Candidly, the person I had in mind, when thinking over the need for Batch Bunch was..me. This is not an admission of selfishness, instead, I am convinced that the ethos behind this project is “community-powered progress”.

Moving to the UK as an international student roughly 9(!) years ago, the tech scene in Nottingham was one I had benefitted from most significantly—meeting new people, making life-long friends, growing (up and and) in confidence etc. My 4-year journey of starting and winding down ProjectFunction (with a sincere friend) would not have been possible without the backing, interest, and support of a multitude of folks I’ve interacted with in-person at Tech Nottingham, Women in Tech, DDD East Midlands, and many more.

And while the tech meetups in the city have not restored to pre-pandemic cadence or buzz (side-note: neither have any of the local tech conferences?), I’ve witnessed yet again that people of Nottingham still care about tech and are eager to engage with one another.

Over the past few months, I’ve come to realize that my passion for tech was supercharged through the power of community. Trying to write and ship code in isolation for the next side-project with merely my own thoughts has felt inadequate. In other words: the vibes are not vibing.

This is why I created Batch Bunch. For me, yes, but, also for us. All of us.

I am super grateful I could reach out to Jamie Tanna who said yes to running BB with me. Having Jamie’s support was extra special for me since he was the organizer of Homebrew Website Club (Nottingham). HWC was where I started working on the first version of my own website on one of narrow tables of (the now, sadly, shut down) Ludorati cafe. Shipping my website and publishing blog posts (including this one), opened doors for me beyond my imagination.

Despite the hurdles and heartbreaks, life can be truly serendipitous.

Thus, I look forward to your participation and support in making Batch Bunch a success. Jamie and I are still evaluating venues to hold our launch event. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please reach out. In the meantime, do follow us on all the social places online to stay informed.

With gratitude,

Riz