This is one of the hardest blog posts that I've had to write. Regrettably and with much consternation we have decided to cancel DrupalCon Sao Paulo due to a low level of sponsorship support, fewer than expected session submissions, and higher than expected costs.

Over three years ago long-time Drupal community members and leaders of the Latin Drupal community Fabiano Sant'Ana and Fernando Paredes García came to the Drupal Association looking to host a DrupalCon in South America. Over the next three years these two worked diligently to grow their community by hosting meetups, camps, and launching Drupal Summit Latino. After years of work we all felt the time was right to expand DrupalCon into South America. With the full support of the Drupal Association board and staff, countless hours have been dedicated to planning, promoting, and organizing this event. Association staff and local community members have worked tirelessly to secure the venue, find sponsors, negotiate with vendors for Internet and other conference essentials, and rally the global community to help bring DrupalCon to a new audience.

Despite these efforts, it has become clear that moving forward with DrupalCon Sao Paulo at this point would not only result in a major financial loss, but also threaten to undermine the Association’s larger mission of promoting and supporting the global Drupal community.

Although this is a step back it is not deterring us from expanding Drupal around the world. We will continue to work alongside leaders of the Latin America Drupal community as we do with all leaders within our community. We have asked our sponsors to support upcoming DrupalCamps in South America as well as the next Drupal Summit Latino and we would like to encourage community members from around the world to attend these two upcoming events.

Drupalcamp Centroamerica 2012 - Panamá
Panama, Ciudad del Saber
11-13 October 2012
@drupalca
Drupal Summit Latino - Loja 2013
Ecuador, Loja
13-15 March 2013
follow @drupal_latino


I want to personally thank everyone that has dedicated their time to this event particularly the following individuals that went above and beyond for this community. 

Fabiano Sant'Ana (Founding organizer)  
Fernando Paredes Garcia (Founding organizer) 
Josè San Martin (Content lead) 
Felix Delattre (Community lead)
Dustin Boeger (Website Content lead) 
Joaquin Bravo Contreras (Website Systems lead) 
Ricardo Chang (Design Lead)

Comments

alexweber’s picture

This is so sad! That said, maybe we are still not quite there yet down here and having more camps and summits is definitely a way to nurture the community and get us into a position where we can think about doing this again.

Thanks to all the organizers for their hard work!!

- Alex

DevElCuy’s picture

All our efforts were not a waste, I agree with you Alex, energies are transforming:

http://develcuy.com/en/transforming-energy-drupalcon-sao-paulo

Blessings!

--
Fernando Paredes García

xjkwak’s picture

Is it possible to change the type of event from DrupalCon to DrupalCamp ?

prestonso’s picture

I second this -- it would be a great way to assuage some of the disappointment we're feeling, especially those of us who still had sessions to submit ...

A fond obrigado to the organizers for all of their hard work on this. I'm sure they must be devastated by this development.

jredding’s picture

As a DrupalCon expects a higher number of attendees than a camp the venue and its associated costs are designed for this larger audience. This would make transitioning it to a camp prohibitively expensive. We are currently working with the leaders of Drupal Camp Panama in October and Ecuador in March to make those events amazing and we'll continue to explore all of our options for supporting the community within Brazil and throughout Central and South America.

tsvenson’s picture

Sorry to hear about this so close to the event should have happen. I want to join Jacob and and everyone else in thanking all those that have put in so much work towards organizing it. Hope you wont give up and make it happen at another time in the future.

/thomas

marcelodornelas’s picture

What a shame

shoaib3’s picture

Oops that is sad. I was actually planning to attend anyways hope DrupalCon can host a conference in South America in 2013/14. All the best.

nickvidal’s picture

Faltou garra...

E não estou falando do povo latino não.
Porque latino é um povo que não desisti nunca.

Faltou humildade...

É preciso valorizar o dinheiro
E principalmente as pessoas.

Faltou colaboração...

