2. Seeing Familiar Faces
I’m really surprised to see a lot of my college batchmates at the summit. I graduated BSCS from UPLB and it was really great seeing them there. We got to talk about college life, group projects and what we do now.
BSCS Batch 07 of UPLB!
I’ve realized that some of us have already been working for 5 years. Time really flew fast; some of us are project leads and senior developers now. I really feel that someday, one of us might be up on the summit stage doing our own talks or even sessions.
Incidentally, I have a friend a few batches before me who did a UX lecture this year.
Learning some UX stuff from Kuya Mica
I also saw some of my teachers and it was cool hanging out with them. I can’t really get over the fact that it’s because of what they taught me back in college that I am able to make great apps today.
I saw some of my former officemates at the summit, as well.
FourPoint.Zero in the house!
1. Advocacy
Devcon follows the advocacy of connecting Developers. They conduct trainings for students and professionals, they go to schools to have code camps and they have a summit before the end of the year.
Bryan Bibat talking about Devcon’s goal and how it got running with only volunteers
Winston Damarillo speaking about leading the Philippine digital transformation
During this summit, there was a keynote talk about the programming talent here in the Philippines. It was quite alarming because, apparently, only 10% of graduating students in the BSIT or BSCS curriculum are adept coders. This really is a problem because some education institutions are producing graduates who can’t code. This is not just a problem of the academe, but of the industry, as well. After all, the talent pool for good coders will be limited.
Joey Gurango talking about the state of Philippine programming talent
I was already aware of this situation before and that’s why I try my best to bridge the gap between the industry and academe. Earlier this year, I got to talk to a friend who became an instructor. I shared my insights with him about the industry and he asked me if I could be an associate adviser for the Computer Science organization he was advising. I thought it would be a great chance to do something good because the students will get exposed to what the industry needs.
Fast forward to the summit, Devcon was very generous to offer me extra tickets. I decided to give them to the kids in the organization I’m advising.
Go change the world, one app at a time, young Padawans
When I met them, I told them to make out the most out of this opportunity, learn a lot and make sure to share them with their orgmates.
I still recall the first time I attended the Devcon summit back in 2013; I was just there to improve myself. In the succeeding years, they made me realize that I had to do something to improve the developer community in the Philippines. I’m very humbled to meet the people behind Devcon because they do this out of sheer passion to improve the developer community.
Devcon is a non-profit organization and gets the help of volunteers to make the vision come true. As such, I urge you to try to sign up and volunteer for Devcon yourself.
WIM Tech Guys at Devcon Summit 2016!
See you again next year at Devcon Summit 2017!
DevCon Summit
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DevConPH
Website: https://devcon.ph/
Volunteer: https://devcon.ph/get-involved/volunteer
