The Spark: My First DevFest @ IUEA
The air in the IUEA auditorium crackled with caffeine and code. This was my first DevFest, and the energy was immediate—a thousand developers, students, and dreamers packed together, all chasing the same future.
Then, @DeniseAllela took the stage.
Her voice cut through the noise with a clear, powerful message: "AI isn't replacing developers—it's empowering them." It wasn't about being obsolete; it was about getting superpowers.
The next hour was a blur of revelations. I watched the demo of Firebase Studio powered by Gemini 2.5, realizing full-stack AI development wasn't a future promise—it was here now. The concept of Jules, a fully autonomous coding agent, hit me like a jolt. Wait, I could spend less time debugging and more time designing?
But the real game-changer was seeing the Gemini CLI in action. Watching someone automate complex operational tasks with a few simple prompts, instantly grounded by Google Search for real-time information, felt like watching magic. The tools weren't just fast; they were smart.
Walking out into the Kampala afternoon, the world felt different. I wasn't just a developer anymore. I was an architect of agentic systems. My mind was buzzing with project ideas, already imagining how to integrate AI agents into the app I'd been stuck on.
The takeaway wasn't just a hashtag; it was a mandate: #BuildSmarterShipFaster. DevFest didn't just give me new tools; it fundamentally changed how I saw my own potential. The future of code had arrived in Kampala, and I was ready to build it.
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What's your experience at DevFest Kampala