Líderes buscam integrar toda a comunidade.
E sempre estão dispostos a escutar

Faltou inteligência...

É preciso enxergar além.
E planejar com cuidado e carinho.

E faltou amor...

Porque sem amor não há conquistas
Apenas conquistados

nickvidal’s picture

Some friends asked me what I was trying to say, so I'll translate it:

Faltou garra...

As one can imagine, the Latin and specially the Brazilian community were devastate by the news. There was a lot of self-criticism, such as "We really didn't deserve a DrupalCon, or we lacked a strong community, etc". But this is not true at all. There is saying in Brazil that goes like this: "Brazilians never give up", and I extended that saying to all Latin Americans. Despite all the challenges, difficulties, lack of money, lack of opportunities, etc, Brazilians (and Latin Americans) are known to make it happen. And we can see this all over Latin America. I think develcuy illustrates this well:

http://develcuy.com/en/transforming-energy-drupalcon-sao-paulo

Look what we, the Drupal Latin Community, are making it happen in the following months:

4th Drupalcamp Central America Oct/2012
6th Drupalcamp Perú Oct/2012
2nd Drupalcamp Rio Nov/2012
2nd Drupalcamp Guatemala Jan/2013
1st Drupalcamp Bolivia Feb/2013
1st Drupalcamp Mexico Mar/2013
3rd Drupal Summit Latino - Loja, Ecuador Mar/2013
(And at least 4 more events yet to be confirmed!)

Despite the setbacks, we never give up! And we always trow great events that bring the whole community together!

Faltou humildade...

We make it happen because we value money and specially we value people.

Money should not be wasted. We should always be very frugal about it.

And people's time are even more valuable. We should not trow their efforts away.

For example, my total budget for organizing DrupalCamp Foz 2011 was USD 5000, and this event was organized in 50 days. We had a tremendous help from sponsors and speakers from all over Latin America, who quickly acted to help out. Their time and their money were highly appreciated. Our venue was spectacular: Latinoware's main auditorium, a modern infrastructure with a capacity for 1000 people in the middle of a park. This was provided for free by Latinoware in 2011 and they again offered this venue to hold a DrupalCon in 2012, which was rejected by the DA. With the sponsorship money I was able to help all speakers with accommodation costs, print 8000 magazines about Drupal and distribute it all over Latin America (and some Drupal shops in North America and Europe), and there was even a left over for cultural events, such as visiting one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the Iguazu Falls, and the Birds' Park.

Faltou colaboração...

The Brazilian and the Latin community unfortunately did not participate in DrupalCon's planning process. This was done by a committee, of which I was part. I tried to reach out to the community as much as I could, by making surveys and by contacting friends to hear their opinion about some decisions that were being made behind closed doors. I got important feedback about the venue, and I called the DA's attention about it. The venue was in a terrible location, very far away from the international airport, and with no good hotels near by. Plus, the infrastructure was old and lacking. But the reaction to it was the worse possible. Basically, I was so humiliated that I decided to leave the committee (this was on February).

The community was only asked to participate in the execution of a flawed plan. Their time and effort into this was totally wasted and I can only imagine what we could have accomplished if it were more valued. Volunteer time might be free, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have value. Much the contrary. It's just like free software. It has more value than ever!

Faltou inteligência...

We really lacked a good and humble strategy, and this got worse with time. I guess one of the crucial moments was when DrupalCon Sydney was announced, happening just two months apart from DrupalCon Sao Paulo. Seriously, at this point we were totally lost. We would need all the help we could get (from inside and outside of Latin America) to pull it off, but with DrupalCon Sydney, with there gorgeous venue, right in front of the beach, we had no chance whatsoever. Not only was the venue gorgeous but, most importantly, we could really see that the whole Australian community was involved in the process. This event has grown from the bottom-up. It was Drupal DownUnder going UpAbove. I think this will be one of the best DrupalCons ever. I just love their video:

http://sydney2013.drupal.org/drupalcon-munich-gets-invitation-sydney

E faltou amor...

