devopsdays Cuba 2016

Bridget and the show's audio editor, Joe, who joke that if this podcast were the Beatles, Joe would be Ringo, talk about the first DevOpsDays in Havana, Cuba, and share audio recorded in October at the closing session. The event was organized by Rudy of DevOpsDays Ghent as a joint venture between the University of Ghent and the University of Information Sciences (UCI) in Havana. Bridget and Joe joined fellow DevOpsDays organizers from Belgium, Patrick, Bernard and Rudy, and Mike from Dallas, whose fluent Spanish translated for the group, which Bridget says came in handy when explaining vegetarian food. Joe, who was the host for the event, needed some ancient high school Spanish too.

Bridget says the university is worth a visit: it has a giant Android lab and its own Linux distribution, and it sits about a 30-minute drive out of Havana on an old Soviet military base, along a road that was once used as an airstrip. Joe warns the audio sounds like a big echoey room because it was one.

The Closing Session

The recording begins with Hugo, an organizer, closing the fourth day, an intense few days in which Hugo saw people learning a lot, and says of the Ignite talks that "everybody was on fire." Hugo thanks the invited speakers, including Patrick, whom Hugo calls one of the founding fathers of DevOps, which is a rare opportunity for Cuba, and who answers "Two words: thank you." Hugo also thanks Bernard, Bridget, Mike for making everything understandable, Joe for the podcast, the local team, and a sponsor that covered all the expenses. Bridget adds that none of it would have happened without Rudy, who has spent years building the Belgian and Cuban cooperation, and leads a standing ovation.

Attendees then line up, in Spanish, with Joe translating in the episode. One says the event was great, interesting, instructional and intense, and that some of what was discussed will make life better and some will make it worse because they'll want to rush to implement it, but that the best part is the friendship. Another says the best part is the sharing of information, knowledge and experience among professionals. Maria Lina thanks the invited guests for dedicating their time and knowledge. A representative of UCI says the event helped identify bottlenecks and important things to do. Bernard says it is a pleasure to have been invited to be in Cuba, with "good weather, good food, good company, good conference."

Patrick and the Future

Bridget asks Patrick Debois, who started DevOpsDays in Belgium in 2009, what was different about this one. Patrick says in other countries people are saturated and wonder if they can learn one more thing, but here people started sharing from the first exercise, with the same enthusiasm as in 2009, when everyone left to take it home to their friends. Patrick says the retirement from DevOpsDays became official two years earlier, and that Bridget is now in a good lead, helping people organize elsewhere.

Bridget asks Enrique what comes next, for the conference and for DevOps in Cuba. Hugo answers, and Joe translates, that that the survey results are coming, everyone wants to do it every year and to keep developing the cultural movement of DevOps, and the idea is to share, and to work with all companies to advance.

Ignite in Spanish

Joe, a fan of the Ignite format, says the Cuban participants had never heard of it before they were supposed to give them, and took to it like fish to water. Ignite is a five-minute talk with 20 slides that advance automatically every 15 seconds, which is difficult for first-timers. Bridget says English-speaking Ignite speakers manage about three sentences per slide, while the Spanish speakers were probably putting about six or seven. Joe says they were going a mile a minute, and even catching every fourth or fifth word, they were really good. Joe singles out Henry, the "on fire" speaker, whose Ignite was one of the lead-offs, and Maria Elena, whose evening talk on telenovelas was very funny.

Bridget says of the year's conferences on five continents that this one stands out as significant. The show ends with the banana stand line in Spanish, and Bridget's note that in Cuba the bananas are really plantains.

Bridget and Joe discuss their experiences at devopsdays Cuba and share audio from the closing session.

Dramatis Personae

• Rudy Gevaert @rgevaert
• Patrick Debois @patrickdebois
• Bernard Grymonpon @wonko_be
• Mike Rosado @MikeRosTX
• Enrique Carbonell Muela @kikicarbonell
• Genry Leyva González @genrylg
• Marialina Ballesteros Hernández @MarialinaBall

Further Viewing

A few videos of devopsdays Cuba have made it to youtube. They can be found [here.] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTMwHcjpMf4&list=PLobspijdw3822IEFotAHz_vWrc0nTqwxn)

Special thanks to Mike Rosado for his help in preparing the translations for this episode.

Community & Event Stuff

If you have an upcoming conference you would like to see promoted on ADO, you can fill out the handy form at arresteddevops.com/conf

Open CFPs

• lots of DevOpsDays
• ChefConf 2017 - closing on January 18, 2017
• Monitorama - May 22-24 - until Feb 1