MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 - a brief report
06/06/2024 porFrom April 27th to 30th, 2024, MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 was held at the Pampulha Campus of UFMG - Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte city.
This was the fifth time that a MiniDebConf (as an exclusive in-person event about Debian) took place in Brazil. Previous editions were in Curitiba (2016, 2017, and 2018), and in Brasília 2023. We had other MiniDebConfs editions held within Free Software events such as FISL and Latinoware, and other online events. See our event history.
Parallel to MiniDebConf, on 27th (Saturday) FLISOL - Latin American Free Software Installation Festival took place. It's the largest event in Latin America to promote Free Software, and It has been held since 2005 simultaneously in several cities.
MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 was a success (as were previous editions) thanks to the participation of everyone, regardless of their level of knowledge about Debian. We value the presence of both beginner users who are familiarizing themselves with the system and the official project developers. The spirit of welcome and collaboration was present during all the event.
2024 edition numbers
During the four days of the event, several activities took place for all levels of users and collaborators of the Debian project. The official schedule was composed of:
- 06 rooms in parallel on Saturday;
- 02 auditoriums in parallel on Monday and Tuesday;
- 30 talks/BoFs of all levels;
- 05 workshops for hands-on activities;
- 09 lightning talks on general topics;
- 01 Live Electronics performance with Free Software;
- Install fest to install Debian on attendees' laptops;
- BSP (Bug Squashing Party);
- Uploads of new or updated packages.
The final numbers for MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 show that we had a record number of participants.
- Total people registered: 399
- Total attendees in the event: 224
Of the 224 participants, 15 were official Brazilian contributors, 10 being DDs (Debian Developers) and 05 (Debian Maintainers), in addition to several unofficial contributors.
The organization was carried out by 14 people who started working at the end of 2023, including Prof. Loïc Cerf from the Computing Department who made the event possible at UFMG, and 37 volunteers who helped during the event.
As MiniDebConf was held at UFMG facilities, we had the help of more than 10 University employees.
See the list with the names of people who helped in some way in organizing MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024.
The difference between the number of people registered and the number of attendees in the event is probably explained by the fact that there is no registration fee, so if the person decides not to go to the event, they will not suffer financial losses.
The 2024 edition of MiniDebconf Belo Horizonte was truly grand and shows the result of the constant efforts made over the last few years to attract more contributors to the Debian community in Brazil. With each edition the numbers only increase, with more attendees, more activities, more rooms, and more sponsors/supporters.
Activities
The MiniDebConf schedule was intense and diverse. On the 27th, 29th and 30th (Saturday, Monday and Tuesday) we had talks, discussions, workshops and many practical activities.
On the 28th (Sunday), the Day Trip took place, a day dedicated to sightseeing around the city. In the morning we left the hotel and went, on a chartered bus, to the Belo Horizonte Central Market. People took the opportunity to buy various things such as cheeses, sweets, cachaças and souvenirs, as well as tasting some local foods.
After a 2-hour tour of the Market, we got back on the bus and hit the road for lunch at a typical Minas Gerais food restaurant.
With everyone well fed, we returned to Belo Horizonte to visit the city's main tourist attraction: Lagoa da Pampulha and Capela São Francisco de Assis, better known as Igrejinha da Pampulha.
We went back to the hotel and the day ended in the hacker space that we set up in the events room for people to chat, packaging, and eat pizzas.
Crowdfunding
For the third time we ran a crowdfunding campaign and it was incredible how people contributed! The initial goal was to raise the amount equivalent to a gold tier of R$ 3,000.00. When we reached this goal, we defined a new one, equivalent to one gold tier + one silver tier (R$ 5,000.00). And again we achieved this goal. So we proposed as a final goal the value of a gold + silver + bronze tiers, which would be equivalent to R$ 6,000.00. The result was that we raised R$7,239.65 (~ USD 1,400) with the help of more than 100 people!
Thank you very much to the people who contributed any amount. As a thank you, we list the names of the people who donated.
Food, accommodation and/or travel grants for participants
Each edition of MiniDebConf brought some innovation, or some different benefit for the attendees. In this year's edition in Belo Horizonte, as with DebConfs, we offered bursaries for food, accommodation and/or travel to help those people who would like to come to the event but who would need some kind of help.
In the registration form, we included the option for the person to request a food, accommodation and/or travel bursary, but to do so, they would have to identify themselves as a contributor (official or unofficial) to Debian and write a justification for the request.
Number of people benefited:
- Food: 69
- Accommodation: 20
- Travel: 18
The food bursary provided lunch and dinner every day. The lunches included attendees who live in Belo Horizonte and the region. Dinners were paid for attendees who also received accommodation and/or travel. The accommodation was held at the BH Jaraguá Hotel. And the travels included airplane or bus tickets, or fuel (for those who came by car or motorbike).
Much of the money to fund the bursaries came from the Debian Project, mainly for travels. We sent a budget request to the former Debian leader Jonathan Carter, and He promptly approved our request.
In addition to this event budget, the leader also approved individual requests sent by some DDs who preferred to request directly from him.
The experience of offering the bursaries was really good because it allowed several people to come from other cities.
Photos and videos
You can watch recordings of the talks at the links below:
And see the photos taken by several collaborators in the links below:
Thanks
We would like to thank all the attendees, organizers, volunteers, sponsors and supporters who contributed to the success of MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024.
Sponsors
Gold:
Silver:
Bronze:
- BRDSoft - Tecnologias para TI e Telecomunicações
- EITA - Cooperativa de Trabalho Educação, Informação e Tecnologia para Autogestão