People like to think that Drupal will conquer the world and become a dominant force.

But the truth is that Drupal is mostly irrelevant. It is just a tool.

What really matters is the community, the people, the heart and soul that they put in to make things happen.

We need to nurture that with love and care.

If we ignore them, then we have already lost, no matter how much succe$$ful Drupal becomes.

mortendk’s picture

Hey Nick
Thank you for delivering the honest Truth & not sugarcoating it - we all need to learn from this & not be afraid to talk about things when they go wrong.

I really hope (correction i am expecting) that the Drupal Associations Board takes this cancellation *very* serious, NOT to point fingers, but to learn as a community how we can do it better in the future.
Building a stronger community is not about having 3, 4, 5 or even 6 DrupalCons - Its about personal relationships. Lets figure out how we build those first before we can try for Total World Domination. The Community is where the gold is hidden in this Drupalworld - and thats reason for Drupal's Growth.

I hope the DA will take the time for a hard solid reflection, to build up a clear strategy for DrupalCon (and Regional Events). Else we will be in this mess again
(If the DA wants it we should gather a group of experienced camp, con & event planners to make sure a clear strategy is gonna be made - i would love to help out.)

I feel so much for you guys over the cancellation, but as you self points out there was a reason for that.
The DA Board deserves all of the respect for making this hard decision. When an event has as many problems that you describe theres nothing else to do but to cancel. Maybe it should have been done earlier...

We learn from the mistakes & thats how we get stronger. Lets not hide this and just move on, that would be an even bigger mistake.

Drupal love
mortendk

jcnventura’s picture

Nick,

I think most of all, it lacked commitment. Once DrupalCon São Paulo was announced, it should have been set in stone from then on. It was announced in Denver and again in Munich. However the DCSP website was never more than a splash page, when it should have been up a lot earlier. I remember the DC Munich website going up in DC London - a year before. Maybe the location was bad, maybe the timing was bad, maybe the stars didn't align. That hardly matters. There were surely reasons for the decisions made, and no decision is perfect. But once a decision is made, everyone should support it (or leave as you did).

What I know now is that except for the US and Europe, we can't trust a DrupalCon announcement. Which means that no one will book their travel early to get low prices, and no one will book them late, because by then it will be prohibitive. And honestly the difference between it being a DrupalCon or a Drupalcamp is the scope: global or regional. If in the end it ends up being regional because no one from Europe or the US goes there, you better stick with the DrupalCamp model, which as your experience indicates, is a lot simpler to organize.

Knowing the DA and it's collaborators, I'm pretty sure they fought to have this till the end. When you're steering a ship, and you see an iceberg in the sea ahead, and look down to find that you're on the Titanic, you don't continue until it sinks. I guess we learned something from this experience. That can only mean we now have a better decision process in the DA and hopefully a re-energized South American community responsible for organizing the next events.

João Ventura

* About the Sidney video, I assisted Fabiano and Felix to build one for São Paulo - in about three hours. We were shown the Sidney video the day before, and had to scramble to have São Paulo be on equal footing with the rest. See http://munich2012.drupal.org/schedule/closing-plenary it starts at about 11:00. Within the limitations, I think the São Paulo video was a lot nicer than the rest.. My favourite video for inviting people to a Drupal event remains the DDD in Munich: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1sCDzMUQNk

nickvidal’s picture

Hi João,

Indeed, there was a total lack of commitment.

This is the background of a DrupalCon in Latin America:

The Drupal Latin community has been trying to convince the Drupal Association to organize a DrupalCon outside of the North America / Europe axis since 2009 without much success. There was an attempt to have one in 2010 (http://groups.drupal.org/node/19816), then 2011, then it was sure it would be held January 2012 (https://association.drupal.org/intranet/sao_paulo/), then it was postponed for April of 2012, then August, then there was an attempt to hold it together with Latinoware. About 50 days before the event, they canceled and asked somebody to organize a DrupalCamp instead. This is how DrupalCamp Foz 2011 came to be. Finally, there was an attempt to hold it together with LinuxCon Brazil in 2012, but again this didn't work.

