Fort Portal Netsquared Local Organiser receives training in using online tools by Netsquared East Africa

The Netsquared Local Organiser , Fort Portal – Uganda, Solomon
Akugizibwe received two day training at City Resort Hotel, Mukono –
Uganda on effectively using social media online tools like twitter,
Whatsapp, Facebook, using VPN, Teamviewer, reporting and using meetups

The two day training was conducted on 12th and 13th May, 2016 was
facilitated by Netsquared regional ambassador Ednah Karamagi and
former Netsquared Regional Ambassador, Robert Kibaya.

During the training, with other regional ambassadors from Uganda,
Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Solomon was able to learn that online social
technology is constantly changing hence the need to have a community
to share and learn.

In addition, the participants were able to identify the qualities of a
good Netsquared organizer like being a resident of a community, must
be a leader, able to volunteer, having basic ITC Skills and literate
in atleast one international language.

Further, participants received skills in organizing an event like
choosing a topic related to ICT, asking yourself as a netsquared
organizer why the selected topic is important, determining your
audience, identifying the methodology like lecture, panel or workshop
and other issues like determining the time needed to conduct a meetup.

In organizing a meetup it’s also important to know the presenters,
potential partners, identifying the venue, managing the time as the
host and documentation and sharing your activity by having atleast two
silent rapporteurs and having a reliable communication for
coordinating the event.

After the training, I will scale up the recruitment and training of
more members, conducting more online trainings in my community;
increasingly using the meetup online platform to communicate my
activities, reporting my activities and identification and mentorship
of more local organizers.

During the training, I was able to network with my colleagues and
share challenges and success stories for instance in Fort Portal I
shared an experience of challenges like lacking appropriate equipments
like cameras/phones for documentation and sharing our activities
especially using photos and videos and not being on the Netsquared
Whatsapp group. I shared my success stories to other members in
mobilizing for meetups in my community.

I am grateful to Netsquared for enabling me attend this 2 day fruitful
training by facilitating my travel, accommodation and feeding and the
facilitators for equipping me with this fruitful knowledge and skills.

Documentation: Solomon Akugizibwe, Netsquared Local Local organizer,
Fort Portal - Uganda