Everyone knows where and what Silicon Valley is, but not everyone knows, here in Wollongong, we have a thriving and supportive tech community called Siligong Valley… Founder, Dave Elkan, says they started the grass-roots community because they felt the need to connect people who were working in tech companies in Wollongong, whether they were based here, commuting from here or remote working for companies across the world.
“I think Wollongong presents a really amazing opportunity for people to have fantastic work-life balance, and they can grow their business here and they can have their families here, they can put them through education here.”
— Nathan Harper, Founder – Finlert, AhoyAhoy & Beermogul Games
Today, Siligong Valley is a group of passionate tech professionals, digital marketers and entrepreneurs promoting the growing tech industry in Wollongong. It is backed by local businesses large and small including the likes of Accello, Beer Mogul, and Easy Agile.
“The tech industry in Wollongong has gone from a couple of niche small companies doing tech to now, companies that have really become worldwide Technology companies running worldwide from Wollongong.”
— Justin Urbanski, Engineering Manager at Scalapay
Siligong has grown into a massive, welcoming community that hosts regular meetups to discuss a broad range of topics from User Experience to JavaScript, marketing, Python, product development, infrastructure as Code, Agile Software Development, Renewable Energy and even business in general.
The Community has a thriving Slack channel buzzing with questions, advice, work opportunities, brain storming – it even has a book club. The slack channel boasts a membership of 1617 members, including some Alumni who have moved away (some even overseas) but stay connected. It’s still growing as new people discover the gold it has to offer.
It’s great to know you have a community that has your back and will support you. Siligong Valley is a Wollongong gem that benefits people, businesses big and small, start-ups and scale ups.
