NIDC is registering as a Community Interest Company. Due to complete before the 10 year anniversary conference in November.

We are recruiting a new CEO to lead it, and a Marketing Director to help tell the story. They will get started this year to see what happens behind the scenes, and take the lead in 2027.

This plan has been in the works for the past 2 years. I (current CEO 🙂) will be moving on in April next year to enjoy the conference as an attendee.

It’s the most important decision we’ve made since starting the conference. Committing it to a purpose for the rest of its time, and looking for great people to show us what exciting things can be done with it.

What’s a Community Interest Company?

NIDC is organised by volunteers from the tech industry. People working in engineering, product, design, security, and students preparing to enter it. People who get it, and spend their free time to make it happen for the community.

Reaching the 10 year anniversary means a lot of evenings and weekends, given up by a lot of people like you. The organisers, volunteers, speakers, and supporters of community events. That can make you wonder: what happens with all the effort I put in for the community after I’m gone?

I’ve been asked many times how we’ll “finally” make a profit from doing it. Maybe selling the company to a brand? Maybe selling your data? No. That’s not why we do it, and we don’t want it to happen in the future. This is where becoming a CIC comes in.

Community Interest Companies form an asset lock (in a good way) to serve the benefit of the community. The change is not reversible. It’s a big deal. This benefit is public on Companies House for every registered CIC (eg: BSides Belfast). All future organisers & directors have to pursue it. That means each volunteer’s contribution keeps benefiting the community after they move on.

Northern Ireland is bursting with talent, creativity and curiosity. Becoming a CIC is the next step for NIDC, building on what we’ve built together as a community and making sure it continues to benefit people for years to come.
Paul BreenDirector, NIDC

Story of NIDC, and how it all started

In 2017 three meetup organisers got together and thought “let’s get together, talk about tech, and have a bit of fun”. Phil Weir from BLUG, Mark Allan from @DotNetBelfast, and Martin Naughton from @BelfastJUG. This was a conference for the nerds.

We’re finally having a conference that’s going to be full of actual developers.
Angie McKeownFounder, NI Game Dev Network

This was the beginning of @NIDevConf, which almost got called “UsefulConf” or “Meetup of Meetups”. Kicking off with a launch party at PwC’s Google Lab near the waterfront in Belfast.

Interest in technology should be the only barrier for getting involved. Not money, not where you work or study. Inclusion became foundational to the conference to help people pursue their personal interest in technology.

Tickets are affordable thanks to each year’s conference sponsors. The goal is to make it low enough for someone to buy it personally, without requiring a corporate budget and a company paying for it. Think £10s, not £100s or £1,000s. But, if the price of the ticket is the only thing stopping you from going, pay what you can for an Honesty Ticket and come along. These tickets have been a part of NIDC since day one.

Childcare is provided for free, with more child-friendly activities throughout the conference for those bringing family. Joan Breen got this started at NIDC 2018, and we’re proud to see that in 2026 it’s offered across a number of other conferences in Northern Ireland.

Speaker workshops get more technical people talking, and doing it well. We run 3 types: applying to speak at a technical conference, structuring your presentation, and practice presenting technical content. That started in 2018 when we partnered with Belfast Toastmasters for a workshop at Ormeau Labs. Now, almost 10 years later we run it together with ServerlessDays Belfast, and BSides Belfast, with Garth and Ciaran leading it. If you’re curious, I’m sure folks like Kirstine won’t mind telling you about their experience coming along.

All community conferences follow similar principles. BSides Belfast, Serverless Days Belfast, Women Techmakers Belfast, Elevate NI, and many more.

In 2020 almost every meetup and conference stopped running. Understandably. Everyone was anxious, and isolated at home. But, that is the reason we felt it was important to keep NIDC running. Events bring people together, and when do we need it most if not when we are the most apart?

In the space of a few months we learned everything from logistics of live television, to implementing COVID precautions. There was a lot more to it than turning on a camera, and streaming to YouTube than you’d expect. But, with the help of David Kane we found an old flax & linen mill on the Newtownards Road. The most spacious rooms you’ll set your eyes on, with a great view of Samson & Goliath. The team worked hard to keep everyone safe, and bring people together with a feeling of community we’ve all been missing. And, we tried to have a bit of fun with it, too. I hope you felt it.

