Today, Osedea turns 10. We are reflecting on all the beautiful memories, great accomplishments and wonderful moments spent with our team, our clients and our contributors. Here are some of the highlights we would like to share with you to celebrate this milestone.
Code in the Dark
Organizing Code in the Dark Event in Montréal was one of the most wonderful experiences for our team. It’s a live front-end competition where the winner takes 3000$. And it’s a great way to connect with our community and bring anyone passionate about technology together.
The concept originated in Sweden in 2013, and it took off across the globe. We brought it to Montreal in 2017, with our first edition and close to 100 attendees. Our last edition was in fall 2019 with close to 300 attendees and about 60 competitors. We even exported the event to our Nantes office in 2019. We can’t wait to organize Code in the Dark again, hopefully next year (pandemic pending).
Being among the first to market in React Native in MTL
Over the past 10 years, we’ve contributed to a wide range of mobile projects for our clients. Did you know that we were among the first software development companies to use React Native in Montréal?
Seems like yesterday, but in 2014 we were React Native newbies. Our team seized this opportunity early on to become a leader in mobile and be able to service our clients looking to meet their digital goals through a performant and high-quality mobile application. With the help of one of the best coaches, Joshua Sierles, we jumped into the world of React Native. (Side note: Joshua came all the way from Spain to coach us!)
It’s a ton of fun to look back at the success of our React Native adventures. We’ve built a variety of mobile apps using this technology for many industries: Live TV, Radio, Museum, Health Care, Agriculture. Our team of pros has given multiple conferences on React Native locally, but also in Poland, France and the US.
See some of the great projects we worked on our project page.
Our team trips
One of the best things of the past 10 years? Working and getting to know an amazing group of individuals. Our team trips were one of the best ways to boost our team spirit and get to know colleagues. They created an opportunity for our team to establish bonds of friendship that will enrich their personal and professional lives and allow them to build a sense of belonging to the group of people they work with.
Our first team trip was in 2014 to San Francisco, for the TechCrunch Hackathon. In 2016, we found ourselves in wonderful Jamaica, enjoying the island life and beautiful landscapes. Our most recent one was in 2018, when we took the team to Lisbon. For more detailed information about this wonderful adventure, take a look at our blog post on How playing hooky in Portugal helped us improve our bottom line.
Some of our favorite memories with the team were forged during these trips. They have definitely defined Osedea and contributed to our growth.
Opening an office in France
We’ve had clients in other countries right in the early years of Osedea. But the born-global moment really rang for us when we officially opened our France office in Nantes in 2019. Thanks to Adrien and Sébastien, and the whole France team, who have been working hard to make our Nantes office successful.
We are extremely proud to be part of the Nantes Tech Community. Nantes is a vibrant city with great technical talent. We knew it was a great choice when in 2019, the European commission named Nantes “Europe’s Capital of Innovation”.
We have collaborated with some amazing clients in France: Altavia, Soleo, Vyv3, and many more. Our team is 15 strong after two years, and we look forward to continuing the growth of our France office as well as expanding into the UK market in the next few months. Our international strategy has broadened our horizons and has been a rewarding journey in Osedea’s growth.
Programming and Design School
From day one, we always believed in giving back to our community. Our first office was located in the up and coming neighbourhood of Saint-Henri in Montréal. While our neighbourhood was cool, with trendy restaurants, we saw the data that the local high school had one of the highest dropout rates in Montréal. Wanting to help the local youth remain we launched our programming and design school with our local high school.
Our main goal with this initiative is to spark students’ interest in the technical fields of programming and UX-UI design, inspire them to continue their education in a technical field at the post-secondary level, and maybe even aspire to careers in technology.
Since we launched the program in 2016, we’ve helped over 70 students learn more about technology and see that there are interesting future careers in our field. This initiative is one of which our team is the most proud of from the past 10 years. We look forward to hosting the next edition.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to Osedea’s success over the past years!
