A while back, I was reflecting on my 2024 community meetup journey. If 2024 was about recovering from a challenging year with the support of our communities, then 2025 has been fundamentally about connection. This past year has cemented my belief that the most impactful communities are those that break down silos, share resources, and actively collaborate. And this post is a reflection on why I chose to connect the dots between different groups, technologies, and cities, and what I learned along the way.

The core thesis here is simple: we are stronger together. My focus for 2025 is on joint ventures, bringing together the best of Cloud Native Barcelona, Grafana & Friends, Software Crafters, DevOps BCN, Kafka, and other communities, to offer the community something richer and more valuable than we could offer alone.

Before diving into the details, I would like to extend a massive, heartfelt thank you to every single person who made this year’s community work happen. Thank you to my brilliant co-organizers for their countless times jumping in to help; to the sponsoring hosts who opened their doors and provided logistical support; to every dedicated speaker for sharing their expertise; and to every single attendee who showed up and brought the energy. You are the community, and your efforts make it worthwhile.

I also want to commit to an honest assessment here. This journey had incredible highs, but also presented persistent challenges, particularly in terms of diversity and inclusion. Community building is a rewarding yet ongoing process, and I hope to share lessons from both the highs and the challenges.

From Seeds to a Network: The Collaborative Formula for Community Growth

Every journey begins with a starting point, a seed. For me, the initial ground for cultivating community stemmed from two foundational experiences. I first learned the ropes of bringing people together around shared technical interests with the Elastic User Groups in Barcelona and Madrid back in 2018, alongside Janko Strassburg, my long-time partner in crime. What followed was the restarting of Software Crafters Barcelona meetups in 2022, with Manuel Rivero‘s invaluable support and advice. The Crafters community, with its dedication to hands-on learning with regular coding dojos, truly instilled in me the value of consistency and showing up for the community.

These experiences laid the groundwork, and 2024 truly marked the beginning of a new chapter: joint meetups. Driven by a desire to break down the invisible walls between communities, this shift felt very organic.

The first joint venture was between Software Crafters Barcelona and Techfems, when we partnered to bring both communities together under one space in May 2024.

Another pivotal moment came at the end of 2024 with another joint meetup: Cloud Native Barcelona 🤝 Cloud Native Lisboa. I owe a huge thank you to Fábio Sampaio for suggesting that collaboration and making it happen. It showed us the potential of connecting communities even beyond our city.

These successful ventures quickly inspired more local cross-community events. We soon forged another partnership between the Kafka and Grafana communities (Apache Kafka meetup with Grafana in Madrid), which has continued into 2025. My sincere gratitude to Olivia Taylor and Ana Vrsalovic, whose connection was instrumental in getting these collaborations off the ground and will continue beyond 2026 as we expand to include other communities.

These initial joint steps were just the beginning. This year, 2025, has seen these collaborations grow exponentially, transforming those initial seeds into an interconnected network that spans multiple communities, cities, and technologies. Working together has multiplied our impact.

The 2025 Collaborative Calendar: Connecting the Dots in Action

Reviewing this year’s meetups, a pattern emerges: we are seeing an increase in joint meetups.

All those collaborations have been, and I am sure will continue to be, very rewarding.

Beyond the impressive numbers, the real reward of this collaborative approach is the synergy it creates. Simply put, joint ventures lower the organizational burden: finding hosts and speakers. By co-organizing, we share the workload, access diverse networks, and gain exposure to users and technologies we might not see in our core groups alone.

As Luca Berton noted after one of our cross-community events, “These cross-community meetups (Grafana, Kafka, Snowflake) are exactly where innovation happens“. In fact, by joining three different communities, we actually achieved an all-women speaker lineup, a rare and rewarding occurrence.

While our collaborative formula boosts audience size and exposure, it doesn’t automatically solve for deep-seated systemic issues. The reality of community work, as I’ve experienced repeatedly this year, is the persistent struggle to consistently find diverse voices from underrepresented groups for our speaker lineups. We must also seriously examine why we don’t see a proportional representation of diverse attendees.

