VegasJS, started in 2010 by a Zappos Alumni named Alex Kirmse, is a group that meets to discuss, learn, teach, and play JavaScript.
“There wasn’t a good meetup group for JavaScript developers so he started one,” said group member Pawel Szymczykowski. “At that time, we mostly met at the Starbucks at 215 and Green Valley because it was walking distance from Zappos when we were in Henderson. Sometimes we would do Beer and JavaScript at Freakin’ Frog or similar places. When we moved downtown, we started meeting at The Beat and /usr/lib. There were a few reboots over the years.”
Today, the group meets on the the third Tuesday of the month for talks and oftentimes will organize hack nights on the first Tuesday.
“During the talks we seek a wide variety of speakers on all topics JavaScript. There is usually a mix of front end, back and other – covering aspects from Ember, to node.js and JavaScript powered Internet of Things,” Pawel Szymczykowski said.
This month’s meetup, happening December 16, 2014, will have two speakers.
The first is Susan Hinton, a Sr. Front End developer at Zappos who pursues a variety of interests including 3D printing and electronics.
“She will be candidly speaking about her experiences adding support for OLED displays to a Javascript hardware framework, and publishing it as open source,” Pawel Szymczykowski said.
The second speaker is Dean Curtis, a co-founder of Fandeavor a startup that creates dream experiences for sports super fans.
“He will be speaking on getting “stuff” done on a day to day basis at Fandeavor,” Pawel Szymczykowski said.
The VegasJS group is organized by Jimmy Jacobson, Jen Wilhelm, and Ethan Duggan.
“We love to see new people at our meetings! JavaScript developers of all skill levels and backgrounds are welcome,” Pawel Szymczykowski said. “We’d love sponsors and partners to help us fund the meetup dinners and supplies. If you have no interest in JavaScript but have friends that might, please spread the word to them!”
