Organizing a human-friendly event close to the sea side in the southern part of europe?

It seems that there is/was (always) a need for people to meet with other people and exchange ideas, chat, learn new things and maybe collaborate and plan something (possibly) useful. In a natural environment were common activities and living together for some days is a nice experience and not rush in a shopping mall with thousands of people.

Organizing an event requires a lot of organization but it seems that is actually quite doable. Perhaps it’s time to introduce some smaller events in regions where is usually warmer (human-friendly) and (hopefully) don’t require that many resources.

If you have any ideas, directions or want to help with organizing such an event please chime in.

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yeah! I am just coming out from eclectictech carnival https://eclectictechcarnival.org a self organised feminist event that I have contributed to and this gave us so much strength and energy. So yes I am all in for an event, self organisation is the key in my point of view.
Maybe I can list here from this experience (among others) several things that come to my mind when I think about organising an event:

  • Challenging the conference format, prefer presentations that engage all participants that get them thinking together around one theme, creating stronger bonds between people.
  • Engage people to come for several days, find an appealing location so that people feel they can relax and stay a bit, it does not have to be all included, we can work together in organising minimum confort. Avoid inviting “stars” who do not have time and fly from far to speak one hour and go away.
  • Engage people also in organising their basic needs, sharing responsibility for meals for example.

From my experience thinking these things ahead completely transforms the type of meeting organised, and help to create a more durable group,

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Ah nice!! Great to hear that there are people out there thinking/feeling in similar ways. :slight_smile:

As I mentioned in my first post I would like/prefer to build this event as human friendly as possible and close to the sea side (\o/). It seems that Portugal has some really nice places close by the sea were people can enjoy the sun, get refreshed with the sea breeze and have fun with the sea and its waves.

How do we start organizing such an event?
Do we know any local communities in the Portugal?
Shall I contact some people/groups that can help us or give us some directions?

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How about connecting with transhackmeeting, we were quite active in the organisation last year in Tarnac, and no place is yet defined for next year, proposing protugal is most certainly a good idea

https://trans.hackmeeting.org/

Thk mailing list Thk@autistici.org
https://www.autistici.org/mailman/listinfo/thk

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Great thinking going on here. THK in Portugal sounds awesome… as long as we don’t go there like Airbnb tourists. Let’s connect with the local hacker scene and see whether they’re into dancing or into staring.

I have good portuguese friends in Porto at la manufactura independientehttp://manufacturaindependente.org/. Their on the free software side of design, dealing critically with issues about open data since a long time already. Great persons, maybe would be good to get in touch with them.
If we’d like this to get organised, I get we should start to be proactive quite soon @vasilis

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@natacha please get me in touch with them!

This sounds like a lovely idea.

I believe that the conference mode can and shouold be reconfigured, notably through collective creation within different proposed workshops, like maybe Speculative Fiction workshops, Dream immersion, storytelling. I think it is also a good idea to invite some people and hear about their propositions and interests, establish axis of research/theme and create a programme building from this interaction…

@bellatrix that’s a really nice proposal!
Would you be up for helping me to set this up?

Currently I’m looking for space or an area that we can use for the event. If you have any contacts please introduce them to me.