GDG DevFest 2015

GDG DevFest 2015 was held at The NEST I/O, Karachi on January 24, 2015.

The Nest I/O is the new technology incubator that has been opened for business since the first week of December, 2014. It is launched in Karachi in collaboration with global tech giants such as Google & Samsung. It is located on the 3rd Floor, CitiView Building, Shaheed-e-Millat Road, Karachi. You can read more about NEST I/O here.

GDG DevFest 2015 was scheduled at 11 am to 3 pm, but unfortunately it started at 12 noon. The first session of the event was ice-breaking amongst the audience. The host – Anum S. Ali (Google Ambassador from Pakistan 2014) – started the ice-breaking session by asking four simple questions from the audience, which were.

What is your name?
What is your qualification?
What do you do (job description)?
One weird fact about yourself.

After the ice-breaking session, the technical session of the event was started by Sir Imam Raza (Senior Software Architect at Folio3). The topic of his session was “Web Component and Polymer”. He beautifully explained various features used in web and android development like Shadow DOM, Vulcanisation, etc. He summarised the material design introduced in Android 5.0 by saying that “Material Design in android context means 3D look and feel on android devices”.

After the technical session, the panel discussion session was started. The panel included Ma’am Jehan Ara (President of P@SHA), Mr. Jawwad Farid (Founder of Alchemy Technologies, FourQuants and Finance Training Course) and Mr. Imran Moinuddin (CEO of NexDegree). The panel answered the queries of the audience. Most of the queries were related about NEST I/O, how the incubation centre can be fully utilised, the charges of the place, the mentoring process and future possibilities for people who be a part of the incubation centre.

The last session of the event was given by Sir Imran Moinuddin. He spoke on “The Alliance Framework”. He also referred a book entitled “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” for the audience who are interested in entrepreneurship. He explained the benefits of the ‘Alliance’ framework and that many companies are incorporating ‘Statement of Alliance’ in their work model. He said that the ‘Statement of Alliance’ is being adopted aggressively in Silicon Valley and it is based on integrity, commitment and honesty between the employees and the employer. He further added that the ‘Statement of Alliance’ is an ethically bind contract, not legally bound. He said that employers should evaluate employers on values, not on skills; because skills can be taught/learnt. He emphasised the audience to know their self worth. I personally liked his talk very much.

After these technical talks, the lunch was served and photography session was continued. It was an evening well spent..

WomenTechmakers

This year GDG Karachi come with another big event named “WomenTechmakers”. This event was scheduled on March 8, 2014 (Women’s day); but due to the unavailability of some speakers, it was rescheduled on March 22, 2014 at the Bahria University, Karachi.
The event started by recitation of the Holy Quran by Talha Yaseen. After him, the welcome speech was given by Nazia Nowroz (Organizer of GDG Karachi). Then Faraz Baig (Organizer of GDG Karachi) grasped the attention of the audience. He discussed about Google Student Ambassador program, how to apply and what are the key aspects that will make your application selected by the panel.

This was followed by Google Hangout session with Ma’am Maryam (Google SanFrancisco). She explained about various new aspects of Google technology related to business and SEO.

After that, the most energetic session of the event started which was given by Ma’am Muneeba Farooq. Her topic was related to women’s place in professional and personal life. She share experiences and interacted with the audience and asked their opinions. I personally liked her session the most. After the lunch break, Ma’am Maryam Naim (Founder fo BusinessLots) gave a session on Google AdSense and AdMobs. She shared statistics with the audience and told that there are 12.477 Billion Google searches per month. She told us that one is paid on number of clicks he gets on his Google Ads. She also told that Google don’t allow Plagiarism and one needs to create unique content in order to earn from Google. She also urged the audience to carefully read all the Google AdSense rules before signing up, and also not to click on your own ads else Google will ban you.

The last speaking session of the day was given by young, but energetic lady, Miss Syeda Areej Kamaal. She shared with the audience her success story, how from an ordinary university student, she became P@SHA award winner, and then her journey continues to APICTA 2012. The last part of the event was Panel Discussion with the audience. The panel included Ma’am Jehan Ara (President of P@SHA), Mr. Saad Khan (CEO of Symbios.pk), Khalid Amin (Director General Of Bahria University), Ma’am Fawzia Salahuddin (Director Projects at Alchemy Technologies), and Sir Jawwad Ahmed Farid (Founder and CEO at Finance Training Videos and Founder at Alchemy Technologies).

During the event, the audience enjoyed by taking pictures with the frame that says: “I am a Women in Tech” and “Girls knows everything”. You can see the smiling faces at WomenTechmakers album at G+.
I enjoyed the event, and also learnt a lot. The Google AdSense session by Maryam Naim was very fruitful and I am looking forward for more of these sessions in Karachi.

The Dart Flight School

Dart, most people will think of the traditional game when they hear this word, but in IT industry, dart is not game. Dart is an open-source project that aims to enable developers to build more complex, highly performant apps for the modern web. Using the Dart language, one can quickly write prototypes that evolve rapidly, and also have access to advanced tools, reliable libraries, and good software engineering techniques.

GDG Karachi‘s aim is to update the Karachites with the upcoming and latest technology and tools related to computer science and information technology. As a continuation of this journey, GDG Karachi organized an event call The Dart Flight School on February 15, 2014 at Bahria University Karachi.

The speaker of this event was Mr. Imam Raza, Senior Software Architect at Folio3, a leading software house in Pakistan. He has more than 12 years of professional experience in different programming languages including javascript, php, java, etc.

The event was scheduled for 3 hours, but unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances, it was delayed.

The Dart Flight School took its flight off when Hafiz Faraz Baig, Co-Manager of GDG Karachi recited some verses from the Holy Quran. It was followed by the keynote speech by Capt. Iftekhar Ahmed, Bahria University Karachi.

After his keynote, Syed Shoaib Ahsan, Co-Manager of GDG Karachi alongwith Faraz Baig took the stage and provide the audience with some valuable information regarding Google, Google Ambassador Program, Google Developer Group, Google Business Google, and other bodies of Google active in Pakistan.

Their session was followed by Mr. Imam Raza’s session. His session consisted of two parts, the introduction of Dart and then practical implementation of the dart code. During his session, he engaged audience by asking them different questions, and responding to their queries on the spot. Those who gave correct answer were given dart flight and angular badges.

The flight came to land when Captain Iftekhar Ahmed of Bahria university presented souvenirs to the speaker and the co-managers of GDG Karachi. The audience was asked to fill the online feedback form and collect goodies. Afterwards refreshment was served to the audience and guests.

Meet up with Freelancer

For those who don’t know what freelance is, a freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is a person who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long-term.

GDG Karachi arranged another short session on December 28, 2013 at SZABIST university regarding freelancing. The speaker of the session was Mr. Umar Farooq, Software Engineer at Freelance.com. This two hour session was full of handy information regarding freelancing. The speaker also removed audience’s confusion regarding trust factor between the employer and the freelancer. He also gave examples of few people who were initially freelancers and now they have their own group working as a start-up in Pakistan. He also shared with the audience the facts and figures collected by Freelance.com which showed that approximately 50% of the freelancers are from Pakistan.

The session was short but very informative. In the end, the audience asked their queries to the speaker and he answered them with practical examples.