Return of the Macc (Tech)! Bringing together the local tech community

Last week we were pleased to host the Macc Tech community event at our offices. I’ve been involved with running and organising the event for a while now along with fellow Macclesfield locals Tony Hine and Mike Irving. The goal is to offer a place for the tech enthusiasts of Macclesfield and Bollington to learn, share ideas, and network. Manchester is well known for its fantastic digital scene, but we wanted to support and build the brilliant community right on our doorstep. Though we’ve been running the events since 2016 and built up a nice following in that time, the pandemic meant we had to pause for a couple of years.  
 
Back in February, we decided that it was time to bring Macc Tech back, and hopefully encourage new members of the local tech community to come along and enjoy some mingling and knowledge sharing. It also offered a great opportunity to repeatedly use the same joke I’ve included as the title… 

During our first event, we covered topics around .NET and the Internet of Things (IoT), an introduction to the Carbon Intensity API, and optimising sites with Microsoft Clarity (the latter two from our Rick Butterfield and Andrew Rickards). Last week's talks included an introduction to Home Assistant, data visualisation and charts and an intro to the IDST! Art and tech makers session. So, as you can tell, the talks we feature cover a whole range of topics. And most importantly, it’s about people sharing the things that they find interesting and feel passionate about.

We’re also hoping these events offer a good opportunity for first-time speakers to talk in a safe and inclusive environment. For people freelancing or working for smaller teams, it’s not always easy to find communities to share knowledge and get to know other people in the field. We hope that going forward and continuing these events throughout the coming year, we can continue to build a Macclesfield community to share all this great local tech experience and expertise.  
 
If you’d like to get involved in Macc Tech, you can join the events page right here to be notified of future meetups or give the page a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.