While creating an inclusive conference with diverse voices is something we are getting better at, and we can influence as attendees, speakers, and sponsors, as meetup organizers, we face a tough, immediate decision: cancel an event until we achieve a diverse lineup, or proceed with a homogeneous one. Meetups are planned in weeks, not months, leaving us a narrow margin to pivot.

It’s not enough to be welcoming and inclusive. We must actively investigate the systemic barriers that prevent certain groups from attending or participating in meetups.

This continuous effort is a central part of my commitment as a community builder in the local community.

My resolution for 2026 is to move beyond good intentions and establish a data-driven approach.

I will begin gathering concrete data on the diversity of speakers and attendees. Once we have this baseline, we can explore and measure additional, targeted initiatives beyond our joint meetups to create truly inclusive spaces.

The journey of joint meetups in 2025 demonstrated that we are stronger together in technical collaboration. However, this combined strength should be intentionally leveraged to drive a more profound change. True allyship for systemic justice is not merely welcoming individuals. It is the commitment to dismantle the systemic barriers that prevent proportional representation in our communities and, by extension, the wider industry.

Our collaborative formula, connecting community groups across cities and technologies, is just one such initiative.

By committing to a data-driven approach in 2026, we are transitioning from recognizing the challenge to actively measuring and targeting the underlying structures of inequality, ensuring our local organizing efforts are a core engine for systemic change in tech.

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa8ih7PAcrc

https://osseu2025.sched.com/event/25Vwd/understanding-the-need-for-systemic-change-in-open-source-through-intersectionality-imma-valls-grafana-labs

While open-source communities strive for innovation, achieving genuine diversity and inclusion requires a fundamental understanding of systemic inequalities.

This talk centers on the lived experiences of women navigating open-source spaces. We will reveal the persistent challenges related to safety, lack of representation, and the critical importance of considering intersecting identities. By applying an intersectionality lens, we can gain a clearer understanding of the systemic changes required to dismantle the barriers.

This session will then focus on the power of sponsorship and fostering allyship as key strategies for enacting this change. We will highlight existing initiatives and brainstorm solutions to build a more welcoming and equitable community where everyone feels empowered to contribute.

Join us to explore how understanding the need for systemic change through intersectionality and how actively fostering allyship and sponsorship can pave the way for a truly diverse and inclusive open-source future.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7362908726724382720-yqar
• https://x.com/tacoverdo/status/1960691991953486112

This workshop was delivered with Karla Valeria Feijoo and Sevi Karakulak at Dutch Cloud Native Day 2025.

Privilege is not a binary concept—it’s multifaceted, contextual, and intersects with various aspects of identity and environment. Each of us holds privilege in some areas while lacking it in others. This talk explores how to recognize and understand these nuances of privilege, especially within today’s globally distributed teams. We will examine the role of systemic inequality and cultural bias in the workplace and provide practical strategies for supporting colleagues with less privilege. Through real-world scenarios, we’ll discuss fostering inclusivity, encouraging empathy, and contributing to a more equitable professional environment.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloudnativenl_inclusion-equity-diversity-activity-7343182353411829764-Ecnp
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/karla-valeria-feijoo-54934422_inclusion-equity-diversity-activity-7343192034591080448-oewP
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7343339635294593024-A1T1

This 15-minute keynote was delivered at Dutch Cloud Native Day 2025.

While open-source communities strive for innovation, achieving genuine diversity and inclusion requires a fundamental understanding of systemic inequalities.

This talk centers on the lived experiences of women navigating open-source spaces. We will reveal the persistent challenges related to safety, lack of representation, and the critical importance of considering intersecting identities. By applying an intersectionality lens, we can gain a clearer understanding of the systemic changes required to dismantle the barriers.

This session will then focus on the power of sponsorship and fostering allyship as key strategies for enacting this change. We will highlight existing initiatives and brainstorm solutions to build a more welcoming and equitable community where everyone feels empowered to contribute.

