Open Source & GitHub Actions (two talks)

Please note: Change of Venue

Two talks:

Open source - how to get contributing - Anna Aitchison

Open source is the life blood of today's developers, yet only a tiny percentage of developers contribute to it. This talk is about the role coding in public via open source can play in learning, founded in Anna's experiments during the pandemic.

Anna is a DevOps engineer, developer, and jack of all trades. She started her career in infrastructure but rediscovered her love of programming through random personal projects built during the pandemic and made a sideway move into a blended role. Outside of work, she enjoys volunteering and tinkering with old computers

Automating with GitHub to improve your sanity - Simon Jackson

Automation has long been seen as this magical device that will whisk you off to a fairy-tale land of happiness only if you just sacrifice a sacred animal to the gods of the clouds, but no longer. With GitHub actions (and other services alike), the ability to speed up your build processes, remove unnecessary checks and validate that no one is breaking your code/build is now within everyone's grasp and for much less sacrifice than you might think.

Simon Jackson is a Microsoft MVP, Engineer, industry executive, and research enthusiast. An avid learner with diverse interests in coding, game development, Mixed Reality (AR/VR/XR) and reinforcement learning. 25+ years of experience working in multinational corporations and startups.

Venue
This meeting is at Bonded Warehouse; Originally an 1800s railway terminus and later part of Old Granada Studios, the iconic warehouse is now a destination for modern industry.

There will be someone in the foyer who will sign you in and then tell you how to find the venue.

There will be someone in the foyer who will sign you in and then tell you how to find the venue.

This is a free event - there is no charge for a ticket.
We often get enough RSVP's for there to be a waiting list; the list has always cleared by the early part of the week of the talk, but this relies on you releasing your ticket if you can no longer attend. Please remember to do this if your plans change.

Please ensure we have an email address that you do look at, so we can let you know of any last minute changes; and please use your full name on the site as it's the only way we, or the fire service, can account for you in the case of an evacuation/emergency/fire etc.

Catering will be provided. If you have any special dietary requirements please let us know via the group message forum. (https://secure.meetup.com/messages/)

If you would need assistance to leave the building in the event of an evacuation then please let us know via the group message forum. (https://secure.meetup.com/messages/)

Note for recruitment professionals - we don't exclude recruiters from our meetings but we would ask you to contact Rick Garner for a brief chat before you start attending.

Schedule
Doors open from 18:00
Intro and welcome ~18:40
Speakers from ~18:50 (with a break between them )
Wrap-up & prize raffle 20.45
Close ~21:00
(Don't feel bad if you have to leave early for a train/bus/lift home - no one will be offended)

We then adjourn to a local bar for a drink and a natter - everyone is welcome to join us!