My Experience as Keynote Speaker at Hack Club × Daydream Hanoi 2025 😁

Sep 27, 2025

In September 2025, I had the honor and privilege of being invited as the Keynote Speaker for Hack Club × Daydream Hanoi, a 2-day high school hackathon held in Vietnam.

The event, organized by Hack Club in collaboration with Daydream Hanoi, brought together 50+ students who spent the weekend learning, collaborating, and building open-source games from scratch. This hackathon aimed to inspire young innovators to use technology creatively while fostering teamwork, problem-solving, and exposure to open-source practices.

This post summarizes my experience at the hackathon, highlights from my keynote session, and reflections on what made this event so meaningful.

The Keynote Address: Project Management with Git and GitHub

As the first GitHub Campus Expert invited as a Keynote Speaker in Vietnam, I prepared and delivered a session titled:

“Project Management using Git and GitHub” 📌

The goal of my keynote was simple: to show students how powerful Git and GitHub can be when working together on projects. I introduced concepts such as version control, branching, merging, and pull requests in a beginner-friendly way. I also shared free online resources so that students could continue exploring coding long after the event ended.

Here are a few slides I presented during my 1hr keynote session:

Slide Exerpt 1: Keynote Address Opening Slide Opening slide of my keynote address - Project Management using Git & GitHub

Slide Exerpt 2: About Me About me - Melvin Ng, GitHub Campus Expert, Singapore and my relevant experience in tech, community building, and healthcare

Slide Exerpt 3: Agenda Agenda of my keynote session, covering 8 key topics

Slide Exerpt 4: What is Git? Introduction to Git - A distributed version control system

Slide Exerpt 5: What is GitHub? Introduction to GitHub - A web-based cloud platform for hosting and collaborating on Git repositories

Slide Exerpt 6: Git Architecture and GitHub Workflow Git Architecture and GitHub Workflow - Understanding the three main states of files in Git: modified, staged, and committed, and the 3 tier architecture of Git

Slide Exerpt 7: GitHub Student Developer Pack Introduction to the GitHub Student Developer Pack - Free access to developer tools and resources for students

Slide Exerpt 8: Introduction to GitHub Copilot Introduction to GitHub Copilot - An AI-powered code completion tool that helps developers write code

These are the chosen highlights from my keynote session. The full slide deck can be found on my LinkedIn profile.

Reflections on Hack Club × Daydream Hanoi

Delivering this keynote was a truly rewarding experience. Seeing students embrace new concepts like Git, GitHub, and open-source collaboration was inspiring. The participants collaborated in teams using Godot as their game development engine, and by the end of the event, had published their games on itch.io and hosted their open-source code on GitHub.

What stood out to me was the energy and creativity of the students. They were not just building games - they were building confidence, friendships, and skills that will serve them well in the future.

This experience also reinforced my belief in the importance of grassroots tech communities. Organizations like Hack Club and programs like GitHub Education play a critical role in empowering students worldwide, creating opportunities beyond the classroom, and making technology accessible to all.

Closing Thoughts

I am deeply grateful to GitHub Education, Hack Club, and the Daydream Hanoi organizers for the opportunity to contribute to this event and for trusting me with the keynote address.

Hack Club × Daydream Hanoi was not just a hackathon - it was a glimpse into the future of tech in Vietnam, full of promise, creativity, and collaboration. I look forward to seeing many of these students continue their journeys in open source and beyond.

✨ Until the next one!

Signing out,

Melvin Ng (GitHub Campus Expert, Singapore)

@melvincwng