Join us to explore how understanding the need for systemic change through intersectionality and actively fostering allyship and sponsorship can pave the way for a genuinely diverse and inclusive open-source future.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloudnativenl_we-are-excited-to-announce-that-imma-valls-activity-7338175554497511424-iSlt

Social:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7336626084341284864-0Q2X
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/apidays-india_womeninapis-techcommunity-publicspeaking-activity-7338877857126862849-XyJc/

Part 1

Video: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/specmatic_part-1-of-3-from-rural-spain-to-tech-leader-activity-7336241551053856768-ChXz

Here are three key takeaways:

1️⃣ Community Support Makes a Difference

Imma’s growth accelerated when she joined and contributed to tech groups. By sharing, she both found support and helped others.

2️⃣ Your Background is an Asset, Not a Barrier

Rural origins, unconventional paths, and career pivots aren’t obstacles to overcome. They’re perspectives that add value to technical discussions and make your voice distinct in the API community.

3️⃣ Intentionality Fuels Impact

Imma’s story shows the value of being intentional about career direction and community involvement. Getting up to speak – even when it’s outside your comfort zone – can fuel your career, and it’s also a powerful way to give back and help others navigate their own technical paths.

Part 2

Video: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7336242983010226176/

➡️ Growth Through Speaking
Public speaking, especially outside your comfort zone, can reveal skills and passions you didn’t know you had. For Imma, presenting and training delivery began her journey to developer advocacy.

➡️ Support Fosters Confidence
Sometimes all it takes is a nudge from a supportive manager or peer. Imma’s first talk happened because her manager encouraged her to try, with no pressure to continue if it wasn’t a fit.

Part 3

Video: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7336245247028432898/

➡️ Nerves Are Normal – Energy Comes After
Imma admits she still gets nervous before speaking publicly, but draws real energy and motivation from connecting with others at in-person events. If you’re hesitant, know you’re not alone – and that the payoff is worth it.

➡️ Authenticity Over Perfection
Early in her career, Imma felt pressure to fit in, often surrounded by men in tech. Her advice: bring your authentic self to work and resist the urge to chase perfection. Steer your career proactively, focusing on your passions rather than letting external forces decide your path.

➡️ The Value of Community
Finding and joining communities is key. Imma highlights how support networks help us realize we’re not alone in our struggles, offering unique perspectives and actionable advice. If one community doesn’t fit, seek out another until you find your support group.

Technical talk for the Grafana challenge proposed for hackers at HackUPC 2025.

Calling all innovators and data enthusiasts! Want to make a real difference while flexing your tech skills? Join the Grafana Labs challenge to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on our planet!
You have two exciting paths to choose from:

1. Become a Data Storyteller: Dive into open data, master Grafana Cloud, and build stunning dashboards that reveal critical insights into global challenges like climate change, ocean pollution, or deforestation.
2. Become a Grafana App Pioneer: Go beyond the dashboard! Learn to build your own Grafana apps – panel plugins, dashboard plugins, even scenes – to create unique visualizations, interactive tools, or integrations that drive action towards a sustainable future. Check out the possibilities here: https://grafana.com/developers/plugin-tools/plugin-examples/

We’ll provide you with the knowledge to get started – from ingesting data and understanding metrics to the basics of Grafana plugin development. Then, it’s your turn to innovate. Whether you’re passionate about clean energy, protecting biodiversity, or promoting sustainable consumption, this is your chance to use data and code for good.
Impress us with your insightful dashboards or your groundbreaking Grafana apps. Let’s engineer a more sustainable future, together!”

