Argentina Atlassian Day + The Himalayas + Netflix + Emmy Awards
As promised in the overview article, "The Chronicles of a Journey filled with Happiness, Team participation, Plan B, Co-Leaders, and COVID," here is another follow-up article about our Community Event, the Argentina Atlassian Day - December 28th, 2021. I can tell you that these 12 years organizing Atlassian Community events paved the road for a new journey that starts today, and I wanted to close my first part of the journey with this article that is special to me due to the final outcome.
It was a special day full of training for our Atlassian Community of users and partners generated to learn about the Atlassian ecosystem and support the Jean Maggi Foundation on their campaign to build and donate 1,000 adapted bikes for disabled youths.
Why The Himalayas + Netflix + Emmy Awards winner in the title?
Curious about the title of this article? I will tell you more about it before we talk about the event. The bottom line, Jean Maggi got polio after receiving the vaccine when he was 1 year old. With a difficult childhood, he overcame many hurdles. Later in his life, Jean climbed The Himalayas with an adapted bike. And now, he is changing the perception of disability by leading by example and impacting the lives of thousands. So naturally, the Argentina Atlassian Community wanted to be part of it. So we added our little help raising funds for 18 adapted bikes.
Event at Quality - Cordoba - Argentina - December 2021
In this event the foundation gave more than 200 adapted bikes to youths and adults pre-registered as candidates.
Track loaded with bikes dispatched to the Stadium. Hundreds of bikes, hundreds of lives, a new way to see inclusion. #pormasmovimiento . Families in motion thanks to the Jean Maggi foundation initiative (it is hard to imagine the dimension of this effort, but you can see part of it on the video below)
Soccer Worldcup Stadium - Cordoba - Argentina event
A wonderful day of summer at the Stadium where hundreds of families gathered to participate in this event and receive their bikes.
Netflix Documentary "El Limite Infinito" Trailer
I highly recommend the documentary on Netflix, "El Limite Infinito," about his journey riding his adapted bike to The Himalayas.
I got it now, but why the Emmy Awards? Well, We have more to share ;)
Check this documentary describing the activities of the adapted bike factory that he founded. This documentary, "Super Adaptados - socios de un mismo sueño," shares the stories of those behind those bikes. It won an Emmy Award in 2021.
Wait, we also have a song that was inspired by his life. Hoy
Diego Torres, Ivete Sangalo - Hoy
The purpose of this article
I hope this article can trigger some ideas for other Atlassian Community Leaders. The first piece of advice, invite members of your community to become co-leaders. The second one is to focus on what you can control and not stress too much in those surprises that will impact your event. Give them the right place and level of impact without getting discouraged. Finally, the third one, check the alphabet and have as many alternative plans as you can imagine. Having a plan B, C, D, and beyond will give some flexibility during the execution of the event.
The genesis of the idea
By mid-2021, I decided to visit Argentina after 6 years of delaying my trip. I contacted the Cordoba Atlassian Community and shared the idea of having just one in-person event to close 2021. Marcos Milanesio and Edgardo Bianco (Atlassian Cordoba co-leaders) were excited about the initiative. So we kicked off our planning sessions. However, we couldn't stop right there; the simple event evolved into a full day of training and a casual dinner in a famous BBQ place.
How about the additional costs?
We had the option of charging for the event to cover the additional costs or inviting Atlassian Partners to sponsor the event to cover the expenses. We also decided that the event should have a social impact, and the selected organization was the Jean Maggi Foundation. As it was a free event, we invited participants to donate to the foundation and enter a draft for one Free access to Atlassian Teams'22. It was a successful initiative. We raised funds for 18 adapted bikes. Just think about 18 lives changed and in motion with their family. I am so grateful for the Atlassian ecosystem members and their support. Thanks!
Logistics
Of course, COVID was going down. However, we decided to find a place big enough to host many participants using 30 to 40 percent of the space to keep the social distance. (A great decision in the early planning stages).
