Byte Back hosted its 2nd annual Community Tech Day for DC residents

Aspiring tech professionals gathered at Byte Back last Tuesday for the tech nonprofit’s second annual Community Tech Day. Byte Back opened the event up to the Washington, D.C. community, with many Byte Back students and alumni in attendance.

The event featured five workshops that explored a variety of tech topics and potential career paths including entrepreneurship, web development, cybersecurity and more. There was a networking portion for attendees to connect with the tech professionals in the room.

One of the volunteer workshop presenters, Denise Johnson, a Byte Back alum and project lead for D.C.-based ecommerce outfit Thrift Store Detour, inspired the crowd by sharing her story of being homeless in the past and finding her way to Byte Back. With Byte Back training, Johnson built her career as a data entry operator and eventually moved up to becoming a supervisor and launching her own ventures.

“Invest in yourself. Take a class. No one’s going to come and give you anything,” Johnson said at the event.

Other presenters included:

• Marcus Bullock, founder and CEO of  Flikshop
• Selina Musuta, Mozilla Open Web Fellow
• Gustavus Wyche, web developer at the Federal Reserve System
• Vincent Sam, programmer known as “vincethecoder”