The event was kicked off by GDG Kisumu's Lead Organizer on an introduction to what a GDG is. She took us through Google's official definition of a GDG and after deliberation and brainstorming it was unanimously agreed that we would kinda tweek the definition on the website to our GDG not just being for developers/techies but also for tech enthusiasts who may not necessarily have the developer skills but who may have the eye for how tech can be applied to our everyday lives. She went ahead to encourage the audience to join the mailing list and like the Google page in order to have their ear on the ground on the community's happenings. She then introduced the seed team that had worked together to make the event happen.
The floor was then handed over to GDG Kisumu's Co-organizer +Adhiambo Dorcas who took the attendees through all they needed to know about and all relevant resources on the Africa Android Challenge 2014. The well-done slide presentation highlighted the key dates that everyone needed to have in memory including but not limited to the deadline date for Round 1, which was in 1 week's time and the date for the shipping of goodies - hoooooraay to the shipping of goodies \o/\o/\o/
After that the Lead Organizer was back on stage with an introduction to Android development using AppInventor. This was after advice by the outgoing Google Student Ambassador for Maseno University and also GDG Kisumu's official Consultant, +Odede James, that since it was just but one week to the deadline of Round 1, AppInventor would be the best tool for especially beginner programmers to use to develop their apps.
Our Consultant who is also the Co-founder of Lakehub +Odede James then took us through a brief session on Google's Student Ambassadors' Program and encouraged the audience to apply since all Universities, Colleges and Institutions of Higher Learning in Kisumu lacked them except Maseno University.
After +Odede James we took an hour break to distribute AAC swag, awesome t-shirts designed by +Ilyes Boudjelthia from GDG Algeria, and have lunch together as we contemplated on how the day was fairing on.
After the break it was +Odede once again explaning to us the importance of UX/UI in our android apps. Still on UX/UI It was a pleasant surprise to behold the Founder of Kenya's first rural tech hub in Kisumu, Lakehub,Evan Green-Lowe who expounded on the subject matter. Now we understand why we should round the corners of our buttons and not have them as right angles \o/. Evan also took us through what is currently going on with Lakehub and in what ways we can contribute and work together. It was a real eye opener on the possibilities of tech in Kisumu.
The event ended with a vote of thanks by the Lead Organizer who ended up thanking everyone -including herself :-) - for the role they played that ensured the success of the event. We went home to awesome sweets and biscuits from +Adhiambo Dorcas as we took group photos with our magnificent AAC and Google swag.
This report would not be complete without honorary mentions of two wonderful people without whom the event would not have been as successful.
1. +Mike Ochieng of Maseno University City Campus for making our venue and technical equipment possible. Whatever we needed he was more than willing to arrange for.
2. +Kisumu hub for their proffessional photography services on the house. They made us look good we didn't even need make up for the photos \o/
We can only but look forward to generating more awesomeness from Kisumu \o/
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