How Meet and Code 2020 looked like?

Meet and Code 2020 has come to an end and we couldn't be more proud of you!

#meetandcode #meetandcode2020
25.11.2020

The outcome of this year's edition exceeded our expectations.
In 2020, Meet and Code extended its reach, included new countries, established new partnerships, new Award category and adjusted to the challenging reality of 2020 - Meet and Code went online.

NEW PARTNERSHIP
We could share the joy of coding thanks to the help of the program’s newly appointed partner, Germany‘s Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI).
On 1 July 2020, Germany assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). Among the BMI goals for 2020, there is digital transformation and fostering a strong European society. This is why their presence is so valuable for Meet and Code.

NEW COUNTRIES, NEW CATEGORIES
BMI’s support contributed and made it possible to extend the project’s scope across the whole Europe, implementing the 2020 edition in 35 countries.
Also, this year we added a new category to Meet and Code Award - Code for Europe, focused on safe and responsible online media use, tackling disinformation and combating fake news.

FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE
The new reality of the Covid pandemic revolutionized not only our project, but the whole world. Within weeks, every institution, company, brand and school needed to adjust to the digital environment.

Meet and Code’s goal of the year was to ensure the highest possible level of safety to all the participants and organizers, that’s why the whole project moved online. However, we knew that learning together online is different from learning in real-time. To support the nonprofits taking part in this year’s edition, we not only created a guide (HOW TO TAKE MEET AND CODE ONLINE: PDF GUIDE), but also organized a series of webinars (Online seminar: From Offline to Online) to make sure that our NGOs have all the tools and resources they need.

We’re extremely glad that we managed to organize over one thousand events with a couple of hundreds of NGOs making sure that everybody was safe! Well, how many events did we exactly organize?

Meet and Code 2020 in NUMEBRS:
As you can see on the blogpost's header, the numbers are truly impressive. Despite numerous difficulties and challenges, we managed to:

get 1750 applications
grant 1324 events
from 679 NPOs
for 39 604 participants

Did you know that....

more than 50% of participants of this year's edition were girls!
more than 83% of our 2020 participants would like to take part in our events next year!
66% of the events were only possible because of the funding and would have not taken place otherwise

What our particiapants say about this year's edition?

I learned a lot about coding, now I can make informed decisions about my future. I will continue my explorations in the field of informatics and IT.
My mum was following the classes together with me. She liked it, and she tried to do some coding by herself, too.
It was the first time I spoke English with young people my age!
We have learned something for life!

What's next in Meet and Code?

The answer is simple - MEET AND CODE AWARD!
All the events that met the principles of the Award are now being carefully reviews and commented by our jury. Be patient and wait for the results, it's worth it!