My First time at India Community Summit 2019| Google | DevRel
It was a 3 day event where all the leads from Google Developer Group (GDG), Google Developer Group Cloud (GDG Cloud), Google Developer Experts (GDE) and Women TechMaker (WTM) gathered at Clarks Exotica resort in Bangalore. I was visiting there as a Member of GDG Cloud Mumbai.
Day 1 (12th July, Friday):
It started with an early flight from Mumbai to Bangalore on a rainy day, and finally reaching to the venue by noon. At the very first glance at the venue, the first word that came to my mind was “AMAZING!!” and the excitement for the rest of the weekend pilled up. We were treated by a very refreshing welcome drink and a lovely lunch.
We were divided into 16 random tables so that we interact with people from other groups as well.
The keynote started at 3 pm. It was given by Pankag Gupta, Director of Engineering at Google. He talked about the importance of community and making more people aware about technology in the APAC region, and how it could affect the Next Billion Users (NBU).
The next talk was by Karthik Padmanabhan, Developer Relations Lead at Google. He talked about the qualities of superheroes and how we should think like them. Because “Not all superheroes wear a cape”.
Next talk was by Biswajeet from DevRel Team. He addressed the Theme for the Event — “MOONSHOT”. He encouraged us to think of a goal that you would feel would be 10 times tough than a normal task. The key here would be failing and then learning, but not giving up on it.
Next talk was on “How to be effective speaker” by Amrit. He’s presentation was on how to give presentation. As most of the attendees were lead in their respective groups, it was really helpful and interesting to learn the art of presentation.
Just before the dinner, We had an hilarious Improv Comedy Show. We couldn’t stop laughing for the entire hour. Just marvelous!
For team building activities 120 (approx.) were divided into 4 groups, and the rules for game on the next day were announced.
EXCITEMENT KEEPS GROWING !!!!!!!
Day 2 (13th July, Saturday):
So there were 4 teams,
1. Blazing Comets
2. Earth warriors (My Team)
3. Galaxy Invaders
4. Astro Aces
It started by gaming activities which included Table tennis, Chess, Carrom, Darts and Relay Race. At the end of all the Gaming activities, Earth warriors were leading the score board.
After the breakfast, We had session on Happy Community” by Vani. She talked about how all the communities around the world face different kind of problems and how everyone try to solve all of those in different ways. This talk really opened up my mind with a ton of ideas from all over India.
One Lead were chosen from each table and were asked to join the stage with vani to discuss the issues and their solutions. I was choose from my table.
Post lunch we had couple of talks from external speakers.
Just when we thought all the sessions are over, We were taken aback when we were told that “We need to build a JEEP!!” and not just that.. we had to then race with it. So we built it.. and also won the race. It was a very very good Team building activity. Making the jeep was not easy, it required us to co-operate and understand all our team members. Teams did a really great job building the jeep in all the creative ways possible.
Surprises did not end here. Because after this we were invited for the “Gala Dinner” and it was impeccable. We were asked to wear white, so that it would glow up in the Neon lights. We were also served by an amazing light show dance. Then the actual fun began with all of us going crazyyy with the DJ. Dance! Dance! Dance! Is all we did for more than an hour!!
Day 3 (14th July, Sunday):
It started with our last activity and it was CRICKET!! It was really fun and in the end our team won the game.
Just after the breakfast we had discussions with other Team leads and DevRel Members. It was really a very healthy discussion and we got to know experience of other groups from all over India.
Closing note was given by DevRel Head, Kartik, who encouraged all Team leads to do something for the betterment of India and solving problems using Tech or our time. The speech was really inspiring and I am sure that it will make all the groups push all our boundaries as far as possible to do something Great!
He also announced the winners of all the group activities and the winners were “EARTH WARRIORS”. The whole team shouted like crazy and went up to the stage to get our trophy.
We left the venue at noon with some amazing swags, Lot of new Friends and a photo with the trophy.
