Amman, Jordan – droidcon Amman commenced on Friday the 19th of January, with the presence of Dr. Nabil Fayoumi, the Managing Director of Digiskills, representing the Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, the Strategic Partner for the conference, Dr. Abdelrazzak Arabiyat, the Director General of the Jordan Tourism Board, Mr. Greg Fawson, the CEO of droidcon and Mr. Fahed Aldeeb, the CEO of OMNES Media, the organizing company.

The conference witnessed over 1000 attendees between university students and Android developers from local, regional and international companies in addition to Jordanian and Arab media representatives covering the conference.

Mr. Greg Fawson kicked off the conference with a speech where he shared the story of droidcon from its beginnings in 2009 and how it has evolved to become one of the leading conferences dedicated to the development of android applications noting that droidcon’s network now includes over 30,000 developers. Mr. Fawson also shared the latest updates on droidcon academy which offers training services to all its constituents.

In His address, Dr. Fayoumi highlighted that the efforts made by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship in terms of partnering with the organizing company and the steps taken to contribute to the success of the conference are built around the ministry’s firm belief in providing opportunities for university students and companies for growth and development in the technology realm. Adding to that, and in line with the ministry’s vision, conferences and workshops such as droidcon Amman contribute in sharing of information by reference in the field, keeping the audience up to date on the latest developments.

Dr. Fayoumi also stressed that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship along with Digiskills, aim at developing the Jordanian youth’s digital skills through providing them with practical experience and benefiting from new technologies. Both entities aim at developing creative solutions through a number of programs and projects through which the youth’s digital capability rise to new levels and create new job opportunities in line with the expected future market requirements.

In his address, Dr. Arabiyat said “An event such as droidcon contributes to the growth and development of the Android community by providing a platform for collaboration, knowledge-sharing and networking.” He added “Since the beginning of the Android revolution, the Jordan Tourism Board made a conscience decision to utilize and incorporate technology into the marketing of Jordan as a must-visit destination in order to increase the number of tourists and further enhance the visitor's experience.”

The first day of droidcon Amman 2024 comprised of 8 sessions and workshops that were presented by leaders in the android development field and shed light on various important topics. Danny Preussler from Soundcloud presented a session on user experience on multiple devices beyond the mobile phone highlighting the challenges faced by developers while sharing the ideal format for user retention. Filip Floreani, the android team lead at Infinium, discussed the concept of moving away from traditional passwords to pass keys which offer higher security options and are adaptable to mobile and web applications.

Vadym Pinchuk, Senior Software Engineer at Labrys, shared how to craft a custom based survey platform using Flutter and Firebase. This format cuts the development time to just a few hours, a perfect solution for developers looking for faster turn around time while ensuring highest quality products. Mustafa Khaled, senior android developer at REWE, presented a workshop around the usage of passkeys as opposed to passwords explaining the benefits. Ahmed Nabil, Software Tech Lead at Vois, presented an overview of the abilities of Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) to develop applications using “Compose”.

On Thursday 18 January, the day before the commencement of droidcon Amman 2024, a hackathon took place where 480 participants were divided into 31 teams representing multiple universities from the kingdom and independent developers. Their brief was to present a digital ideas and solutions to promote tourism in Jordan. The teams presented unique and interesting concepts that were judged by a panel comprising of two judges from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, a judge Jordan Tourism Board and a fourth independent judge from the speakers at droidcon Amman. The first and second place winners were from Jordanian university students while the third place was picked up by a group of independent developers. The winner received cash prizes to the value of US$ 6,000.

Droidcon Amman is organized by OMNES Media and its tech arm OMNES Technologies between the 18th and 20th of January in partnership with Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Digiskills and sponsored by the Jordan Tourism Board, Zain, Arabia Weather and Media Observer.

For more information, please contact: info@omnesmedia.com