What’s happening at DojoCon Japan 2017?

On Saturday, November 4th DojoCon Japan 2017 will welcome over 300 CoderDojo Champions, Mentors and Ninjas from all over Japan to celebrate open source programming education. Though admission is free, tickets are already sold out!

DojoCon Japan 2017, the second regional DojoCon held in the country, will take place at Ritsumeikan Future Plaza Event Hall in Ibaraki-city, Osaka, Japan from 10:30 to 6:30pm.

Connect Dojo to Dojo

The theme of this years event is “Connect (Tsunagaru / つながる) Dojo to Dojo”, and aims to create a space for Dojo members from all over Japan, to interact, exchange their ideas, discuss problems and develop their ties with each other. Champions and Mentors will be able to explore and solve any problems they face. While Ninjas will be have the opportunity to meet their fellow Ninjas from all over Japan and showcase their skills. In addition, this event hopes to support and encourage people who are thinking about starting Dojo in their local area.

Takashi Hosoya has been DojoCon Japan’s Executive Committee Chief for both last years and this years event. A CoderDojo evangelist, he champions both Nishinomiya and Umeda CoderDojo clubs. Additionally Takashi is a Co-Founder of the regional body CoderDojo Japan. Below he shares how significant this year’s event is and how he wants to build on the positive impact that last year’s event had for the CoderDojo Community in Japan:

“This year is a significant year for CoderDojo Japan because 100 Dojos are now part of the CoderDojo Japan network. I think DojoCon Japan 2016 last year has a big influence on reaching this milestone. We will celebrate having 100 clubs at DojoCon Japan 2017. I hope this event is enjoyable for the community and helps them to get more involved, and the numbers of Ninjas engaged in Dojos will increase by connecting with each other by face to face in this event. I strongly hope the DojoCon Japan will be held every year, in 2018, 2019 and beyond!”

 

Program of events

DojoCon Japan 2017’s program includes a variety of sessions, workshop, tour-games, champion & mentor counseling and programming contests. To accommodate this, the venue will be divided into sections including: a seminar area, various workshop & activities areas and sponsor booths.
Selection of Speakers

Kaori Hashizume, Japan’s pioneer of kids programming education. She is the Champion of CoderDojo Saitama and has published two programming books for kids. She is the president of Cherry Bit, who provide various education and training programs. Her speech will go beyond programing, touching on security, copyright, social media, and the creative thinking spiral.

James Whelton is the Co-founder of CoderDojo. The last time James was in Japan was when the 1st Dojo was launched in Japan 5 years ago. Now there are over 100 Dojos registered in Japan. James will be speaking to Champions, Mentors and Ninjas, both new and old, about his vision of CoderDojo from it’s beginnings in to the future.

 

Ross O’Neill is the Community Lead of CoderDojo for Japan, among other regions. He is coming back again to DojoCon 2017 to give us the update of CoderDojo global community to advice how Japanese champions can adopt CoderDojo philosophy to their activities in Japan.

“I was delighted to attend last year’s event. The buzz and activity at DojoCon Japan was amazing. It was great to meet so many people involved in CoderDojo from around the country and I can’t wait to participate again in this years event! It really is an honour to be invited to speak, and I look forward to getting even more involved this year”

 

Josh Wulf will be traveling from Australia to speak about Magikcraft, which he is the founder of. Magikcraft teaches kids to code JavaScript in Minecraft using the metaphor of magic. He will introduce and demo Magikcraft to Champions, Mentors and kids.

 

Other sessions that will be running on the day include: how we can organise better CoderDojos, a the panel discussion with female mentors on encouraging female role models and gender parity in the movement, how CoderDojo can work in conjunction with local education systems and a fun workshop where attendees can make their own felt, light up mascots!

Another awesome addition to the event is a mobile app that has been created to help Community members get to know Dojo Champions attending from across Japan. The “Stamp Rally” lists all the Dojo Champions and encourages attendees to collect stamps of each Champion they meet at the event!

For more on DojoCon Japan 2017 check out their website here and twitter here.