meetup – eyeveebee https://eyeveebee.dev Imma Valls Thu, 11 Sep 2025 08:47:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.8 https://eyeveebee.dev/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cropped-ico_eyeveebee-32x32.png meetup – eyeveebee https://eyeveebee.dev 32 32 Reflecting on a Year of Community: My 2024 Meetup Journey https://eyeveebee.dev/reflecting-on-a-year-of-community-my-2024-meetup-journey Sat, 01 Feb 2025 17:59:05 +0000 https://eyeveebee.dev/?p=5396 Looking back at my community journey in 2024, I must acknowledge that it was one of my most challenging years. I broke my ankle in a serious way, which required two surgeries, a month in the hospital, and several weeks in a wheelchair. During that time, co-organizing meetups and community events was a source of strength and connection.

Barcelona tech community
Barcelona tech community

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

DEI tech community
Diverse and Inclusive tech communities
]]> Effortless Cloud Native Barcelona meetup: organizers’ checklist https://eyeveebee.dev/cloud-native-barcelona-meetup-organizing-checklist Fri, 16 Feb 2024 13:15:51 +0000 https://eyeveebee.dev/?p=4993 This blog lists our tasks for organizing a Cloud Native Barcelona meetup.

We usually host two talks per meetup, and meetups are scheduled on weekdays (preferably Tuesday to Thursday), around 18:00-19:00, with a 3h duration. Mondays are doable since no other meetups are competing, though folks are not used to attending meetups on Mondays.

There is the option of running a workshop, which should also be 2-3 hours long and would be hosted during the week. Let’s look at a Saturday morning if the workshop runs longer (e.g., 5 hours).

📝 Get ready!

There are two main ways to kick off the meetup organization. 

  1. We already have a speaker who has volunteered for a concrete date. Sometimes we get volunteers through our call for speakers form: https://forms.gle/BFtuMPYiAahcLjdr7. Note that meetups are great for first-time speakers, so we are open to folks with no experience, and we will support them through their first talk.
  2. We have already secured a host and a concrete date. 

In the first case, we will look for an office to host the talk when our speaker is available. Once we locate a host, we ask them if their teams want to share a talk.

If not, we will search for another community speaker. If we can’t find them (through our contacts), the meetup organizers usually volunteer to share a talk (ask on Slack #kcd-barcelona-org) or can point us to interesting speakers in the area. We keep our talks as a last resort/backup. We want to give the floor to the community members as much as possible.

In the second option, we will ask the host if their teams want to share a talk or two. Once we know how many talks we already have from the host, if any, we launch the search for the talks we need. Similar to what we described in the previous paragraph, tell the speakers what date the meetup is so they can factor that in.

Note that sometimes we can look at events like KCD Spain to ask speakers to repeat their talks at a meetup or at any other conference with local (Barcelona) speakers available to share the same talk.

The talk’s duration is usually between 20-45m, though it is possible to add more talks if they are lightning talks (5-15m). 

If speakers outside Barcelona offer to speak, as long as their company can help them with the travel, we 💜 to host them.

Once we have settled on the meetup host or date:

Find a host willing to host our meetup, including catering for the attendees. How to find hosts? Past sponsors willing to repeat, your own company, contacts you make attending other meetups at different companies, spread the word at meetups that we are open to hosting in various offices, etc. If a speaker offers to give a talk, ask if their company could host us.

Check the space to make sure it’s comfortable for talks. What is the capacity? We usually get 30-50 attendees, we can do events in smaller offices, and we must adjust the meetup capacity if it is smaller.

Are there any requirements to access the host’s office? We need to know if the host needs a list of names/IDs/passports. In those cases, we have to close the RSVP the day before and send the list to the host on the morning of the event.

Ensure the speakers have what they need: a screen for presentations, guest wifi, or anything else they might need (whiteboard to draw or any material in case it’s a workshop and not a talk).

Ask speakers about the talk language to make it explicit in the meetup. We favor having all talks in the same language (Spanish, English, Catalan), but we can also mix it as long as it’s clear in the event we publish.

