The organizers of a two-day developer conference titled Devs For Ukraine, starting Monday April 25, want to raise $100,000 to support NGOs and charities operating in the war-torn country.
Devs For Ukraine is the brainchild of developers at Remote, an international HR startup that offers global payroll, compliance and benefits management services for companies with far-flung employees. The event currently has 19 different sessions booked, nine scheduled for Monday and the remainder on the following day.
Speakers include developers from Google, Meta, Stripe and Shopify, as well as several from Remote itself. Dan Abramov, of Meta's React team, will give a Q&A on Monday, and Jessica Janiuk, of Google's Angular Team, will discuss RESTful APIs on the same day. Tuesday will see Shopify senior staff engineer Aaron Patterson speak, as well as events headed by Remote employees like Tobi Pfeiffer and Vittoria Bitton.
Cassidy Williams, head of developer experience and education at Remote and one of the organizers of the conference, said the original idea formed about two weeks ago, and was the brainchild of her and fellow Remote developer Sara Vieira. The two had been working independently to help victims of the Russian invasion, Williams by helping people find jobs and allow them to immigrate, and Vieira by helping to transport them out of the warzone.
"She said 'What if we throw a conference,' and I said 'Yes, let's do it,'" Williams said in a phone interview. "Our original goal was to raise $15,000 and we beat that goal in 24 hours."
Williams added that the company has been heavily supportive of the conference, devoting resources to helping get sessions produced and ready for the event formally kicking off on Monday.
"It was really awesome to get help with this instantly," she said.
Proceeds from Devs For Ukraine will be split evenly between eight charities and NGOs:
- Come Back Alive, which supports Ukraine's military forces,
- The Ukrainian Red Cross,
- Polska Akcja Humanitarna (Polish Humanitarian Action), which is providing support for civilians trapped in Ukraine,
- The National Bank of Ukraine, which is fundraising for humanitarian assistance,
- Insight, which is helping LGBTQ+ Ukrainians affected by the war,
- Razom, which is providing medical supplies and other assistance,
- Voices of Children Ukraine,
- And the Coalition to Support Black People in Ukraine.
"We tried to be as intentional as possible with the organizations that we picked," said Williams.
The conference sessions themselves will be free and streamed on Twitch, but donations to Devs For Ukraine can be made here – further information about the event will be available via Twitter here.