🎓 Stepping Behind the Scenes of a Nationwide Tech Conference

300+ students, 1 week, 10 workshops, and what it took to support it as a Campus Expert

Hi everyone, I'm melvincwng. 👋

Over the past few years, I’ve supported students and educators through open-source programs (Your First Open Source Project on GitHub), university partnerships (NUS and Singapore Polytechnic), and youth-led tech initiatives as a GitHub Campus Expert and Developer Advocate. Much of that work involves helping first-time contributors get started, supporting large-scale student events, and creating spaces where learning and collaboration come first. I’ve added links at the end for anyone who wants more context on my work as a Developer Advocate. 😄

In December 2025, I supported and closed out the SMU × BuildingBloCS Nationwide Tech Conference 2025, one of the largest youth-led tech conferences I have been part of. I wanted to share what I learned, in case it helps others in the GitHub community take ideas, adapt them, and maybe even run something similar.

Organizing Partner: BuildingBloCS – Singapore’s largest run computer science education organization for Secondary Schools to Universities islandwide! Thank you to all 100+ in-person participants and 200+ virtual participants for joining our tech conference, SMU × BuildingBloCS Nationwide Tech Conference 2025, over the past 1 week!

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A Full Week of Community Learning with 300+ Participants

From 8th to 15th of December 2025, over 300 students joined the conference through a hybrid format, with more than 100 onsite at SMU School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) and over 200 online. Students came from more than 50 schools and IT clubs across Singapore.

The conference included:

• 10+ workshops
• Sponsor sharing sessions
• A hackathon
• A closing keynote (mine!)
• A prize ceremony and networking

What made it meaningful wasn’t just the numbers, but who showed up and why they felt comfortable doing so. With no prerequisites, a mix of competitive and exploratory sessions, and a hybrid format that lowered barriers to participation, students with very different starting points learned together.

That included:

🎯 Olympiad track students
🎯 STEM students from Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institution, and NUS High
🎯 High-achieving STEM students from neighbourhood schools
🎯 Students from secondary school, JC, IP, polytechnic, ITE, and university, all learning side by side

To me, that diversity is where the magic happened. Some students came ready to win competitions, while others simply wanted to see what coding feels like. By offering beginner, intermediate, and advanced workshops in parallel, the conference created space for all levels to belong, allowing students to engage at their own pace while sharing a common learning environment.

🏫 Hosting at SMU – and a Tiny Detail That Surprised Me

Hosting the conference at the SMU School of Computing and Information Science worked well for a week-long hybrid programme. The venue was central, easy to reach for students travelling across Singapore, and comfortable for long sessions.

One small detail that stood out during the week – we never needed microphones, yet everyone could hear clearly. It made me appreciate how much the choice of room can shape the experience. That was one of many small planning decisions that made a big difference.

🧠 My Role Beyond the Keynote

As a Developer Advocate, my role at the conference wasn’t just to give a keynote. It was about showing up for students and helping them feel seen, supported, inspired, and capable of doing more with tech.

During the week, this took the form of practical guidance, hands-on experience, and activities that helped students explore real developer pathways:

• Recognising effort over outcomes: When presenting awards to the top hackathon teams, I focused on collaboration, creativity, and effort rather than just who won. This showed that meaningful work is about growth, not only results, and is something anyone running competitions or classrooms can apply by acknowledging effort at every level.
• Direct engagement to demystify careers: Spending extended time at the GitHub booth allowed students to ask candid questions about developer careers and what being a Developer Advocate involves day-to-day. Initiating these conversations early helps create approachable touchpoints for students or peers exploring new roles.
• Practical, ready-to-use guidance: In the Career-Ready resume session, I emphasised concrete changes students could implement right away rather than generic advice. Structuring sessions around actionable takeaways is a simple way anyone can make workshops feel more valuable.
• Inviting authentic voices: Bringing in Mr. Ian Pang to share his career journey gave students a grounded, real-world perspective. Including external voices who can honestly share trade-offs helps learners connect theory to reality and can be applied in any mentorship or learning programme.
• Hands-on tool demonstrations: Live GitHub Copilot demos and sharing my own experience with the GitHub Student Developer Pack showed students how tools translate into productivity and opportunities. Demonstrating tools rather than just describing them creates engagement and confidence for others to try them independently.
• Interactive problem-solving frameworks: Walking 300+ participants through an AI/ML framework with quizzes and prizes, including a surprise university-level chemistry question, sparked curiosity and active learning. Incorporating gamified elements or cross-disciplinary questions can make technical learning more memorable.
• Extending impact beyond the event: Publishing post-event write-ups ensured the learning and visibility didn’t stop with the conference. Sharing outcomes and reflections publicly is an easy way for anyone to amplify impact and provide a model for others.