Ask the host if they want to record the meetup and have the means to. We don’t usually record them ourselves. However, we are open to recording them if the speakers agree. In this case, if the host can record, always ask for speakers’ approval.

Once we have it all ready, always send an e-mail with cc: to hello@cloudnative.barcelona (the alias for the meetup organizers) to coordinate the meetup with hosts and speakers. Other organizers can jump in to help if needed.

Using the e-mail thread above, ask speakers for the talk title and talk description. Confirm the speakers’ roles and company with the social network account/s they want to share (LinkedIn, etc.). Ask the host for the social accounts/URLs they want us to mention (LinkedIn, their web page, etc.).Effortless

Create the meetup presentation based on this sample. We will use the first slide as the cover image for our meetup and share it with our social networks. We organize this in our private Google Drive per event, so create the folder for the event and copy & modify the presentation there.

Create the draft under https://www.meetup.com/cloud-native-bcn/events/. It’s easier to duplicate a previous event and make sure you change the location and dates. Adjust the capacity, considering that only 50% will show up (if the host has a capacity of 40, it is open to 70-80 slots). Add the question if we need to gather names and ID/passports. And check with the host if they need to list the day before. In that case, prepare the meetup so that it closes RSVPs the day before. It’s not ideal as sometimes latecomers will not see it until the day, though necessary if the host needs to provide the attendees’ list to the front desk/reception one day in advance. Make sure you enable chat, as users prefer to communicate via meetup chat, not just comments in the event page.

Share the draft in the e-mail thread with the host and speakers to ask for their feedback and adjust accordingly. Always remember to thank the host explicitly for providing food & refreshments, apart from sharing their space.

We aim to publish one month in advance (or more). If we are short in time, always mention the deadline to publish in the e-mail thread and that we need everyone’s approval to proceed. Follow up sooner if we are close to the deadline, and leave time if we are in no rush.

🎉 Publish time!

Publish the meetup once we have the approvals 🎉 Don’t forget to push the button to “Notify” your group. In this way, the group members will get the notification and can RSVP before we start sharing this more broadly.

Sometimes the host also wants to publish on their groups, and that is ok. For example: https://www.meetup.com/adevinta-spain/events/299104275/. We will not encourage this if the host has limited capacity, as it would complicate spreading the RSVPs we allow on each meetup. In this particular case, it works very well as the host has a capacity 150.

Because the CNCF uses Bevy, we have to also publish under https://community.cncf.io/cloud-native-barcelona/. You should have access to clone from a previous event and make similar changes as you did with the meetup one. Be aware that, with Bevy, we cannot ask for name/ID/passport. In those cases, publish an event with no RSVPs, like https://community.cncf.io/events/details/cncf-cloud-native-barcelona-presents-cloud-native-barcelona-adevinta/, and point attendees to RSVP at meetup.com. If the host does not require additional information, we can publish a regular event under Bevy and spread the capacity between meetup.com and Bevy, as we did with https://community.cncf.io/events/details/cncf-cloud-native-barcelona-presents-cloud-native-barcelona-meetup-de-enero-2024/. As we have 1000 users in meetup and less than 100 in Bevy, spread the capacity with that in mind, 80% meetup, 20% Bevy.

Update the e-mail thread with hosts and speakers with the event URLs. And remember to thank them 🫶!

One or two weeks before the event, we need to publish the event to our networks. We don’t do it before, as the closer we are to the event, the more probable folks who RSVP will actually come. Share on our LinkedIn group and X. E.g. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7171111696596504577 and https://x.com/cloudnativebcn/status/1749510135423074572. Repost from your own accounts and ask the other organizers to give the posts some “love”. Remember to mention, when possible, the speakers and the host’s social accounts.

One or two weeks before the event, share the event on Slack. The best for Barcelona events is BncEngineering, #events-meetups-confs. Another good Slack channel for Barcelona CNCF events is #cncf-barcelona under the CNCF slack.

🙇‍♀️ Almost there!

If the host requires names/IDs/passports, regularly check meetup.com to see if users replied correctly so we can make the final list for the host before the event. Message folks on meetup.com privately if we are missing information.

