Throwback Thursday: What was your first ACE (AUG) or Team you attended? #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

Team 26 Anaheim is about 47 days away! My first Team was Alassian Summit 2019 at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. I was living in Florida at the time. Working as an Atlassian administrator, I asked my employer if I could go and they said yes! It was a great event. Bash was held at the beach at the Mandalay Bay hotel and the B-52s played.

Photocredit: @Rachel Wright 

Soooo, what was your first ACE (AUG) or Team/Summit you attended? Who/what brought you there? Why did you go? Did you have to travel far?

Let’s make it a great Thursday!
KGM

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

I would like to, but i still haven´t possibility to attend :(

[Anahit Sukiasyan]

Love this! 🤩

My first Team was right the last one in Barcelona, a great way to start! Being among the first to hear all the new announcements and updates felt super exciting, but what made it truly special was the people. Connecting with such an amazing community and learning from those with much more experience is actually what brought me there in the first place and I enjoyed every bit of it. 💙

As for travel… well, technically not too far from Yerevan to Barcelona, but that 10-hour layover in Milan definitely tried to turn it into a world tour. 😂 Totally worth it in the end though!

[Teodora V _Warsaw Dynamics_]

It was my first ever tech job, my first big trip (Bulgaria to the US, took more than 20 hours, and I was quite stressed about it), and my first conference. Back in 2016.

So much has changed over the past 10 years, but not the way I look forward to being there again this year.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

My first non-virtual ACE was 5 days ago. I went to RovoCon Orlando. It took me about 45 minutes to drive there, so the travel was not too bad, although it was the first time my work laptop had been off the docking station.

After working from home for the last 6 years, it was nice to spend a day learning, discussing, and socializing with my peers.

[Anne Saunders]

My first in-person ACE was in Chicago in February of 2025. I didn't take any pictures, but it was a good time!

[Rachel Wright]

That was a great year KGM!

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Need to dig out photos, but first local in-person ACE for me was back in 2022, I believe, here in Zagreb, and for the TEAM event, it was 2024 in Barcelona 😎

[Huwen Arnone _Deiser_]

I think my first ACE event was way back in 2017, as a side event from San Jose`s Summit (Team's grandfather). I wasn't sure what was that. Absolutely chaos in my head at that moment. It was all new...

Similar experience as @Teodora V _Warsaw Dynamics_ 

We actually met at the following year at the first European version of the event 🤓

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Takk for the memories and...

[Trudy Claspill]

My first ACE was the Atlassian Summit 2019 in Las Vegas.

That was the first year that my employer (an Atlassian Enterprise customer) would pay my way even though I had been the go-to Atlassian app admin and recognized SME for multiple years. By that time I had been invited to be an Atlassian Community Leader/Champion, but had not taken up the role. I worked closely with our Atlassian TAM, and had garnered a reputation with Atlassian Support as an Atlassian SME. It was particularly fun to be recognized by Atlassian team members when I visited the booths.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

@Trudy Claspill little jealous. One day I wanna see Las Vegas and America.

[Anne Saunders]

@Arkadiusz Wroblewski I've only been to the airport in Las Vegas, and even that is wildly over the top - and has slot machines!