A student from Hwa Chong Institution told me afterward:

“I really loved your keynote speech. Thanks for showing an alternative path to tech. It’s really inspiring how someone from Pharmacy & Medicine pivoted to Technology, and still continues to thrive in both healthcare and IT domains.”

Raffles Institution students were amazed and asked for advice on time management, which sparked a small discussion on prioritizing tasks, balancing focus, and protecting deep work.

I also took the opportunity to provide additional mentoring and Q&A sessions outside the keynote, responding to students’ questions about my experience founding startups and building tech communities.

📸 Photos Snapshot

Here’s a quick visual highlight of the conference:

Keynote Address for the SMU x BuildingBloCS Nationwide Tech Conference - where I served as the Closing Keynote Speaker

Keynote Address Topic:

A Cross-Disciplinary Educational Journey in Asia’s Top University: From NUS Pharmacy → NUS Medicine → NUS Systems Science

Inviting Mr. Ian Pang, our Guest Speaker at Singapore Management University (School of Computing & Information Systems), introducing him and his profession as a hybrid Data Analytics Professional (UBS Investment Banking)

Our Guest Speaker, Mr. Ian Pang, and I are delivering Software Engineering and Data Analytics career advice and sharing our experiences in tech

GitHub Swag & Prizes to be won!

GitHub Plushies to be won!

I share my journey through NUS Pharmacy, NUS Medicine, and NUS Systems Science during my undergraduate and postgraduate journey at Asia’s Top University (QS #1 Asia, QS #8 Global)

Here, I share my NUS Pharmacy experience and how the program developed my scientific, systematic, and analytical thinking skills, which are relevant and useful in the tech industry. Many students were also interested in pursuing a career in healthcare and sought advice from me as well.

I share my NUS Medicine experience and how it paved the way towards a future tech career. A number of students demonstrated strong interest in medical careers and engaged in thoughtful discussions to seek advice on their next steps.

In this photo, I share my NUS Systems Science experience and wisdom, where I graduated as the Valedictorian with Distinction (Most Outstanding Postgraduate Student, Top in Subject - Machine Learning, Top in Class Quizzes)

Pictured here are the participants and me. As a passionate developer advocate, I strongly believe my mission is to inspire and empower others through technology and education. I call myself a TECHnologist, focusing on Technology, Education, Community, and Healthcare.

Here, I lecture about AI/ML and GenAI tools (GitHub Copilot) to 300+ participants (in-person & virtual), educating participants on how to use AI/ML and GenAI to solve real-world problems and build impactful projects.

A lecture on AI/ML and using it to solve business problems.

Participants having fun with the AI/ML and Chemistry quizzes. Kudos to the brave participants who stepped up and challenged themselves to take on the tough AI/ML and chemistry quizzes that I set. Quiz participants came from a wide range of schools, including top colleges such as Raffles Institution and polytechnics such as Singapore Polytechnic.

Networking sessions at the GitHub booth, which had the most traffic among all sponsors.

During Networking Session 2, Mr. Ian Pang and I saw the highest turnout, with many participants approaching us for questions regarding academic and career advice. The networking participants came from and represented a variety of schools. Notable schools included Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institution, NUS High School of Math and Science, St. Joseph's Institution, Nanyang Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Institute of Technical Education, Anderson Junior College, Eunoia Junior College, NUS, NTU, SMU, SUSS, SUTD, and SIT.

Mr. Ian Pang (SMU)	Mr. Melvin Ng (SMU)

Mr. Ian Pang and I would like to thank Singapore Management University (SMU) for the partnership and the opportunity to share our experiences with so many like-minded, high-achieving STEM students across Singapore. Seeing these bright, ambitious students brought back memories of our own journey as young “high flyers” back then, and reminded us how exciting and inspiring that path can be.

Thank you message to all our participants (in-person and virtual) for the SMU x BuildingBloCS Tech Conference by Mr. Melvin Ng, RPh

Inspirational message to all 300+ participants of the SMU x BuildingBloCS Nationwide Tech Conference, by Mr. Melvin Ng, RPh

A big thank you to all our sponsors for making this event happen

Image credits: Artwork by Yueyi (Raffles Institution, H3 Arts)

📌 Wins and Reflections

What Worked Well

A few things stood out over the course of the week.

