Author

Simon Wellesley-Miller

Published

November 14, 2023

Modified

July 27, 2024

Coffee and Code is an informal community gathering where people can come together to learn, share, and collaborate on all things R. People can give presentations on their work, ask questions, and share resources. The goal of Coffee and Code is to create a supportive and inclusive environment where everyone can feel comfortable asking for help and sharing their knowledge.

Coffee and Code is open to people of all skill levels, from beginners to experienced R users. The sessions are a great way to learn new things, meet other people who are interested in R, and get help with your own projects.

When is coffee and code?

It is an hour every other Friday at 11:00 – 12:00.

Who is it aimed at?

Everyone of course. We did a rough and self-determined straw poll. About 40% said they were beginners, 45% intermediate and 15% advanced. So please don’t feel that it is any way elitist.

What do the sessions look like?

They are all different, the whole thing is organic, and we don’t have a strict agenda.

A rough agenda

We have a set of rules

No subject is too simple, and we all know there are many ways to program and quite often someone will post a link to a shortcut or a library to make life easier.

It is a very friendly atmosphere, and we try to be as inclusive as possible to whatever level you are at. This is all about sharing those little hints, tips and discoveries to make life easier.

When we do run tutorials we publish our code, with reproducible examples if possible.

What are our goals?

We want to have set space where we can get together as a community. This also means we link with other communities such as Analyst X, RAP and NHS-R. This helps to maintain the strong networking and positive momentum that are hallmarks of the NHS R community.

A strong community also gives us a strong voice. This is important to support those struggling with installation issues or getting the right training or all the weird and wonderful things that challenge us. It means we can identify training needs and help commission new courses.

Going to say it again three times because it is super important – community, community and community!

What have you missed?

We have run sessions on how to write and use loops, how to make choropleth (heat) maps, how to make pretty tables, how to create CSS templates for markdown and quarto, how to create dynamic commentary for reports, how to send and read emails and many other things.

Join us!

That’s my final plea, come and join us and keep this wonderful community alive and be proud to be part of it.

If you want an invite, ping me an email at simon.wellesley-miller@nhs.net

Simon Wellesley-Miller, Senior Analytical Manager

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Citation

For attribution, please cite this work as:
Wellesley-Miller, Simon. 2023. “Coffee and Code.” November 14, 2023. https://nhs-r-community.github.io/nhs-r-community/blog/coffee-and-code.html.