Build, Collaborate, Scale: DevFest Conakry 2019
The second annual DevFest Conakry was held on December 7, 2019 in Guinea, West Africa. This is the story of that event told by an attendee, speaker, and organizer.
But first, a bit of history…
The Republic of Guinea
The Republic of Guinea is located on the coast of West Africa. Guinea’s mineral wealth makes it potentially one of Africa’s richest countries, but its people are among the poorest in West Africa. The official language is French and the capital city is Conakry.
My history with Guinea began with my passion for music. I took multiple trips to the country between 2002 and 2008 to study traditional music and dance from the region. During this time, I developed many strong relationships that continue to this day.
Google Developer Group (GDG)
The Google Developer Groups program gives individuals around the world an opportunity to connect with local developers who have a shared interest in technology. From meetups, to workshops, to DevFest, GDG has something to offer to beginner developers and experienced professionals alike
My introduction to the GDG program was in 2012 when I became a founding member and co-organizer of GDG Philadelphia. An engineer by trade, I helped organize and participated in various workshops and events in the Philadelphia area between 2012 and 2017.
GDG Ratoma
It wasn’t until returning to Guinea in 2018, that I became involved in the tech community in Conakry. After meeting Kouame Kan Romeo Kouame, I became a co-organizer and founding member of GDG Ratoma.
In just two short years, GDG Ratoma has grown to 1,500+ members and held dozens of events including tech talks, meetups, workshops, hackathons, and DevFest Conakry.
What is DevFest?
DevFests are local community-led developer festivals hosted by Google Developer Groups (GDGs) around the globe.
The first ever DevFest Conakry was held in December 2018, just over a year ago. For the second edition, an even bigger and better event was planned building on the momentum of the previous year.
DevFest Conakry 2019
The theme of DevFest Conakry 2019 was construire, collaborer, mettre à l’échelle which translates to build, collaborate, and scale.
After reflecting on this theme, it seems apropos not just of the content but of the process of planning and organizing the event itself. Let me explain…
Build
The main ingredients in building any successful tech conference are venue, content, and participants. This holds true whether in the US or francophone West Africa. DevFest Conakry was no exception and was built upon the foundation of these three pillars.
Venue
DevFest Conakry was held for the second year in a row at Université Kofi Annan de Guinée. Founded in 1999 by Dr. Ousmane Kaba, Kofi Annan is the largest private university in Conakry. Curriculum at the prestigious school focuses on science, technology, and economics.
The Malick Conde Cultural Center is one of the most well equipped conference venues in the capital with seating for up to 1,500 attendees and even air conditioning — a rare treat in a country with average high temperatures of 29°C (85°F) that go even higher in the dry season.
Content
This edition of the landmark developer festival featured 15 local and international speakers covering a variety of topics including web, mobile, cloud, big data, and machine learning as well as technology education and entrepreneurship.
I delivered a keynote address titled Homtecha Guinée that centered on the topic of entrepreneurship and specifically the idea that developers and technologists in Africa can and should take the lead in solving local problems that they know and understand best.
Participants
DevFest Conakry 2019 saw 500+ attendees, almost double the total number from just a year ago. This was no accident. This year mobilization efforts started early and focused on in-person outreach at universities, meetups, and community events.
Also, the day before the event Kouame Kan Romeo Kouame, GDG Ratoma General Manager, and I were featured guests on live national television on the popular Zenith talk show, as another way to get word out about the event.
Collaborate
No matter how motivated the organizers are — and the entire leadership team of GDG Ratoma is extremely motivated — this is only part of the equation. None of this would have been possible without generous support from our sponsors who helped make the event such an overwhelming success.
This past year has also seen considerable momentum behind a general trend of technology education and empowerment in Africa. Also, this year GDG Ratoma wanted to find ways to give back and build bridges in the community that went beyond the developer festival itself.
Sponsorship
Google Developers was the headline sponsor for DevFest Conakry 2019 and is the primary supporter of GDG Ratoma. Additional support for DevFest Conakry came from Andela, JetBrains, and Button.
Africa is the Future
Brianna London, in her keynote presentation at DevFest Conakry 2019, spoke about how Andela’s business is based on empowering talented software engineers in Africa to work with US based companies.
In 2019 — Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Google also all made major strides toward embracing the African continent as the next great frontier in technology.
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, on his first ever trip to Sub-Saharan Africa, spent time at the Andela office in Lagos, Nigeria. According to a Facebook statement, “Zuckerberg is in Nigeria to listen and learn and take ideas back to California on how Facebook can better support tech development and entrepreneurship across Africa.”
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, spent a month on the continent after which he announced “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3–6 months mid 2020.”
Microsoft launched the Africa Development Centre (ADC) to serve as a premier centre of engineering for Microsoft, where “world-class African talent can create solutions for local and global impact.”
Google has also continued its investment in the continent through programs like Launchpad Accelerator Africa and it’s partnership with Andela on the Andela Learning Community and Google Africa Developer Scholarships.
Giving Back
This year GDG Ratoma wanted to find a way to give back to the community in Guinea beyond tech. To this end, a fundraising campaign was launched in conjunction with DevFest Conakry 2019 to raise money to dig a new well and build a school in a remote village in the forest region of the country.
I’m happy to announce that although we didn’t reach our goal of raising $1,000 USD — GDG Ratoma has agreed to match all funds contributed to enable the project to move forward this year!
Building Bridges
No tech conference is complete without the afterparty. Again this year, DevFest Conakry decided to put a different spin on the classic afterparty by hosting a traditional Doundounba, or drum and dance celebration, held the day after the event. The party was not only open to conference attendees but also members of the community as yet another way to help build bridges between the developer community and the rest of the population in Guinea.
Scale
When thinking about scaling technology education in West Africa, through the lens of GDG Ratoma and DevFest Conakry, the future looks bright.
DevFest Conakry is only the beginning. The key to the future is finding more ways to unlock the amazing potential in the region by growing the developer community in Guinea and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 and beyond.
Current plans for DevFest Conakry 2020 include adding a second track, doubling the number of attendees (again), and adding more hands-on activities in the form of codelabs and a hackathon.
DevFest Conakry 2018
- 10 speakers
- 250+ attendees
- One track
- French only
DevFest Conakry 2019
- 15 speakers
- 500+ attendees
- One track
- French and English
DevFest Conakry 2020 (Projected)
- 20 speakers
- 1000+ attendees
- Two tracks (tech talks and codelabs)
- French and English
- Hackathon
One thing has remained constant year over year, and that is DevFest Conakry is 100% FREE to attend for everyone in the community. This point is especially important in a country where the estimated average annual income is around $2,000 USD.
If you or your organization would like to get involved in DevFest Conakry 2020, you can reach out by email or on Twitter.
Chuck is an engineer, technology leader, and co-organizer of GDG Ratoma. His love for Guinea traces back over 15 years to his passion for music and time spent there studying traditional drum and dance. He now spends part of his time in New York and part of his time promoting technology education in West Africa.
This article was originally posted on the Button Blog. GDG Ratoma thanks Button for their generous support of DevFest Conakry 2019 and past events.
