Two new tech communities in Amsterdam: one for nerds, one for LGBT

There is no summer break for Dutch techies. If you want to get together with other people from the tech-community, swap ideas or expand your network, then there’s some great events coming up. Nerderlands is like a summer holiday for nerds, while LGBTech brings the geekiness to Europride 2016.

Nerderlands

“Why choose between your passion and your pleasure when you can have both?” Good question. In this case both passion and pleasure relate to tech, as that is what Nerderlands is all about. The event is a co-production of Appsterdam and StartupAmsterdam and they invite all local tech-communities to take part, which leads to an interesting mix of tech and leisure during the week of the 15th of August.

Workshops, meetups and BBQ’s

Nerderlands offers meetups, workshops, and masterclasses at various locations in the city. Amsterdam Maker Festival have committed their event to the festival, Eddie Codel, founder of the Flying Robot International Film Festival will talk drones and show some of his favorite drone films. There is a workshop on data driven storytelling, where 25 techies and 25 journalists team up for a data viz challenge. And since August still counts as the summer holiday, Nerderlands promises ample barbecues, such as the Big Android BBQ.

‘Good excuse to visit Amsterdam’

Nerderlands aims to feel like an intimate get together, but all the events combined make it to a huge festival says Mike Lee, mayor of Appsterdam: “People have been telling me they need an excuse to come check out the city, but all these cool old buildings make Amsterdam a hard place to host a big conference. It’s not that kind of city. It’s really about smaller community events happening here all the time. It may be hard to justify flying to a place to attend a meetup—but if it was every meetup, on one schedule, it would be as big as a world expo—just the excuse people need to come check out the community.”

LGBTech

If you’re looking to meet up with the Amsterdam tech-community before that, do check out LGBTech. The event welcomes local and global tech professionals from the LGBT-community to network, but is just as open for – as the organization puts is – other awesome people. Not only can you meet interesting people from the tech-world and expand you’re network, it is also an opportunity to support side-lined members of the community and non-profit LGBT organizations with limited resources. It is easy to forget during a massive event as Europride 2016, but not everywhere in the world it is as easy for people to be themselves.

Get drunk together

LGBTech is part of a worldwide network of like minded events in Germany, Israel, UK and USA. The launchparty in Amsterdam takes place on the 3rd of August at WeWork, on the Weesperstraat. The program starts at 5pm an features a keynote by Elad Mintzer from LGBTech Tel Aviv and several pitches. The evening ends with networking opportunities, or as the organization likes to call it: ‘get drunk together’. Sounds like a solid plan.

Foto: Monique Kooijmans