talks is out now. We are looking for talks that showcase how technologies and programming languages outside of the mainstream are used to solve real-world software problems. Our motto is 'The right tool for the job'. Follow the link for details.

Code Mesh     

http://www.codemesh.io/#call-for-talks

Next we have news of some forthcoming events from our Partner organisations and communities:

15th and 17th June    

GOTO Accelerate Connect event      

If you have bought a ticket for the main conference, don't forget the Connect events happening before and after the main conference. Details via the link:           

GOTO 

http://gotocon.com/accelerate-london-2016#01-About%20GOTO%20Accelerate

21st June        

The JVM and Docker: a good idea?  

**At the time of writing, this evening's talk from Christopher Batey is almost full. If there are no places remaining, please join the waiting list as some last places may become available over the next few days.**

Containers are the latest hype. It goes without saying that Docker for the development environment is a good thing but what about running our production Java applications inside a container? This talk will cover all the pain points from running hundreds of JVMs inside containers over the last year.      

London Java Community       

http://www.meetup.com/Londonjavacommunity/events/231387644/ 

25/26th June  

2016 Social Robotics Hackathon       

NAO, Pepper, Jibo, Buddy, Alpha2, Aido these are just a few of the social robots that are, or will shortly be, available. But what are these robots good for? Once you have a “social robot” what do you do with it?

UKNAO challenges you to participate in the 2016 social robotics hackathon and develop an application in which a robot engages in meaningful interaction with humans or other robots.

This hackathon is open to all developers interested in applications that make use of social robots. We’ll have some robots on-hand but if you already own a robot (no matter which platform) please feel free to bring it.        

UKNAO          

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-social-robotics-hackathon-tickets-24586054551

25th June       

Coder Dojo Whitechapel       

CoderDojo Whitechapel is a free coding club for kids. This month we'll be showing you how to have fun with a Raspberry Pi - but if you don't want to find about about Raspberry Pi, you can simply bring your laptop that can connect to the internet (not a tablet) and our mentors will hep you take you knowledge to the next level. Bring along your programming or code projects for our special “Show & Tell” session, so if you’ve been working on something cool, you'll be able to share it with the other ninja's.

You don't need any previous coding knowledge to take part. All ages are welcome (our main audience is 5-16 years old though everyone is invited), but all young people must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

The event is completely free, though numbers are limited. You will need to register and get a ticket before the Dojo.     

Coder Dojo Whitechapel       

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whitechapel-coderdojo-25th-june-2016-tickets-25890433985

27th June       

London Arduino June meetup

Join us for an evening of lightning talks, hardware products showcase on IoT for bikes, Arduino-based props for LARP, mentoring and networking

London Arduino          

http://www.meetup.com/LondonArduino/events/231798908/

28th June       

Career Hacking: Interview Skills       

Here's an un-missable event run for anyone contemplating applying for a new tech role. Our mentors have all hired in the past, but you don't have to try to impress them because they are not currently recruiting.  So If like me you've ever approached an interview asking yourself: “What are interviewers looking for in an interviewee?” or  “How do different hiring managers approach interviews?” talking to these experienced people will help you decide the right approach to take at your next interview. The event is a conversation and not a talk, so bring you questions along…

London Groovy and Grails User Group         

http://www.meetup.com/london-ggug/events/231619133/

29th June       

Testing with Spock: the logical choice          

At short notice, we're delighted to be able to take the opportunity to hear Ivan Lopez who is visiting London this week from Madrid. Ivan is the coordinator of the Madrid Groovy User Group (@madridgug), the organizer of the Greach Conference (http://greachconf.com) and a frequent speaker at international conferences.

In this talk using live coding you'll learn the basics of Spock and see how easily you can test a Java application. Full details will be published very soon.

London Groovy and Grails User Group

http://www.meetup.com/london-ggug/events/231884709/

30th June       

Java and Event Driven Microservices           

Chris Richardson is a developer and architect; author of POJOs in Action, founder of the original CloudFoundry.com, and creator of http://microservices.io We’re delighted Chris has time on this visit to London to speak to the community.

