Cleveland Tech is not Dead!
January 19, 2026Tags: careers
While I was at CodeMash 2026, I had someone come up to me and tell me that the Cleveland tech community is dead. I knew that they were either not from around here or not connected to the right people. (And funny that they tell me this? 🤔) So let’s set some things straight.
Where are the groups?
Some of these groups meet in-person. Some of these may be virtual only. However, these groups still exist and have meetups going on!
- AI Woodstock CLE
- Akron AITP
- Akron Game Developers - Not just Cleveland, but Northeast Ohio!
- Akron Makerspace
- Azure Cleveland
- Beyond Code - formerly DevOpsCLE
- Cleveland AI & Data
- Cleveland C# User Group
- Cleveland CocoaHeads
- Cleveland Game Devs
- Cleveland Python User Group
- Cleveland Salesforce Developer Group
- CWRU Girls Who Code
- ISC2 Cleveland
- Open Cleveland
- ProductTank Cleveland
- The Ingeneers - Cleveland’s Creative Collaborative
- UX Akron
And from some other groups….
- Google Developer Group Cleveland - These guys are dealing with life things but not completely dead. I do chat with them and know they want to bring this back.
- CleRb (Cleveland Ruby) - Josh Schramm was trying to get this back up and running. So if anyone is interested in Ruby, he’s the one to reach out to!
But wait… there’s more! Events!
And the user groups aren’t just the only things going on - there are still community events happening too!
- BSides CLE
- Cleveland Global Game Jam
- Cleveland GiveCamp
- Ingenuity Cleveland
- EmpowerED Maker Challenge - a maker hackathon held at St. Ed’s High School in collaboration with Youth Challenge
Why did you stop doing Cleveland Tech Events?
So there were many reasons why I stopped this…
- I had family to tend to. My family is more important to me than dealing with commmunity drama. Hands down - I DO NOT LIKE DRAMA. So I will walk away to spend my time in better ways. No regrets.
- I got tired of that guy in the audience who didn’t like how I was doing things. This is the reality of community work. There are people who appreciate you, and then there are those who just want to complain about everything. There are some with excellent suggestions. But also, they realize that I’m human and can only do so much. I got tired of the complaints. See the first point about not liking drama.
Conclusion
Cleveland Tech isn’t dead. It’s still as spread out as it was when I started Cleveland Tech Events in the 00s. You just have to know where to look. Or… be connected with someone in the know.