DevCraft is a conference for and by designers and software developers that was curated by the iHub Consultancy team in 2016, with the aim of raising the quality of the software craft in Kenya. The conference pools together some of the brightest minds in the local tech ecosystem to network, share their knowledge and learn from industry experts. This year, the event took place on the 26th of September with a focus on the topics below:
- Advancements in AI & Machine learning,
- Demystifying frontend programming technologies;
- Pricing of developer services
- User Experience best practices; Demystifying UX processes, design sprints for product validation
- Containerization; Docker, Kubernetes Design Systems etc
- Backend Development,
- Developer Operations (DevOps); Tools and techniques etc
- Tech Intellectual Property
We would like to say thank you to the companies that sponsored the 3rd edition of DevCraft:
Always a big thank you to team Google Africa for being the main sponsor of the event & always supporting events that build capacity of developers in the continent.
A big thank you to our partner SEACOM for being internet sponsors for the event & a big thank you to BRCK for being our Silver sponsors for the event.
A big thank you to Andela & Humanitec for engaging with software engineers during the event.
Also, a big shout out to the team that put it together Michael Kimathi, Lead Atlassian Meetup; Frank Tamre, Lead Android 254 meetup; Kate Kimani, Co-Lead Python meetup; Mugethi Gitau, Digital Strategist (Former iHub Community Manager); John Mwendwa, Freelance designer and the iHub team.
Here’s how it went down:
After kick off at around 9.30am we had a panel discussion titled “What it takes to be a modern software developer.” The Panelists included Kate Kimani (Software Engineer, Andela), Ahmed Ali (Software Engineer, Frontline SMS), Marvin Collins (CEO, Appslab) & Joe Ng’ethe (Software Engineer, Twiga Foods). The session was Moderated by Dennis Muthuri (Head of Engineering, Tanasuk Consulting) . They are all seasoned software engineers who shared insights on what it takes to be a modern dev: different concepts regarding front-end/ backend software technologies; UX best practices for development; CI/CD tools, DevOps tools & practices was discussed.
Watch the full panel session below.
Check out the DevCraft Gallery
Next followed a sponsor session titled “Thinking Security in Software Development Process” presented by Aurlus Wedav, a software engineer at Humanitec. Humanitec is a platform that helps teams radically speed up their application development using microservice architecture.
After that, the attendees went into break out sessions “Unlocking New Web Capabilities Keeping The Web Instant, Powerful and Safe” by Edwin Maye, Lead GDG Eldoret & “Backend development essentials” by Dennis Muturia a backend engineer at DT One.
The afternoon session began with a sponsor slot by BRCK. He gladly showcased what they are doing with Moja WiFi across the country. Moja Wifi is a free public WiFi network found in matatus, restaurants, shops and other areas.
Audience feedback ~ I use @mojanetwork in Kisumu. I’ll watch an ad and get 150mb to check my emails and WhatsApp. I’m really glad for what you’re doing. ~ @brcknet @MrMuthondu #devcraft19
— iHub (@iHub) September 26, 2019
After that, the attendees went into break out sessions “Cultivating Healthy Developer/Customer Relationships” by Mercy Deche, Tech Project manager at Medic Mobile, “Bias and Ethics in artificial intelligence, why we need to care” by Alfred Ongere, AI Kenya Lead, “Creating products that delights the customer” by Ken Kahiri, Seasoned UX designer & “Easy CI/CD pipeline for your Kubernetes workloads with Google Cloud Build” by James Mwai, CTO Sky.garden.
Finally, there was an interesting panel discussion titled “The interesting journey of a dev/ IT practitioner.” The panelists talked about what devs should expect in their journey, what skills are needed, how much one is expected to earn, how to handle client IP issues and many other issues. The panelists included Mugethi Gitau (Digital Strategist, Consultant), Janet Othero (Senior Associate Telecommunications, Media and Technology department, TripleOKLaw LLP Advocates), Brian Wangila (Co-founder and CTO of Skyline Design Limited), Gareth Lloyd (CTO, Housekeep) moderated by Frank tamre (Co-lead Android Developer Community (Android254) & KotlinKenya).
Check out the DevCraft Gallery
What’s next for DevCraft?
Watch out for DevCraft series of mini events where we will get to feature different companies/ individuals who will take us through deep dive workshops on the different emerging technologies.
