Day One: The Rain Don't Matter

21 September 2012

Day One of the openSUSE Summit launched with skyrocketing attendance. With double the expected attendance for the first day, all rooms were packed! At first we assumed there would mostly be holdovers from the SUSECon conference, but in fact many were last minute registrants coming in on their own.

The day started off mid-day with several sessions. The Packaging Made Ridiculously Easy workshop was particularly well-attended. Word around the hallways is that folks have been actively engaged in the sessions they've attended. Good discussions and knowledge transfers all around.

The offical kickoff to the Summit began at 5 p.m. when Bryen Yunashko donned his Geeko hat to the roar of the audience and introduced Michael Miller and Andy Wafaa. openSUSE Around The World was very well received and the audience cheered and laughed along with the co-hosts as they highlighted the trimumphs of the Project and the recent release of openSUSE 12.2.

The ceremony was also the occassion for the official announcement of current openSUSE Board chairman Alan Clark stepping down to assume new roles elsewhere and Vincent Untz assuming the role as openSUSE's newest board chairman. The Summit team is excited to see Vuntz in his new role and also thank Alan for his hard work both on the Board and as co-chair for the Summit.

By evening, hard rains fell upon our hotel and semed to threaten our Poolside party. But in true spirit, Geekos are never discouraged. We pushed on with the party and it was an all-night success with food to be had, boat kits to be built, races to be won in the pool and just awesome pool-dunking whenever possible.

Friday was a great start to what will continue to be an awesome weekend. Saturday promises to be especially busy as local users come out for LUG Day. If you're in the area, don't hesitate to come on by even if you haven't registered yet. We've expanded our conference area to accommodate even more people. NO ONE will be turned away. That's just not the Geeko Way!