A New CodeLand Opportunity for Creative CodeNewbies!

The CodeLand Call-For-Proposals might be closed, but there’s a new and exciting chance for your voice and personality to shine at the event. Learn all about CodeLand Recess below 👀

If you’ve had the CodeLand Call-For-Proposals (CFP) on your radar, you probably know that it closed yesterday at 11:59 PM UTC. Now, our CFP committee is hard at work reviewing your proposals so we can offer a fantastic and diverse conference in September. Thank you to everyone who submitted a talk! We are committed to reviewing each and every proposal as a team and will get back to you with our decisions by August 17.

If you missed the opportunity to submit to the CFP or you’d like to participate in CodeLand in a different way, we are thrilled to share the news of CodeLand Recess: a new track at CodeLand that will feature a collection of short, fun videos from our community members across four themes. Read on to learn more about CodeLand Recess and how you can submit your content!

What is CodeLand Recess?

TL;DR – CodeLand Recess is a community-submitted “track” of short videos (30-60 seconds in length) at CodeLand that will be woven between talks and keynotes.

If you’ve ever attended CodeLand in previous years, you know that it’s much more than a series of keynotes, talks, and workshops – it’s a chance for you to connect with like-minded early-career developers and mentors while getting in touch with the special CodeNewbie community that we’ve all built together over the years. We’re excited to continue this tradition virtually for the second year in a row while keeping the conference fresh and exciting.

Since that first CodeLand in 2017, we’ve seen the continued rise of video content on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. These addictive, informative, and at times, hilarious videos we all know and love are an amazing way for creators to share their thoughts and personalities with followers and fans. What better way to showcase the CodeNewbie Community’s unique personalities and thoughts than through videos you submit?

How Will CodeLand Recess Work At The Event?

As we’ve shared previously, we’ll be featuring streamed keynotes, on-demand talks (sourced from the CFP that closed on July 20), activities, and workshops at CodeLand. Throughout the day, we plan to incorporate a few “CodeLand Recess” videos as a break between programming in the form of spliced together clips on a particular subject. Think of them as casual and entertaining palate cleansers.

What Are the Different CodeLand Recess Categories?

> Workspace Walkthrough

Give us a tour of where you develop software, study, break code, and put it back together again! We’d love to see what your desk or workspace looks like, including your monitor setup, favorite desk decorations, mugs, and whatever else you’d like to show us. Share where you work on your passions and get things done with the CodeNewbie community.

> A Day in the Life

So, you wake up… then what? Whether you’re a student, early-career software developer, or mentor of CodeNewbies, we’d love to get a glimpse into your typical day. What’s the first thing you do on your computer? Where, how, and when do you take lunch? How do you break through an afternoon coding slump? Show us what a day in your life as a CodeNewbie looks like.

> A Message to My Future Self

Imagine yourself as a software developer, team lead, or tech executive ten years from now. What do you want your future self to remember about the experience of being a newer software developer? What memories about learning to code do you want to preserve? How can a more experienced version of yourself continue to help early-career developers throughout your career?

> CodeNewbie Shoutout

It often takes a village to learn how to code. Who has helped you in your journey so far? Imagine that this is the CodeNewbie version of the Academy Awards and you’re up on stage accepting a trophy. Who are you thanking for getting you here? Are there any mentors or family members who have helped motivate you? Any baristas who have helped supply you with caffeine to power through a long study session? Tell us all about them!

Who can Submit a Video For CodeLand Recess?

If you consider yourself to be a member of the CodeNewbie community, we’d love to see your CodeLand Recess videos. Note that “A Message to My Future Self” is specifically geared towards early-career developers.

How Can I Submit a Video to CodeLand Recess?

Interested in submitting a personal video for CodeLand Recess? Great! We can’t wait to see your unique interpretations of the prompts – and hear your perspective on life as a CodeNewbie.

While we would love to feature each and every CodeLand Recess video at the event, the day will be jam-packed with talks, workshops, panels, and activities so we will only be selecting a handful. Read on to learn about our submission requirements and how you can maximize your chances of having your video featured at CodeLand 2021.

Recording your CodeLand Recess video

Ideally, we would like all videos recorded in portrait mode with a high-quality camera (you can use your mobile phone!).
Record your video in a well-lit space that is free from distracting background noise
Ensure that your camera is stabilized instead of holding it in your hand
Begin your video with the following statement:
“Hi CodeLand! I’m [name] and I’m a [role, organization].” (Note: If you are a software hobbyist or student, feel free to say so!)

Following this initial statement, please self-select the following script, based on the category you are submitting under…

Workspace Walkthrough:

• “Here’s a tour of my workspace”

A Day in the Life

• “Here’s a look into a day in my life as a [role]”

A Message to my Future Self

• “This is what I want my future self to remember about being a CodeNewbie…”

CodeNewbie Shoutout

• “Today, I wanted to give a shoutout to [name] for [reason you are shouting them out. Please make it relevant to your coding journey!]”

Feel free to adjust the wording of the scripts above – we simply want to ensure that you are introducing yourself, your role, and the category you have chosen in order to set up the rest of your video.
As long as you abide by our requirements (below) and the prompts (above), the remaining time in your video is up to you!

Submission details

Deadline: Please submit your entry by Aug 20, 2021 at 11:59 PM UTC.
Instructions: Use this form to submit your video(s).
Note: If our organizers are interested in featuring your video but some changes need to be made to comply with the event, they will follow up with details and requests (for example: talking more slowly so we can understand you clearly).

Video Requirements

• All videos must be between 30 seconds and one minute in length
• Required file format: MP4 or MOV
• Please refrain from adding music to your video – we’ll be adding that in our our end!
• All videos must be original material, created by you and recorded for the purpose of CodeLand 2021. Please do not share your recordings publicly before hearing back from us about your acceptance status.
• Please abide by our Code of Conduct for all submitted materials. Any submissions that violate this code will be automatically disqualified
• Record your video, selfie/portrait style. Our requested aspect ratio for all videos is 9:16.
• Please ensure that your video files are high quality (ideal resolution of 1080p).
• We will be captioning all videos, so please avoid any necessary content, titles, or images on the bottom 15% of your video screen.
• Optionally, you may add titles, text, stickers, and graphics to your videos – just keep spacing for professional captions in mind (see above)! Please prioritize accessibility when adding this additional content (handy intro to key accessibility concepts here ). Ensure all text has a black background with white text for maximum readability.

Our event organizers will be accepting submissions between July 20 and August 20, 2021 (at 11:59 PM UTC) and selecting winning videos in the following weeks. We will respond to those of you who submitted a video by September 3rd, 2021.

Questions about submitting a CodeLand Recess video? Email us at codeland@codenewbie.org

Need some inspiration? Take a look at the #softwareengineer or #techtok tag on TikTok or view videos from creators like @anjali_tewani, @misodope, or @tech.unicorn.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with for CodeLand Recess: the best class of the day 😉