After DrupalCamp Foz, Jacob Redding and Neil Kent reached out to the main leaders of the Drupal Latin community and asked for a fresh start. This time they were really committed to organizing a DrupalCon in Latin America in the fourth quarter of 2012. It was announced to happen on December 2012. Along this period we had some real issues regarding transparency and lack of community input. A little over 2 months before the event, the DrupalCon was canceled once again.

This indetermination has created a lot of frustration among the Drupal Latin community, specially among the local organizers, whose work towards a potential event often got irrelevant.

Regards,
Nick

jredding’s picture

Nick,

Your commitment to this community is highly commendable and one that I like to encourage and support. It is unfortunate that this event was canceled. We believed that we had all of the right pieces in place before we announced our first and only DrupalCon in SA. Sadly things did not turn out the way we all wanted them to.

As one of the people involved in this event since 2009 I can tell you that we did indeed have many false starts but that is not unlike any other DrupalCon. I am at the center of your frustration. I reached out to LinuxCon to co-locate with them and we had a great plan until they too canceled their event. Through the DA board I also made connections with others including Latinoware and FISL, which is the DrupalCamp FOZ you refer to - that was the DA in the background helping to make that happen.

False starts are not unusual. My first interaction with DrupalCon Sydney was in 2008 with Ryan Cross, it took over 4 years and many false starts before there was enough support for a DrupalCon in Sydney.

In life we make mistakes but it doesn't stop us from trying and continuing to push things forward. We learned valuable lessons from this event about what works and what doesn't work. We are not giving up on Central and South America and even as I write this comment we, at the DA, are working with community leaders in the region to learn how we support this growing, active, and amazing community.

-Jacob

mortendk’s picture

The whole Drupal Association, the portland office, the SA community, everyone was hellbent to make it Sao Paulo happen, worked relentless for years to make it happen - So it was "bad luck" that was the reason, come on is that really the amount of muscle that the DA can muster ?

I simply cant understand why it have to be in Sao Paulo - it failed repeatetly since 2009, with different partners / trying to piggy back on conferences that ran out of brazil, why didnt anybody stop op and asked "Okay maybe we should do this another place in South America" is Sao Paulo that magical a place?

Did the Board never signed off for Sao Paulo? - or approved the contracts?
Shit happens OK - but how on earth does it comes out to this - well looking at the last meeting notes kinda reveals a couple of well ... things.
quoting Board Retreat 2012-06-23 Minutes
----------------------------------------------------------------
....
How did these conferences happen without board sign-off?

South America / Asia Pacific was understood to be a board directive. An opportunity arose in Sao Paulo to do this in a financially feasible manner, and local team materialized for Sydney to make this easier. Staff was in support, seemed to have pre-existing board approval, so jumped on it.

Lessons learned (Sao Paulo):

* Board needs to vote up/down on each DrupalCon location.
* Board needs to vote up/down on the DA’s annual budget.
* If any contracts related to DrupalCon for venue, hotel or material to organization (creates risk) comes across the desk, it needs board approval, or else Executive Committee if it needs to happen sooner than the following board meeting.
.....
----------------------------------------------------------------
okay eemm 2 things here screams out:

1. Board never signed off on the DrupalCon Sao Paulo?
How can everybody be on track with what was going on, with no sign-off ?
It looks like that it "just happend" because it happend? ... wow

2. Contracts signed without the boards knowledge?
let me just quote the minuts again
" If any contracts related to DrupalCon for venue, hotel or material to organization (creates risk) comes across the desk, it needs board approval, or else Executive Committee if it needs to happen sooner than the following board meeting."
... wow okay then ...
That is the only thing that can explain why the DA has was hellbent for having a conference in Sao Paulo,despite of all the warning flags:
it looks like somebody fucked up big time & signed contracts for hotels/venues ?
Which explains why the DA had no other option than trying to make it happen & not loose money. Instead of stopping up write it off as a loss & makin sure that there was a clear protocol for the future, and move the event to another location where "the basics" was in order (community support, venue hotel close to each other, not in the suburbs etc)

Is that the case - there was no way out, cause the contracts was signed?

