Opening speech at Code Week Hungary Conference, October 8th

Publication date: October 21, 2022

By Attila Főző László Zsolt Jánossy, EU Code Week Ambassadors in Hungary 

“We wish all weeks of the year would be Code Week!” 

This message could be the motto of the official opening of the EU Code week in Hungary. 

A conference was held in Budapest, Hungary to open Code Week 2022. We wanted to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the European Code Week in Hungary with this event – Code Week Hungary Conference – which took place Saturday 8 October 2022.  

The conference was intended to address all people, with a special focus on teachers interested in the development of competences of young children, students and adults related to algorithmic thinking, coding and programming, with the aim of making them more popular. This successful event helped in that sense and also contributed to give more visibility to Code Week, while allowing people to learn and have fun at the same time.  

Annika Östergren Pofantis, EU Code Week coordinator, greeted the participants of the conference via a video message and then four speeches were given in the plenary session of the conference. The opening session was followed by sharing innovative practices related to algorithmic thinking, coding and robotics (12 best practices in 3 sections). Whereas in the afternoon workshops (9 workshops in 4 sections) were held, where colleagues were able to try and work with various tools, methods and gadgets in practice.  

Companies selling products for education had stands and exhibited their EdTech devices for the participants of the conference. The conference ended with a draw, and lots of lucky participants left the conference with some gifts offered by the sponsors. 

The conference was just one element of all the activities we have been organizing for the Code Week in Hungary; a series of webinars has been organized to inform teachers and all people interested, about the Code Week initiatives and present best practices in various coding related topics. In addition competitions for participating schools and teachers were announced at the conference with valuable prizes, including a national flash mob! 

The answers given by participants on the feedback forms proved that the conference was successful, which hopefully will result in having more and more teachers, schools, companies and institutions who will be willing to be part of this great project and enthusiastic about organising events for Code Week 2022 and 2023. 

Program of the conference 

Plenary Sessions 

• Welcome speech (vide message, Annika Östergren Pofantis, EU Code Week coordinator 
• Robotics without robots?! – The use of simulations (not only) during Code Week, Andor Abonyi-Tóth, PhD, Eötvös Lorand University, Faculty of IT 
• Green Code – Coding for tomorrow, A competition for schools on sustainability, Dorka Váczi, Vodafone Hungary Foundation and Roland Dési, Vodafone Hungary 
•  Code Week 2022, Főző Attila László, PhD and Zsolt Jánossy Code Week ambassadors 
• AI, got it? – AI at Trax, Krisztián Tronka, PhD 

Sharing Innovative Practices (in 3 sections) 

Topics covered: 

• Future Cities 
• Let’s Play with Codes 
• Robotics in Libraries 
• International Cooperation during Code Week 
• Coding in Maths 
• Magician is wanted 
• Code at night 
• A week of coding #petrikcodeweek 
• Game of Drones 
• Social and emotional education in STEAM projects 
• How you are developed by the LEGO robot 
• Best practice with LEGO Education products 

 Workshops with hands-on activities (in 4 sections) 

• Paper piano with mico:bit 
• Robots and VR 
• AI in our everyday life 
• Scottie Go! 
• Unplugged coding 
• 10 years with Lego robots – Competitions 
• Enjoy coding with Ottodiy 
• Draw on your smartphone with App Inventor 
• Fly with me – Drones 

 Exhibitors 

• #újpedagógia 
• Hello World Egyesület 
• Raabe Klett Oktatási Tanácsadó és Kiadó Kft. 
• Vígvári Rendszerház Kft. 
• Somogyi Károly Városi és Megyei Könyvtár, Szeged 

Draw (Lucky participants could win some gifts.)