G|day X Uganda 2013 an event by the GDG (Google Developer Group) which is supported by Google, Attendees had to choose what sessions they preferred either the Developer Sessions or the Business sessions.
Simon Kaheru of SMS Media introduced the event by relating the all session to a marriage, “Developers wed Business” , his enthusiastic warm up where he deeply related business to weddings, an idea i found less geeky. He emphasised that Business and developers need to make love not war in marriage, He finds developers as easy going, eager people, excited then he explains businesses as ground, serious, diffuclut ant yet very rewarding. Romance and courtship is where developers learn about and connect their business partners and must disclose as much as possible, and urges developers to be real. The marriage is where the business is registered and its taken serious and everyone wants a ripe old business. Simon related Children to products or apps, some children will give you sleepless nights and others are rewarding. He wished everyone a happy marriage.
NIcholas Kamanzi briefed us about what GDG means, Google Developer Groups a community of developers who meet several times through hackathons, code weekends, meetups and provide inspiration for developers. He also aplaused GBG kampala for being the first Google Business Group in Uganda which has meetsup to relate business with Google technologies.
Hassan Nsubuga had a session on Google Maps APIs, in the developer room. He showcased the importance of Google maps and the need to use the API to get users to use maps
Meanwhile in the Business section, Terry Karungi a product Lead at Kola studios, She had a session on Google Apps for business and she shared the features and importances of Google Drive to business, she demos live collaboration in Google Docs, spreadsheets, talk about presentations in a browser, and spreadsheets which is a powerful tool, forms which can be used to collect Data.
Elijah Kitaka from Google talked about startups, starting his session by calling upon Co-founders of startups to pitch their ideas or startups, his main goal was to make people find out how business relate with users. He shared a collaboration form for startups to use to find out their challenges, what users what and solutions.
More sessions were held on Google services such as the Youtube API, Cloud storage, and refreshments in between. Kai Wulif from Google made a brief talk on Project Link which a venture by Google to connect communities to faster internet fibre by collaborating with entrepreneurs in the communications sector. Project link gives the ISPs faster “unlimited” at a flat fee.Kai took questions from attendees and his key statements include; “its not the price of internet, its how much you make out of the internet”. He refered privacy queriesnto the official Google statement on privacy.
The event brought developers and business owners together to learn and share about Google technologies.