As we included international presenters, we scheduled them for the morning session, keeping local presenters for the afternoon part. Using the platform provided by Atlassian, we created two events, so participants have the choice to attend the whole day event or just one of them. Something to know about the Argentinean Culture, we have later dinners, so the night event was scheduled for 9 PM and the day event from 8:30 to 5 PM. A long day ahead of us.
The hotel provided breakfast, lunch, and breaks as usual, and we took care of the swags. Some of them are close to our culture, like the Organic Yerba Mate, the actual Mate, and the homemade Panetone. We also did some special cookies with the logos and the t-shirts.
Our dream was made possible thanks to our Sponsors.
As soon as we defined the date and overall logistics, we established a list of items that we have to have and those that would be good to have. While Edgardo and Marcos focused on the local schedule and promotion, I contacted the Atlassian Partners and explained the idea. They responded right away, and some of them also went the extra mile jumping into the Jean Maggie foundation 1000 bikes challenge.
Our Presenters
The content
- Gorka Puente (Appfire): Reports in Jira - a central dashboard for your organization
- Leo Diaz (Deiser): Using data as tools to track projects in Jira
- Gorka y Leo - Project information in real-time to improve the decision-making process.
- Simon Gatto (Comalatech): FDA Compliance in the Cloud
- -Note: Ask him about King Comala and The Mate!
- Juan Pablo Gorgati – Gabriela Brizuela (TSOFT): OKR's management with UpRaise
- Morgan Folsom (Old Street Solutions): Improve the display and generation of reports in Jira
- Gabriel Wielkopolski (Old Street Solutions): Improve Team planning and collaboration in Jira
- Javier Ortiz (bit2bit Americas): DevSecOps with GitLab
- Hannes Obweger (Fine Software)
- Jira más fácil, más rápido: cómo gestionar problemas a cualquier escala con tablas JXL
- Fabian Lopez (Community Leader): Using Automated Release Notes (ARN) to generate reports in Confluence.
- Hernan Halabi (Elite IT Consulting): Environment administration and the impact of growth
- Pablo Sassi
- Experiencias de Implementaciones Jira
- Iris Gastañaga (Kinetic): In a world full of changes, new standards of Project Management
- Diego Virgolini (NaranjaX): More Agiles every day
Special thanks to the local presenters. They showed up despite COVID.
Challenges
Everything was great. We had an excellent registration and unique swags, and the logistic was perfect. But, of course, someone showed up that was not invited at all. Days before the event, a new wave of COVID was ramping up in Córdoba. We have to face the decision of moving forward or canceling the event. (It was not the magnitude of Adele's event in Las Vegas, but we suffered while discussing the next steps). Our participants started sending cancellation messages due to the spread of the virus. After all, and considering that we had already taken some preventive measures, we decided to go ahead, with the hope that that was the only issue we could face.
Hard to accept, but we were wrong in the last statement. Our event had some surprises for us, just for fun and to add more adrenaline. The day before, while testing the hotel AV equipment, an electrical discharge broke out one of our computers… ah, like my daughter always says, "Breathe in and breathe out."
The next day we kicked off the event with all the remote presentations without any issue. Impressive start until the Internet started with some problems. It was because the energy company was doing maintenance in the block. This truck was just across the street of the hotel. Cool, we are troopers, and we were able to continue (with the understanding and patience of our presenters.).
Unstoppable, until the power went off, what else could happen on that day? The timing was perfect because it was good during lunchtime. The problem: a refrigerator had electrical issues that caused the electrical panel damage. We had to reschedule remote presentations for a virtual event coming soon in February. However, the show had to continue, and it was time for the lunch break, which was good because we had a surprise for our participants.
Unexpected surprise
Jean Maggi visited us to thank the Argentina Atlassian Community for their contributions. The funds raised were enough to cover the cost of 18 bikes. One of them was a surprise from the Bitlogic team and announced during the meeting. The bikes are on behalf of those that took the time to prepare the presentations and organize the event. (Certificates coming soon)
Believe me, I don't know how to share my feelings about this special lunch. I can only say that some of us have some "strange water in our eyes". Very emotional moment for all of us. Thanks, Jean for stopping by despite Covid.
