Hello University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier and Conestoga students. If this is your first year here, welcome! If you're coming back for another year, welcome back (and please watch out for the trains – the Ion is running now. They are very large and blue, yet some drivers still can't seem to see them).
We're Communitech, your local innovation hub that helps tech companies start, grow and succeed. We also are seriously passionate about helping people connect and building a strong community.
Whether this is your first year or your fourth year in town, there are plenty of ways to get connected to the tech community here in Waterloo Region.
Peer2Peer groups
Communitech Peer2Peer groups are friendly, informal meetups run by local leaders in the tech community. They meet either monthly or quarterly and are focused on helping people connect with peers in their fields. Each group is different, offering programming that can include panel discussions, informal meetups, pub nights and featured speakers. These meetups are also great places for you to build your network. Who knows, you might even meet someone from a company where you hope to land a co-op term. For students, I'd recommend checking out the Young Sales Professionals in KW, UX Waterloo, Marketing, Women in Tech and the Artificial Intelligence meetups. We've also just started the First Thursdays for Startups meetup. These meetups are a space for the local startup ecosystem to connect each month to network, work through challenges together, grow and eat pizza. (There's never a shortage of pizza at meetups.)
HackerNest meetups
HackerNest meetup at the Bonfire office –
Photo credit: Kristina Lalatovic
The global tech social community HackerNest has an active chapter here in Waterloo Region. HackerNest Kitchener-Waterloo meets the second Monday each month and each event is hosted at a different tech company's office. HackerNest is proud to say it puts on "non-dirtbag tech events" – these aren't tech bro meetups. They're informal, fun and free of long, boring speeches.
Their next meetup is on Monday, Sept. 9 at the Geotab office in Catalyst 137. If you're taking the Ion LRT from campus, get off at the Grand River Hospital station and walk down Green Street, take a left on Park Street and then a right onto Glasgow Street.
Code To Win
One of our favourite events is Code To Win, a Canada-wide developer competition for university students. Each fall, students participate in online coding challenges. The top student developers are then invited to Waterloo where they compete for a chance to win $5,000. There's more than cash up for grabs. It's also a great opportunity to network with sponsor companies. Here's a video recap of 2018's Code To Win finals weekend:
Giving Back
A great way to get connected with the larger Waterloo Region community is by volunteering. We've put together a community giving guide – it's a list of volunteer opportunities based on how you'd like to help. If you have time to donate, the Working Centre in Kitchener has a large number of programs they need volunteers for. We even have a list of organizations who are looking for volunteers with specific skills or talents to help with their efforts to make this a great community for everyone who lives here.
Events, music, restaurants and more...
There's more to our community than just what's around campus. The team at CuratedKW have a great Instagram account that showcases daily restaurant and pub specials across Kitchener and Waterloo. For a weekly list of events around town, I happen to write a newsletter called TL;WR. Every Monday, you get a list of events to check out. It's a great way to find something new to make your experience here in Waterloo Region an awesome one.
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There's never a shortage of events around town. I see and hear that...First Thursdays for Startups has the team from Bereskin & Parr LLP in to answer your IP questions on Thursday, Sept. 5 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Communitech. As if...the Apollo Cinema is showing "Clueless" as part of their Retro Recall series this Friday, Sept. 6 starting at 9:15 PM. September's HackerNest Kitchener-Waterloo September Tech Social is next Monday, Sept. 9 at the Geotab office inside Catalyst 137.
