G|Days Uganda 2013

This Year, Google communities in Uganda Organised the first every biggest Community event, organized by Community Volunteers and supported by Google. By now i know what you are thinking, well.. I was thinking the same thing "How is this different from g|Uganda events that happened the previous years??" Huh!

Well here is your answer...In my opinion Google believes by now we have grown to a level where we can be able to empower our communities, by ourselves. Which is why GDGs(Google Developer Groups) GBG(Google Business Groups) and GSAs(Google Student Ambassadors ) teamed up this year and pulled off a one Day Gdays Uganda Event that happened at  The Hub Oasis Nakumatt Mall in Kampala, on the 22nd Nov, with a total turn up of 297 people.

This Event was focused at "Bridging the Gap between the Developers and Business world". Taking you to the gist of this event and how far i think our local communities have grown with the help of Google, here are some stats 30% of the Speakers were Googlers(From Google) and the remaining 70% were local speakers. We had 2 different Tracks that is, the Business and Developer Tracks, and not to my surprise 100% of the Speakers in the Developer side were local speakers, i think we deserve a round for that. Well enough of the numbers, lets get some highlights.

The day was kicked of by +Simon Kaheru who gave a keynote around developer-business relationship and how this can be related to marriage in terms of looking for the right partners for a team, growing your relationship and celebrating your success to mention but a few. This opened up the floor for other speakers like +Nicholas Kamanzi talking about what Google communities have to offer, +Nsubuga Hassan talking about Google Maps Api, +Abdu Hanan Ssekalala who talked about Using Google Apps Script in Education, +Terry Karungi from Kola Studio talked about using Google Apps for Business which was a practical session, +Okalany Daniel demonstrated how to Build Audience engagement using YouTube APIs and +Jasper Onono with Monetizing your Android Apps.

From the Google Side, our very own +Elijah Kitaka engaged the Business people in a 2 hour practical Session on Lean Startup 101, and so far according to feedback this was the most exciting session, well... its Elijah, what do you expect? The other Googler of the day was +Jeremiah Kamau who flew in just for this awesome day to give a Google Maps Workshop. The Day ended on a high note as +Kai Wulff the Access Field Director Google talked about Project Link. Kai highlighted what Project Link is all about and being a high speed internet Junkie, i just can't wait to be connected.

To wrap it up, I believe we did a great Job with this event, there were some few flaws but we are taking baby steps, we got the right tools, both on the business and developer side and all we have to do is work with these tools and see ourselves benefiting from both ends.

I will end by thanking the people behind the curtains who made sure this event goes as planned +Emily Karungi , +Richard Zulu , +Joyce Tonda, +Nsubuga Hassan and +Nicholas Kamanzi for the work well done. I will also thank The GSAs who Volunteered in organizing this event i thank you so much. The biggest round will go to Google without which we couldn't pull this off. +Chukwuemeka Afigbo , +Marie PATRIARCHE, +Elijah Kitaka and everyone at Google behind G|dayx, we are truly grateful for you belief in our communities.

Please take a look at some of the event Photos.

I will end this by a quote from Sergey Brin:

 "It's Clear there is a lot of room for Improvement, there is no inherent ceiling we're hitting up on."

Thank you.