It’s a little late, as it’s been almost two weeks since CloudFest, but I caught the flu and was unable to sit at my desk for about seven days in a row.
Now that I’m almost completely recovered, I wanted to sit down and tell you a bit about my CloudFest experience.
Arrival
As some of you know, I’m from Berlin, and it’s a 9-hour ride to Europapark Rust.
Before heading to Rust, I promised to collect a colleague from Leipzig.
We decided to arrive on Tuesday, March 19th, not knowing that most of the fine WordPress folks wouldn’t be there anymore – lesson learned 😅.
We arrived in the evening at our little AirBnB, partly exhausted and hyped for the CloudFest experience.
First Day
Wednesday was our first full conference day. We headed to Europa Park (which was basically a 3-minute walk from our apartment), scanned our ticket, and got our badge.
We spent some hours exploring the conference center, checking out various booths, and drinking a ton of (good) coffee before it was about time to get hunting for food – we kept it simple, there was a nice little street food truck inside the park, and we grabbed some nice (free) hot dogs.
Networking
After a short break and a few sessions (mostly security and AI-related), I started doing what I came for – networking.
I had a short list of companies I wanted to talk to and explore future collaboration possibilities.
While most of the planned collaborations did not work out the way I intended them, I got in contact with a couple of new ones that really amazed me – cool people, cool products, and overall a pretty good experience.
Pro tip: Don’t hang out at the bigger booths and look in the side areas of the conference hall – there are real treasures to be found if you are looking for collaborations.
I can’t share most of these things publicly right now, but you can expect some cool collaborations coming for Simply Static and OllieWP in the future!
After Party
Wednesday was the only day where we participated in some of CloudFest’s after-hour activities.
This time, the after-party was at the Colloseo (one of the biggest hotels next to the park), including a full-blown concert right in the middle of the hotel area:
A bit over-the-top for my taste, but to each their own. It was just too noisy, so we went back inside and connected with some of the WordPress folks at the lounge.
It was also my first time meeting the lovely Miriam Schwab from Elementor (formerly CEO of Strattic), and we chatted about all things Static WordPress — I can tell you that I barely find someone as passionate about the topic as I am!
I also got invited to the bar on the 5th floor and quickly found myself sitting in the middle of the “who-is-who” of WordPress people. Kudos to Bob Dunn, who ensured that I never had an empty glass in front of me, and Vikas from InstaWP for an insightful chat!
Second Day
As I achieved my goal in terms of networking on Wednesday, it was time to calm down and go on a little adventure – we took the entire early morning to explore Europa Park:
Rollercoaster
Yeah, you read that right. While the park was still officially closed, the fine folks from CloudFest managed to get some attractions opened. We didn’t think twice and tried out one of Europe’s fastest (if not the fastest) rollercoasters: the Silverstar from Mercedes Benz.
Let me tell you one thing: it’s fast, scary fast. My colleague and I weren’t sure if we would do it again, knowing how fast this thing was.
Heading home
It was a short but super insightful trip.
Next time, I will make sure to include the WP day (maybe even the Hackathon) to get the full experience as the days flew by in no time.
I would also probably take the train instead of driving the car to avoid any traffic jams like the one I got into driving from Leipzig to Berlin.
Nevertheless, it was a good experience, a decent time for networking, and hey, how often do you go to a tech conference right inside one of the biggest amusement parks in Europe? 😁