This year Geocamp held its 10th Edition in September on the island ‘Illa de San Simón’ in Vigo estuary (Galicia – Spain) and has had an Open Space format, where all participants have an active role in carrying out the event to increase interaction between attendees to be able, with agility and improvisation, to spontaneously satisfy the concerns of the participants.
The event began with a wonderful sunny day and with the island of San Simón welcoming more than 40 participants who arrived by boat from Vigo port crossing the estuary, on a very interesting trip, enlivened with historical information and local culture at hand of the crew. The small island with its historic buildings where various spaces could be configured, allowed numerous activities and meetings to be held, both inside and outside.
Throughout the day, six open spaces were held where there was talk and debate on the topics that were chosen on the initiative, interest and proposals of the attendees, and that were voted on and accepted by everyone and whose points to highlight can be consult here, summary document prepared jointly by the participants: OSM, ‘Las Calles de las Mujeres’, Participatory Geoportals, JS and Web GL, Artificial Intelligence and maps, Remote Sensing, state of Communities, OGC Standards and Blockchain.
The plenary talk offered by Carmen Torrecillas from the Civio organization showed us how to make incredible maps and visualizations, thanks to the great work that do for transparency and surveillance of public powers.
Of course, in addition, all kinds of concerns, experiences, projects and objectives (how to manipulate a pixel on the GPU, monitoring cetaceans, cooperatives, Joomla, mountaineering, spells, etc.) were discussed in the moments in which it was possible to chat while enjoying delicious Galician delicacies, with which breakfast, lunch and dinner were enlivened in a friendly and creative atmosphere. We were even able to enjoy fantastic experiences with our organizers outside of the program, such as a rock concert (@fpsampayo) or a queimada (@michogar), how could it be otherwise in this wonderful city of Galicia.
The local organization reserved a dinner for those who wanted to continue sharing talks and space. Although it is not something strictly necessary in a participatory event like this, it always helps to create contacts and synergies. In fact, many of the attendees, especially if they had to come from other parts of the peninsula and had to spend the night in the city, were grateful and came to close the meeting in a festive way.
In conclusion, we should point out that the Open Space format worked very well, with a large space available which made organization easier and people could even have been divided into more groups if it had been necessary. In fact, with somewhat smaller groups you can work better on participation, although it was successful with groups of about 20 people. It was appreciated to have foreseen, through a form that was sent to the attendees, a previous series of topics to be discussed, streamlining the organization of the groups. It really is a unique format to create community, learn new things and take home a good amount of knowledge and ideas. Very gratifying to have been able to meet people who did not know what this type of event was and who found themselves with a truly satisfactory experience, where they have been able to share knowledge in a participatory and relaxed environment, which really helps to contact people who already have experience. with others who may be starting.
You can find the photos of the event here.
Congratulations to the LOC:
Micho (@michogar), Paco (@fpsampayo), Pablo (@psanxiao), Carmen (@carmen10maica) y Jorge (@xurxosanz) for organizing the event, as well as Xeoinquedos and Ghandalf for coverage.
We will have to wait until next year to enjoy a meeting as special as this one again.
Thanks !!!
