Ciao a tutti!

In this blog, I'm pumped to share my experience attending GUADEC 2025 held in Brescia, Italy.

Let's start :)

During the conference, I presented multiple talks -

My main talk on GNOME Internships, Google Summer of Code, Outreachy

Lightning talk on Need for GUADEC and Regional events

Lightning talk on GNOME Extensions as the gateway ****

BoF on GNOME Foundation Internships - Unrecorded 😅

The main talk was on Day 1 of the conference, which was quite exciting. I had the pleasure of sharing my journey and insights on how to leverage FOSS internships like GSoC and Outreachy to build a successful career in open source.

Attending this conference was far from easy. Due to the tragic Air India flight incident, I had to scrap my original travel plans and book a last-minute alternative to Italy. It was stressful — both emotionally and financially, but I was determined to make it to GUADEC.

Another trouble was with Visa; I had to apply for a Schengen Visa, which was hectic to say the least. Submitting 150+ pages of documents and waking up the GNOME Foundation team at night (their time) just to get some random letters the VFS office (embassy delegates) wanted during the submission process was bliss. So sincere thanks to Steven (ED), Anisa, Kristi, Rosanna, Asmit and others for helping me out with this at the very last minute. You all are heroes!

I usually carry double the required documents just to be on the safe side, but this was just something else.

Anyway, let's proceed with the blog :D

The touchdown

Due to a lack of flights to Brescia, I had to take a flight to Milan and then travel by train to Brescia.

But, since this was my first conference after graduating the same month (yipeee), I fortunately was able to extend my trip for the first time ever.

This let me explore Italy, a dream come true. I visited Milan and the Monza circuit before heading to Brescia.

I have no clue about racing, but visiting the Monza circuit was a surreal experience. The history, the cars, and the atmosphere were just amazing.

The pre-conference party

After some nice struggles with public transport in Brescia (I loved it afterwards though), I decided to take a 20-minute walk to the venue of the pre-conference party.

I don't mind walking, but as I was waiting for the bus, initially, I got late and had to walk fast. The worst part? The bus that didn't allow me to board was constantly catching up to me for half the journey, boosting the frustration.

But well... I finally reached! Met some of my friends and had nice conversations with the organisers, attendees, speakers and some really engaging discussions with Mauro from Canonical.

After which, he consented to me kidnapping him for an Indian dinner. The place we got to was closed (I hate Google Maps), but fortunately, we found another Indian restaurant in very close proximity.

We had tons of exchanges about the future of Ubuntu, Canonical and GNOME. It was great to meet in person after GUADEC 2023.

The first day of the conference

The first day was quite good, got to attend the talks which I was looking forward to and was also able to help with the Ubuntu booth setup (well, not much but somewhat?).

After tackling some great wifi chip delights, we were able to get the anonymous forms up and running for the booth.

And then came my talk. Maria Majadas introduced me (she is awesome btw!), and after some setup tackling, I was able to present my talk on "Making a career out of FOSS Internships GSoC/Outreachy".

I had to rush a bit due to the time constraints, but I was able to cover most of the points I wanted to. So yay!

Afterwards, I was able to volunteer for moderating the talk, "The state of GTK" by Matthias, which was quite insightful. It was great to see the progress GTK has made and the future plans.

We then had a great panel discussion, which was quite a nice twist.

Later Aarti and Sri (Who both are awesome), whom I met for the first time in person, invited me for some snacks and drinks. The stories they shared were just so amazing and inspiring. Due to them, for the first time at GUADEC, I was able to have normal conversations and not just very professional ones. This elevated the conference 10x for me.

If you both are reading this, I just want to say you both are amazing, and I hope to see you again soon!

Then Mauro kidnapped me for a nice Italian dinner. We found a nice pizzeria with amazing views and food. I let him order for me, just like he did with me, haha.

And I have to say, that was the best pizza I ever had.

Also, I learned some new pizza cutting tricks and info on why you should NEVER share Pizza (apart from exchanging slices to try). This will stay with me for life xD.

Oh man, that was a lot for the first day. I was exhausted but happy.

The second day of the conference

On the second day, the highlight talks for me were "Getting Things Done in GNOME", "State of the Shell" and "Have a GTK app with no tests? No Problem!" (Which I had the pleasure to attend and moderate).

I also gave another lightning talk on "Why do we need GUADEC or GNOME events?" which was quite fun. I shared my experiences and insights on the importance of such events in fostering community and collaboration.

Thanks to Rosanna for giving me the idea to do so. It was really great to share my thoughts and experiences with the community.

After the conference, I took a detour to visit the beautiful Brescia Castle. The views were out of this world. I also, instead of taking the bus to the top or climbing up stairs, took the gravel path around the castle (It had fences which I decided to jump over :)). But it was worth it, climbing this way allowed me to see every corner of the city layer by layer. That you can't beat!

The third day of the conference

As you can guess by now, it was great as well, and I gave another talk - "GNOME Extensions: the gateway drug to GNOME" and also helped in moderating some sessions.

Also, I'll highly recommend you to watch the talk on Gnurd - https://www.youtube.com/live/Z7F3fghCQB4?si=H_HgN6IHeRdSVu10&t=27391 It was nice!

And we ended the day with a great dinner celebrating 25 years of GUADEC. The food was amazing, the company was great, and the atmosphere was just perfect.

The BoFs

Being a GNOME GSoC'22 Intern, and now a part of the GNOME Internship Committee, I had my fourth and final talk (kind of), GNOME Internship Committee Meetup, where we discussed the future of the program, the challenges we face, and how we can improve it.

Thanks, Felipe, for organising it and inviting me to be a part of it. It was great to see the progress we have made and the plans we have for the future.

The next day, I attended the "GTK Settings Hackfest" BoF, and it reminded me why physical meetups are so powerful. Discussing my blockers directly with the maintainers and fixing stuff together. It can't get more delightful than that!

We then went to Lake Iseo for a trip. And the picture will give you a glimpse of the beauty of the place.

The Bergamo tour

The tour was a great opportunity to check out Bergamo and interact with people.

Special shoutout to Ignacy for being my partner in crime for clicking pictures, haha. The skyline, the view from the top and the food were just amazing. We had a great time exploring the city and taking pictures.

It was also Federico's birthday, so we celebrated it with a cake and some drinks. Celebrating the founder at the 25th GUADEC was the cherry on top.

Federico also gave great insights about Coffee. I was looking forward to buying a Bialetti Moka pot, but I wasn't sure. But after his advice, I splurged. And I have to say, it was worth it. The coffee is just amazing, and the experience of making it is just delightful. Instant is not the same anymore :(.

So thanks to Federico, I now have a taste of Italy at home, haha.

Meeting people

At last, I met many new people and got to learn a lot. Made new friends, got to meet people I look up to and many more.

I hope I wasn't that introverted, but yeah, slowly getting comfortable around new people, especially thanks to Aarti and Sri for making me feel comfortable and helping me break the ice.

The End

This GUADEC was just awesome. And I was also able to visit 4 cities in Italy, which was a dream come true. Normally, due to college, I couldn't visit any other city than the conference city, but this time I was able to extend my trip and explore Italy a bit.

Thanks to all the people for making the event so great. It was an experience like no other. I would also like to thank GNOME Foundation for sponsoring the trip :) I hope I used it to the fullest and made the most out of it. :D

I also renewed my GNOME Foundation membership just recently, which is awesome.