Kerry Kidd, owner of RaspiKidd, gives us an insight as to what it is she does and how she got her business started.
What was the inspiration behind RaspiKidd?
RaspiKidd started off as a hobby, I loved tinkering, learning and programming the Raspberry Pi computer, which led me to find like-minded people and start running Raspberry Jams and volunteering at Code Club. Through this time people started to ask me to go and do talks and workshops using the Raspberry Pi, so I started doing this freelance, which also then led me to volunteer within the youth zone at Mozilla Festival in London from 2016-2019.
From MozFest I met so many like-minded people from a variety of different backgrounds. This also took me onto volunteering at The Young Coders Conference within the Tate Modern in London, where I helped coordinate the 2-day event, where we had young people from 10-16 creating workshops within groups of 4 with a mentor using the BBC micro:biy=t on day 1 to actually running these workshops to the general public on Day 2.
This is the first time I had really seen what the BBC micro: bit could be used for. I went home and did some digging to find there weren't many resources available and wanted to change this. I got in touch with Joshua Lowe, one of the young coders from the conference and pitch the idea for a magazine all about the BBC micro: bit, and this is where my second business was formed - micro: mag.
Within a few months, we released our first issue of micro:mag not knowing how popular it was going to be, at this time micro:mag was created within Google Slides as we had no budget or experience of design software.
We have come a long way within a short two years to now have companies advertising within the magazine and sending us products to review.
What products and services do you offer?
The products and services I offer under RaspiKidd are doing talks and conducting workshops using all of my own materials. Just before lockdown, I ran a two-day workshop within the V&A in Dundee doing robotics using the BBC micro:bits.
Under micro:mag we run print runs of the magazine as well as a free PDF every 3 months we hope to be doing more under the micro:mag brand very soon.
Do you have any future goals in the works?
I am currently working on turning RaspiKidd tutorials into videos as some people prefer visual learning rather than a lot of text.
As for micro:mag we have a few ideas that we would like to do, but before we can take the magazine any further, we need to grow our team.
Josh and I do this completely voluntary, so we can't put as much time into it as we would like.
Does your company have much involvement with the local community?
I try to do as much as I can within the local community by running the CoderDoJo within Dundee central library. I was also booked to do a few workshops this year but obviously, a lot of these have been cancelled.
What is the importance of introducing children to technology?
It is important to introduce children to technology because it is getting used more and more within Education, not just within Computing, programming or engineering. The whole curriculum and gives children access to information they might not necessarily have access to otherwise.
As a woman in STEM, what do you think could be done to encourage more females to pursue a career in this field?
This is a difficult one, as you can't make people interested in STEM. If they already have a slight interest, I think they need to see and hear from other females that are active within STEM to show them that it is possible.
Do you have any advice for people interested in starting up their own business?
Just go for it, you don't know how well it will do until you try. Also, we are lucky within Dundee as there is the Women's Business Station who run workshops and networking events for female entrepreneurs.
Where can people interested in your business find you?
People can find me at @RaspiKidd on most social media platforms. Kerry Kidd on LinkedIn or email me at kerry@raspikidd.com. You can also find my tutorials and blog at raspikidd.com
You can also find micro:mag at @micro_mag on Twitter The micro:mag on Facebook and if you want to write an article or find out about volunteering for micro:mag email us at hello@micromag.cc The magazine can be found at micromag.cc
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