Category: Current Events

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, January 13, 2020)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 12, 2020

Every week, dedicated individuals and organizations in around the Tampa Bay do more than just their “day jobs”. They get involved in events where they share their knowledge, make connections and friends, and gather together to build strong tech, entrepreneur, and nerd communities. That’s why I do this every week: I put together a list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events to make sure that they can be found and you can attend them!

Here’s what’s happening in Tampa Bay this week!

This weekly list is posted as a voluntary service to the Tampa tech community. With the notable exceptions of Tampa iOS Meetup and Coders, Creatives and Craft Beer — both of which I run — most of this information comes from Meetup.com, EventBrite, and other local event announcement sites. I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the dates and times listed here; if you want to be absolutely sure that the event you’re interested in is actually taking place, please contact the organizers!

Monday, January 13

Tuesday, January 14

Wednesday, January 15

Thursday, January 16

Friday, January 17

Saturday, January 18

Sunday, January 19

Do you have an upcoming event that you’d like to see on this list?

If you know of an upcoming event that you think should appear on this list, please let me know!

Join the mailing list!

If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles.

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, January 6, 2020)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 5, 2020

Happy new year! I hope you enjoyed your holidays and perhaps even got a chance to take a break to rest and recharge. 2020’s now in full swing, and so is Tampa Bay! I’m back back with my weekly list of the area’s tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events.

Monday, January 6

Tuesday, January 7

Wednesday, January 8

Thursday, January 9

Friday, January 10

Saturday, January 11

Sunday, January 12

Do you have an upcoming event that you’d like to see on this list?

If you know of an upcoming event that you think should appear on this list, please let me know!

Join the mailing list!

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!

Tags Tampa Bay Tech Events

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in Tampa Bay’s tech scene this weekend

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 3, 2020

Here’s a quick list of what’s happening in Tampa Bay’s tech, entrepreneur, and nerd scene this weekend! The regular list will resume in a couple of days.

Friday, January 3

Saturday, January 4

Sunday, January 5

Current Events Humor

Fake ad, but true statement

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 19, 2019

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

This is why I’ve been posting most things — even if it’s just a single photo or link — on my blogs rather than social media. As far as I’m concerned, the primary purpose of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are to direct readers to my blogs.

Current Events Security The Street Finds Its Own Uses For Things

The 2020 presidential campaigns aren’t ready to fight disinformation. It might be up to us.

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 16, 2019

In today’s New York Times, there’s a frightening article titled 2020 Campaigns Throw Their Hands Up on Disinformation, which Techmeme succinctly summarizes like so: Campaign staff and researchers say almost no political campaigns, including presidential ones, have teams for spotting and pushing back on disinformation.

Welcome to the downside of the old internet promise that anyone can be a publisher or a journalist: It’s that everyone also has to be an editor, a fact-checker, a media critic, and yes, an investor too.

Start with these basics:

Also worth reading: The Internet Broke the News Industry—and Can Fix It, Too, by Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel:

The people-powered solution

In the end, what may end up making a big difference is the rise of contributors who care enough to give up some of their time to act as independent fact-checkers and watchdogs. That’s how the Urban Legends Reference Pages got its start, and it eventually became Snopes. Just as social media accounts can be used to spread disinformation, they can also be used to spread the truth. Algorithms have been weaponized against people, but they can also be harnessed to protect them.

Someone’s going to have to take on the challenges that the campaigns and social media networks can’t or won’t do, and as the drivers of the information age, that responsibility will fall to us. Are we up to it?

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, December 16, 2019 through New Year’s Eve)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 15, 2019

It’s the last “Tampa Bay tech events” list of 2019…and of the decade!

The time around Christmas always sees a sharp decline in tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events, which is why this edition is listing the events for the last two weeks on the year. I hope you had a great 2019, and I’ll see you in 2020!

This weekly list, which I started in 2017, has been around for about three years. and I hope you’ve found it useful. The mailing list version is a relatively new thing — thanks to Justin Davis for the suggestions — and will continue into the new year and the new decade.

Monday, December 16

Tuesday, December 17

Wednesday, December 18

Thursday, December 19

Friday, December 20

Saturday, December 21

Sunday, December 22

Learn to Sew: Tribbles! @ Tampa Hackerspace, 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Monday, December 23

Tuesday, December 24

Wednesday, December 25

(No events)

Thursday, December 26

Friday, December 27

Saturday, December 28

Sunday, December 29

Sew What? (Textile Arts & Crafts) @ Tampa Hackerspace, 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Monday, December 30

Tuesday, December 31

Do you have an upcoming event that you’d like to see on this list?

If you know of an upcoming event that you think should appear on this list, please let me know!

Join the mailing list!

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!

Current Events Tampa Bay

Scenes from the Computer Coach / High Tech Connect holiday party

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 12, 2019
1 Comment on Scenes from the Computer Coach / High Tech Connect holiday party

Photo by Hubert Sacasa. Tap the photo to see it at full size. Tap here to see the source [LinkedIn].

From a short-term point of view, the overflowing parking lot, the place packed so full that it was difficult to get around, and the all-too-quickly disappearing food may seem like a bad sign.

But from a long-term point of view, this is a great sign for the Tampa Bay tech scene: It means that even in the middle of the week in the holiday season with so many competing events and activities, Tampa Bay techies are so active in the community that they’ll fill up a large patio.

The Computer Coach / High Tech Connect holiday party took place at the Brick House last night. It wasn’t just well-attended, but attended by more than just the “usual suspects” whom you’d normally expect to see. There were a lot of new faces — or at least new to me — and this was great news.

Photo by Joey deVilla. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

One of the nice things about attending a party full of techies is that when you wear a meme, people get it:

Photo by Hubert Sacasa. Tap the photo to see it at full size. Tap here to see the source [LinkedIn].

Later on in the evening, Computer Coach’s Chief Success Officer Suzanne Ricci addressed the crowd. She talked about Tampa Bay’s debut on CompTIA’s list of top 20 metros for technology, and how a lot of the credit goes to the strong community that’s been forming here over the past decade. She also mentioned the recent good news: the opening of a new Drift office in Tampa Bay, which the company selected based on “a budding tech scene and a diverse talent pool.”

Photo by Joey deVilla. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

The past few gatherings in Tampa Bay have given me a sense of deja vu. It has a lot of similarities to Toronto in the early 2000s, when its tech scene was forming, putting together the key elements that would eventually transform it into one of North America’s top technology powerhouses. I see a lot of the same things happening here, and it’s thanks to Tampa Bay techies. Let’s keep it up!

Photo by Hubert Sacasa. Tap the photo to see it at full size. Tap here to see the source [LinkedIn].

More parties next week!

If you were looking for big Tampa Bay techie gatherings next week, you’re in luck. The Tampa Bay UX Group is celebrating both the holidays and their hitting 1,000 members on Tuesday…

…and if you’re looking for a similar event on the St. Pete side of the bay, the big holiday party jointly held by Suncoast Developers Guild, the Tampa Ruby Brigade, GDG Suncoast, and Women Who Code Tampa happens on Thursday at Suncoast Developers Guild: