The first Droidcon Dubai kicked off April 14th with a series of bar camp sessions. Attendees were given a chance to come on stage and pitch their ideas to the audience and get some feedback. Ideas ranged from a group of Ajman University students presenting their idea of WikiShop, an application that will make the online shopping experience much easier. Auto Service Finder is an idea being developed by a former engineer with a passion for the auto industry, he would like to share his knowledge and allow people to find what they need to get their cars fixed anywhere in UAE.
There was also PTrack, a personal RFID tracking device which allows people to track their equipment or devices, very handy for people on the move or just those of us who wish to keep track of our stuff. ProjectShutter aims to combine taking a picture with one app, categorising photos with another, storing photos with yet another app and sharing them with yet another app into one handy app OneCloud which will combine the GB-capacity from various cloud-based storage services and seamlessly integrate it into one app.
There was also an Augmented Reality app, VMall, a virtual reality shopping experience that lets people virtually wander around a place, choose their designs, buy anything they want from within the app itself. It’s like having a VR machine without any extra equipment as the app will run on any device and will use the gyro to let you move in all directions not just up/down. All those who pitched their ideas and demonstrated their mockup products received valuable feedback from the audience.
The official convention speeches begin today. The first edition of DroidCon Dubai welcomes the technology industry’s star-studded line-up from Silicon Valley, Germany, Netherlands, UAE, UK Greece, Ireland and more! Speakers include: Microsoft’s Open Source Engineer – Felix Riesenberg, IBM’s Executive IT Architect in UAE – Hamid Khafagy, Skyscanner’s Mobile Test Engineer – Matteo Doni, Qualcomm’s Director of Technical Marketing UAE – Gilles Fayad, PayPal’s Senior Developer Advocate – Cristiano Betta, Couchbase’s Movbile Developer Advocate – James Nocentini, Groupon’s Mobile Software Engineer – Danny Preussler, Middlesex University’s Dr Krishna’s Nanath, Blackberry’s Enterprise Solutions Manager Middle East – Kareem ElSayyed, Comscore’s Mobile Software Engineer – Joan Puig Sanz, Novoda’s Software Craftsman Android GDE – Paul Blunder, Dubizzle’s Mobile Lead – Joseph Boston, Founder of the Assembly – PK Gulati, RIT Dubai’s VP Academic Affairs, Information Systems Architect and Consultant – Dr Khalid Khawaja, Trulia Inc’s Senior Android Developer – Christa Mabee, Polish’s COO – Andreas Vourkos, Google’s Senior Cloud Solutions – Nasser Salem Ahhmed, Ryanair’s Mobile Software Engineer – Inaki Seri, Microsoft’s Open Source Engineer – Jason Poon, Intel’s lovely Android GDE in Regional Android Developer – Murat Yener, VRisual’s CEO – ASier Arranz, Clicly’s CEO – Addy Nunez Beltre and others.
Topics of discussion include Build and Run Apps Your Way, Tech as a Form of Artistic Expression, Challenges and Opportunities for local developers in the Internet of everything, Android Apps with Wings: Sync and Connect your Apps, Android Native Apps and Web Test strategies, Rebuilding Commerce, Unit Testing on Android, Green IT, Building Secure Android Apps for the Enterprise, Combining Android and C++, A Credit Card Walks into a Bar, Building an app across 11 Arabic countries, Innovative Communities, Programming Mobile Devices in Academia, Next Generation Cloud for Mobile Development, Material Design, Mobile App Monetization Mistakes and Tips, Cross-Platform Development using Cordova and Visual Studio, Clean Code in Android, Modern Android Development, Android as the Core of Virtual Reality as well as the all important topic of Android security.
There’s also a series of workshops on how to build offline apps from ground up as well as developing for Android-wear.
The conference is being live streamed here, so if you can’t make the event, you can still catch some of the talks.
