TampaDevs – Tampa Bay's Developer Community
github.com
github.com
I've been working on Tampa Devs with the other co-founder since September of 2021, along with a group of really excellent volunteers.
We're a nonprofit that's loosely inspired by nyc's Recurse Center (https://www.recurse.com/). We host events, a mentorship program, and career development resources. All of which are free or very low cost.
Our community has grown to include thousands of local developers. It feels good to be part of something that drives a widely positive impact, especially on a local level. Anyone can do something similar no matter where they are, and I would highly recommend it.
For a cool technical angle, here's a talk I gave at a local conference on the tools we use to run our community at scale: https://go.tampa.dev/unityops.
So now it's time to change that and give back. I think it's a cool idea. I encourage you folks to do the same! :)
I learnt quite a bit there about proper software engineering.
It makes me extremely happy to see the company still kicking around, with mostly the same people still but now in leadership positions.
Work is a lot more physical here than what I saw during 2+ decades in the SF Bay area (which was mostly software oriented, IME).
There's a ton of defense tech companies, medical tech, finance and (at least) 2 huge PCB assemblers are also here (Kimbal and Jabil).
St Pete and Tampa both have extensive areas filled with small physical production companies that can do machining, lasers, plastics, engineering, etc. The services can be pricey and a bit slow because they're built around defense/medical budgets, but unlike many other geographic areas, they are available domestically and folks tend to be really helpful.
(You can find me in TampaDevs Slack. I moved to Tampa from NY in 2021. Keep up the good work!)
This interview with TampaDevs founders is worth a read: https://www.madeintampa.io/the-unstoppable-rise-of-tampa-dev...