There's a moment that happens at almost every tech event in Uganda. Someone stands up during the networking break, looks around the room, and says quietly: "I didn't know there were this many people building things."
I've seen it happen four times this year alone. At Agent Camp 2026 in Mbarara, where speakers demoed AI agents live on stage. At the Build With AI Makerere Hackathon, where my team Tech Clan built an AI-powered scam checker in 48 hours and walked away with a trophy. At the Notion Community Show Day, where the room buzzed with productivity hacks and custom dashboards. And at Logos Circles Kampala, where we sat in a circle and talked about solving real problems using decentralised tools.
Every single time, someone realises the thing they've been struggling with alone (a bug, an idea, a career question) has someone else in that room who already solved it.
This is the story of those events and why I keep showing up.
A Year of Showing Up
2026 has been the most event-packed year of my life. Here's what that looked like:
Agent Camp 2026: Global AI Mbarara
Session 2 of Global AI Mbarara at CITT, FAST Building. Speakers Muhwezi Amon and Adam Katongole took us through AI Workflows, LLMs, and AI Agents. A live demo of Virtura and a hands-on repo walkthrough made everything click. I co-organised this one alongside Joronimo Amanya, and seeing people's faces light up when they ran their first agent locally was unforgettable.
Build With AI Makerere Hackathon
Team Tech Clan (me, Shakiran Nannyombi, Benjamin Wakida Eldon, and the crew) built MoMo Scam Checker, an AI-powered scam reporting platform that uses Gemini extraction and USSD simulation to detect mobile money fraud. We pitched it at the American Center Kampala and secured 2nd place with a Championship Award from GDG on Campus Makerere and MLH. In 48 hours, we went from whiteboard sketches to a working demo with a prize.
Notion Community Show Day 2026
My first Notion Community event. Organized by Ronnie Linslay Atuhaire and Shakiran Nannyombi at Makerere's COCIS Block A. Speakers covered building dashboards, custom Notion avatars, and boosting everyday productivity. Benjamin Wakida Eldon ran a Kahoot session, and yes, I ended up on the podium again.
Logos Circles Kampala
Led by Dev Johnson, this session explored Winnable Issues and how decentralised collaboration can solve pressing local problems. A room full of builders, thinkers, and doers mapping out real solutions to real Ugandan challenges. Plus a Kahoot that got competitive.
Each of these events had its own energy, its own crowd, its own flavour. But they all had one thing in common: people who showed up left with more than they came with.
What Showing Up Actually Does For You
1. You Learn What the Industry Looks Like, Live
Coursework gives you the building blocks. Tech events show you how they're assembled in the real world. At Agent Camp, I saw how AI agents are deployed in production, not just in theory. At Build With AI, I experienced what it takes to ship a working product in 48 hours with a team you just met. These are lessons no lecture hall can teach.
2. Your Network Becomes Your Net Worth
It's a cliché because it's true. The organiser you met at a GDG meetup might be the person who tells you about a hackathon before it's announced. The teammate from a hackathon might invite you to co-organise the next event. The speaker you asked a question to after their talk might become a collaborator on your next project. I co-organised Agent Camp because I showed up to Global AI events consistently. That opportunity didn't come from an application. It came from being in the room.
3. You Build Public Proof That You Build Things
Hackathons produce projects you can put on GitHub. Speaker slots produce talks you can put on LinkedIn. Being a co-organiser produces titles that belong on your CV. The MoMo Scam Checker we built at Build With AI is now a real project I can point to, not just a concept but a working demo that solved a problem that mattered.
Personal Example
Walking into Agent Camp as a co-organiser and walking out having helped a room full of people run their first AI agent. That's something no certificate can replace. It happened because I kept showing up to Global AI meetups, contributed where I could, and eventually became part of the team that makes those events happen.
4. You Realise You're Not Behind
When you spend all your time alone with tutorials, it's easy to feel like everyone else is ahead. At a tech event, you meet people at all levels: absolute beginners, mid-level engineers, founders, and industry professionals. You see that everyone is learning, everyone has gaps, and the people who are ahead got there by consistently showing up and asking questions. The same path is open to you.
How to Start (If You've Never Been)
If you're a student at MUST, Makerere, or anywhere in Uganda and you haven't attended a tech event yet, here's a simple starting plan:
- Join a community: GDG, Global AI, MUCOSA. Follow their social channels and turn on notifications.
- Go to one meetup: just one. Sit in the front, listen, and ask one question during networking. That's it.
- Bring a friend: it's less intimidating and you'll have someone to debrief with afterward.
- Say yes to opportunities: when someone asks for a volunteer, a co-organiser, or a hackathon participant, raise your hand. I got my first speaking slot this way.
- Follow up: connect with the people you meet on LinkedIn. That single message after an event has led to collaborations that lasted months.
The first event is the hardest. The second is easier. By the third, you'll be the person welcoming someone else who's at their first event.
What's at Stake
Uganda produces thousands of tech graduates every year. The ones who build notable careers are rarely the ones with the highest GPAs. They're the ones who plugged into the community. They showed up. They contributed. They built relationships that outlasted any single project.
The tech ecosystem in this country is still young enough that the people showing up today are the ones who will shape it tomorrow. The community leads, event organisers, and startup founders of 2030 are in the room at today's meetups. The only question is whether you're in that room too.
From Agent Camp to Build With AI, from Notion Community Day to Logos Circles. I've seen what happens when people show up. New skills. New connections. New opportunities. And a community that grows stronger every time someone new walks through the door.
Event Highlights: Full Gallery
Agent Camp 2026 Build With AI Makerere Notion Community Day Logos Circles Kampala