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NERDEARLA ‘24 10mo Aniversario

Event Details:

  • Date: September 26-28, 2024
  • Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Type: Bronze Sponsor, Speaker for Open Source track

Overview:

Nerdearla, translated literally as, “Nerd it up!” is the largest science and technology event in Latin America. From its origins in Argentina, it has spread to Chile and Mexico, with further plans for expansion in the works. This particular event was the 10th anniversary edition, in the flagship location of Buenos Aires. About 10,000 attendees came in-person last year. This year we saw 10,000 or more each day. The event celebrates all things science and technology, and promotes educating and supporting people through opportunities for job interviews as well as being accessible for children and young people to have positive experiences and develop STEM type interests.

The purpose of Rocky Linux presence in Buenos Aires was to recognize existing fans and users of RL in the Spanish-speaking world, to answer questions about RL as a distribution, and to build goodwill and develop the LATAM community connected to Rocky Linux.

Highlights:

  • Krista gave a project tour of Rocky Linux on Thursday as part of the Open Source track.
  • Alexia delivered a Lightning Talk about the local Women in Tech (MET - Mujeres en Technología) chapter, encouraged people to join the RL community via Mattermost, promoted the Español channel, and advertised that there would be future BA Rocky Linux pizza nights.
  • We gave away almost 1,000 stickers.
  • Rocky Linux showed support for a special event that is culturally relevant to an enormous audience that we have minimal previous connection with.

Outcome:

The onsite Rocky team saw and engaged with the LATAM audience. Going forward, we expressed intention to visit South America at least once a year. When not possible, we may need to become more assertive about supporting and sending remote speakers to increase our global footprint.

To improve our reach and connect with booth visitors, we have already begun to develop a streamlined single-link landing page that we can share a QR code link to at events, that explains what Rocky Linux is, casts the vision for purpose, addresses some FAQs, shows off our sponsors and supporters, and provides various paths into the project including Mattermost sign up, documentation starting point, YT link to a presentation of the project tour, and whatever else encapsulates the project.

In addition to these empowering outcomes, this event brought the two community leads together in person, which inspired both leaders with ideas and excitement for future development within the community.

Additional Resources:

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