This successful event was held last 25 June 2010 at Casino Español (Cebu City). Special thanks to our partners Exist, IBM and Sybase.
So many geeks, so little time.
Even before registration started at 3pm, people were lining up ...for the photobooth, haha! And of course, to sign up for DevCon Philippines. It's our first anniversary and we were quite pleased with the turnout of participants. People interacted with the founder of DevCon, Mr. Winston Damarillo, by asking questions and sharing their experiences during the townhall meeting. DevCon Foundation President Mr. Jerry Rapes also facilitated the activity, along with Executive VP Ms. Diane Suico. But after about an hour, it was time for the emcee to shine. He was actually the one who introduced himself: Dr. Gregg Victor Gabison, PSITE Officer and USJ-R CICCT Dean. So right from the start, it was clear that DevCon's birthday was going to be a fun-filled, information-laden and technology-charged event for IT students, educators, professionals and enthusiasts.
The opening keynote was delivered by Mr. Lope Doromal, Jr. of IBM with a presentation about a "Smarter Planet." The audience actively participated in the Q&A portion. At past 6pm, the lightning talks (LTs) started, each one timed at 10 minutes maximum. Mr. Jon Limjap opened our lineup of speeches with "Dynamics and Runtime Object Composition in C# 4.0" and Mr. Kevin Leversee came in next with "WIIFM and Mediocrity: How the Flat World Changes Everything." Mr. Abel Talusig of Sybase did two LTs about Powerbuilder Family and Powerbuilder 12 2ocks.NET. Another sponsor, Exist, sent two speakers: Mr. Gwen Autencio, who talked about Maven, and Mr. Joe Ocaba, who talked about NPanday. Last but not the least, we had Ms. Gidget Sederiosa from CebuinIT who discussed the UPVCC-DOST Technology Business Incubator (TBI).
The DevCon Foundation was (in)formally launched after the set of LTs with Mr. Winston Damarillo inducting the pioneering officers. See their names and designations below.
President: Mr. Jerry Rapes, Exist
Executive VP: Ms. Diane Suico
VP for Membership: Ms. Joanne Eduardo, Exist
VP for Ways and Means: Ms. Aileen Apolo-de Jesus, Google (as represented by Ms. Melody Sy, Exist)
VP for External Affairs: Ms. Jo-Anne Loquellano, PSIA
VP for Infrastructure: Mr. Jerome Gotangco, Exist
Dinner and beer were served, finally, haha! This was followed by the birds-of-a-feather or BOF on "Mobile Development Platforms: Android vs. iPhone." It was facilitated by Mr. Erle Czar Mantos, senior Java developer at Exist. The winner was the Android group, which happened to include the host of the event, Dr. Gregg Victor Gabison. =P
Our partners IBM and Sybase both conducted a hackathon, which was a real challenge to the participants, for they had to finish their projects in the span of about an hour. It was well worth it though, with the huge cash prize for each of the winning teams.
The event was closed by Mr. Alexis Pantola of IBM by orienting the audience on "Ethical Hacking" from 9:45 to 10:35pm.
All in all, the event was jam-packed yet organized. To wrap up this article, we would like to express our gratitude to all the volunteers who helped us in the event, to all the participants who came, to all our speakers and our partners who support our cause. Until the next DevCon.
Let's sync, support and succeed.
by:
Ida Ortiz, DevCon Foundation Member