January 7, 2025
Learning German in Berlin # So you have been living in Berlin for a while, maybe even for years – but you fail to speak German fluently. It may feel weird switching to German even with friends, as your English gives you many more options to speak proficiently, to be precise when talking. People around you speak better English than you speak German.
One thing to remember: While Berlin is easy to navigate speaking only English, if you stay here for more than a couple of weeks you really truly do want to start training your German language skills: Emergency information – typically first available and more detailed in German.
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September 3, 2024
Notes on meetup organisation # What feels like decades ago I went to a talk at FOSDEM. One in a dev-room. And one of the very few that proved relevant for many years after. I have no idea what the title was, nor what year it was given, I do believe it ran in the MySQL dev room - in terms of topic it provided an overview on what to do and what to watch out for when organising community meetups.
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February 14, 2012
HowTo: Meetups in Berlin # I get that question once in a while - and need the list below myself every now and then: How to actually setup a meetup in Germany. Essentially it all boils down to three questions: Which channels to use for PR? Where to do the meeting? What other benefits to offer to attendees?
When it comes to PR there are several options: Announce the meetup on relevant mailing lists
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October 6, 2010
A Get Together Checklist # Still on the list of potentially interesting books: The Checklist Manifesto - explaining why checklists can still be valuable - especially for complex problems and tasks.
Though not very complex, I chose to come up with a checklist for running a Hadoop Get Together in Berlin as an exercise. I’m trying to stick with advise provided by the Checklist for Checklists.
Parties involved
Find two to three speakers two months in advance.
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