DOJOCON 2015 – Whats in store!

This year’s DojoCon – our annual gathering of dojo mentors and champions – will take place Friday, Sept 18th – Saturday, Sept 19th in Derry. The event will take place during CultureTECH and is being organised by Nerve Centre, CultureTECH and several of the North-West’s dojos.

This year’s theme is “The Creative Coder” with sessions and keynotes focused on using creative technologies as a way to engage with young people in new ways. Young people get interested in coding for lots of reasons; and showing them how technology is used in gaming, animation, music and the arts can create exciting opportunities to inspire kids from a variety of backgrounds and interests.

Events kick off with a few mentor-focused sessions on Friday afternoon, hosted by the CoderDojo Foundation, followed by a big social meetup on Friday evening. Saturday will see three keynote sessions focusing on Maker technologies, Minecraft in education and the BBC’s new micro:bit device. Over a dozen industry professionals and Dojo mentors will host workshops across the day, covering creative technology ideas and hands-on tips for setting up, running and growing a dojo.

There will be a live dojo running from 10am-4pm – our “DojoCon Playground” – including taster sessions for mentors to learn from each other.

You’ll also get a chance to hear from the CoderDojo Foundation team and learn about exciting new tools and partnerships that all Dojos can benefit from. And once we finish up on Saturday afternoon, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to network at social events that evening.