- A commitment by the organizers, teachers, and students to increasing diversity in tech. You can see what that looks like by reading our "Resources on Diversity" page, or by reading how we typically describe ClojureBridge workshops to attendees:
This workshop is for underrepresented groups in tech who are interested in learning programming with Clojure, an expressive, general-purpose programming language. Men, you are welcome if you know a woman who would like to attend and come to learn Clojure together. ClojureBridge is emphatically queer and trans* friendly.
- It's free!
- An Installfest in which participants end up with a functional development environment on their machines.
- A Workshop day in which participants do hands-on work on some kind of curriculum.
Here’s what you need for a minimum viable workshop:
- A space
- Teachers
- Participants
- Teacher Training (as late as during the Installfest)
- Installfest (Friday night)
- Workshop (Saturday day)
Any number of factors can decide the size of the workshop: the size of the space, the number of teachers available, or the number students interested. If you're striking out on your own, start small and get bigger.
Workshops need to be part of an ecosystem to be successful. It seems to work best when there is a community, events, and resources available locally. For Clojure and women, regular in-person meetings seem to make a big difference. If there isn't already a monthly meetup, plan to start one after the workshop. If you have a large enough community and a founding team with stamina, plan a series of workshops, so that workshop graduates can come back and TA the next workshop. Learn, understand, practice, teach is a powerful sequence. Women often respond to need more than self-promotion; what they won't do for themselves, they will often do for a like-minded community.