The week-end of December 10 & 11, 2011, witnessed the first DevCamp competition in Lebanon, organized by Microsoft Lebanon and hosted at Berytech Technological Pole in Mkalles. This DevCamp spanned 2 full days and provided a learning environment in which participants had the opportunity to discover everything they needed to know to develop and publish a Windows Phone (code-named ‘Mango’) application.

On Day 1, the DevCampers were introduced to Windows Phone – Silverlight and XNA, Windows Azure toolkit for Windows Phone, Advanced Windows Phone Development, and Game Development Principals, all sessions led by Dave Russel, Microsoft Developer and Geek.

Other less technical sessions included a keynote address from Microsoft MEA VP Charbel Fakhoury, a “Seed-up your startup” session from Berytech (by N. Rouhana) on opportunities for the new generation of techno-preneurs, and a seminar by Arabnet (by Omar Christidis) called “Digital Opportunities,” on trends in the mobile, social media, and gaming space.
The event provided also a breeding ground for developers to unleash their creativity, rub shoulders with their peers, discover new trends and hone their skills all while having fun doing it. So when the “hands-on” workshops were over, the participants formed teams of 2 or 3, rolled up their sleeves and started coding, putting their learnings to work and build apps they’ve been dreaming about!

More than 250 participants enrolled, either students just starting out, or seasoned developers on Windows Phone, Android, Symbian, Web OS or iOS even! The Microsoft team shared tips and tricks and all-around Windows Phone development know-how throughout the two days.

At 5pm on the Day 2, 22 teams were selected to present their work to judges, demonstrating their apps on a sleek, easy-to-view simulator. Most of the apps presented were games. Others focused on food, some on map-localized services that allowed you to track your children or search for specific locations in Beirut. A couple was project management ideas, one that incorporated QR codes. One particularly cool game was Geo Puzzle, which took pictures from your library and chopped them into 9 pieces that you then have to reconstruct in the least number of moves.
Another, Fooctionary, took Pictionary to the crowd, allowing several people to draw at once as others watched the picture develop on their phones and guessed. Judges encouraged multiple rounds to be added, as well as further social integration
Judging was based on criteria such as Innovation, Technical Implementation, Completeness, Design, and any extras. The winner, DressBox, blew the judges away with its gorgeous interface. The app allows you to photograph pieces of clothes and try them on virtually, using an avatar of yourself. You can then send different clothing items to friends and share them via social media. While this idea has been discussed and implemented by some others, including e-closet in Jordan, the app’s strength was that trying on the clothes looked useful on its resizable interface.

All Windows Phone apps developed during Dev Camp will be posted on the Marketplace with a free Yallaapps registration. A draw will be held early January 2012 to pick another winner.