Challenge Abstract
Join Grafana Labs in driving impact for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)! This challenge invites you to leverage Grafana’s power to raise awareness and provide insights into these critical global issues, with a particular interest on environmental sustainability.
You have the flexibility to approach this challenge in two exciting ways (or a combination of both!):

1. Data Visualization Powerhouse: Ingest open data from one or more sources into Grafana. Transform this data to reveal meaningful trends and create compelling dashboards that effectively communicate the challenges and potential solutions for your chosen SDG(s). Explore various visualization types to craft impactful narratives (panels, canvas, etc).
2. Grafana App Innovator: Go beyond traditional dashboards and develop a Grafana App plugin (panel, dashboard, scenes, the sky is the limit!) that provides unique insights or functionalities related to your chosen SDG(s). Get inspired by the Grafana plugin examples: https://grafana.com/developers/plugin-tools/plugin-examples/. Your app could offer interactive visualizations, custom data displays, or even integrate external tools and APIs.

We encourage you to focus on environmental SDGs (e.g., Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land), though all SDGs are valid and welcome.
Here are some starting points for open data (feel free to explore others!), and mix them:

• UNSDG Data
• World Bank Open Data
• Our World in Data
• Open Sustainable Technology
• Your own data
• Etc.

During our 30-minute introductory talk, we’ll teach you the basics of ingesting data into Grafana, understanding metrics and logs, and even guiding you through the initial steps of creating your own Grafana plugin app. We can’t wait to see your innovative solutions!

Ready to harness the power of Grafana for your HackUPC project? The session briefly introduces the core concepts you need to get started. We’ll cover Grafana fundamentals and guide you through the initial steps of building compelling dashboards and your first Grafana app. Equip yourself with the tools to visualize your data and bring your innovative ideas to life!

It was a close call!

Winner Graf-Anna

Inspiration

The growing urgency of climate change and the clear impacts outlined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we were inspired to use technology to tell a data-driven story. We saw the power of Grafana not just for monitoring systems, but as a tool for raising awareness about critical global issues by creating dashboards. We wanted to explore the relationship between industrial development (SDG 9), responsible consumption (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), and their effects on our planet’s and human’s health.

What it does

Graf-Anna is a comprehensive Grafana dashboard that visualizes the impact of the Industrial Revolution and human activity on CO2 emissions, global climate trends, and human health. It aims to:

1. Show Historical Trends: Displays the rise in global CO2 emissions, corresponding temperature increases, and the alarming increase in natural disasters since the industrial era began (~1850).
2. Compare National Impacts: Visualizes CO2 emissions per capita and life expectancy trends for major countries (the US, China, Canada, Spain).
3. Analyze Deforestation: Breaks down CO2 emissions specifically caused by deforestation, attributing them to different agricultural products (beef, oilseed, cereals, etc.) for key nations, illustrating the link between consumption patterns and environmental impact (connects SDG 12 and 13).
4. Map Global Footprints: Uses Geomap panels to visualize current emission hotspots and land use patterns (industry vs. agriculture).

Graf-Anna serves as an educational tool to understand the historical context and current state of climate change drivers and impacts, using data to tell a compelling story. It uses both historical and live data to combine different SDGs.

How we built it

We utilized Grafana Dashboards as the core framework. We gathered data from various public sources (like https://ourworldindata.org/, OpenAQ API… ) covering:

• Historical global CO2 emissions and temperature anomalies.
• Natural disaster occurrences over time.
• CO2 emissions per capita and life expectancy by country.
• Detailed CO2 emissions from deforestation linked to specific agricultural commodities (likely sourced from environmental or agricultural statistics databases).
• Geospatial data for land use and emission mapping.

We used the Infinity plugin to ingest data from CSV files or APIs where necessary, and we employed a variety of Grafana panels:

• Time Series Charts: For historical trends (emissions, temperature, disasters, life expectancy, CO2/capita).
• Bar Charts: For comparing deforestation emissions by country and product.
• Geomap Panels: For visualizing land use and emission hotspots.
• Stat Panels: For displaying key metrics like current temperature anomaly and disaster counts.
• Text Panels: To provide explanations, context, and conclusions.
• Polystat/Image Panels: For displaying SDG logos.

We focused on structuring the dashboard logically, using rows and panel arrangements to guide the user through the story. We tried to apply the visualization best practices regarding layout and clarity that appeared in the slides.

