ForLoop 2.0: The Journey and The Experience

I have been in PH for the past 5 months. I came in with the intention of becoming a web developer within 6 months. I started with seeing a lot of YouTube videos, and reading articles. I had gotten many books to read, but I was just confused.

I already had an idea of HTML and CSS, but then I knew something was missing and this really made me stop learning at some point, because I was directionless and clueless about the path to follow; the internet didn’t help either because I kept asking questions like; “What are the best ways to learn web development”, “What are the best languages to learn in 2018”. Well, I was more confused than I was before reading the articles.

I was added to the TechPH Whatsapp group and I interacted with great minds. I saw young people doing what I felt could only be done by having decades of experience. I was wowed! I always lurked around to see them discuss because I always learned a few things when there were arguments about something.

One of the days, as I went to peep as usual, I learned about forLoop, and I immediately decided that I would be attending, not just to learn, but to meet with these great guys. I kept telling myself; “These guys will rekindle my passion and give me the direction I need”.

THE EXPERIENCE

I started preparing to attend the event, I shared the fliers in all groups I was a part of and told most people I knew about it. I was just too excited for no particular reason, because a lot was going through my mind.

I was going to see Wisdom, Precious, Mr Bruce(again), Lawrence and every other person I admired. I had my cloth and laptop bag intact 2 days before the event. Everything was ironed and packed waiting for the D-Day.

I got to the venue by 8:20, and I went straight to the front seat; I wasn’t prepared to miss any part of the event. I dropped my bag, prayed and started waiting for everyone else to come. We had our registration and verification session, and then went in to kick start the event.

We were welcomed by Mr. Godfrey, and after the forLoop event was introduced by Mr. Bruce, we listened to Miss. Tiku’s mind blowing presentation on “Optimizing Web Applications”. This young lady was amazing and when she said she was a front end developer at Chigisoft, I was suddenly in awe lol. I know Precious to be a very meticulous person; so for her to have been his front-end developer, I was so humbled. Of course, I knew it took a lot of hard work, and that presentation already prepared me for the rest of the day.

We heard Mr. Obinna talk about Webpack, which was quite similar to Miss Tiku’s presentation, but they followed different processes to solve the issue of website performance and speed.

Mr. Nsikak came on to talk about Building Modern Android Apps. I didn’t follow very well because I know little or nothing about Android development, but I understood perfectly well the concept of architecture and conceptualization.

Mr. Lawrence then came up to talk about Backend Development. I could relate well with what he talked about because of the numerous books i’ve read on web development which ended up confusing me the more; but his presentation made me understand everything I’ve ever known and every misconception I had about backend development. It was an interesting presentation.

Mr. Bruce then came up to talk about Career Paths in Tech. It’s quite surprising how I discovered in a minute the reason I want to go into IT. This particular presentation changed my mind set about having a career in technology, and showed me what I really needed to know to start.

At this point, I had to drop my PC to focus because I had received so much information that my brain seized to output them. I just sat and listened as Mr. Precious Chukwundah (Triple CEO as fondly called) came up to tell his story in a presentation titled Volunteer.Learn.Grow. I had the opportunity and I was not disappointed at all to listen to the story of this young man, who has made so much impact at a young age. The passion I had for the tech community increased by 100%. I was impressed!

I can’t forget the sweet jollof rice we had during the break. Honestly, I felt it would have these burial ceremony kind of meat, but I was surprised to see a large chunk of meat in my food. I became emotional. How could people be so nice to share so much information for free, and then add Jollof to it. I finished eating and headed straight to the VR section, only to find some amazing games and participants who were obviously terrified and amazed when they handled the game. It was that real.

We had Mr. Damilola speak to us about Virtual Reality, it was an eye opener. I knew little or nothing about VR when I got there, but I could say a lot about it right now. Cost of equipments, development of games and other information were given to us about VR.

Then we had Mr. Wisdom Arrrrr… (never mind) lol. He spoke to us about Open Source Softwares, how they work, and how to contribute to them. It was an interesting presentation. I got to find out that I could contribute to open source even as a newbie.

We had two panel sessions, during the first and second session of the event; where questions were asked and the speakers were kind enough to give detailed information and answers to the questions.

The participants were happy and very responsive.

Overall, it was an awesome event. I came as a beginner, and left as an expert in the making, I came hungry, and I left filled with Jollof.

I am sure I will get to the level where I can speak in one of these events very soon.

Thank you forLoop 2.0! Thank you TechPH! Thank you Organizers! Thank you Sponsors! Thank you Participants! See you next year!