IT community from Central Asia: QAZAQ IT Community

Aigerim Kilybayeva, city — Almaty, CEO of QAZAQ IT Community, LinkedIn, Instagram

About the Community

QAZAQ IT Community is the largest IT community in Kazakhstan, established on January 12, 2023, with the goal of uniting IT industry specialists, facilitating knowledge exchange, networking, and developing partnerships. Initially, the community was named Almaty IT Community, but it was renamed to emphasize its national scale and mission. The founder of the community is Asem Bolatjan, Advisor to the Minister of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Our community is actively developing, creating unique opportunities for the professional growth of IT specialists.

QAZAQ IT strives to become a key platform for IT specialists in Kazakhstan, contributing to their professional development, knowledge and experience exchange, creation of new projects, and strengthening ties within the industry. We are actively working to popularize the IT industry in Kazakhstan, attracting young people to the industry, organizing events aimed at improving participants' qualifications, stimulating cooperation between different IT companies, and supporting innovative projects.

Community Members

IT specialists of various levels join the community, from top management of companies to regular employees of corporations. These include developers, analysts, project managers, designers, cybersecurity specialists, as well as students, startup founders, and beginner IT professionals. Currently, QAZAQ IT Community has more than 4,000 members in Almaty and Astana. You can join us by filling out an application on our official website.

Events for Community Members

We organize free events such as meetups, conferences, hackathons, workshops, business breakfasts, IT GORELNIK, career guidance events, and much more. Key events include QAZAQ IT Awards — an award recognizing the best IT specialists and projects, as well as global forums and educational programs. Also, our recent and important initiative was the Smart Jumys project — a career map project for anyone who wants to know their level of competencies in IT and receive personalized consultation from top HR professionals in IT.

Our events are open to everyone interested in IT and wanting to develop in this field.

How the Community Helps with Development

We create educational and networking opportunities, conduct masterclasses, discuss technological trends with the participation of experts from leading companies, and implement mentoring programs. Community members can find partners for their projects, exchange experiences with colleagues, receive mentoring support, and develop professional skills.

Successful Projects

Over two years of operation, we have implemented many projects, each of which is important and has great significance for the growth and development of digital Kazakhstan. Together, we have held more than 60 events, collaborating with the Ministry of Digital Development, the Almaty Akimat, universities, and leading IT companies.

For example, one of the significant projects is career guidance meetups "Find Your Path in IT," where experts share their experience with high school students and help participants determine their career vector.

Plans

In the near future, we plan to expand the geography of our community by creating regional offices in other cities of Kazakhstan. We also intend to increase the number of educational events, launch mentoring programs, practical projects with schoolchildren, and not leave without attention the organization of leisure activities for QAZAQ IT members. To implement these plans, we will continue to attract new activists and partners, collaborate with government bodies, educational institutions, and IT companies.

Always open to collaborations and happy to cooperate!