In this blog, I'll be sharing my experience attending GUADEC 2023 in person held in Riga, Latvia from 26th July 2023 to 31st July 2023.
24th July 2023
Last month, when I woke up on this date, I was still unsure whether I'd be able to attend GUADEC in person because of the visa process, I was supposed to have my visa received on July 24th, but I wanted to attend GUADEC because it would be my first conference I'd ever attended. So I decided to go to my courier's office to pick up my visa, which was already at a local courier depot. When I opened it, I was overjoyed to see that my visa had been approved. Following this, I began contacting Melissa; she was so supportive that I received my flight tickets and accommodation details the same day, even though she was traveling herself. I flew from Pune to Delhi at midnight, then from Delhi to Helsinki and then from Helsinki to Riga. To be honest, I was also looking forward to the travel experience as well because it was my first international journey. I had a great time taking pictures on the way and arrived in Riga on the evening of July 25th. Melissa if you're reading this thank you again :)
25th July 2023:
So here I was, and I was still amazed that I had made it to GUADEC in such a short time. I was quite thrilled to learn and interact with the other folks here. I was astounded to see such a diverse group of people from various backgrounds coming together to share their knowledge and experience and collaborate. I also met my mentor the very same day I arrived and we discussed his workshop and other details regarding my project.
26th July 2023:
The very next day I attended different talks related to different technologies. There were 2 rooms for 2 different tracks: Dextrum and Magnum. You can find more details here.
27th July 2023:
On the third day, there was a talk about GNOME Javascript, which I was very interested in because it intersected with my interests. Evan Welsh, Philip Chimento, and my mentor Sonny Piers gave this talk, and I was astonished to see my, and Akshay's names on the slide where he presented our work. After the day was over I returned to our hotel in the evening.
28th July 2023:
This was the day that my teammate Akshay and I had to give our project presentation. The entire discussion can be found here. I was also curious about the other projects that the interns were working on, I talked about what their projects were about and tried to learn something from them.
29th July 2023:
Starting today, we had workshops on many different technologies where you could sit and learn while also discussing a certain topic/project.
30th July 2023:
This was the last day of the conference's workshops, and we had another trip scheduled for the next day. But first, we had a dinner reservation.
31st July 2023:
This day, we had a day trip to northern Latvia, where we would tour numerous historical sites before having lunch and returning to Riga in the evening.
After each day ended, I took some time off to explore the city as much as I could before returning to the hotel.
I was amazed to discover how interesting attending a conference could be, and it was a new experience that I loved. It resembled having a family experience away from home in several ways. I will always remember this, and I'm very grateful to GNOME for sponsoring my entire trip and allowing me to attend GUADEC in person. I was able to make a tonne of memories and learn a lot. I was also honored to be presenting my work in front of all the experienced professionals. Looking forward to attending more conferences in the future.