Ask for forgiveness - Dont ask permission?
Is a ok rule when you wanna get shit done.
I am perfectly aware that chances have to be made, and that shit happens, breaking into new areas isnt easy and sometimes everything turns into crap, thats just how the world is sometimes, but theres "ups it went wrong" and then theres a complete clusterfuck spinning out of control, it dosnt make sense why this wasnt stopped back before it was even announced in Denver & again announced in Munic.

When the risk of failure means to piss on the whole south American community, and sending a signal out to the rest of the World: "the first time the DA tried to do an event outside US & EU if was en epic fail"

All this raises questions that i dont think im the only one that is wondering:
* How many Hours was used to trying to safe the SA DrualCon & make it happen?
* How much money did the DA loose by this adventure?
* How will the DA build up trust again in South America?
* Is there any control on leadership of the staff - this looks like it needs some "serious guidance"
* Are there clear layout plans for Sydney (and Portland + Prague) and an oversight of whats going on
* What kind of shape are Sydney really in?
* What is done to fix this, are there any kind of control functions, or are we gonna ignore this & move on and wait till its it gonna be the same in the future.

The best thing about this situation now is that we can (if there is a will to do it) and learn from the mistakes. use that knowledge to build up an organization that can actually handle to be an international organization

Theres a need to build up a trust again after this - So can we please do that ... like right now :)

/mortendk

nickvidal’s picture

Felix has a very nice write-up with reflections about the Cancellation of DrupalCon São Paulo. I specially like this quote:

Personally it seems very strange to me that there is this iterative thinking that DrupalCons should always grow to show success and professionalism, when extending to the world is a so much bigger success because it is about people and their work. This might be a better resource for Drupal than money of northern markets. Why is the DA taking this as the meta/objective? The community might have a very different view on that.

juan_g’s picture

mortendk wrote:
I simply cant understand why it have to be in Sao Paulo - it failed repeatetly since 2009, with different partners / trying to piggy back on conferences that ran out of brazil, why didnt anybody stop op and asked "Okay maybe we should do this another place in South America" is Sao Paulo that magical a place?

Brazil seems to be the largest Drupal community in Latin America, and that large country seems a good place for the first Latin American DrupalCon.

About the specific Brazilian city, there was a survey (DrupalCon Latino 2012 Venue Recommendations) with a few hundreds of responses. Three cities received similar numbers of votes: São Paulo, Foz do Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro:

QUESTION 2: Where would you like to have a DrupalCon?
São Paulo 36,6% 102
Foz do Iguaçu 36,2% 101
Rio de Janeiro 35,5% 99
Campinas 16,8% 47
Porto Alegre 15,1% 42

QUESTION 3: Where would you make an effort to attend a DrupalCon?
São Paulo 41,9% 117
Foz do Iguaçu 40,1% 112
Rio de Janeiro 40,1% 112
Campinas 26,2% 73
Porto Alegre 22,6% 63

Apart from this, I think an important factor is, when selecting the event team members, how much experience they have organizing previous, successful Drupal or open source events such as large DrupalCamps, etc.

mortendk’s picture

What i can see from the numbers is that there is 3 citys that was all neck to neck. So that really makes me wonder why it was so importent to have it in Sao Paulo, if Foz do Iguaçu & Rio de Janeiro practically had the same community backup ? - so the numbers here makes it even more confusing why dessions was taken as they were.

