My First Akademy experience!!
Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing great.
Right after my GSoC tenure ended, I headed off to Austria to attend Akademy. This was my first time traveling outside my country, so I was really excited to experience everything — from the journey itself to meeting people from the KDE community.
Traveling to Graz
My flight first landed in Vienna, which is a beautiful city. I spent a day exploring Vienna before making my way to Graz by train.
The moment I arrived in Graz, we had our welcome event on top of a building. I met a lot of KDE people, received my badge, and got to enjoy a beautiful view of central Graz.
That night was a great start to the trip — we had food, drinks, conversations, and lots of opportunities to meet other KDE contributors.
The First Day of Talks
After the delicious dinner at the welcome event, I was ready for the talks the very next day.
Not this! 😆 BTW, cool graffiti.
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The Birthday Party
The next day was a special one - it was KDE’s 30th birthday!
After a great day of talks and meeting people from the KDE community, everyone gathered to celebrate this incredible milestone. It was amazing to see so many KDE contributors, developers, and friends from around the world come together in one place.
There was plenty of food, drinks, music, and, of course, a birthday cake! It was a great opportunity to relax, have some fun, and get to know people outside of the usual technical discussions.
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The great Konqi couldn't survive the event. 🥺
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BoFs
Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday were the BoFs (Birds of a Feather) sessions — smaller and more informal talks/hackathons/brainstorming/etc.
Day Trip
On Wednesday, we went on a day trip to Zotter Erlebniswelt, a famous Austrian chocolate factory near Riegersburg.
The tour began with a short film in the factory’s mini-theatre, introducing us to the history of Zotter and its approach to chocolate-making. After that, we got to explore the factory and sample around 300 different varieties of chocolate. The best part? We could watch the chocolates being made right in front of us!
It was a really fun experience, and everything was delicious. Of course, I couldn’t leave without picking up a bunch of chocolates from the gift shop!
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Wrap Up
Akademy was an incredible experience, but it was also exhausting! Between attending talks, participating in BoFs, exploring Graz, meeting new people, and enjoying the day trip, there was always something happening.
I barely managed to get 4–5 hours of sleep each night because I didn't want to miss out on anything.
I'm really grateful to KDE for making this experience possible. I came back with wonderful memories and new friendships.
Until next time, Akademy! 💙