In December of 2015, I set up for an adventure: I launched Turku ❤️ Frontend (pronounced Turku Loves Frontend) in my hometown where meetup culture had been quiet for a few years.
From the very get-go, I took a lot of inspiration from the Ruby and Ruby on Rails communities which I adore. I wanted our community to be as welcoming, as warm and as fun as the aforementioned communities.
I wanted to build a community that feels like home for everyone: developers, designers, students, entrepreneurs and hobbyists alike.
I had moved back to my home in Turku after a year in San Francisco and 5 months in Helsinki. Those cities were vibrant with developer events and I needed something like that in my life again.
Looking back now, I know we have succeeded. Over four years of monthly meetups, a hackathon, a Code in the Dark competition, a brewery tour happy hour and Turku Gives Back open source campaign are just the tip of the iceberg.
We've helped developers and students to find jobs in the industry and we have connected the tech scene in Turku in a way never seen before. Since we started, large Finnish tech consultancies like Reaktor, Solita, Houston and Vincit have opened their offices in Turku. And we're happy we were able to help them find their place in the community.
Code in the Dark
In May 2017, together with our community partners Valohai, Reaktor and Hub Turku we organized a Code in the Dark competition.
Code in the Dark is an event where developers team up to replicate a given website in 15 minutes using nothing but the editor. You are not allowed to preview what you’re building, you are not allowed to look for docs — nothing. Just type code, have fun and do your best.
The event was received well within the community and we'll hopefully organize another one in the future.
Turku Gives Back
In February 2018, we organized a campaign to promote open source. Turku Gives Back was a one-day event encouraging local tech companies to spend half of their Friday giving back to the community that enables their business.
Opening them sources ☺️ #TurkuGivesBack pic.twitter.com/oNbgf81BVs
— Arado (@WeAreArado) February 2, 2018
With 17 companies and communities that joined the event, we created an impact in open source. Not only did people work and contribute to open source projects, these companies made the day into an internal event, sharing their experience with the community in Twitter and spreading the good word of open source wider.
The campaign was inspired by Github's Open Source Friday and Futurice's Spice Program.
7+ years and counting
For me, Turku ❤️ Frontend has never been just about meetups. It was about bringing together people who share their passion for frontend technologies, and create meaningful relationships between these people. I'm happy to call many of them my friends.
Like any great community, we are all about the people and companies supporting us.
If you are interested in joining our events, giving a tech talk or sponsoring an event, check out our contact information at https://turkufrontend.fi and let's be in touch.