September 7 was the opening day of DevFest season II, which is officially held in Thessaloniki for the second time and exclusively for Playground participants.
The Google Developers Group (GDG Thessaloniki) this year, following Google's "guiding course", focused on 4 key axes that will bring the future in our hands:
• Wearable technology
• Cloud platforms
• Google Maps APIs
• Chrome extentions and their programming
During the first day of DevFest, guests and participants of the Playground had the opportunity to try out Google Glass and to solve their questions from Wiebe Elsinga, one Google Glass explorer. For this reason Google Developers Group programmed 3 workshops based on their technology and usefulness Google Glass. The locations of these workshops were filled immediately, and there were over 300 people who watched them or asked questions about Google Glass!
It was remarkable the presentation of an 12 chronos, who traveled from Athens to Thessaloniki exclusively for the Playground. The atmosphere was particularly warm as, as we all know, GDG Thessaloniki is thrilled when it comes to highlighting such young talents.
After the Google Glass sessions, we saw Wiebe Elsinga flooding the scene as he began collecting a UX prototyping tech speech and a related workshop where the participants had to create teams and start designing their application. The workshop lasted over 2 hours but neither the participants nor Wiebe himself understood how fast the time passed.
At the same time at the conference centre Emilios Riadis (formerly Corona) the Lady Geek Day event took place for the first time in Thessaloniki, inspired by the Women Techmakers initiative of Google. The panel was attended by 4 leading women in the field: Olga Stavropoulou, Marika Lambrou, Sandra Zafirakopoulou and Liana Gouta. They shared their experiences with the audience and focused on the need to break down stereotypes that prevent women from engaging in science, technology and entrepreneurship. According to them, the solution to the problem comes through the changes of the basic social structures, such as that of the family, but also through the connection της εκπαιδευτικής κοινότητας με την αγορά εργασίας. Μια ευχάριστη έκπληξη ήταν η παρουσία two of young girls, who have announced their intention to create a women's tech outreach group in an effort to bring the fairer sex closer to coding and beyond.
The event, after completing the break, was transferred to 14, in the venue where it is hosted Google Developers.
There Mrfaceof Media Hackers, Mr. Yiannis Kotsifos, presented the group's actions. The main objective of Media Hackers is to develop a flexible basic training program for journalists so that they are better equipped to deal with new technologies. The consortium has been established specifically for the purpose of the project and includes eight experienced partners representing the fields of journalism, journalism education, professional education and training, as well as consultancy services, in six European Union Member States.
