During my early days at University as a toddler, the advice I often hear from my lecturers and seniors is, “apart from improving your skills, make sure to maintain an active LinkedIn account and GitHub profile”. Well, LinkedIn wasn’t too jargon to understand, that I even started microblogging on it. But GitHub wasn’t a cakewalk. When I asked my buddies, what exactly GitHub was, the responses I got were, “Well, it’s something similar to Instagram. Coders use GitHub in the same way as models use Instagram to portray themselves. They can upload their coding and showcase their coding skills”, “A platform to collaborate for coders”, “It’s a version controlling tool”. When I started exploring GitHub hands-on, I realised and experienced the truth in their statements but it wasn’t until I attended GitHub Universe, I realised the full potential of this monstrous tool, Github.

The last 2 months were really progressive in my career as I was able to crack Hacktoberfest, got selected as Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador and started my blog which I was planning to do for quite a long time now. I even got the opportunity to attend two of the finest tech events which happened in the country: Microsoft ignite 2022 After Party and GitHub Universe 2022 Watch party. Here’s my experience at GitHub Universe!

What is GitHub Universe?
GitHub Universe is the largest developer conference organised by Github every year and this time in San Francisco, USA on November 9th and 10th. Tech enthusiasts all around the world were given the opportunity to attend the in person event by buying tickets or to view the online event for free. Wouldn’t it be unfair for geeks outside the USA? That’s why GitHub communities in various countries organise their own Watch parties of GitHub Universe 2022 at their own country. The GitHub community of Sri Lanka headed by the GitHub Campus experts took the task on their shoulders and pulled off a tremendous event at Microsoft Sri Lanka on 19th of November 2022. I was privileged enough to get the opportunity to attend the event in-person.

What was there?
Any tech event is incomplete without swags! and GitHub being known for amazing swags, it didn’t disappoint me. The participants were greeted with stickers at registration before being sent to the hall.

The event kicked off with the virtual keyNote session of the GitHub CEO Mr. Thomas Dohmke. To view the session, Click here. When he said,

“There is nothing better, nothing energizing than being in a room full of developers”

it really made me thrilled and motivated.

The very next session was a physical session on “Role of GitHub in Cyber Defense” by Mr. Chamath Rathnasekara, a cybersecurity senior lead at Scybers. It was a really interesting session and I got to know a plethora of information about Cyber security and how GitHub is used as a loophole in the tech arena by the hackers to breach through systems. Wait! GitHub is supposed to be constructive right? well it is, but the issue again is the human. When we upload the codes to the GitHub, we upload passwords, tokens, API keys, IP information, sensitive domain, infrastructure details, AWS, GCP Azure keys and other secrets without being bothered about how sensitive they are. That’s why we humans are considered as the weakest link in cyber security. I can still remember the following words he mentioned which ignited my thoughts in various ways.

“There’s no status as you are safe. Either you are breached or in the process of getting breached/compromised”

Next in the agenda was another virtual session which was a recap of the session done by Mr. Mike Hankey from GitHub at the GitHub Universe 2022 on the topic “How GitHub builds GitHub” which was very insightful.

I loved how the agenda was made. The virtual sessions were put in between the physical sessions to keep the audience attentive and consumed maximum knowledge. Then a small break is given for the attendees to roam around and explore the Microsoft Sri Lanka office and take pictures. Here’s some of my memories:

An official photograph of all the attendees, guests and the organizers were also taken.

The next event in the agenda was a session by one of the GitHub Campus Experts, a Software Engineer at Sysco labs, Mr. Ahamad Safnaj. During his session, I was mesmerised about the fact that Github has so many functionalities apart from containing codes and enabling collaborations. Using GitHub issues as a project management tool, Hosting a static website in GitHub, Github Copilot, GitHub packages, how Github automatically monitors our dependencies for known vulnerabilities and apply suggested fixes with automated pull requests, core security features in GitHub, usage of GitHub actions are some of the key take-aways from the session for me which I thought of writing about in the future.

Next a quiz was conducted, and since the swags already given were not enough to quench my thirst, I made up my mind to somehow win this! And guess what! I did it. It took me until GitHub Universe to win an online quiz session and I was rewarded with a free t-shirt voucher worth $30, which can be redeemed in the GitHub store. And I bought the same black elegant t-shirt worn by the person who is presenting me with the voucher. Yes! I am a black lover.

What followed is another virtual session on “Github Copilot the developer happiness” by Seth Juarez from Microsoft. I have heard a lot of GitHub co-pilot but honestly haven’t given a try. But after the magic demonstrated during the session, I was so determined to try it out on the same day.

The final session was a short practical session by another GitHub Campus Expert, Mr. Suvin Nimnaka. The topic of the session was “The right way, the wrong way and the CLI way”. He demonstrated how efficient and effective the command line interface is when dealing with GitHub.

With that the event ended. Well, Not really. Didn’t you guys feel something was missing when I narrated? Yes! The refreshments! After all the insightful sessions, we were really exhausted and we were over the moon to see mouth watering Dominos Pizzas!! and yeah You can see me craving for pizzas as the foodie inside me got awoken! Yes you can find me staring at that pizza on air in the left of the picture.

Well with that, the event concluded. Finally before leaving, the #UCSCfam (University of Colombo School of Computing) — the attendees from my University, took a photo together as well!

oh wait! Forgot to say something. After this event, my craze towards this red hoodie, increased immensely. Isn’t it amazing? Yes I wanna become a GitHub Campus Ambassador too, not just for the red hoodie or the yellow bag or the other swags that comes with it. But also to inspire and empower the community just the way I was inspired!