On November 21, 2021. I completed three intense and joyful days of virtual attendance to the State of Map Africa Conference 2021. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the organisers for thinking outside the box and planning this successful event despite the world being stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you to all of the organisers, volunteers, presenters, and attendees for making the event a success.

Three days for the whole virtual conference was plenty in terms of internet data; my deepest gratitude goes to the conference organisers and sponsors for awarding me and other scholarship recipients to attend. For many of us, the data scholarship was a game-changer, as internet costs are still extremely costly and unaffordable in many African countries.

Apart from bringing together GIS experts from around the world, the conference served as an important learning opportunity for all of us with an interest in GIS who, despite not being experts, have found careers using GIS and OSM tools, which we use daily to solve the most pressing social problems, particularly humanitarians issues.

This year’s conference was unique in that it included a wide range of topics and industries from which presentations were given, allowing for cross-pollination among participants from a learning perspective to collaboratively solve human problems. Furthermore, the conference was extremely beneficial to new mappers like me, as I learned about and was taught how to utilise other OSM tools that are effective in mapping through various presentations. Claire’s demonstration of Street Complete, Map Roulett, and OSMOSE was like exposing a new baby to the sun for the first time! I just finished filling Waoo!

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