It looks to be like a huge fail in learning from the old mistakes done earlier. Having an experienced team, on the ground was a lesson learned 3 years ago, its as importent as having a venue. Its beyond my understanding how that can come as a surprise or that there was not done anything to make this happen

jredding’s picture

Morten,

I highly appreciate your follow-up and the amount of time and energy you're pouring into trying to uncover what went wrong. As the person that worked on this project for over 3 years I've done the same myself. Sao Paulo was chosen based on the recommendation of the core Latin America events team after we received proposal from venues and a logistics partner. I personally worked with the organizers of and on the proposal to co-locate with Foz do Iguaço and while it would have been an amazing collaboration it simply did not come together within a comfortable timeframe or in a setting that would have made it a DrupalCon (for example, they initially offered only a single room for up to 300 people). Sao Paulo was ultimately chosen based on the recommendation from the local community, pre-sales for sponsorship, adequate venue, and an appropriate budget.

I personally think that Sao Paulo was and is the right city but not all of the pieces fell into place for this conference.

-Jacob Redding

mortendk’s picture

Hey Jacob
Thanx for the answer (well what you could answer) yes im frustrated over what happend - can see im not the only one.
Its awesome to see that the DA in the future have a good oversigt of contracts, bills & the event.
I appreciate you concern for me bu no worries didnt took me that long time to dig up that little info, and im still boosted from the skittles, you brought me in munich :)

I hope for lot of time to discuss the question i have asked in this thread, and how we can work to be better to catch an event before it fall, so Drupal events co arranged with the DA in the future it will become as big success as the European & American Drupalcon :)

SirFiChi’s picture

...because there are some questions left after reading the statements and comments like "It's a shame".

Why should it be a shame? With a little imagination it's so clear how this can be happen and it's not a shame.
A drupalcon costs so much more then a camp.
The drupal association has to pay for the venue, the logistic and the catering, and need it back from the attendes and the sponsors.
The speakers are attendes and have to pay the transfer, the hotel and the ticket.
The sponsors should pay to get some visibility.

Let us reconsider:
-The potential sponsors often don't know that a sponsorship is more then connect to possible customers and new employees. For them it's only a (big) payment with less range (only to the attendes, and the attendes are mostly the own community which allready knows them).

- Do speakers have enough impulsion to do a session? It's for the own popularity. But what if you don`t have people that know enough? Or when they don't want to talk, because they are scared? Or when they only think it's not interesting what they have to say?

- You should remember, that cons startet so small in Europe and America. There are so many factors to handle, when you start so a big project on a new place.

- And the price is a important factor for attendes. Some guys from munich don`t visit the DrupalCon Europe 2012 in munich. The Con was in there own city! They don't have to travel there, they don't have to pay a room.
In front the event was communicated as a businessevent.
Dries told in an interview, that the event is for the drupal developers.
Some sponsors told me they are happy to see the community, but they want to see potential customers in proper.

I personally think what the DrupalCon needs is a clear definition about the purpose and the target audience!
Then you can communicate with the sponsors why they have to pay and whats there interest. (Find new employes, find possible customers, show that they are behind the free open source CMS Drupal, ...)
And then you can tell the speakers, why it's important to be a part of it. (Get famous, get new jobs, be a prestigious member of the community, ...)
The attendes know then, why they have to come. (That addicts to the the definition of the audience...)

In my opinion, there are some good reasons why a big camp is better as small con. Think about it, think about a clear direction, and think about the needs of the audience in south america.

It's not a shame. It's a pity.
But we don`t have to worry, we have to think about why it failed, and how to make it succeesful in the future.
I believe there will be a DrupalCon in south america in the future, with happy sponsors, happy speakers and happy attendes. Because they all love Drupal, and they all be a part of the great community that grows up.
(It's nice to compare it with the childhood. If you fall down you have to stand up and move on...)

Summary: Think about the audience of a DrupalCon in different regions, think about the needs and the possibility, and define this event, so all know why they have to come...

Rosamunda’s picture

It´s a shame that the event was suspended. I have no doubt this is a very difficult announcement to do, and I do thank the brazilian organizers for their effort. Because organizing an event like that has so many variables that can go wrong, that is quite a big effort to even try to do it. I think this is the first drupalcon announced and then cancelled, at least the first one that I can recall.

