A MAGICAL night at Clonakilty CoderDojo EXPO

Last Friday 7th December Clonakilty CoderDojo hosted its first EXPO at the Quality Hotel where Bill Liao (co-founder CoderDojo) presented 40 kids from Clonakilty with CoderDojo USB wristbands and Certificates in acknowledgement of their immense achievements. It was an impressive showcase of animations, games, websites created using Scratch, HTML, JavaScript etc.

The organisers were delighted to have Sean Kelly (MEP) in attendance who spoke about the kids
being the real stars in all of this and how he was looking forward to bringing CoderDojo to the European Parliament in Brussels in January. He also got demonstrations on designing footballs – Cork ones of course!

Lord Puttnam’s attendance added to the magic of the evening where he expressed his absolute joy at a vision for education becoming a reality – a reality that he did not believe he would ever see in his lifetime – through Bill Liao’s and James Whelton’s CoderDojo movement. Lord Puttnam introduced Bill who then spoke about magic to the kids and muggles to the adults. The kids loved it!!

As well as celebrating the achievements of the children, the night was also about thanking those that make CoderDojo possible each week — the mentors who provide their valuable time free of charge and David Henry of the Quality Hotel for providing a great venue for the Dojo each week. The event, sponsored by SouthWestern, an international business that is based in Clonakilty at the West Cork Technology Park, was also an opportunity to show more local businesses and IT professionals what CoderDojo is about in an effort to urge more to participate as mentors and in other support roles. The USB bands were sponsored by Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce and the Certificates by HighResolution – Printer Cartridges and Office Supplies, also based in Clonakilty.

This was the last session for the Clonakilty Dojo for 2012. Sessions will start back on 18th January 2013 at the Quality Hotel. Booking will open before then (http://coderdojoclonakilty.eventbrite.com).

Those that have attended before will receive an email to advise when the booking opens. If you are new, keep an eye on http://coderdojowestcork.wordpress.com.