Hype & Dexter Experiences: Attending Kiwi PyCon 2022

I joined Hype & Dexter (H&D) 15 months ago and since then, I’ve had a lot of great opportunities. One of my favourite and most memorable experiences was attending Kiwi PyCon in August 2022. For a little more context, Kiwi PyCon is a community organised conference for the programming language Python. Python is an incredibly popular programming language used worldwide for anything and everything - keep reading to see some of the key highlights from the event!

Some immediate highlights include:

• Flying from Auckland to Christchurch (which involved landing in unbelievably thick fog!)
• Attending talks from different astronomers and learning about how they use python 
• Seeing a massive range of subjects being talked about (from beginner to advanced)
• Getting to know my colleagues better and enjoying a shared experience together
  
  

As a Frontend Developer who mostly writes JavaScript and has barely used Python at all, the PyCon event was a big learning curve for me!

Here are some of my key takeaways from my favourite talks at the event:

• Olly Ewert, a freelance security consultant spoke about how “the internet is a hostile environment” and how to use the OWASP top web vulnerabilities to work towards keeping your web apps secure. I appreciated the emphasis on checklists as something that can be adapted and used in almost any context, including Hype & Dexter and its clients. 
• Daisy Leigh Brenecki, a software developer and occasional speaker, had a wonderful talk using Dieter Rams' "10 principles of good design" as a lens to describe API design. I appreciated how she described APIs as a way for people to work together on software. Through this lens, Daisy explained that the ways we optimise APIs for computers can also benefit programmers. An example of this is reducing the number of options an API requires to work - this simplifies the code complexity and subsequently reduces developer “cognitive overload”. This simplifying approach can be adapted to suit frontend CMS development as well as backend.
• Finally, Jenny Sahng, a data scientist and founding team member at Multitudes talked about her experience as a founding data scientist and navigating the balance between being restricted on time, needing to still build useful things for customers while still remembering that building things fast doesn’t mean poor quality. Jenny also had the best slides of the weekend, with wonderful hand-drawn illustrations that were so good they reminded me that I actually own a tablet and pencil (although I know if I pick those up they’ll be childlike compared to Jenny’s!).

Overall, I’m stoked to have attended Kiwi Pycon. There was a wonderful group of speakers, it was an incredibly well run event (with delicious food), and everyone I spoke to was super welcoming and kind. I’d absolutely recommend this event to anyone who is interested in the subject, and I really appreciate the support of Hype & Dexter for getting me there.

Hype & Dexter is aware that my role as a front-end developer doesn’t necessarily align with the use of Python however, that fact didn’t stop them from prioritising my inclination to learn in this new area of expertise. They fostered the opportunity for me to do so and as cliche as it may seem, it’s great to work for a company that doesn’t just say they care for your growth… but shows you too. Hype & Dexter gives employees the space to grow, the projects and opportunities to pursue that growth and the time and attention necessary to nurture that growth.

If loved hearing about this experience and you feel like Hype & Dexter is the kind of company you want to be a part of, click here to check out our available roles!