Challenges we ran into

Our initial ambition was to develop a custom Grafana App Plugin using Scenes, potentially incorporating more advanced features like LLM integration for insights or dynamic image generation. However, we encountered technical difficulties and time constraints in implementing these features. This forced us to pivot our strategy. We realized that effectively sourcing, integrating, and visualizing the existing data to tell a clear story was a significant challenge in itself. So, finally, we opted to divert our efforts into finding consistent, comparable data across different domains (climate, health, agriculture, deforestation).

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We are proud to have successfully pivoted from our initial complex plugin idea to deliver a comprehensive and informative Grafana dashboard within the time limit. We successfully integrated diverse datasets from multiple domains to create a cohesive narrative about the interconnectedness of industrial activity, consumption, climate change, and health.

What we learned

This project reinforced the power of data visualization as a storytelling tool. We learned that even without custom code, Grafana provides immense capability for building insightful dashboards. It was our first time with a technology of this kind, so we had to learn it from scratch.

We also deepened our understanding of the specific challenges and data points related to SDGs 9, 12, and 13.

What’s next for Graf-Anna

Future development for Graf-Anna could include implementing the custom plugin, incorporating more interactive elements and live-data, adding more SDGs…

Built With

• api
• grafana

Try it out

•  storyana.grafana.net

Runner up Peaceful Protest Tracker: Headlines vs Reality

Inspiration

In Serbia, following the tragic Novi Sad railway canopy collapse in November last year, where 16 lives were lost, widespread student-led protests erupted. The confusion caused by completely different stories emerging from various media outlets intrigued us. We felt inspired to use our skills in web dev, AI, and a passion for data visualization to try and bring some clarity.

What it does

Our solution is a dynamic dashboard presenting how the situation unfolded up to the present, thanks to near real-time data updating based on the latest news, from both regime-controlled and independent media outlets. On our Grafana dashboard, you can:

• See a semi-live map pinpointing reported protest locations across Serbia.
• Explore sentiment analysis: How are students or protesters being portrayed?
• Compare keyword usage: How often do protest related terms like “justice” appear in different media spheres in comparison to pure propaganda?
• Directly visualize the “Headlines vs Reality” contrast through comparative charts and stats

How we built it

We pieced together a pipeline designed to automatically gather, understand, and display this information:

1. News Gathering: We started with Python and the BeautifulSoup library to scrape articles from both independent and pro-government Serbian news websites. We had to build in some flexibility to handle different website layouts.
2. AI Brains: The raw article text then gets sent off to the Gemini 2.5 Flash API. We spent time crafting prompts to tell the AI exactly what we needed: Is this article about a protest? Where did it happen? Who was mentioned? And, crucially, what’s the sentiment towards the protesters/students? It sends back structured JSON data.
3. The Control Room: A Spring Boot backend acts as the central coordinator. It uses Cron jobs to trigger the scraping process automatically every couple hours. It handles communication with the Gemini API through a Python script, tidies up the data, and makes it ready for Grafana via a simple REST API.
4. Storing the Goods: All the structured info coming back from Gemini gets stored in MongoDB Atlas. We picked Mongo because it excels at handling the kind of slightly messy, ever-evolving JSON data you often get from web scraping and AI analysis.
5. Making it Visual: Grafana is where the magic happens for the user. We hooked it up to our MongoDB Atlas. Then we went to town building dashboards using different Grafana panels – Geomaps for locations, Time Series for trends, Stats for key numbers, and Tables for an easy view of the protest schedule.

Challenges we ran into

Although each part was challenging on its own, designing the complex yet logical system architecture and connecting the pieces together posed the largest challenge, especially given the wide array of technologies used.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We’re proud of our decision to raise awareness of a very personal and important topic. Furthermore, we take pride in our persistence and determination to bring such a seemingly complex and “36h impossible” idea to life. Apparently, sleep deprivation and potato chips can take you so far.

