The largest learn-to-code event in Canada will be returning with a new twist that will see participation in nine cities.

Lighthouse Labs’ HTML500 event, now in its fourth year, is a free, one­ day crash course in HTML & CSS. It was created to inspire more Canadians to “shape their community through code.”

The event takes place in Toronto on February 18 and Vancouver on March 11.

At HTML500, 50 of Canada’s “top tech companies” will together teach 500 people how to code for free. Participants will connect with over 100 developers and will seek to create their own landing page using popular programming languages.

But there’s also good news for Montrealers.

Lighthouse Labs will be offering a city-specific spin on HTML500 called “HTML150”. The organization will “take code across Canada from Calgary to Halifax” with 150-200 people learning to code in each city.

Lighthouse Labs’ Jeremy Shaki said in an email that “with over 2000 people in 9 cities learning from more than 150 organizations and 400 developers, this is easily our favorite initiative, with impact spanning across the country, showing people of all backgrounds that coding is both fun and accessible.

“We have had every age, every race, every religion and every gender show up to share in learning something from their own local tech community,” added Shaki. “We strongly believe that every Canadian should have the opportunity to learn to code, not for the sake of becoming programmers, but to promote critical thinking, problem solving and empower attendees to create, not just consume, technology. It’s about removing all intimidation, stigmas and barriers and showing people the ease of which creation is at our fingertips!”

Shaki told ITWorldCanada that 50 per cent of previous event participants were women.

Industry demand and the coding labour skills gap is predicted to hit 200,000 jobs by 2020, wrote Lighthouse Labs.

Here’s the projected dates for each city:

Montreal, TBA

Calgary, April 1st

Halifax, TBA

Ottawa, March 4th

Saskatoon, March 18th

Victoria, TBA

London, March 25th

Registration is now open for all cities at www.thehtml500.com/register.