Engagement stayed high even across 7 days, with students regularly staying back after sessions to ask questions or continue conversations. The hybrid format also made a real difference, allowing students who couldn’t attend in person due to venue limits to still take part meaningfully.

Behind the scenes, the organising team operated with strong ownership and discipline. Brief daily check-ins kept expectations clear, surfaced issues early, and enabled quick adjustments across logistics and hybrid delivery. Thorough upfront planning minimised friction during live sessions, allowing the team to stay focused on the student experience. Most importantly, everyone consistently went beyond their roles to support students, speakers, and one another.

A Challenge and a Lesson

One real challenge was maintaining energy levels over the full week, for both participants and organizers. Seven days is a long time to stay fully present.

We managed this by pacing the programme deliberately, rotating responsibilities where possible, and prioritising what truly needed focus each day. Accepting that not everything had to be perfect helped the team conserve energy while maintaining a high-quality experience. The key lesson was that sustaining performance over long programmes requires intentional energy management, not just effort.

💬 Student Feedback That Stuck With Me

A few pieces of feedback stayed with me long after the conference ended.

One student shared how seeing a non-linear path into tech helped reframe what a career in technology could look like:

"Your keynote showed me that technology doesn’t have to follow a straight path. Seeing your journey across Pharmacy, Medicine, and Technology is truly inspiring."

Others were more focused on the day-to-day and how to keep going without burning out:

“How do you manage your time so effectively? Your approach motivates me to do more."

Some of the feedback was also about what suddenly felt possible, especially around contributing and using new tools.

• "Thank you for showing that students can meaningfully contribute to open-source projects too."

• "Thanks for demonstrating the tremendous potential of GitHub Copilot – it’s changing how I think about productivity."

• "I love the GitHub Student Developer Pack and all its benefits – thanks for sharing it with us!"

I’m grateful to have played a small part in helping students, many of them top-performing STEM and Olympiad competitors, see more possibilities for themselves in tech and feel confident exploring them.

🤝 Community Collaboration (Gratitude & Shout-Outs)

Huge appreciation to:

• Qin Zixi (Raffles Institution), Yueyi (Raffles Institution), Saumil (Bukit Batok Secondary), Aksharaa (Cedar Girls Secondary), Zulfaqar (Spectra Secondary & Institute of Technical Education – cool projects btw!), An Yi (Hwa Chong Institution) & the other brilliant youth organizers from BuildingBloCS.
• Mr. Ian Pang – for giving up personal time, sharing reality-based Data Analytics insights
• The GitHub Education and Community team for providing support to the event.
• And finally, a thank you to BuildingBloCS, Singapore’s largest computing advocacy organization, for the invitation to collaborate on such a meaningful nationwide tech conference! Over the past nine years, their work across Singapore has supported more than 3,500 students from over 70 educational institutions and tech communities. It was a privilege to be part of that ongoing effort.

This conference was also supported by our incredible partners, including the Ministry of Education (MOE), the National Institute of Education (NIE), SMU, CSIT, YouthTech.sg, Espressif, HTX, WizardZines, DDAS, and SingaPrinting.

🌱 What I’ll Carry Into the Next One

A few things stayed with me from the week:

• Students connect most with people, not perfection.
  The moments that landed weren’t the slides. They were the stories, and the time spent answering questions after sessions ended.
• Hybrid formats lower the barrier to participation.
  Students who couldn’t be on-site were still able to join, ask questions, and take part meaningfully.
• Mindset mattered more than any formal title.
  Going into the week with the intention to serve and enable as a Developer Advocate meant putting students first and spending time where it was most useful to them.

This was the largest technology conference I’ve had the privilege to support! It reminded me that community is built by people who keep showing up and choose to make space for others to do the same.

If you’ve ever thought about running a tech event, big or small:

• What’s the one thing that’s held you back so far?

Or if you’ve done it, what’s one tip you’d give someone doing it for the first time?

If you feel like sharing, post a comment below. I'd love to learn about your experiences running or thinking about running a tech event.

About Me: I’m Melvin Ng (@melvincwng), a Developer Advocate and GitHub Campus Expert 🚩 based in Singapore 🇸🇬 working with student communities around open source, AI-assisted development, and community-led learning. Over the years, I’ve supported 15+ tech events, delivered keynotes, spoken at conferences across multiple countries, and worked with over 1,000 developers from more than 160 institutions and 175 tech communities.

Links to my work and communities are shared below for anyone curious to learn more.

• LinkedIn
• Your First Open Source Project (YFOSP)
• YFOSP Community Website
• GitHub Profile
• Portfolio Website