What we learned

None of us had previously worked with Grafana, nor had any experience with web scraping, yet we not only managed to complete the imagined task, but to learn in the process as well. We’ll all likely use these technologies extensively in the future. There was also a lot of opportunity to learn the intricacies of our stack from each other, and also exchange knowledge with peers and mentors on site.

What’s next for Peaceful Protest Tracker: Headlines vs Reality

Who knows what the future holds. Assuming the websites we scraped from don’t change their format soon, our project is very self-maintainable, so we’ll probably keep it running and keep adding features as novel ideas arise.

Built With

• geminiapi
• grafana
• mongodbatlasing
• python
• spring

Try it out

•  protests.grafana.net
•  GitHub Repo

Tech Communities are missing women’s voices. We see it at tech conferences and meetups almost everywhere.

While we celebrate women who’ve “made it” and their visibility is vital, survivorship bias hides a crucial truth: up to half leave tech by age 35, we leave at a higher rate than men, and many never even join.

This talk exposes our own bias as women survivors in tech. The success stories of women around us overshadow the struggles of those who’ve fallen away, leading to misguided initiatives and hindering true inclusion. There is a dire need to identify and address these issues and implement successful initiatives to make our communities more diverse.

This session will give you a deeper understanding of the problem and tangible ways to drive change in your circles. Be part of the solution for genuinely inclusive tech communities!

This talk was delivered at International Women’s Day 2025 in Barcelona.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sablina-angulo-li_a%C3%BAn-sinti%C3%A9ndome-inspirada-y-motivada-por-activity-7326547384144965632-4LWE/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tech-con-empat%C3%ADa-e-interseccionalidad-una-reflexi%C3%B3n-sablina-angulo-sfnze/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ana-carmona-ag_wtmvueling-wtmbarcelona-iwd2025-ugcPost-7314204098545750017-A5mW
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anemari-fiser_wtmvueling-wtmbarcelona-iwd2025-ugcPost-7314241470083797002-cGbJ
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/normadiazvergara_bias-ai-ml-ugcPost-7314236357449555968-rY84
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lorenamartinezmoledo_iwd2025-kafka-wtmbcn-ugcPost-7314363618295189504-Rx2t
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mariana-flores-916995240_the-missing-voices-unearthing-the-impact-activity-7314214780955758592-S6Ou
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marciapaola_wtmbarcelona-iwd2025-womenintech-ugcPost-7314644530085998594-rm6r
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jesicawulf_womentechmakers-iwd25-wtmbarcelona-ugcPost-7314941116821209088-9M4g
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anna-via_iwd2025-wtmbcn-iwd2025-ugcPost-7314934210417336320-rpOk
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marianabenavidez_iwd-womentechmakers-iwd2025-ugcPost-7314970820097802240-8Vcw
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ugcPost-7315109632048295936-SAS-
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/samarsusana_last-saturday-we-experienced-an-unforgettable-activity-7316468127469322240-p5b1
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shehub-es_createconnectbreakbarriers-shehub-womenintech-activity-7320490010128855041-b6P8
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laura-artaza_yoga-systemicjustice-survivorshipbasis-activity-7316225288911110144-kDyf

Recording: https://youtu.be/DZPGpZnk9DE

The Cloud Native is missing women’s voices. We see it at CNCF conferences and Cloud Native meetups almost everywhere.

While we celebrate women who’ve “made it” and their visibility is vital, survivorship bias hides a crucial truth: up to half leave tech by age 35, we leave at a higher rate than men, and many never even join.

This talk exposes our own bias as women survivors in tech. The success stories of women around us overshadow the struggles of those who’ve fallen away, leading to misguided initiatives and hindering true inclusion. There is a dire need to identify and address these issues and implement successful initiatives to make our communities more diverse.

Whether you’re a contributor, maintainer, or community leader, this session will give you a deeper understanding of the problem and tangible ways to drive change in your circles. Be part of the solution for a genuinely inclusive cloud-native community!