A few days before the event, check that everyone is ready by updating the e-mail thread with hosts and speakers. We can ask them if they need anything from us and if it’s ok to be there 30 minutes before the event to get everything ready.

If the host needs a list of attendees one day before the event, make sure you close the RSVPs and send the list. You’ll find examples of the list in our private Google Drive. We download the data from meetup.com and send a simplified list with the host’s required data. Remember to merge the lists before sending if we also have folks in Bevy!

Keep an eye on the event chat and comments regularly, as the community might ask questions (are we recording, what the talk languages are, etc.).

🎉 Meetup day!

Make sure to check any messages we have in the meetup, there are some users asking questions last minute (“I can’t locate the venue”, “I did not RSVP in time, and I want to join”, “I can’t come”, etc.). Try to be responsive.

Arrive at the venue 30 minutes before (or ask other organizers to be there if you can’t). We need to help the host set up and help the speakers check their setup.

Introduce the meetup using the presentation created from the sample. Next, give the floor to the host to present their company. And finally, present the 🔝 speakers 🎙️.

Take pictures from each presentation, including ours, the host, and the speakers. Upload them to the meetup. And some from the networking part. E.g. https://www.meetup.com/cloud-native-bcn/photos/34124873/.

It’s nice to share with our networks while the meetup is ongoing. E.g. https://x.com/cloudnativebcn/status/1768356599859445926. Remember to mention the host and speakers if possible.

Stay until the end and help the host tear down.

🙌 Wrap up!

Update the e-mail thread with hosts and speakers to thank them for a successful event, and hoping we can collaborate in future events. If the host recorded the meetup, ask for the recording so we can share it in our meetup.com event (add it to the comments), and use it in our final social post. We can do a final LinkedIn post (or Twitter), share the recording, and thank speakers and hosts again.

Make sure you upload all photos to the meetup.com event for future reference. E.g. https://www.meetup.com/cloud-native-bcn/photos/34124873/

If attendees ask for presentation slides, follow up with the speakers to share them in the meetup comments.

And don’t forget to enjoy meetup organization!

]]> Global Day of Code Retreat 2022 https://eyeveebee.dev/global-day-of-code-retreat-2022 Sat, 05 Nov 2022 15:04:00 +0000 https://eyeveebee.dev/?p=4790 https://www.meetup.com/software-crafters-barcelona/events/289400649/

¡Ya tenemos aquí el Global Day of Code Retreat 🎊!

Quieres practicar en buena compañía y aprender:

  • Testing
  • Test-Driven Development (TDD)
  • Conceptos de diseño de software
  • Pair-programming

El próximo 5 de Noviembre, únete a miles de desarrolladoras en todo el mundo para el mayor taller comunitario y gratuito enfocado en Prácticas de Extreme Programming.

Los coderetreats son eventos intensivos y gratuitos de un día de duración. En este workshop, practicaremos durante un día entero conceptos como Testing, Test-Driven Development, pair-programming y diseño de software a través de ejercicios en un entorno seguro y lejos de la presión de tener que hacer las cosas con prisas.

¿Qué tengo que llevar?

  • Muchas ganas de aprender
  • Ordenador portátil y cargador
  • Teclado y ratón externos
  • Bolígrafo y papel
  • Tu editor de código/IDE favoritos
  • Git para control de versiones
  • Scaffolding para un proyecto vacío en tu lenguaje favorito

Horario

  • De 9:00h a 17h. Incluye desayuno y comida.

Ubicación
Oficinas de Trainline en Barcelona: Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 583, 08011 Barcelona (Spaces, segunda planta).

Facilitan

Organizado por

Software Crafters Barcelona
Comunidad para desarrolladores que se preocupan y están orgullosos de lo que hacen, sin importar la experiencia, y que quieran mejorar en su oficio

Encuéntranos en:

Shuttle by Code Sherpas
Transformamos el sector tech en un espacio más diverso, inclusivo y equitativo poniendo al alcance de todes formación en prácticas de Extreme Programming.

Encuéntranos en:

Sponsors
Mil gracias a los sponsors por facilitar el espacio 🍲 🍵 🍴🥤🧃

Tweets

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