The German Connect Chapter went back to its cadence for a regional event in 2021. As the 2020 international event had to be first moved and finally canceled, the community was eager to gather again – at least in a virtual format.
Targeted at a mainly German language audience, several international sponsors, speakers and participants joined, in this first regional event since 2019. The easy access approach had 166 people register for this one-and-a-half-day event on April, 27 and 28 and the final attendee count was at 139 for the two days.
Dr. Werner Alexi, German NonStop User Group GTUG Chairperson, and Dr. Heinz-Hermann Adam, Connect Germany President kicked off the event on Tuesday at 9 am. After a short welcome and introductions, attendees were able to join Breakout Rooms for presentations. A breadth of topics was covered by HPE and its technology and solution partners, as well as end-users in their community presentations. Gathering in Q&A sessions for one-on-one or group discussions was another option for all to move about in the virtual environment.
Just before the lunchbreak, breakouts closed and all attendees joined the plenary session of Gerhard Schwartz: „GAIA-X, the European Cloud“, to learn about the goals, applications, technical details and political implications for this important piece for European digital sovereignty.
Breakouts and Q&A opened again over the lunchbreak. Everyone moved around to enjoy the afternoon sessions or have follow-up conversations.
Some stayed well beyond close at 5 pm.
Due to the lack of opportunity for a social gathering in the evening, an early start for another half-day on Wednesday was easy for everyone.
Just after the breakout sessions concluded around noon, everyone gathered again in the main session. And while everyone is eager to go back to an in-person interaction experience, both the content as well as the technology was well received and might be an optional component in future activities.
For all those who attended and those who missed out, the presentation slides are available at:
There is no recoding of the sessions available, due to legal and data protection reasons.
We would like to thank all those who attended. Especially the volunteers, who made the conference possible and Pamela Bogner, for her as always professional support. A big thanks goes to all the sponsors, who support the Community in activities like these.
The promise is up, that there will be some local activity by both GTUG and Connect in Germany in the Fall – regardless whether it be in-person or in another virtual format.
And as we hope for the best, we will try to reboot the international format for 2022 in Berlin.
Stay tuned, stay Connect-ed and stay healthy!
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