The impact of a simple act
I like to see the opportunity to extend the boundaries of our impact. So, with Edgardo and Marcos, we decide to support local businesses and entrepreneurs during the selection of our swags.
- The shirts were produced in a local shop and distributed in Cordoba and Neuquen.
- Our Mate, including the Jean Maggi foundation logo to remember the importance of changing our perception about those that face challenges with their health
- The Yerba Mate, organically produced by a local farmer (check the King Comala story below)
- The panettone, homemade by a local bakery
- Logo cookies are specially made for the event, along with other signs.
- Bikes donated on behalf of our presenters
- The casual extended dinner expanded to host our community members, friends, and family.
- Recognize as many times as we can the effort of the Jean Maggi foundation. Who can resist the smile of a kid receiving an adapted bike and starting their life in motion or the smile of an adult obtaining a way of sharing a better time with their family?
- Someone from the Argentina Atlassian Community will have free access to the Teams'22 - Las Vegas, April 5-7.
And we have a winner. In this case, the Bitlogic team has two!. They won the free ticket from the event, and their submission to Teams was accepted! Congratulations x 2!
Time for our Casual Dinner to close 2021
It was an excellent year for our Argentina Atlassian Community. We organized many virtual events to cover their interests, and it was time to share with our friends a good dinner. A local BBQ provided that and more. You can see the servers with the T-shirts and the Jean Maggi logo as you enter. We also shared the time with members of the foundation and the company that manages the bike logistics.
The dinner was in a different place, in a local BBQ place. Again, another cultural thing, we ate a lot of meat, but we also had options for a diverse menu. The staff wore our t-shirts, and the place was almost exclusive to us.
( @Ed Gaile here is one of the places to visit in your upcoming trip!)
Fun Facts
#1 - While testing the equipment the day before the event, we gave our swags to two well-known comedians staying at the hotel. (I was unaware of them, but they were on tour celebrating their 25th anniversary). The short story, the Mate, ended in a two-page article in the local newspaper. Our Atlassian Community was in the news.
#2 - If you attended the last in-person Summit and visited the booth of one of our sponsors, Comalatech, I am sure you received the stories of Team Titans. And his swags was also a mate, a good one. Check the recommendation from King Comala, lol.
If you are one of the lucky ones going to Atlassian Teams 22 stop by the booth of Comalatech and ask for King Comala. This company has always the most creative and disruptive swags. @Simon Gatto get ready!
And here we are "Mateando" to recharge batteries during and after the event
People from Argentina and Uruguay usually meet to have the mate time a social moment to share with friends and family. In the picture above you can see the two comedians (Los Modernos) introducing their show to attendees. The next day, the swag was in the newspaper.
Again, more about the purpose of the Atlassian Community Leader
All Atlassian Community Leaders are volunteers, and they donate their time as a genuine act of service. So if you attend one of those events, help them and become an Atlassian Community member if you like. You can be the magic glue between knowledge and solution. A smile in your community members finding a solution to a long annoying problem is more than satisfactory. So be there, enjoy the event, and get involved in improving the next one.
In these 12 years as a volunteer leader, I was the founder of 5 local chapters, organized more than 170 events, won some awards as a mentor, and wrote more than 28 articles. But you don't need to do that. Atlassian requires only 4 events a year, so don't get discouraged.
I don't regret the time dedicated because I found great individuals who helped me along the way in this ecosystem. Although I will lie if I say that every event was great, I have my ups and downs. Still, each one gave a new little tip that I have to learn, and without knowing, building the path brick by brick to my next challenge that starts as I publish this article.
A huge hug and recognition to my two Argentinean co-leaders, @Marcos Milanesio and Edgardo Bianco. The whole event was possible only because they were fully engaged in thinking about the community members. When you build a community with passion, you take care of your members, and they excel doing that. Congratulations and Thanks!
Passion led us here. Thanks for reading this article! - Fabian
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
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Fabian A. Lopez (Community Leader - Argentina, Florida, California)
About this author
Project Manager Professional/Scrum Master/CTSM/ACP-CA
Document Storage Systems (DSS, Inc.)
Lake Elsinore, California
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