A year ago, June 25, 2009, a number of developers gathered together in an event with a vision of bringing together people from the IT industry and academe, forming a community. It was a jam-packed event at the venue at Techbar, IT Park, Cebu City. Although I was not there that time, participants shared experiences about the event with enthusiasm.The event is so-called DevCon (Developers Connect) Philippines, with its famous tag line – “Sync. Support. Succeed.”

Yesterday, June 25, 2010, DevCon Philippines celebrated its first year anniversary with a blast. Developers from the IT industry and academe across the Philippines gathered again in Cebu City, not anymore in Techbar but at Casino Español, Cebu City, with ample space for the participants. Initially, Mr. Winston Damarillo, founder of DevCon, gave an overview about DevCon and its activities, like the recent DevCon Geekup wherein fellow  IT professionals and from academe shared their ideas on how to bridge the gap between the industry and academe. He also started an informal discussion among participants by asking questions. They sponsors gave aways from freebies to those who participated.

Just right after the opening remarks of Mr. Damarillo, Mr. Lope Doromal of IBM gave the keynote with the topic about  having a “Smarter Planet.” He stressed out the three I’s – Instrumented, Interconnected,  and Intelligent – in order to have a smarter community.