Community at Rightmove
Earlier this year, Ana, one of our Senior Front-end Engineers, proposed inviting a front-end community event to our office, and I enthusiastically joined her to bring this vision to life. Today, we are thrilled to share this success story with you!
Around March this year we began reaching out to various front-end communities to offer our office as a venue for their upcoming events. Following a productive Zoom call with Sam from JavaScript London, he visited our office and was highly impressed with our location and available space!
Preparation for the Event
Now, it’s time to dive into the preparations. We discussed the logistics with David, our Engineering Manager and Community Lead, including the steps to reserve the date, as well as determining the quantity of food and drinks to procure. Additionally, we were fortunate to have Apurva, one of our Senior Front-end Engineers, express her interest in delivering a talk on Typescript Patterns at the event, and she eagerly joined the initiative!
Overall, the organisational process proceeded smoothly. Our HR and Reception teams assisted us in extending the office hours until 20:30 on the event day.
With all the arrangements in place, we set the refreshments to begin at 17:30, followed by two speakers presenting for 20 minutes each, with a 10-minute Q&A session. The presentations were scheduled to start at 18:30 and afterwards we invited everyone to join us at a local pub.
As the event week approached, we placed orders for various pizzas, including options for vegans and those with gluten-free dietary preferences. We also secured drinks, plates, napkins, printed informative signs to guide attendees to the event space, restrooms, and a small cloakroom.
As the day of the event dawned, nervous excitement filled the air! Would the pizzas and drinks suffice for our anticipated 140 attendees (including 100 on the waitlist), could we seat that many people in our open space? Could we organise everything in time for the 17:30 start?
Setting up on the Day
Our schedules were already brimming with meetings, so we set up nearly a hundred chairs in the event space after lunch. Fortunately, David dropped by to lend a hand and offer encouragement.
With time ticking away, we had only one working lift capable of carrying eight people at a time. We wondered how long it would take to transport everyone upstairs. Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale… Well, we’re all optimists here. At Rightmove, we are all believers. We believed that everything would work out, and it did!
Before 17:30, nearly ten people joined us to help with the final preparations. Members of JavaScript London and our Rightmove colleagues chipped in to assist. Tasks included organising the pizzas and drinks, fetching glasses from the 4th-floor kitchen, and ensuring the water jugs were filled. Oh, and the bins—let’s “borrow” some from the 5th floor!
With everything seemingly in order, could I finally relax? As people began to arrive and socialise it was clear that the event was off to a great start. All we needed now was a glass of wine to enjoy the fantastic event we had worked so diligently to organise.
For me, as a Software Engineer, this experience was nothing short of incredible. I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this event, and I look forward to more exciting ventures in the future.