This talk was delivered at Cloud Native Rejekts 2025 in London: https://cfp.cloud-native.rejekts.io/cloud-native-rejekts-europe-london-2025/talk/QEZGFG/

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chrisplank_the-missing-voices-unearthing-the-impact-activity-7312155560315965440-NGnc
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chrisplank_real-pleasure-to-step-up-and-give-back-to-ugcPost-7312161960995815424-yoHt
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yongkanghe_london-cloudnativerejeks-kubecon-ugcPost-7312087337633517568-ajQ8
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chrisplank_cloud-native-rejekts-is-here-looking-forward-ugcPost-7312017095481823232-hqRd

Software Crafters Barcelona

I started my journey in the Barcelona tech communities in 2017 after attending https://softwarecrafters.barcelona/2017/index.html. The volunteer work to make that event happen, with talks that inspired me to change my career at a late stage, ignited me to join the conference organization in 2018 and stay until 2023.

During that time, Manuel Rivero (one of the community founders in 2013) offered to help restart our coding dojos. We restarted with my favorite event, the Global Day of Code Retreat (GDCR), back in 2022. I attended the GDCR in 2017, which was another reason for me to join the community.

2023 was probably our busiest year, though 2024 was not slow. We are running coding dojos regularly and some talks, workshops, architectural katas, and open spaces!

• 🥋 Coding Dojo @ Voxel 🎉
• Mocks aren’t Stubs. What are test doubles and how do we use them?
• Architectural Kata @Trainline
• Coding Dojo @ Adobe Commerce
• Coding dojo @Codurance
• Taller de Testcontainers con Go 🛠️
• Introducción a la CNV – Comunicación No Violenta
• 🥋 Coding Dojo @ LIFULL Connect 🎉
• Architectural Kata @Trainline
• Crafter’s Beers 🍻 , Fri, Mar 22, 2024, 7:00 PM | Meetup
• Coding dojo @Codurance, Mon, Apr 8, 2024, 6:30 PM | Meetup
• Open Space. Also published on Meetup
• 🛠️ Taller de DDD Refactor a arquitectura hexagonal @ Runroom
• Coding dojo @Runroom
• 🛠️ Taller de DDD El poder de los Value Objects @ Runroom
• Desarrollo evolutivo: la metodología del futuro
• Coding dojo @InnoIt
• Aprende a desactivar los mecanismos de la ansiedad @ Club Caramel
• Dojo Ingram Micro
• 🛠️ Taller de DDD Controlando el flujo con excepciones y alternativas @ Runroom
• Kata de arquitectura 🥋 en Collective Minds Radiology
• Respondiendo preguntas con historias
• 🛠️ Taller de DDD Definiendo el modelo de dominio con el “Domain model @ Runroom
• 🛠️ Taller de Product Minded Development @ Runroom
• Global Day of Code Retreat 2024 @Trainline
• 🛠️ Taller de DDD Descubriendo las responsabilidades del caso de uso @ Runroom

Cloud Native Barcelona

One of my favorite communities in Barcelona stopped operating during COVID-19 in 2020. In 2023, we gathered some of the original and new organizers and decided to restart the activity. This led to regular activity in our meetup in 2024 and the organization of KCD Barcelona 2024.

• Cloud Native Barcelona – meetup de enero 2024 ❄️
• Cloud Native Barcelona @ Adevinta, Thu, Mar 14, 2024, 7:00 PM and Cloud Native Barcelona at Adevinta, Thu, Mar 14, 2024, 7:00 PM
• Cloud Native Barcelona @ Dynatrace
• Décimo Aniversario de Kubernetes con el Mes de la QA 🎂, Tue, Jun 4, 2024, 6:30 PM | Meetup
• Transition to Multi-Arch Cloud &Securing Orgs with the Least Privilege Principle
• 🌱 Cloud Native Sustainability Week 2024 – Barcelona Edition 🌱
• Cloud Native Lisbon 🤝 Cloud Native Barcelona
• Cloud Native Barcelona Meetup: Kubernetes Operators & GitOps @MongoDB

Grafana & Friends

I joined Grafana Labs at the end of 2022 and have since helped organize the meetups that Gonçalo Pina and Raúl Marín started in the Iberia region. Gonçalo and Raúl’s support in 2024 goes beyond community organization; they have been there for me when I needed them. Regarding why building communities can also help a company, one of my favorite reads is from them: The Hidden SalesForce: Unleashing the Power of User Groups and Tech Communities.

