Last weekend, we wrapped up Google I/O Extended Lahore 2025 – and it was one of our most ambitious and rewarding events yet this year.

As one of the lead organizers, I had the privilege of working alongside an amazing team of community builders and collaborators to bring this experience to life for Lahore’s developers, AI enthusiasts, and startup founders. This year, we tried something new – we split the event into two parts to deliver more focused learning and deeper engagement.

🚀 Part 1: Workshop Day @ NIC Lahore (Friday, 18th July 2025)

We kicked off with a Workshop Day at the National Incubation Center Lahore (NIC) – our generous venue partner for the day. The idea was to give attendees hands-on exposure to the latest tools from Google’s AI ecosystem.

We had over 110+ participants join us for practical, deep-dive sessions on: Google AI Studio, Vertex AI and Gemini 2.5.

🧠 Session Topics:

• “Engineering Smart AI Agents: RAG, Gemini, and Beyond” by Yasir Siddique
• “Google AI Studio: Advanced Features with Prompt Engineering Tips, Guide & Techniques” by Ehtisham Raza

Both trainers delivered content-rich, real-world insights into building intelligent agents and getting the most out of Google’s AI tooling.

🎉 Part 2: Main Event @ Daftarkhwan Downtown (Saturday, 26th July 2025)

The energy carried into our main event, held at Daftarkhwan Downtown – a long-time supporter of developer-focused events in Lahore. We welcomed 120+ developers, engineers, and AI professionals eager to dive into the post-I/O announcements and explore how these innovations can help them build smarter, faster, and more creatively.

📌 Key Topics Covered:

• Gemini CLI
• Google ADK (AI Design Kit)
• Vertex AI
• Google AI Studio
• Firebase AI SDK
• The broader power and potential of Gemini 2.5

💬 Our Incredible Speaker Lineup:

• Huzaifa Habib – Community Manager @ Google
• Shaeera Sahi – Software Engineer @ Google
• Shaheer Khawaja – Founder @ Entropy & Co.
• Rabbia Arshad – Machine Learning Engineer @ dtcforce
• Mashhood Rastgar – Head of Engineering @ Taleemabad
• M. Hassan Raza – AI Engineer @ Entropy & Co.
• Sakina Abbas – Google Developer Expert (Mobile)

Each session was packed with demos, use cases, and inspiring thoughts on how developers in Pakistan can lead the charge in AI adoption.

👏 A Huge Thanks to My Team

No event like this happens without the effort of an exceptional team. I want to take a moment to personally thank the people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes:

• Salman Arif – who single-handedly handled all speaker coordination and content curation. From talk proposals to speaker logistics, he managed it all with precision and calm.
• Muaaz Saeed – who led marketing, branding, and social media. From announcement designs to live updates during the event, Muaaz ensured our community stayed informed and engaged throughout the journey.

I’m proud of what we accomplished together.

🌱 What’s Next?

The enthusiasm we saw across both days proves one thing: the future of AI in Pakistan is bright, and developers here are ready to build with it.

Whether you’re just starting out or already working with LLMs and production pipelines, events like Google I/O Extended are about community, learning, and empowerment. I’m excited to continue building platforms where we can explore, collaborate, and push boundaries together.

On behalf of GDG Lahore, thank you to everyone who participated, volunteered, and supported us.

Let’s keep building. 💡

—
Haris Nadeem