The IT Nerd

When I last wrote about HackNest, the Canadian non-profit group that’s focused on building very supportive tech communities all around the world that will help to bring about economic development through technological proliferation, I mentioned that I was honor bound to attend one of their Tech Social events in Toronto. In short, these Tech Social events get smart, accomplished people into a room with free beer. That alone is enough to get me out to one. But there’s more. The events have a “no douchebag” policy. What does that mean? In short, there’s no networking allowed, sponsors are clearly identified, no excessive drinking, no selling, no recruitment and some other undesirable stuff listed in their FAQ. The events are free, but they welcome $10 donations. Hint: Pay the $10 as it helps to keep these events going.

This particular Tech Social that I went to was hosted by local company BuzzBuzzHome.

Now I arrived early, and that turned out to be a great decision. Here’s what it looked like when I arrived at 8PM:

This is what it looked like 45 minutes later.

I have to guess that they got a couple hundred people out to this event. That’s pretty impressive. And it likely violated the fire code. But it illustrates that there is a need for what HackerNest does. There was a lot of sharing of info and spontaneous discussions amongst the attendees which was pretty cool from a neutral perspective. While there were people who were there looking for talent for example, that sort of activity was at a minimal level. For the most part it was generally a meet and make new friends sort of event.

One of the sponsors that caught my eye was Hired.com which is a unique recruiting platform that matches job seekers in the high tech space with companies looking for talent. Some of their clients include Facebook, Square, and Uber. I’m going to be reaching out to them to do a story on them shortly. I also met representatives from Lighthouse Labs who have a unique development bootcamp which will give you the skills you need to be job ready and then get you a job. I’ll be writing about them as well.

One of the things that I forgot to mention in my original article is that HackerNest has Hackathons with a social spin to them. At this event, they were advertising their upcoming DementiaHack which is aimed at improving the lives of those who suffer from Dementia.

One of the judges at this event will be Toronto Mayor John Tory and event details are available at the link above.

Finally, I got the chance to meet HackerNest Director Shaharris Beh (in the yellow t-shirt) who I interviewed for my original article. He is insanely funny and could likely do stand up if this non profit thing doesn’t work out for him.

The schedule for the Toronto Tech Socials can be found here, but if you’re someplace other than Toronto, check out this page for a city near you. If you are into software development, hardware hacking, or just consider yourself a nerd, you need to show up to one or more of these as it is a better way to spend an evening then popping online to play Call Of Duty or Game Of War. If you’re a high tech company, you should sponsor one of these events as you will not get a better opportunity to get exposure from people like me and you’ll do some good at the same time by helping to build this community of people who love technology in all its forms.

Usually, I write about up and coming tech companies or technologies in these In Depth articles. Today I’m doing something different. I’m writing about an organization in the tech world that is doing something for good for the sake of just doing something for good. I must admit that this is one of the reasons why writing this story appealed to me.

The group in question is HackerNest, and they’re a Canadian non-profit group that’s focused on building very supportive tech communities all around the world that will help to bring about economic development through technological proliferation. That’s a very lofty goal, but clearly one that they believe is achievable. They do this by hosting social events, hackathons, and job fairs among other events. One thing that pervades everything that they do is that it must all be nonpartisan, unpretentious, anti-elitist, and pitch-free.

They may be a Canadian based non-profit. But they have chapters, referred to as “Splinter Cells” which is likely a reference to the video game series of the same name, around the planet. Locations that they operate in include (via Wikipedia):

• Boston
• Calgary
• Dallas-Fort Worth
• Kitchener-Waterloo
• Las Vegas
• Montreal
• New York
• Seattle
• Toronto
• Vancouver
• Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Hanoi, Vietnam
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Manila, Philippines
• Singapore, Singapore
• Bogota, Colombia
• São Paulo, Brazil
• Querétaro, Mexico
• London, UK
• Manchester, UK
• Niš, Serbia
• Tbilisi, Georgia

Clearly this group has reach and influence. So much so that companies such as BlackBerry and Microsoft have sponsored them. Plus they win awards such as these ones (via Wikipedia):

• HackerNest was recognized by the City of Toronto for contributions to the technology community on July 28, 2014.

• HackerNest Unite is a finalist in the 2015 Canadian Global Impact Competition.

I am sure that some of the growth and influence is due to HackerNest Director Shaharris Beh who I rank as one of the most engaging and passionate people that I’ve met since I started this blog. He truly believes in what he and HackerNet are doing and that is infectious. It even through the phone when I interviewed him last week. Thanks to that interview, I am honor bound to attend one of their events in Toronto. If you want to attend one of their events and you live close to one of HackerNest’s “Splinter Cells”, check out this page to see what’s on tap in your area. Time permitting, I’ll be attending the HackerNest Tech Social on July 27th and I’ll report back on what I experience. It should be fun!