• Volvemos a la carga con Grafana Labs y mucho más…
• Hablemos de trazas distribuidas con OpenTelemetry…
• Exploring Karpenter pitfalls 🪚 + Grafana for Alerting & Incident Management 🚨
• The Quest for Engineering Excellence: Observability with Grafana & Friends
• Meetup de verano 🏝️ con Grafana & Friends en Celonis
• Grafana & Friends Amsterdam Summer Meetup ☀️!
• De PostgreSQL en k8s a observabilidad a escala ¡Vuelve Grafana & Friends!
• Performance Day: del front a la observabilidad!
• Observabilidad y Performance, Mon
• Open Telemetry with Ocado Technology & Embrace
• Apache Kafka® Meetup
• Open Source Observability in Action with OpenTelemetry & the Grafana Stack

This is also the year I started organizing outside Iberia, with my first meetup in Amsterdam, and had the privilege to collaborate with communities like Kafka or WebPerf Barcelona.

DevOps BCN

In 2024, I met my now dear friend Julia Lamenza. It turns out that apart from being neighbours (we were introduced by a third person at KubeCon in Paris!), we both crave a more community-oriented DevOps conference in Barcelona. And we had been thinking of DevOpsDays.org. To find like-minded individuals in the community, we joined the DevOps BCN Group organization, and we hope this will help us bring DevOpsDays Barcelona back.

• DevOps BCN Meetup – Octubre 2024

On to 2025!

After 2024, I have an even greater appreciation for all the communities and the people who make them special. Community building not only helps others but also provides personal support and resilience.

I am very excited to continue my community-building journey for 2025, and this will be the year to work on a topic that I feel passionate about: creating inclusive communities and making sure we hear diverse voices. I’ll continue trying to connect different communities with joint events. Stay tuned!

Recording: https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5103-unearthing-the-impact-of-survivorship-bias-on-women-in-foss-to-build-more-inclusive-communities/

Open-source software thrives on diverse perspectives, yet women remain significantly underrepresented in FOSS communities.

While we celebrate women who’ve “made it”—and their visibility is vital—survivorship bias hides a crucial truth: up to half leave tech by age 35, women exit at a higher rate than men, and many never even join the field.

This talk delves into the concept of survivorship bias—the tendency to focus on successful individuals while ignoring those who faced barriers—and how it impacts women in open source. You’ll learn how this bias skews community perceptions, perpetuates systemic challenges, and limits opportunities.

By examining barriers like unwelcoming dynamics, recruitment biases, and a lack of mentorship, you’ll understand why many are deterred before or during their FOSS journeys. You’ll also learn how survivorship bias interacts with intersectionality, compounding challenges for women of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others.

We’ll also explore examples of communities and initiatives that successfully counter these trends, demonstrating allyship’s role in building equitable environments. Finally, drawing on research and real-world examples, we’ll propose actionable steps to create a more inclusive and welcoming FOSS landscape for all.

Whether you’re a contributor, maintainer, or community leader, this session will give you a deeper understanding of the problem and tangible ways to drive change in your circles.

This talk was delivered with Julia Lamenza at FOSDEM 2025: https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5103-unearthing-the-impact-of-survivorship-bias-on-women-in-foss-to-build-more-inclusive-communities/

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7290477234895667201/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7291912365317451776/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fosdem-2025-thats-wrap-paloma-oliveira-bopke/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7292115792429522944/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mathildedraps_fediverse-activitypub-foss-activity-7293313900719001601-GCD4/