2023: Year In Review
Published: 2024-01-18 06:30:00

A bit late in the new year already to talk about the past one, but I suppose it's important to keep track of the year and this is what this yearly post update is all about. 
Not going to keep this list in a particular order, but adding pointers to make things easier out here! 

- The year 2023 started with a trip to IIT Bombay, the dream campus of every JEE aspirant in India. I stayed at the campus hostel for around 3-4 days, attending the Entrepreneur Summit '23. Exploring the campus for days and nights and wandering around it was a beautiful start to the year. Also got the chance to watch my favorite comedians Akash Gupta and Biswa Kalyan Rath perform live during the event.
- Attended my first In-person hackathon this year: Hack This Fall. HTF was the best in-person hackathon I've ever attended to this day. During those 36 hours filled with caffeine and code, I hardly slept for some 3-4 hours and loved the experience. We also won one of the track prizes and I also got the chance to represent the GitHub booth being a GitHub campus expert.
- Not too long after HTF, I attended another in-person hackathon in Bhopal this time, organized by E-Cell NIT Bhopal. Also got the chance to witness Ashneer Grover performing live at the event!
- One of my biggest community achievements this year was being able to host central India's biggest UX Meetup in Bhopal! Found some great speakers, and sponsors. Would surely classify this as one of the best events I could be a part of.
- Apart from the UX Meetup, I got the chance to host a plethora of other in-person events this year, including Bhopal FOSS, DevFest Bhopal, Solana Developers Tour Bhopal, and more. Also got to join WittyHacks hackathon as an organizer and represented GitHub!
- Started the first web3 community in Bhopal, known as Bhopal DAO. Since the onset of the first event known as Web3 Connect Bhopal, we've added so much more to the community, including the Push tour in Bhopal and more IRL and online events.
- Made some in-person talks this year by joining as a speaker at DurgFOSS, ChatGPT Chronicles at LNCT Bhopal, and more. Had my first flight while traveling for DurgFOSS!
- Graduated as a Google Developer Student Club Lead this year! Had an amazing graduation party in Bangalore with all the GDSC Leads and bid farewell to the program!
- Not too long after graduation from GDSC, started the Tensorflow User Group in Bhopal, looking forward to hosting its first in-person event in 2024!
- Became a Microsoft Windows Insider MVP, got some amazing goodies, and interacted with the community!
- Attended many more Web3 Hackathons hosted online, including Eth4All, Scaling Ethereum, NFT.Nyc by 5ireChain, EthDubai x Sushiswap, Flow Hackathon and more.
Also won a bounty of around 750 USD at the NFT.Nyc Hackathon along with some other bounties at other hackathons!
- Attended web3conf Goa! Visited Goa for the first time!
- Found a Freelancing Flutter gig at an IRL event and been still working on the gig since then.
- Interned at Persistent System through their Martian Internship program where I got trained in Python.
- We started Dzyencrew, a small design agency focused on Freelancing.
- I completed 7 Semesters of my bachelor's in Technology, and I have some 5 months left before graduation now!

2023 has been a year filled with exploring new technologies such as Blockchain and Generative AI while making roots deeper into the known tech such as Flutter and Android Development.
From a community leader's perspective, 2023 has been the best - the maximum amount of events have been hosted this year and I pretty much hope this trend can only go higher in the upcoming years!