There Is A Developer Conference In Nigeria And It's Everything

Guys, I'm howling!!!

Okay I'll calm down for the purpose of this post, so that I can explain the reason for my sudden "wolf gang" behavior. A month ago or so, Christian Nwamba (@codebeast) lamented on twitter about how amazing developers were always denied visas to international events, even when they had clearly been invited to speak on it and were honest, hardworking people. Though I'm new to the developer scene, I have been following Christian for a while and have only heard amazing things about him. I think he even released two books this year. Two! Guys!

See the whole thread here.

Moving on, I was scrolling through Twitter yesterday (as has become my habit for a while now because, why not?), retweeting developer stuff that I sometimes don't even understand and I stumbled upon a new thread from Christian. Get this, guys: for the first time ever, Nigeria is going to be having a (an international themed) developer conference. Lemme give you a minute to take that in.

Welcome back! I remember some amazing people responding to the initial thread, saying they were going to help out and see to it that more Nigerian/African developers got full access (visa included) to events that definitely would help their career development in a huge way. These people have come through on their promises are bringing international conferences to Nigeria instead.

(giphy)

Did I hear something about Mohammed and the Mountain? This sure sounds like it.

So for the first time, there will be a convergence of developers on all levels with speakers from all over the world. Now, doesn't that sound so cool?! We're getting to another interesting part: They named it Concatenate. As in Concatenate Conference. In JavaScript and Python (as far as I know), the word "concatenate" means to join something/ variables together into something meaningful. So it's like people from all over the world coming together. Such a simple name with great meaning! This melts my heart so much, you have no idea.

It's probably not enough to write a whole post about, but I had to share my feelings with you and that's why we're here, right? If you are a developer reading this - maybe budding or already established; you can register as a participant here. There will be 23 speakers and I hear Prosper Otemuyiwa (@unicodedeveloper) is gonna be MC'ing. See the full thread here and also visit the Concatenate Conference website for more details about sponsors and freebies that are to come with the event.

Side note: while I was reading the new thread in my "uncalm" state, I stumbled upon the list of speakers and found myself asking "where is Prosper?" till I saw that he was the MC! I cannot wait for August 10th/11th and I have registered. I also hear seats are limited, so make sure you register early if interested!

Even got my ID done and everything :)

Speaking of upcoming events, there's a Figma x Github Hackathon in Lagos next week, have you heard? It's themed "Design, Develop and Collaborate" and will hold from the 21st - 22nd of July. If you are not in Lagos, not to worry! There's an Accra version coming up on the 28th, to end on the 29th of July. You don't wanna miss this. Register here for Lagos and Accra.

Did you see yesterday's post about choosing careers? Your interests might be gearing towards being a developer. Go read and leave a comment or two if you haven't x

Stay winning,
See you in my next post!