The Google Developer Group’s (GDG) annual DevFest in the University of Jos, Plateau State Saturday, was held onDecember 7th witnessed in the Mallam Adamu Adamu lecture hall, Naraguta Campus.
DevFest is a conference held annually in various states and countries across the globe. It aims at raising awareness about several technological advancements and is attended majorly by tech professionals, tech developers or ‘techies’ in general.
At the conference, several speakers were present to give short talks on their field; Wisdom Dee Nimfa; social media and community manager, Gar Manji Michael; backend engineer, Jaycinta Bhattacharya; hackathon wizard, official code breaker and software engineer, Emmanuel Nwanochie; senior software engineer, Kingsley Ezekiel; cyber security analyst, Paul Michael; Founder and CEO,72 Academy and Innovation LTD, Abdallah Haggos; Founder – ClimateTech Nigeria, Joy Ajiboye; software engineer, Dinfa Dashe; Blockchain Professional, Paul Umaru; MCT, Microsoft EMEA Gold Ambassador, Application Consultant, A.I expert, young Jedidiah who began coding at nine years old and his brother Jediah of the Jemz Community.
Stephen Ifeanyi Nwoye, explained that the conference hoped to achieve a lot by bringing new tech opportunities to people that are interested. He mentioned that some advantages that DevFest brings to the community is free tech scholarships sponsored by various bodies and networking among techies.
However, he expressed his dissatisfaction with this year’s conference saying, “We wanted about 700 students, but this year we had issues with funding. The conference was postponed twice because of the lack of funds and it has made things really difficult. We could have achieved more than this. In fact, we were supposed to have NTA here and Medium, but we just asked them not to bother.” Mr. Stephen said that though he was satisfied with the outcome, he felt it could have been a lot better.
Speaking with the conference anchor, Jubilant Agida, he gave more insight into the program. He said, “It’s something that celebrates the world of tech and also integrates new people into the world of tech.”
The conference faced some minor issues, one of the most prominent being the unexpected power outage. Because of this, several items on the programme could not be carried out. Some of the attendees shared their views on this. Among them was Miss Esther, a corp member and data analyst. According to her, she had been a data analyst for three months and has attended DevFest in the hopes of learning new things and connecting with more experienced people in her field.
“The environment isn’t really encouraging.” She shared. “I feel they could have used a better location than here. The technical issues affected our overall interest, but participation should be considered next time because it’s far better for people to SEE what they’re learning about.”
Stephen Matthew, an A.I and web developer said that though he learned a lot from the talks, it was not what he expected at all. He said, “I think next time they should focus on bringing people together and let them interact in games and other fun activities. Someone like me, if you tell me to ‘come outside and mingle’, I will just sit in one place without talking to anybody.”
His colleague, Ahmad Salisu, a front-end developer agreed with him. Ahmad said, “The mics and sound system were even bad, we could hardly hear what they were saying. Next year, it will be nice to have more tech companies involved because people come here to connect.”
Stephen and Ahmad however congratulated GDG for all the efforts that were put into making the conference a reality.
Judith Chikamso, a social media manager, video editor and also one of the staff members said that although she couldn’t hear all the speakers that were present, she enjoyed the little she did hear. “The conference was okay, but overall it could have been better. As a social media manager, I learnt a lot from the lady that spoke on social media. It was impactful.”
Mary Madaki, a product manager expressed her excitement to simply be at the conference. “I’m not a techie. I don’t know anything about tech, but I learnt a lot.” She also made reference to young Jedidiah and his brother Jediah saying, “I will make sure my children go into tech. Those two boys were amazing.”
DevFest, Jos came to an end with a closing note from organizers. We anticipate even greater conferences in the years to come.
Report by Oluwatosin Peace Adegbola (4.5)
Photos by DevFest
Edited by Isama Anyaole Peace
