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SMU x BuildingBloCS Singapore Nationwide Tech Conference 2025 🤝 #183969
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🎓 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:
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:
A student from Hwa Chong Institution told me afterward:
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, Nanyang Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Institute of Technical Education, and Anderson Junior College.
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:
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:
The moments that landed weren’t the slides. They were the stories, and the time spent answering questions after sessions ended.
Students who couldn’t be on-site were still able to join, ask questions, and take part meaningfully.
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:
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.
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