Drivenci Unconference
Projects | | Links: Twitter (#Drivenci)
This is a community event, inspired and organised by myself and several other people in the South African software development community.
Between 2014 and 2018, on the last weekend of July, Driven (the company I founded and ran for 10 years) hosted an invitation-only unconference called Drivenci. People from the software development industry (coders / analysts/ coaches / start up people) were invited to spend a weekend away together (60-80 people), at a game lodge outside Johannesburg, South Africa. There was always great learning across many topics beyond purely technical ones.
The idea was that each person who attended has an open invitation to attend a following year’s event, and could also bring a guest with them who they though was missing from the previous event, or could both contribute to and benefit from the experience of the other attendees.
After a few years we also started inviting two guests each year from outside the direct software industry field to attend and bring their different perspective to the group. We’ve had a fine artist, a banker, a crypto currency expert, even a sexologist. The idea being we don’t sit in an echo chamber and only see things from a narrow perspective, and find interesting places where their experience and knowledge create fresh insights.
After Driven closed its doors in 2018 the event became entirely community organised and funded, and has continued to be an annual feature in the calendar. Invitations are now sent out around the first week of June, with only the costs of running the conference included in the ticket price. Regular attendees pay promptly to secure the venue, and different people have volunteered to take on various aspects of running the event each year.
The event has also taken on a life and meaning of it’s own beyond just software development, and has become a place where people come together once a year to share ideas and learn from each other’s recently acquired experiences. For me personally it has also become something of an annual checkin with myself from one year ago, to guage my own growth and change.
If you’re interested in attending a future event and don’t have a way of being invited, let’s chat.
