DevFest Nyeri 2014
Posted By: Unknown On Monday, 1 December 2014
How
could 2014 pass without having our biggest event of the year, GDG DevFest
Nyeri? Last year’s event was the debut event in the DevFest series. As last
year, together with GDG Mombasa, we finished the DevFest series in Kenya. I
think, it has become a habitual thing….
2013
had focused on Google Cloud (App Engine), Mobile web development with HTML5 and
abit of Women in Tech. This year it was themed on Polymer Polytechnic, Real
Time Data Processing with Firebase, Women in Tech, and lastly a StartUp X hour.
The
event was held on 29th November,
2014 at the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT). It brought together
100+ tech developers and more than 8 speakers. People travelled from all over
the country to Nyeri, making a conference of interesting speakers and
enthusiastic audience.
The
doors were opened at 9:00 am, by that time most of the developers had lined up
at our registration booth. They were warmly welcomed by the registration team.
Everyone produced their tickets, their names were checked in the Eventbrite
list after which they were allowed to get in.
Coffee Break
Immediately
after, we had a short break where everyone got a chance to enjoy the morning
snacks and free coffee, this also provided a short networking session where the
attendees met old friends, made new valuable ones and even changed contacts.
Morning Session
The
participants were now all energized, excited and ready for tech talks. +Joseph Ndungu then took to the stage, he asked
the congregation if anyone knew about the recently Google acquired Firebase.
99% of the attendees never knew what it was!
Then
he started to explain, it was an incredible first experience! None of us could
imagine that someone else could deal with the nightmares of real-time data
scaling and security.
The
Cloud service provides application developers with an API that allows
application data to be synchronized across clients and stored on Firebase's
cloud.
We
were also amazed that firebase includes a user management system where by
developers can enable user authentication with email and password login all
stored with Firebase.
Everyone
was involved in sending messages to the data base and watch as it updates the
data in real time, yet with just a few lines of java codes
He
advised the audience to later apply the knowledge in building real-time mobile
and web apps using client-side code and the powerful API as it saves time. The
beauty of coming together to share new ideas and new products in the market!
And then Guess what? After such
an awesome tech talk, GDG
Kimathi University organizers took
the audience through a brain teaser session. Everyone was to stand up and do
nothing else except what Sam says. All
those who did otherwise sat down amid laughter. They were caught off-guard. The
last few ladies and gents standing were promised some goodies at the end of the
event.
Thereafter +Kenneth
Kinyanjui took it up again and
talked about the polymer. The polymer Project
helps developers deliver amazing user experiences by unlocking the full
potential of the web platform. Developers can use the Polymer Library to make the most
of Web Components, a powerful new platform feature for extending HTML and
componentizing your apps.
He also talked about Entrepreloper. Entrepreloper is unique new word formed when Entrepreneurship
and Developer are fused together. He highlighted on the importance of
having the two skills in a developers mind. He emphasized on the importance of
passion, hard work and persistence. “With them nothing is impossible!” he
concluded.
Lunch Hour
At
exactly 1:00 pm, we went for lunch break. We enjoyed the meal after which
participants mingled up and moved around getting to know one another.
Afternoon:
Women in Tech
Soon
after lunch break, we kicked off with a presentation from +Margaret Odhiambo who actually carried away the
audience. “Anyone can do it, gender does not matter. The only thing you
need to do is to make Internet your friend,” She Said.
She told us her story on how she had to pay someone to access learning material
without knowing they were free on the Internet. Later when she realized it
was free, she discontinued the class and made the Internet her
best friend.
She noted that most ladies took a back seat in technical stuff and always
waited for men to help them in small programming tasks unlike men who
constantly compete and post challenge to each other. She also encouraged ladies
to make meaningful friendship with men in tech.
Where are the Geek
Ladies?
This
was followed by a Q &A talk show style about ladies in tech hosted by with +Kenneth Kinyanjui and +Margaret
Odhiambo.
We
had the opportunity of hearing different opinions from the developers on why
most ladies don't have much interest in tech.
Among a score of interesting participants we would like to highlight the speeches of few individuals.
+Michael Githinji, one of the attendees, explained that only few ladies are celebrated in the tech world. People only hear the likes of Bill gates and Steve Jobs but hardly hear any female named in the tech. Therefore, without positive role models ladies don’t see the opportunities for themselves in technology as they don’t have people to motivate them.
Another
person also noted that it all boils down to culture. From a young age where
most girls are influenced, ladies are told that boys are good at math and girls
at language. This creates a perception that it is "too hard" or
something that boys do. Therefore the ladies lack interests in the programming
as they believe it’s a boy’s thing.
The good news is that GDG Kimathi University will put in place measures to try to reverse this trend by getting more women to consider actively participating and contributing in tech. We also want to pride ourselves on operating as raw meritocracies ready to embrace anyone with a good idea, regardless of their gender.
Hangout with Cedric Atangana
Moments
after, Cedric Atangana (Lead, GDG Yaoundé) gave his session all the way from
France via Hangouts. Cedrick is the founder of Infinity Space, a tech start up
based in Kenya and Cameroon. He encouraged us to get behind our laptops
and focus more on developing local content, building cool stuff that truly
belong to us. He also reminded us about the opportunities that await such
developers.
Evening Break
After the Hangout, we went for
another break where we took juice and snacks.
Hey this is our Journey!
The
sessions resumed around 4:30 pm .During this time GDG Kimathi University
pioneers took us through their success story.
They
shared with us on how they tapped into each other creating a strong network of
tech enthusiasts. This resulted into a geek culture within themselves and after
some time they thought of starting a tech community. That's how GDG Kimathi
University was born. They emphasized on the importance of working as a team as
it broaden everyone's skill set.
Their
message was clear: the skill set in a community is really broad and everyone
should be super-open to teaching anyone anything. In a GDG, some members are
good at JavaScript, others at Rails while some at python. Every developer has
something unique to contribute. It's all about teaching each other and not
about proving ourselves.
The
attendants also posted questions which were responded by the team. We
appreciate these self-motivated young men who have been coding like banshees
since they got into their network and created GDG Kimathi University.
Happy Birthday GDG Kimathi
University!
A cake was then presented to the table, everyone was amazed when the
cake was displayed as it was glazed and topped with GDG Kimathi university name.
It was showered with party poppers and confetti!
The Cake was then cut it into small pieces. In Between, we had exciting tracks singing the happy birthday tune which almost everyone joined in singing. The pieces were then taken to the developers to mark the 2nd Anniversary of GDG Kimathi University.
Finally, +Kenneth
Kinyanjui gave his closing remarks. Everyone
then got a free t-shirt and we all took a group photo. All were free to leave
at their own convenience.
We
appreciate you!
GDG
DevFest 2014 was another
success! We would like to thank our sponsors, specifically Google for believing
in what we do and valuing what we love to do most; building cool mobile apps,
cloud apps and web apps that solve real life problems here at home and even
beyond.
Personally,
I think GDG DevFest is
the brightest Google-related event that happened this year. It provided a great
learning opportunity for attendees as it reveal fresh trends in Google
technologies which most can possibly implement in their future work. To our
speakers and attendees, You were awesome!
Let’s
do it again next year, See you at the GDG DevFest Nyeri 2015!
Get
more event Photos, slides and details about DevFest Nyeri 2014 on
our Google+Events Page and on our site: GDG KIMATHI UNIVERSITY
By,
(Thematic
Lead, GDG Kimathi University)
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