Finally! It certainly was long overdue. The Firefox Apps Event Mombasa was held on 23rd March 2013. With their successful event in Nairobi a month ago, Mombasa Techies were clearly excited to bring the renowned, exhilarating and educational Firefox event home.
The event was held at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Mombasa CBD Campus, for the better part of the day with participants showing no signs of leaving by the time the sun was setting! Turn over? Close to 120 plus participants was a major achievement for organizers. Local web developers, students from various Universities from across the city as well as respectable lecturers were part of the attendees. Of course where would the event be without the Mozilla Gurus themselves? A big ditto to Alex, Victor (Vicky), Hezron (Hezy), Joseph and Sharon who managed to fly in from Nairobi especially for the day.
A big thank you to the organization team is certainly due as well; Ms. Zahra, Musa and Andrew for their exceptional voluntary contribution to keep the herd in check at the registration desk; Alifyah Ganijee and Said Fuad, the Mombasa Mozilla Representatives for ensuring all nitti-grit-ties were well ironed out and proving the event to be an admirable success; A blessed‘Asante’ to Anthony for that delightful Prayer that got the event kicked off; The short and sweet welcome gesture by the Director Mrs. Fridah Theuri; The head of the ICT program JKUAT, Mr. Ondago for his encouraging words that left every participant in the room feeling like the next ‘Einstein’ of the technology age; Alifyah and Said for introducing the Mombasa Tech Community and what it’s all about; Alex Wafula, the Mozilla Lead Rep for highlighting the role Mozilla as a non-profit organization plays in the community as well as briefing everyone on the various Mozilla projects that are on-going; Joseph together with Hezron, both Mozilla Reps, finally got the ball rolling, introducing the Firefox OS and what it entailed. And how would I end this without giving a humbled bow to the team of John, Richard, Tabitha, Peter, Harry and Joyce for serving us a most fulfilling lunch.
The best part of the event came in the afternoon, with participants being given a chance to showcase their innovative and inventive ideas by building the most unique and outstanding apps designed for the Mozilla market place that function with the OS simulator. Kudos to the team that took the day by creating a most simple yet fantastic, ‘Torch App’. Guys, it seems gone are the days of power blackouts in Mombasa it seems (not to mention a big help to our watchmen at night)! But, other than the torch team, the rest of the groups came up with wonderfully creative ideas deserving of just as big an applause.
So, there you have it, it’s a wrap! A richly educative day that fed our brains to their limits and opened up new ideas and meanings for each and every participant. Thank you Mozilla, it was a pleasure!
For anyone who may want to view snaps of the event please do so at our website gallery, Mozilla Mombasa Facebook page and Flickr. (Wonder why no one came up with an app to view the event photos on? Next time?DEFINITELY!
