GDG Ratoma : 2020 Year in Review
Intro and monologue
Many things can be said about the year 2020. It was a landmark year in many ways both bad and good. There were very few parts of most people’s lives that was not affected or changed in some way.
My work with GDG Ratoma in Conakry, Guinea to promote technology education in West Africa was no exception. Travel plans were put on hold. Workshops and conferences quickly had to pivot from in-person to online.
We knew immediately that 2020 was going to be unlike previous years, and large scale in-person events like community workshops, DevFest 2018, & DevFest 2019 that we held in the past would not be possible for the foreseeable future.
Starting at the end
Starting at the end of the story, in 2020 GDG Ratoma held 5 major events with 750+ total participants. How was this possible given the conditions in the world?
Besides the obvious and necessary pivot from in-person to online there were four other opportunities that became readily apparent as we evaluated the situation. These included:
- the potential to reach a larger audience
- the ability to engage more international speakers
- the opportunity to include more diverse array of topics (and formats)
- the goal to build more partnerships both within and outside the community in Guinea
Removing the friction of geography and travel allowed more participants both inside and outside Guinea to get involved, increasing the number of attendees at the events. International speakers no longer needed to fly to a new destination, opening up a much broader talent pool to share their expertise.
Having a larger pool of talent for speakers led to a more diverse array of topics in a variety of formats including presentations, live coding, and Q&A sessions. Finally, key strategic partnerships were created with organizations both inside and outside the country including the Université de Labé and Pure Lambda.
Highlights from the past year
Major events in 2020 included International Women’s Day Conakry, Google Technologies Week Guinea, Android 11 Meetups, Data Science Week Guinea, and DevFest Conakry.
International Women’s Day Conakry 2020
A discussion forum focusing on women working in the tech sector in Guinea.
Google Technologies Week Guinea
A week-long series of tech talks about the Google technology ecosystem including Android, Firebase, GCP, and more.
Android 11 Meetups
Android 11 celebration and launch event for developers.
Data Science Week Guinea
A week-long series of talks about functional programming, ML, and AI.
DevFest Conakry 2020
GDG Ratoma’s annual flagship event and celebration of everything tech including design, development, and entrepreneurship.
Looking ahead to 2021
Since we’re already into the fourth month of 2021, I wanted to also share some of the events GDG Ratoma has hosted so far this year.
In just the first quarter of the year, we hosted two more major events with 250+ participants including Mobile Apps Week Guinea and International Women’s Day Guinea 2021.
Mobile Apps Week Guinea
Building on the success of Google Technologies Week Guinea and Data Science Week Guinea, we brought back another week-long event focused on mobile development.
The highlight from this event for me was absolutely the interactive Q&A session with Alpha Bah, originally from Guinea, speaking about his personal journey and career path to becoming a software engineering manager at LinkedIn.
Alpha answered dozens of questions from a highly engaged audience, generously sharing his experience and wisdom on a variety of topics.
International Women’s Day Guinea 2021
This year’s celebration of International Women’s Day included another diverse panel of speakers discussing topics relevant to women working in tech in Guinea.
Upcoming events
Future events coming up from GDG Ratoma include Flutter Engage Extended Conakry on April 13th and of course DevFest Conakry 2021 later this year.
Wrapping it up
Human interaction is the lifeblood of any community.
At GDG Ratoma, we’re happy that we’ve been able to find creative ways to continue fostering a sense of community during this challenging time.
We also look forward to the time when we can once again begin to host in-person events. Not to replace, but rather to augment, the success found organizing online events over this past crazy year.
Getting involved
If you are interested in getting involved with GDG Ratoma to promote technology education in West Africa, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
We are always looking for speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and of course more participants to join our rapidly growing community.
