In light of the year that was 2020, we’ve decided to spend the last month celebrating all the AWESOME things that you’ve been up to in #SummerofTech2020. It was very difficult to decide on our top 3 Summer of Tech events of the year considering we did over 80 free events, 55 online with 733 unique attendees. Mind-blowing right? Here are the top 3 events that we reckon are worth celebrating!

The Women In Tech Panel with Xero

Every year Xero joins us to host a spectacular #WomenInTech panel for Summer of Tech students. This year our plans were shaken around a little, and the bootcamp went...surprise... online! For the first time ever! The panel soldiered on despite this and continued to discuss gender balance in the NZ tech industry, the importance of honoring Te Tiriti O Waitangi, and the importance of allies. Big shout out to our awesome Sponsors Xero for being flexible and rolling with it!

Spark’s 40+ Volunteer Hours

In August, Spark presented the Career Coaching bootcamp, which included over 40 hours of volunteering!! Students were provided with one-on-one virtual sessions. They had the opportunity to get insightful advice on how to land their first job from seasoned HR professionals. Volunteering at events like this is a fantastic way to connect with the next generation of tech talent, and we are so super grateful to those that have volunteered with us in 2020! Thank you Spark!

Create Camp Goes Online?!

2020 brought us our first-ever online Create Camp! During these events,100 students get into “hackathon” mode and work in teams to solve problems with tech. The team at SoT flipped our Wellington event to a virtual one as a response to the second Covid lockdown and we were blown away by the results! The students demonstrated amazing agility as they worked remotely with teams/mentors, used new tools and technology, and discovered new ways of collaborating. Thank you to the students who made our first online create camp so awesome! Huge shout out to all! Your resilience was superb!Thanks for taking part in our Summer of Tech events this year. Despite everything that 2020 threw us, we are delighted and excited to say that there were still a whopping 340 interns placed this year, compared to 352 last year! We’ve met some talented movers and shakers this year and are always blown away by the talent of our applicants. Congratulations to those who secured places and thank you to the employers and mentors who keep the ball rolling. If you didn’t secure a role through SoT this year, we still have a few roles available on the website. We know it can be a bit tough - feel free to reach out to us if you need some support. And hey, we would love to see you again in 2021! If a student has been enrolled in Summer of Tech in previous years, their chances of being hired increase by 62%. Pretty good reason to hang in there, right?