Django Hotspot, Dev College Combo and front.radar
As you may already know, we like organizing events for the IT industry. Up until this Autumn, we were responsible for two. The first one, Django Hotspot, was created at the end of 2016 and is an initiative that gathers the Django/Python community at meetups dedicated to those technologies. After 6 editions, many various presentations, great networking sessions, and the number of participants growing with each meeting, we’re happy to say that Django Hotspot is not going anywhere and will happen sooner than you think in 2019! So if you would like to present something and share your knowledge on the 7th edition of the event, let us know!
The second event of our is, of course, Dev College Combo, which we created at the end of 2017. This whole-day event, held in our office at Małachowskiego 10, is a combination of practical workshops and technical presentations. With 3 editions under our belt, each one bigger than the previous one (check out the summary of the latest one), we were able to meet and get to know many of you and share our expertise on design, development, project management, quality assurance, and more. Many of you have already asked for the fourth edition - don’t worry Guys, it will happen! Those questions, however, show us that inviting people to our office was a good idea, so we’re nowhere near stopping doing so!
The third, newest event, is front.radar, an initiative that focuses on the frontend development community. On the 25th of October, we invited everyone to Alibi Club in Poznań, where three experienced frontend developers (among whom was our Head of Frontend Development Mateusz Anioła) talked about their craft. We were happy to find out that Poznań’s IT community really felt the need for such a meetup - around 100 people attended the first edition of front.radar. So we don’t have a choice, we need to find time for yet another event to organize this year! Good thing that quite a lot of new people joined Merixstudio in 2018 so we can divide some tasks. But you can read about that in the next paragraph! ;)
In people we trust!
The most important factor in achieving success in the IT industry is the ability to assemble a team that consists of people that not only are specialists in their fields, but also like working with each other. With 26 new coworkers joining Merixstudio this year, we ended the year as a group of 78 people!
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This result was achieved, among others, by Natalia and Kasia. Our HR Managers worked tirelessly with team leaders to hire many talented developers, QA specialists, project managers, business developers, and more. They not only conduct interviews but also informal meetings at our office for those that want to get to know us a little bit more.
With the constantly growing team came both more opportunities to create great products (about which I will talk more below) and even greater than ever before need for integration. This year, therefore, meant that our love for going out and spending time together after work came in handy! So, as you could see on our Instagram and Facebook profiles, we had BBQs, fancy-dress parties, in-house pizza days, regular parties… Well, we had many kinds of parties! ;)
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We’re proud of the fact that even when we grew quite significantly in the last couple of years, we didn’t lose the relaxed, friendly vibe that we consider the basis of Merixstudio. When taking into account WHO works with us, not only whether they are doing a good job, we can maintain a great relationship between everyone. That’s why we organize the parties, that’s also why we started the Merix with passion series, during which Anita learns a little bit more about who’s working with us and what do they do outside of work. After all, you spend quite a big part of your day at work, so you better like the people that are with you in the office. ;)
What we’ve created in 2018
This year was quite busy for us. With a hefty number of projects, many workshops, and a plethora of hours spent on creating great products, we were able to add plenty of interesting entries to our portfolio. Here are three of the many projects that we’re proud of:
- BrandSync is a cloud-based, PIM (Product Information Management) solution dedicated to both e-commerce and brick and mortar industries. This ongoing project, based on Angular and Django, combines simplicity with flexibility by creating user-friendly tools for retailers and producers. It covers three major problematic aspects of distribution: gathering and processing products’ data, standardization and unification of data for all of supply chain participants, and further data circulation (both internal and external). Also, thanks to this project we were able to eat one of the best tasting cakes we’ve ever eaten, so that’s a plus. ;)
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- When you do a good job, you deserve a little treat. Or a gigantic cake, it all depends how hard you were working! ;) Our BrandSync team seems to be doing quite well - just look what they received during their workshop with the client! Good job Guys, you deserve the best Monday possible! ;) . . . #cake #celebration #bestmonday #monday #brandsync #project #working #webdevelopment #webdev #agileworking #agiledevelopment #agilemethodology #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #webdesign #webdesigner #webdesigning #webstagram #websitedesign #developer #developerslife #programming #programmer #programmers #projectmanagement
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- Up Your eGame, a premium quality connection platform for gamers and esports teams, required a holistic approach. When working on it, we were responsible for the whole project - from product design, through development, to post-release support. With the combination of UX, graphic design, Django development and React.js development we were able to create a platform that allows users to spend less time selecting and organizing teammates and more time playing the games they love with the people they want to play with.
- Happy Scribe is a high-end dynamic SaaS platform that uses machine-learning models to transcribe audio/video files. In this project, we were tasked with the development of a set of features. With the help of React, we were able to introduce such options as, for instance, speaker identification, text highlighting (similar to the one used during karaoke), or confidence Heatmap.
When you’re lucky and you work hard, with great work comes recognition. This year we were proud to announce that Clutch named us one of the Top Developers in the world! We mentioned it once, we mentioned it a million times - this distinction means quite a lot for us since, as you probably know, it’s based on the opinion of our clients. Each new review posted online means that we’re going in the right direction - now let’s get to work on making the list in 2019!
From one event to another - a software house of traveling specialists
One of the things we focused on in 2018 (apart from creating advanced digital products, as shown above), was going out of the office to share our knowledge. And we didn’t limit ourselves to the events we organize. This year we armed ourselves with a stand, Snake game, fake grass, many comfortable poufs, and much more and hit the road! You might’ve met us (or even win a prize from us) at, among others, PyConPL'18, Pycode, Meet.js Summit 2018, as well as NG Poland and JS Poland conferences.
Apart from that, we were also once again work with Django Girls, as well as give presentations and conduct workshops during such events as WUD Poznań, WUD Silesia, 9th HR Minds Future of Talent Forum, Kariera IT, Pyra, Tipi UX, EB Masters Poznań, or a .Net Group from Politechnika Poznańska meetup.
If was certainly fun to be able to meet so many like-minded people, chat, and exchange experiences of working in the IT Industry. At the moment we’re planning our tournée for 2019 - let us know if you organize something and would like to cooperate!
Everyday life at Merixstudio
But work is not only about the extraordinary - it’s also a day-to-day life in the office. You could’ve seen a glimpse of it on our Instagram - we had meetings and workshops with our clients, worked on our projects, celebrated some special occasions, anniversaries, and holidays, created MerixTalks series with video interviews, and played with our four-legged, honorary coworkers. This seemingly mundane life is in reality far from boring - with a good attitude, it’s even fun! That’s why in 2019 you can expect the same from us. However, since in 2019 is our 20th anniversary, I have a sneaky suspicion that you can even expect a bit more. ;)
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Also, I’m particularly proud to say that with the higher number of employees, we were able to do some good for the world. This year we worked with such organizations as animal shelters, DPS św. Rocha Poznań (which is working with special need kids), Szlachetna Paczka (an organization that creates Christmas presents for families in difficult situations), and Bajkowóz (an organization promoting reading in children hospitals). Great things come with a great number of people!
And that’s that for this (not so) short summary of the year. We’re happy how it went and are pumped for 2019 to be even better. And if you want to join hands with us in achieving that, here’s an article on how to join Merixstudio! :)
Navigate the changing IT landscape
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