freenode #live 2018 is a wrap, thank YOU!

Wow. What an incredible weekend. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who joined us for freenode #live this weekend. Whether you participated in person or tuned into the livestream.

We were fortunate enough to have an exceptionally inspiring and engaging speaker line-up - thank you so much for coming to inspire the community. Thank you also to our supportive sponsors who have enabled us to put this event on again, and of course the freenode volunteer team - both those who detached for a weekend to throw themselves into an entirely different type of volunteering and those who stayed behind to keep the network running and also doubled as livestream monitors, a special thank you to you all for your willingness to adapt and get stuck in. A huge thank you also to the venue staff, and to the AV technicians!

YOU are freenode.

I hope that the several calls to action in various talks will inspire and encourage as we jump from C (communicate, collaborate and create) to E (engage, educate and empower).

I am confident that we will do a more extensive recap when we have started to recover from the weekend, but before I nod off to sleep I want to do a huge shout-out of thanks to those of the freenode #live participants that hailed from underrepresented groups. In a time where the world is oftentimes unjust and outright scary it has been an incredibly inspiring and empowering experience to meet so many of you this weekend. I am under no illusion that there isn't a fight still to be had to ensure full inclusion and equality and I am incredibly happy that you form a growing and significant part of our community.

YOU are freenode also. Thank you.

Lost property?

Towards the end of day two a pair of glasses were found in the theatre and while a few announcements were made no one came forth to claim the glasses. In the event that you lost yours but would prefer to be able to see properly again, please do get in touch with us via e-mail or IRC and we will arrange for the glasses to be returned to you!