While much of the world is in lockdown, public gatherings and conferences have been cancelled, leaving a void in the lives of people who enjoy meeting their fellow open source contributors and colleagues in person throughout the year. Virtual events, which were already on the rise, are enjoying a bit of a renaissance by necessity.
On Saturday, April 25, the Women of React conference will stream live with seven speakers, along with Q&A and lightning sessions from React core contributors and leaders in the community. The event will include a single-stream of talks with breaks for socializing and connecting with other attendees, as well as an invite-only Discord chat server.
Women of React was organized as a sort of pop-up tech event in response to current events. Co-organizers Rachel Nabors, Kevin Lewis, Sara Vieira, and Jenn Creighton did not put out a request for speakers but rather opted to invite women from around the world who would provide quality presentations on diverse topics of interest to the React community.
“I think I woke up one morning and was watching the pandemic news and realized all the cool women I would usually see on the conference circuit cannot give their talks and I’m not going to see them,” Rachel Nabors said on a recent episode of the Inside Facebook Mobile podcast. “I’m not going to see any of my favorite women in the React community this year and it was super depressing.” She contacted her colleagues and together they quickly spun up a conference that would allow women in React to connect online.
Last week the organizers reported more than 1,000 registered attendees. They expect that number to be over 2,000 on the day of the conference. Fortunately, they don’t have to have a hard count on attendees ahead of time, since virtual events don’t have a limited number of seats. Organizers have even created printable swag for all who attend.
Women of React will run from 12:30pm—8:00pm EST. Attendees can sign up on the website and will receive a link for the livestream. Organizers are also planning to record the sessions so that people who are unable to attend can watch it at a later time.