In a microservices architecture, each service has its own database. While this ensures that services are loosely coupled it creates a problem: how do you maintain consistency across services without using 2PC? In this talk you will learn more about these issues and how to solve them by using an event-driven architecture.

London Java Community

http://www.meetup.com/Londonjavacommunity/events/231618897/

5th July          

Microservices Manchester    

We would like to invite you to 'Microservices Manchester', a single day two-track conference running on 5th July that is targeted at technical implementers and decision makers who wish to better understand the challenges and possibilities of developing and deploying microservices.

Systems based on a microservice architecture have rapidly increased in popularity, having been championed by big names like Amazon, Netflix and eBay. Every day more organisations look to microservices to address challenges around continuous delivery and scalability.

Microservice Manchester attendees will be exposed to the tools, techniques and technologies emerging from this space, as well as benefiting from lessons learned from existing, real world projects - both good and bad!

Topics will include evolutionary architecture for microservices, deploying continuously using containers and public cloud, testing methodologies (including API simulation), and the business and organisational drivers required for a successful transition to building applications in this style.

Microservices Manchester    

http://www.microservicesmanchester.com/

6th July          

Discussion group: Growth and the CTO        

RSVPs open soon. Today's discussion is around defining a CTO's role, and the issues inherent in hiring/promoting a VP/Head of Engineering. How do people make sure they  improve (or maintain) efficiency while growing a team? What is the likely impact of growing the team on your own role? Thanks go to our community sponsors and hosts, Endava for providing the facilities and breakfast for this morning meetup.    

London CTOs  

http://www.meetup.com/LondonCTOs/ 

Finally, some regular events/meetups and clubs that may be interesting to you, or to family, friends and colleagues. Please pass the word!

Wizzie Wizzie coding clubs for kids.

Run at three locations every Saturday:

• North Library, Manor Gardens, London N7 6JX (11.30 am - 1 pm)
• West Library, Bridgeman Road, London N1 1BD (11 am to 12:30 pm)
• Rochelle School & Club Row, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES (2 - 3:30 pm)

http://wizziewizzie.org/

Fortnightly meetups for code, coffee/craft beer.

Check the link for details and to sign up.          

London Software Partnership

http://www.meetup.com/london-software-craftsmanship           

Learn Software Development

The aim of the group is to provide a basic grounding in various programming languages, technologies and practices including Java, JavaScript, Android, iOS, Swift, PHP, Ruby, Groovy, test automation, agile development, etc.

See the current meetups available via the link.

http://www.meetup.com/learnsoftwaredevelopment/                     

Linuxing in London.

Meeting the last Tuesday of every month at Skills Matter’s Code Node, we are an outgoing Linux** advocacy Meetup and will be organising a stimulating range of talks from Linux specialists, vendors and enthusiasts over the next year. Our objective is to popularise and encourage the growth of Linux, along with free open source software.

There will be plenty of opportunity for networking and stimulating conversations. Our intention is to cover Linux security, IoT, the Desktop, developing under Linux, Containerisation and Linux to Drones, phone and the command line, plus much more. Everything Linux, big and small.

Join us if you can, as we’ll be delighted to see you. Please get in touch with the organisers if you have a talk for the community as we would love to schedule in a wide range of talks from a wide range of speakers.

PS:** We like BSD and all derivatives too

http://www.meetup.com/Linuxing-In-London/                                           

The London Clojure Group…

…is for people who live in London and are interested in programming in Clojure! The group’s main activities are 2 monthly dojos, and one monthly set of talks. The dojos are where they help one another to learn Clojure and provide a chance to code that our day jobs may not allow. They also organise occasional lunches, hack days, reading groups, sprints… For details of what’s coming up, see the calendar

London Clojure Group

www.londonclojurians.org/   

That’s all from me for now. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with news of more events.

Best wishes,

Maggie