A great week coming up

I'm extremely excited by the coming OpenStack Summit week in Paris !

First, well, Paris. It is a pretty amazing city, with great sights, museums and restaurants. Those who arrived early should have an awesome Saturday, sun all day, 18°C/65°F high. This is pretty rare in November, so we are very lucky ! Then next week gets cold and wet, complete with a traditional transport strike on Tuesday, so we don't mind being stuck all day in windowless design summit rooms... Perfect!

Second, this OpenStack Summit is completely sold out days before the event. That means we managed to get to a critical mass of local/regional community. That wasn't a given: when we started working on a summit in Paris two years ago, we were betting on the promising signs that Europe in general, and France in particular, showed at that time. It feels like we are at the right place at the right moment after all.

Third, our sponsors and party organizers seem to have outdone themselves. The bar was set pretty high by previous events. But even if I lived in this city for a long time, I'm very interested in participating to the pretty exclusive events that were organized as social events for this week... In particular, the Tuesday party at Pavillons de Bercy is, in my honest opinion, not something anyone should miss.

Fourth and finally, 4 years and 10 releases in, OpenStack is at a crossroads. There is plenty of past to reflect on, and plenty of future to discuss. There are a number of processes and structures we need to evolve. There are a number of changes we need to adapt to. I expect this week to be critical in shaping our future successes: it's therefore pretty important to be around and participate to the open discussion.

Shameless plug: I'll be moderating a panel of old-timers on Wednesday at 9am, to reflect back on what we achieved, and think about what we failed to achieve in these last four years. Even if you were at the party the night before, that should give you a good reason to get up !

So please, all enjoy this great week coming up.