Event

The event began at 10:30 am with the hosts giving a brief introduction about GDG and Devfest by the hosts of the event.

One of the hosts,Blessing Eloho explained that Devfest is a local tech conference hosted by Google Developer Groups (GDG) around the world and that each DevFest event is tailored to the needs and interests of its local developer community by its local organizers.

Eloho added that DevFest attendees learn how to build together and innovate on Google's developer tools, whether through hands-on learning experiences, technical talks delivered in local languages by experts, or simply meeting fellow local developers.

She listed DevFest activities to include workshops, talks, and networking.

1st Session

First Talk

Few Tips for the Ambitious, Passionate, and Hungry by Bulama Yusuf, the GDG Abuja Lead.

Yusuf explained that the talk was about making people better humans.

The secrets to success are contradictory but figure it out on your own terms.

• Accept things the way they are
• Many paths to the top of the mountain
• Focus on your own journey.
• Have fun but do lose focus.
• It is ok to feel lost, confused, and overwhelmed.
• Just take a step back and reassess
• Be ruthless with your time
• Attention is more important than time.

Time is money but it is what you spend attention on that produces the money.

• Document your career.
• Seek Mastery, read docs. Dig deep.
• Go against all odds.
• Don’t focus on the user. Focus on the user’s problem.
• Don’t be scared of getting fired.
• Multi-tasking is cool but in the long run, it messes up your mind.
• Prioritize
• Don’t aim for perfection
• Sleep. Take risks and be ambitious. Learn to forgive yourself.

The First Keynote SpeakerAda Nduka Oyom spoke on Communities as catalysts for Growth in Tech.

Oyom defined Community as a group of like-minded individuals aiming to achieve the same goal adding that Communities have evolved into many things.

She spoke on the Elements of a community which include:

• Events
• Providing scholarships, training sessions
• Certifications among others.

On Leveraging communities, the speaker suggested some guidelines that can assist an individual in a community which include:-

• Actively participate in training programs, fireside chats, boot camps, etc with enthusiasm.
• Volunteer: gives you an upper hand in your resume.
• How:- merging the impact
• Get an advocate:- know people who will speak for you.
• Build your curiosity:- without interest you can grow. This helps community builders do better.
• Share your learnings:-if you are not talking about what you are doing there is a limit to growth.

"Become an advocate /contributor: people value individuals who don’t gatekeep. Share resources.”-Onyom said.

She urged participants to ask them these questions

How am I going to grow my career with the resources around me? How do I stand out?

The Second keynote speaker was the DG of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi who spoke on how the activities that the Federal Government was doing to create a stable environment for startups.

The DG who was represented by Mrs. Amina Sambo said that the Federal Government is prepared to fund buyable ideas from startups.” On how ways the government has shown it is ready, the DG cited Collaboration with the communities for training, providing a stable environment for startups through the passage of the startup act.

The Next speaker, Samson Goddy, titled session: Program or Be Programmed - Growing beyond the Noise

Goddy spoke on the importance of open source to an individual’s growth in tech.

He explained that Contributing to open source can be rewarding to learn, teach and build experience in just about any skill you can imagine.

"The interesting thing about open source is all project has its rules."- He said

Goddy implored participants to Get Started on open by Finding open-source projects, Joining communities He noted that In open source, make meaningful contributions ( Quality > Quantity) and called for Collaborate. Learn. Growth.

Opportunities in Open source

• Outreachy
• Google summer of code
• GitHub Education

Fourth Speaker:- Crowdsourcing Diversity: The Need for Diversity in AI by Uchechukwu Enem

“We need to create AI that can best serve the rich and varied diversities of our planet.”- Enem said.

Emem added that Crowdsource's mission is to help make products universally delightful with contributions that represent diverse languages, cultures, and communities.

Every genuine contribution in crowdsourcing is beneficial in improving google apps. Genuine contributions in crowdsource are at the center of the machinery. Make quantity contribution.

How to get started She commended the using of the web or an android phone.

2nd Session

The second session began with a talk on Blockchain Technology, Prospects, and Future in Africa by Victor Tugwa.

Tungwa explained that Blockchain is a decentralized ledger system.

Block Chain Trilema

• Scalability
• Security
• Centralization

Future of Blockchain in Africa

• Banking
• Logistics management
• Healthcare among others.

The next talk was on Product - LED Business Growth(PLG) by Amarachi echendu joe

Joe explained that Product Led Growth (PLG) Strategies are ways start-ups should sell their product properly before investing financial costs to expand the reach of their users.

She added that PLG Strategies include:-

• Solve a problem:- to understand and solve a user’s actual pain point.
• Distribute where your users live.
• Provide easy, seamless automated onboarding.
• Give maximum value before the paywall.
• Build your product to fit SEO Channels.
• Adapt sales and Marketing strategies.

The Next talk was on North tech ecosystem Stereotypes by Usman Fori

“Northern capitalists are more interested in investing other businesses than tech.”- Fori claimed. Fori cited examples of plaza building and several business ventures to buttress his statement using his current state of residence in Maidurigi.

On how tech is growing in Maiduguri, Fori spoke on how he moved from speaking about the problems to contributing to solving the problem through community meetups in the University of Maidurigi, to secondary school reach out to encourage the love of tech at a young age. He noted that there has not been light in two years in Maiduguri.

The Talk that followed was about Google Workspace (Productivity and Collaboration tools for all the ways we work.) by Memunat Manzuma alias HajiyaPHP

Manzuma explained that working with Google workspaces makes decisions faster, face to face,collaborate real-time,secure your data and devices , and communicate more effectively with voice.

Parts of Google Benefits

Google Workspace Solution

• Developers
• Education
• Non-Profits

Google Workspace Individual

• For-business
• Small Business
• New Business
• Startups

For Enterprise

• Frontline Workers
• Work safer
• Sales/ Marketing Human Resources

Google Workspace for Individual

• Gmail
• Calendar
• Drive
• Assistant

For Business

• Google Digital Garage
• Admob

For Developer

• Cloud computing
• Game Service
• Monetization

For Researcher

• Scholar
• Analytics
• Drive
• Google survey
• Google Forms
• Slide
• Maps

For Kids

• Youtube Gaming
• Youtube Tv
• Youtube Music
• Assistant
• The goal of Google is to provide a sustainable choice.
• Connect with a team in real-time.
• Collaborate from anywhere.

Google is making life easy for everybody using Google Workspace.- She noted.

The Last talk was on Building Secure Web Applications by Emmanuel Aiyenigba.

Aiyenigba explained the importance of building a secure web application. He listed

• Vulnerability attacks
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Cross-site Forgery:- forces an authenticated user to execute unwanted SQL injection and allows an attacker to interfere with queries in an application
• makes to the database.
• HTTP response splitting, command injection, path transversal, etc.

Types of Application Security VM ware:- measure at the application level that aims to prevent data or code within the application from being stolen or hijacked. Application security helps to prevent threats. Authentication Authorization Encryption Logging Security Testing Bot Protection Quick recap

Highlights of the event included:-More sessions, Photography session, puzzle games, medi- talk, and networking.

The 2022 GDG Abuja was bought in partnership between GDG Bida, Illorin, Lapai, Gwagwalagda, Abuja, Mpape, Keffi, and Lafia as hosts and sponsored by Google Developers and TUNGA.