Omninext at the Future Fair: the story of our Vincenzo Rippa
Two days, divided between the afternoon of 29th and the morning of 30th June, in which the young developers, graduated from the Apple Developer Academy this year, presented their final projects. The Covid emergency made online format inevitable also in this case, changing the traditional event that took place, until last year, always in the physical spaces of the Apple Developer Academy with stands where students described their apps to the delegations of participants/companies. This year, however, Webex Meetings platform by Cisco was used as a tool, with virtual rooms where many groups, during 15-minute intervals, took turns presenting their projects, with guests free to choose which “room” to connect to. During this phase, called “Developers’ Corner”, my colleagues and Gaetano Vallarelli, Front-end Lead, and Antonio Perrone, HR Lead, had an opportunity to see numerous app presentations, some of them simpler and others definitely worthy of further study. Once again the ADA has confirmed itself as an excellent breeding ground for new ideas.
After this first phase, there was the so-called “Free Talk”, a free chat between students and companies to get to know each other and explore some aspects of their presentations. After this introducing step, the first contacts and CVs received, the organizers in the “central” room greeted us by making an appointment the following morning.
The second day of the Future Fair began with reversed roles compared to the first day: each company, in fact, presented itself to the students in its own virtual room, with the students free to enter and ask questions. I had the honor to present the Omninext group during the “Companies’ Corners”, which I did thanks to the excellent slides prepared by Francesco (Content editor) with the support of Mattia (UX / UI Designer) and Antonio’s supervision. The entire presentation took place in English, in consideration of the fact that the lessons in the Academy are exclusively in English, given the high participation of foreign students. A particularly ‘electrifying’ phase for me, because I was able to tell the story, the working model and the most recent products we are working on.
It was nice to see so much enthusiasm and desire to be a part of the guys, not at all discouraged by the prospect of working hard to grow together, as our group’s mission said. I have tried to convey to them my genuine enthusiasm for what we are doing in Omninext and I think I have succeeded. The boys were particularly affected by my role as lead in the mobile team and by my past as a student of the Academy itself: in fact, in me, they saw the path that they themselves could take after this brilliant experience.
At the end of this phase, we had the free space for the interviews where, once again, we confronted the boys and answered their doubts. With pleasure we received compliments from a couple of them for the commitment, professionalism and a demonstrated level of engagement.
At the end of the day, after the Academy’s words of thanks and the invitation to keep in touch, I felt deeply satisfied and grateful to our group for the opportunity to see again, albeit virtually, the places where I studied, this time however in a new guise.
I believe that the event contributed a lot in making known our group, its philosophy and values, and taking into consideration the numbers reached, in terms of applications received (more than 20 over the two days), I think our efforts have paid off.
