Students from all over Fresno attended Devfest on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Fresno City College.
This was the inaugural Google-sponsored conference on the FCC campus. The event was designed to make Central Valley residents aware of the budding technology industry in the area.
The event was organized by Fresno City College computer instructor Rio Waller, FCC alumnus Josh Woodward, FCC student Gabriel Cordova and local web developer James Cha. This group was inspired by a previous Devfest that they attended at the Google complex in Mountain View, Calif. a year ago.
“Last year, at this time, a group of us went up to Google to go to Devfest and we had talked about it, that we wanted to bring it to Fresno and just over time things started to groove,” said Waller.
The event started at 9 in the morning and went until 5:00 p.m. in the west wing of the Old Administration Building at FCC. The first thing attendees were treated to was a keynote speech by local entrepreneurs Jake Soberall and Irma Olquin from local technology company Bitwise Industries.
The speech focused on the “revolution of technology” that was beginning in the Central Valley and the opportunities available for local area students.
“Fresno City College is the epicenter of technology in Fresno. The kids coming out of here are more talented and more prepared for real work skills than just about anywhere else in town,” Soberall said
Throughout the eight-hour event, students were offered a list of workshops that focused on teaching several different computer programs.
The event also showcased local groups involved in technology such as the Fresno Ideaworks, a group based in Downtown Fresno that works with technology of all kinds, and Pelco, a local company that had a list of of jobs available for students in web development.
The audience of about 180 tended to showcase a younger crowd but the event was meant for people of all ages interested in entering the field.
Fresno High schools such as Fresno, Roosevelt and Bullard were represented by students in attendance.
Woodward, one of the organizers who works with high school students at Fresno High School, was a major part of bringing in the students and letting them see the technology available in Fresno.
Alejandro Torrez, a student from Roosevelt High School, felt that the event was a good introduction to college.
“I think its very helpful so that once you actually get to college you won’t be going in blind,” he said.
Even though the organizers of the event saw Devfest as a success Dhruv Doshi, a computer science student from Fresno State, noticed several glitches.
“I think they had a lot of technical problems,” Doshi said. “I think they had trouble opening up the presentations.”
Cordova, an FCC student and organizer of the event, was not discouraged by any technical problems.
“Theres always technical issues in that field,” he said. “With technology nothing ever goes right. You’re always gonna have little hangups here and there. It’s to be expected. It was all fixed and corrected.”
Organizers are already looking forward to plans for similar Devfest events and see this as a base on which to make the events bigger.
“Next year, we plan on doing it bigger and better,” Cordova said. “This is basically our template for doing it so next year its going to be a lot easier.”
