This Week Twilio takes Chicago with Text Messages and Pizza

This Week Twilio takes Chicago with Text Messages and Pizza

We love Chicago and we don’t get to give the city as much attention as we’d like. But every so often, an entire series of events line up to let us visit the Chicago area to enjoy the only city with real deep dish pizza, connect with developers, and generally get to know the community better.

Starting tomorrow, May 15th, Twilio’s Jon Gottfried will be visiting Code Academy and the Chicago Node.js Meetup. Code Academy is a beginner-focused programming school that teaches students to build web applications with Ruby on Rails. He is running a workshop for their current classes on how to add voice and SMS support to a Rails application and how to build an awesome game of Telephone with Twilio and Rails.. Though the current classes are full, you can still apply to join their next Web Design, Development, and User Experience cohort kicking off in June.

At the Chicago Node.js Meetup that evening, Jon will demo both his Two-factor Authentication Twilio/Node.js application and a Twilio-powered Pacman clone. There is plenty of room so RSVP on their sign up page to join.

Next, Devin Rader is hitting Chicago Code Camp on Saturday May 19th. In addition to his session to dissect what goes into designing good REST APIs using the new ASP.NET Web API Stack, you can learn about mobile development with Qt, Test Driven Development with iOS, an overview of Windows 8, and finally Microsoft’s Robotics Studio. Overall, a “full day” is an understatement.

To round out the week you can find me (Keith Casey) on May 22nd-25th at php|tek. This event is near to my heart as I help co-organize and this time I’ll be serving as the facilitator of the Hackathon and Unconference sponsored by our friends at Engine Yard/Orchestra.io and Mashery respectively. Last year, the Unconference ran until midnight with sessions on regular expressions and random hackery while the Hackathon lasted until 2am. Unlike many hackathons, the theme isn’t just a clever hack but draws project leaders from the open source community who build apps they use on a daily basis.  Before you go, catch my closing keynote Thursday morning.

If you can join us for one, any, or even all of these events, please do. I promise t-shirts, stickers, and new ideas that will make you think.