Flock 2015 – Event Report
This year I had the chance to attend Flock 2015, held in Rochester NY, since one of my workshops got accepted. This year’s location was the Hyatt Regency in Rochester, which is something quite new comparing all the previous Flocks and FUDCons, that are traditionally held in a University. But I can admit that it was pretty convenient, as your room was only a few floors up.
My trip started from Athens, where I had 2 connections in order to get to Rochester(Copenhagen and Washington). I was delayed a total of 2,5 hours in Washington, as I had to go through the very *big* line at passport control and the security checkpoint, and eventually I connection flight to Rochester. I guess I was not the only one, since there was also a big line in United’s customer support desk in the terminal, waiting to get a new ticket for the final destination. Over there I was delayed for another hour, but eventually I was assisted by a Greek lady, that was more than helpful once he find out that I was from Greece 😉 Got the last ticket for the last flight that day to Rochester, so I consider my self very lucky! Once I landed to Rochester, with the overall timezone difference, I headed straight to the hotel to check in and sleep, so I can make it at the following days.
In his introductory keynote, Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller announced that the state of Fedora is awesome! Additionally, a majority of Fedora users are now on the latest release. If you’re not using the latest release, take a hint. And, in the meantime, learn more about the state of Fedora. Another great keynote was given by Red Hat VP of Platform Engineering Denise Dumas. In her keynote, Dumas sought to answer the ageold question, “what does Red Hat want from Fedora?”. Dumas explained that Red Hat wants Fedora to continue to thrive as a community and continue to be a place where innovation flourishes. Flock also had many opportunities for networking and fun. Outings included the Strong Museum of Play and the George Eastman House. The conference also hosted a fun game night for attendees. There was no shortage of Exploding Kittens, great conversations, and libations.
My workshop was the last session of the last day, so I didn’t have a big audience. My workshop was actually a Wiki-editathon. I wanted to show the importance of categorizing pages, linking a page to another, use the proper syntax, and mark the content as “old” or even try to update it yourself if you can. I had created a big list of wiki pages that needed to be archived, categorized etc, and for the rest of the time we had in our disposal, we started working on these pages. After the workshop, Bex, Peter Travis and me continued our discussion at the Hotel’s bar, on how we could improve the project’s wiki, and what we could do to keep the content organized from now on.
With many workshops, presentations, and over 200 attendees, it’s safe to say that Flock 2015 was a huge success. Next flock will be held somewhere in Europe, so I can’t wait to meet you all there again!