After an hour trip on the ‘Tube’ in a cold wet London Wednesday morning from Shepherd’s Bush to the O2 Arena where this years MongoDB Europe edition was held, we got there wet and hungry… BUT , what we would see was just going to change our moods for good. “Arcade machines, free candies, ping pong tables, food, beer!? Is this real ?” Empathy Team , 2017

Oh boy, yes it was! The morning kicked off with a really nice breakfast and a bunch of merchandise that we got in a pretty nice black bag, we even got a sweatshirt! Personally, it was my very first time in an event this big and I was impressed by everything, literally. I felt like a small kid again, a kid trying to gather as much knowledge as possible, joyfully. After that nice quick breakfast we were dry, not hungry anymore and eagerly waiting to start with all the interesting conferences we have ahead.

By 9:00 we were already sat down and the first speakers came into the scene. Lights on, audio clear and all the newest technology by MongoDB and the event sponsors. [gallery columns=”4” link=”file” ids=”6525,6527,6528,6529,6531,6532,6533,6526”] I was really impressed by Hannah Fry’s speech, the way data was shown, the meaning within… Just perfect, really enjoyed it! Data can be beautiful and this is one way to do so. Right after the Keynote the Early Morning Sessions just went live and we all had different schedules to follow. The whole event was divided in several speeches across different time zones, early and late morning , as well as early and late afternoon.

All the sessions were spread out across different Shards, 3 common ones and a special Shard N which was reserved for more technical speeches and hands-on workshops. The sessions seemed well organised and you could choose a wide range of them even if you couldn’t attend all of them because the time was limited and the amount of conferences was huge, 28 in total. On the coffee breaks you could relax a little bit, talk with the people attending the event and also try the arcade machines, try to win an iPhone X or ask MongoDB Experts about doubts you had with a concrete scenario you were facing… That was actually pretty neat. The lunch was also pretty good, high quality catering with a huge variety of food to choose from, alongside a great variety of desserts too. Really tasty!

After the whole day attending the presentations, eating and having a good time learning all the new stuff MongoDB has come up with it was time to relax a little bit, and there was a Novemberfest waiting for us, which means… FREE beers! Yay!

Overall it was a nice experience to be part of, plenty of things to do and great content.