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FUDCon EMEA 2011 in Milan

When I returned from FUDCon on Monday I was flooded by e-mails in my Inbox. So this blogpost is probably one of the last ones reporting about FUDCon, but better later than never 🙂

There were about 20 people from Brno’s Red Hat and I was in the group that decided to drive. It was a 12 hour drive to get to Milan, Italy, and I promise I’ll join those who fly next time 🙂 We arrived on Friday and got accommodated in the hotel recommended by the organizers, so we met many Fedorians already in the hotel.

The first day of FUDCon was devoted to a barcamp. I wasn’t really sure if I should give a talk, but then I told myself: Hey, what we’re doing with universities and the community in Brno is beginning to be pretty cool stuff, so why not to talk on that? Someone might be interested in what we’re doing and get some inspiration. The audience could have been larger, no doubt about that, but try to compete with a talk “How Fedora Is Made”… The first day was finishing with the FUDPub that took place on the other side of the city which is why we walked through the city center and had an opportunity to discover its architectonic diamonds. Some complained that it was too noisy (c’mon, you’re in Italia, what did you expect?) and packed at the pizzeria where the FUDPub was held, but beer was good and continual stream of all kinds of pizzas fed absolutely everyone. And we had fun that peaked when Beefy Miracle showed up!

The second day was devoted to hackfests. All hackfests I needed to attend were scheduled for the afternoon and I was looking for some to jump in during the morning. I wanted to participate in the Documentation and Translation hackfest, but I ended up looking for a plug (that was one of a few reasonable complaints about FUDCon, please we need more electric plugs next time!). The Ambassadors meeting was IMHO very productive and hit many long-term problems such as reimbursements, budgeting, swag production. That’s where I, as a community manager in Red Hat Czech, offered a helping hand and hopefully at least some of those problems will be solved soon. That’s the most important outcome of FUDCon for me.

We left Milan on Monday and headed to Venice for a two-hour stop. Italy was saying goodbye to us with a great weather. It was over 30C that day which is not definitely usual for October.

P.S. You can find a lot of pictures from FUDCon in Nicu’s image gallery.

Group photo - FUDCon EMEA 2011 MilanGroup Photo – © Nicu

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