May 16th-17th, 2014 were the dates to remember. I really enjoyed my time at ADD by delivering talks in ADD Ankara and ADD Istanbul, and also had fun with fellow GDG Organizers and speakers.
Invitation to deliver talk
Long journey towards ADD was actually started with Murat Aydin‘s invitation mail to me and Uttam Tripathi. I was also surprised to get invitation mail directly as me and my friends (Wiebe Elsinga, Wolfram Rittmeyer) were already talking about submitting a talk proposal and planning out stuffs for the event).
I was worried about visa but luckily I got turkey visa and there by a first stamp in my passport. Yeah! Looking forward to deliver more talks and there by to get more stamps for my passport in future 😀
My first Android specific event outside India
I haven’t been to any android developer specific conference outside India, I desire to be but I have to go for selective and specific events due to my job and schedule. Regarding events outside India, I was invited by GDG Kathmandu (Nepal) to deliver 2 android talks (Talk-1 & Talk-2) in their DevFest event last year but again it wasn’t android developer centric event, oh yes Bhupal Sapkota is the guy who gave me an opportunity to deliver very first international talk and a trip :). Regarding android events in India, I have been to NitroDroid being organized by Androcid in Goa, India but again I have been missing it since last 2 NitroDroid.
Speaking experience at ADD
My topic was “Lazy Android Developers: Be Productive”. Based on my experience of delivering talk and engagements of participants during talk, I would say everyone had really enjoyed it and I enjoyed it too. Regarding participants level, I have found it’s intermediate level. Some of the questions were really good and I enjoyed to answer them.
Regarding my presentation, slides are already available on my speaker deck and I am glad to see the response my speaker deck is getting (>2500 views and >35 stars). Thank you!
First time “Ok, glass!”
Yeah please don’t be surprised with the caption, believe me I had Google glass demo for the first time and that’s even outside India!. Thanks to Google’s policy that non-USA residents can’t buy it, you are awesome!
I really enjoyed and played with Google glasses whenever I had free time. Thanks to Murat Yener and Chris Tuttle for giving me their glasses.
I would like to have such wearable devices in my bag. I already have Glass and Smart watch in my next purchase list. let’s see when I will have it.
ADD Event feedback/experience
Zero participation fee
I really liked one great thing of ADD is ZERO participation fee, I know there are advantages and disadvantages of organizing events for the free but I really liked the idea of organizing ADD in free just by bringing huge sponsors line up. It’s really a community centric event where everyone get chances to learn and share something they know and expert into.
Speaker is the King
Based on my experience right from getting invitation, travel to Ankara, road trip to Istanbul & speaking there, I would say it was a great experience there by being a speaker. I am thankful to all the awesome organizers for the arrangement of veg food they arranged for me for my lunch and dinner during the stay. Even for all evenings, they had arranged dinner/party for speakers, organizers and sponsors. In short, I would say their hospitality is awesome, they know how to treat guests in all the possible manners.
Sponsors and speakers line up
Being an organizer of GDG Ahmedabad, I know how it’s hard to get sponsors on board and how to execute the deal we have done with them and make them satisfied. But here in ADD, they have had huge sponsors line up with having sponsors including Google, Nokia, Microsoft, Alcatel and many others.
Regarding speakers line up, they have invited all the well known speakers across the globe. Even being an organizer of GDG Ahmedabad, I can’t imagine how they managed speakers, their invitation formalities, travelling formalities and many more things for speakers.
As I mentioned earlier, they don’t take any fees from participant but still they invited speakers across the globe and executed event smoothly with having more than 2000 participants.
Kudos to the organizing team.
Unity of multiple GDGs & other communities
One more great thing of ADD event is, it’s a combined efforts of all the GDGs of Turkey like GDG Ankara, GDG Istanbul, GDG Eskisehir, GDG Konya and many other GDG chapters and communities.
Photos & Videos
Videos
Photos
- Photos uploaded on ADD Google+ event
- Photos by Martin Liersch – Android Developer Days 1
- Photos by Martin Liersch – Android Developer Days 2
Million cheers for ADD organizers and team
ADD Team
Over and all, I had really enjoyed my time at ADD and looking forward to be a part of speakers team again in future ADDs. Many thanks to 3 Murat (Murat Aydin, Murat Yener & Murat Salman), Nilay Yener (GDG Istanbul Women, Organizer) and my friend Ahmed. Look forward to see you soon!
