Fifth annual GDG DevFest concludes as a major virtual spectacle

Google Developers Group (GDG) Islamabad, a community of developers and tech enthusiasts backed by Google, just hosted its fifth annual DevFest. In what turned out to be one of the most spectacular virtual tech events of recent times, DevFest 2020 made waves all over the nation.

A one-day event that brought developers, designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and technologists on a single platform, DevFest 2020 initiated important conversations about building global deep-tech innovative ecosystems that revolve around the new normal of staying home and being productive remotely.

Ambassador of GDG Islamabad, Aiman Saeed briefed the audience about the GDG community and how it aims to revolutionize the culture of technology in Pakistan by equipping the youth with innovative technical skills required to survive in today’s digital world. Moreover, Women Techmakers, an initiative that aims to celebrate the role of women in STEM and beyond, played a prominent role in the event as well.

As for the event itself, there was quite a bit going on. Featuring a variety of sessions, talks, hands-on coding sessions, and workshops based on Google technologies, the festival provided a wholesome virtual learning and networking experience for all involved. The theme for this year followed the desi tagline of #HeavyScenezz, a fitting homage to our culture of appreciating significant contributions made by our peers in the tech world. The #NewNormal was also floated around, referring to our current predicament of having to stay productive while working remotely.

One of the first significant sessions was the #IamRemarkableSession, an initiative led by Google to empower women and underrepresented groups in the workplace and to celebrate their achievements. Featuring Pakistan’s first ever deaf vlogger Hassan Ahmed, the talk took the audience through a rollercoaster of emotions as Hassan shared his journey and showed how there are no limits to what you can accomplish once you set your mind to it.

Software Engineer Anam Sajid and UX Designer Bisma Zia inspired the audience by their example into believing that a positive mindset can go a long way.

The second session was Team Lead NCBC UET Peshawar, Mohsin Tariq who demonstrated the utilities of Artificial Intelligence in deep learning and further discussed what made it different from the traditional programming.

In another session, Aqsa Ajmal, Product Designer at Medflair, led a Design Thinking Session in which she discussed how Design Thinking is important in promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She further briefed the audience about her very innovative design of a sewing machine for the visually impaired.

A number of workshops were also conducted including a workshop on Flutter by Senior Flutter Developer, Waleed Arshad and another on Data Science by Data Science Trainee Audrey Mengue.