David Kane in headphones at a vision mixer, with monitors and camera feeds stacked in front of him

The crew rigging cameras and lights across the mill floor, Art in a mask in the foreground

One of the coolest things was teaming up with NI Raspberry Jam. Kids around Northern Ireland (and the world) were at home bored. The jam was on pause. Inviting them to watch a 4 hour educational livestream probably wouldn’t help. So, we got creative, found a way to give free electronics kits for anyone signing up to the make-along, and posted them 1st class to 20 families across Northern Ireland. After that, the jam team went on to run livestream jams for kids for another year before being back in-person. Now, they come to NIDC every year and make cool things running a Raspberry Pi village.

Next year, we were confident that the lockdown was over. We even filmed a conference date announcement. Until the conference venue cancelled our booking 30 days before the event. But, no pressure (definitely pressure 😅). Ormeau Labs came to the rescue. Claire Halliday heard our story, and offered a place to run it for free. That week we reached out to organisers who paused their meetups for lockdowns with an idea: Meetup Week. NIDC handles the COVID safety, venue, and catering. Organisers bring their communities together for the first time since isolation started. That’s what it’s all about. We even had a rooftop party since we didn’t need a big venue anymore. It was great craic. The Meetup Fest (what we renamed it) ran for 3 years making September a vibrant month on the tech community calendar.

Meetup Week & Meetup Fest Communities

Even though Meetup Fest and lockdowns are (finally) done, we did keep doing one thing. Something bringing the tech community together aside from the conference, started by Yuan back in 2023. The NI Tech Community still gets together every year for Belfast Pride, behind the colourful banner designed by our friend and organiser Zan.

I hope all the things we did during lockdowns left people something to remember. Beyond the rectangles on a screen containing their colleagues.

In 2023, we had a decision to make: go back to where we always ran the conference and see if anyone still goes to these things, or go big and see what we can make of it all. We landed on going for the International Convention Centre Belfast. Go big, with the event of the year for the tech community.

Everyone joining the team was experienced, and excited to get stuck in. But, we all had different ideas. The conference has been running in all sorts of ways. Each organiser got involved in different years, pictured different things, had different experiences taking part in the conference.

Organisers from 2017 to present

To make it work we had to get more serious. How things run, how we bring people into the team, and what we’re actually trying to do. So, we wrote it down.

Our Vision 🤩

Bringing together the whole tech community of Northern Ireland, every year.

Our Mission 🏔️

Organise the biggest meetup of the year, bringing together techies, meetups and companies from all over Northern Ireland.

✅ Dos	❌ Don’ts
Create an easy-going, casual and community-driven conference.	Create a formal, corporate or business-focused conference.
Create a conference connecting and supporting meetups across Northern Ireland.	Create a conference separated from, competing with, trying to own, or using meetups across Northern Ireland.
Create a conference bringing together cross-functional disciplines (ie: product, project, security, testing, engineering, Linux, Windows, electronics, OSS, licensing, etc.), projects and ideas.	Create a conference focused only on mainstream topics.
Create a conference raising the profiles of people, meetups and companies from across Northern Ireland.	Create a conference prioritising international speakers and companies with no presence in Northern Ireland.
Create a conference with low barriers to get involved in any part of the conference, based on people’s interests. (get creative, invest in people!)	Create a conference with high barriers to entry, gatekeeping opportunities to take part behind invisible walls.
Create a conference you want to go to with your friends, family and colleagues.	Create a conference you wouldn’t go to with your friends, family and colleagues.

Each year, we learned a bit more. Tried something new, and found new ways to make it a little bit more exciting. The 4 tracks of technical talks, the hands-on workshops, the villages run by local community groups. I’d say it’s coming together okay 😜

This year it’s the 10th anniversary conference. In the past 10 years amazing things happened in the tech community in Northern Ireland, not just at NIDC. That’s why this year is about celebrating this wonderful decade of tech community.

You’ll hear more soon. But for now, I hope it paints a picture of what kind of Community Interest Company we’d like it to be.

Ready to write the next chapter?

That’s the story we’ve got so far. If you can see yourself writing the next chapter as a Marketing Director, or leading the team as the next CEO, you know what to do.

Or, come along as a volunteer.

Come to the conference

Agenda is announced on Friday, 11th September at 10am. General availability tickets, including honesty tickets and childcare, go on sale at the same time.

Remind me when the agenda is outPreview the agenda →

We are Becoming a Community Interest Company, and recruiting a CEO