All started in June when I was just trying to escape from studying for my 2nd semester exams and I was wondering around the web. That afternoon I stepped on a tweet from The Linux Foundation regarding the upcoming Open Source Summit & Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2018 in Edinburgh in late October. I went through the website and discovered a Diversity Scholarship opportunity and I shared it with my local FLOSS community. A few weeks after my application submission I received a positive response and started preparing my trip to the Scottish capital city. I want to really thank Jacynth, my main contact point of contact with the Linux Foundation as I spammed her with so many emails all these months! She’s amazing.
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I reached Edinburgh the day before the conference and I had the chance to take a look around and see myself all of these amazing builds and listen to some Scottish music on the streets. The first day started with a tour around the city where we had the chance to see the main monuments. After the city tour we headed at the International Conference Center, the venue of the Summit.
Day 1 started with a welcome speech by Jim Zemlin, the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation presenting the Keynotes and indeed they were all very inspiring. Other than the keynotes, the smaller sessions were very interesting and speakers were very well prepared.
During the first day the organizers had scheduled a Diversity Launch for the attendees that identify as women and those who identify as non-binary and a great evening at the Scottish National Museum with food and a live music band. During the next two days, I attended keynotes, smaller sessions, chatted with old and new friends, went through all the info-booths, got a loooot of stickers and swag and of course learnt a lot!
As a person who received financial support from The Linux Foundation to attend one of the largest open source events, I would like to them for their support and I would really encourage every person that feels that belongs to an under represented social group to apply for a scholarship and use this opportunity for the best.