That said, I think that all those problems that prevented the event to take place maybe could/should have been addressed before it got officially announced. Many of us already pay plane tickets. I know I did. Even when I did have some doubts about where the event was going to be held or not, I took the chance because, then again, it was officially announced. This was going to be my first DrupalCon ever and I was so exited. Its so sad it got cancelled.
I´m the only person to blame, because nobody asked me to buy plane tickets that much time in advance, but I didn´t thought that a drupalcon announcement was a light-hearted one. I should have known better, because it is not written in stone either, because there are many imponderables that can go wrong in such a big event like this.

Maybe one of the crucial factors was that the event wasn´t publicized as much as it should have inside the drupal.org site? I don´t know, I´m just very frustrated right now. Guess I will have to wait for other time and just try to get a refund.

Anyway, I do thank the people behind the Sao Paulo event, because they have dedicated time, effort, and maybe even money to make this work, and they are more frustrated than the assistants could ever be. I sincerely hope that they keep trying, because sooner than later, there will be a drupalcon in South America. Maybe next time it could be held in Buenos Aires, who knows.

Regards,
Rosamunda

nickvidal’s picture

Hi Rosamunda,

So sorry to hear your story.

I don't think it's right for you to blame yourself. Your "fault" was to believe in the Drupal Association's commitment to this event, as it was announced by them several times, including at the last DrupalCon held in Munich.

I propose a reasonable/fair solution:

For those who have proof that they bought airplane tickets to attend DrupalCon Sao Paulo before the event was cancelled by the Drupal Association, they are entitled to one free DrupalCon ticket valid for the next 4 years.

I'll be talking with representatives at the Drupal Association and fight to get this proposal approved.

Thank you for sharing your feelings!

Kind regards,
Nick

Rosamunda’s picture

Thank you very much for your reply Nick. I would like that. At least that way I can expect to go to a next drupalcon somewhere in the future, with less expenses.
In case your idea is accepted, I can email all the ticket details (I´ve buy it at www.aerolineasargentinas.com.ar).
Thanks for your kind reply. I felt very frustrated indeed.
Rosamunda

nickvidal’s picture

You're welcome Rosamunda.

I have talked with Donna, who is a "Community at Large" Board Member of the Drupal Association, and she has agreed to take this issue to the board.

I think it's only fair. I hope you are feeling a bit better now.

rcechang’s picture

Nick,

This is an excellent proposal. Thank you very much.

nickvidal’s picture

Hi Richard,

No problem. Just save a proof that you bought the plane tickets before the cancellation and hope that the DA will do what's fair.

Regards,
Nick

Rosamunda’s picture

Thanks again Nick. I hope that too. At least is something for this frustration of trusting the official announcement.
Its very kind of you to ask the DA about this problem.
I have all the information about my ticket saved in case they ask me for it.
Regards,
Rosamunda

nickvidal’s picture

This is your chance to participate in an international Drupal event BY the community, FOR the community:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/257563

DevElCuy’s picture

Everybody in this universe, being a human or a guinea pig, is invited to join this community celebration. No barriers, no boundaries, no distance, no limits, no nothing...

Just freedom!

wranvaud’s picture

This is probably the most emotional moment I had reading drupal.org.
São Paulo was a good choice, after all it's one of the biggest cities in the world. It's the perfect place to gather attention from many developpers and users in south america.
There's a lack of Drupal enthusiasts in Brazil compared to europe and US, and this was just an excellent opportunity to expand. Brazilians in particular, but probably Latin America in general are very sensitive to iniciatives that happen locally. Some exposure to Drupal could have made a big difference.

I've also noticed recently that a brazilian company that worked with drupal in São Paulo apparently closed. Their site webdrop.net.br now points to ¿Facebook?!

Although this is a big letdown, I understand the difficulties too and want to thank everybody who spent their time and energy planning and organizing the event. Keep it up!