Last weekend was nothing short of magical. I had the incredible opportunity to attend my first ever global State of the Map conference in Nairobi, Kenya. This gathering of the OSM community was a fantastic space to connect with like-minded individuals and learn about the incredible work being done with geo-data technology across various sectors…Thanks to a generous travel grant from HOT Open Summit Program, I was now sure 100% I am going to make it to Nairobi. The conference itself spanned three days, from September 6th to 8th, and it was the shortest weekend I’ve ever experienced😄. Everyone was having such a great time that no one wanted to leave!

We arrived in Nairobi on September 5th, around 21:30 PM, and were greeted by the city’s chilly weather🥶. Despite the late hour and the cold, we managed to settle in and get ready for the conference. The next day, the conference kicked off, and I was both excited and nervous as I had a session scheduled for the first day, and I’d never presented in front of such a large and diverse audience before. However, the experience was incredibly rewarding, and I learned so much from the other speakers. I particularly enjoyed Diego Gonzalez Ferreiro’s presentation on UN-Maps: Supporting Peace with Open Data, Yvonne Darko’s talk on Photo Mapping from My Village to Pharmacies and Addresses, and of course, my own presentation on Women in Tech: What Worked Best for Me.😜😉

One of the best things about the conference was the opportunity to network with other attendees. I met some amazing people from all over the globe, and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to strike up conversations. I am lowkey an introvert person🫣🤭 hahah so its kinda hard for me to start socializing with people but the people i met there were the coooolest people I have never see. I was comfortable talking to everyone around me (so cutesy,so demure as Hawa would say😅😅 ) . And the food? Let’s just say, the Kenyans did not disappoint! 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

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