Echoes from GV2012

Para la versión en castellano, hacer clic acá.

It's been almost a week since the Citizen Media Summit 2012, organized by Global Voices came to an end. A week can be felt as a long while, but when it comes to an event that huge, the echoes go on.

The summit was held between Friday June 29th and Tuesday July 3rd. The first three days were exclusively dedicated to intern Global Voices meetings and the other two were open sessions with scholars and academics especially invited for the occasion.

From the intern meetings, there are two to be featured, in my opinion. The first one was the session for the group formed by future volunteer subeditors, which I expect to be a part of. That I'll know soon, hopefully. The other one was a proposal of mine, about context for Global Voices translators, to make our task a little easier.

Duiring the half day activity, I chose to visit the Nairobi National Museum, where you can find every aspect of the History of the country hosting me these days. A visit that helps you put it in perspective.

Each one of the moments spent during those five days is remarkable and worth to be mentioned, but what is remarkable above all is the contact with all the other Global Voices contributors.

On one hand, it was really excting to be reunited with friends I met last Summit in Santiago, Chile, two years ago. Recognizing faces and not recognizing others, among laughs, hugs, anecdotes was simply undescribable.

On the other hand, putting a face to what at that point had been just a name and maybe a tiny profile image is always a unique experience. In spite of being new faces, in most cases the feeling was we are lifetime friends. And actually that was the feeling. Free time is so little for activities are so intense, but there is always occasion for an always interesting chat.

Of course, each summit means meeting new friends, share the table with different people each time, learn a little bit about their countries and have a huge satisfaction discovering that many of them are aware that  Peru means Macchu Picchu, satisfaction that gets multiplied when we realize that they know that Peru is (way much) more than Macchu Picchu.

A very fun thing was the exchange with the secret summiteer, some kind of secret friend for whom we must take something from our countries. As for me, I gave away a T-shirt with the Marca Perú symbol, which was very well received, among other Peruvian little articles. I got a beautiful jewelry box, brought especially for me from Pakistan.

A Global Voices summit lasts for a few days. The echoes of a Global Voices summit never fade away.

Note: to read more about this on Twitter, click here.
----------

If you can't post a comment on this blog, just use the red button on the right side on top where it says EMAIL ME!, leave your comment there and I'll find the way to put it on the right place. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience. That's a way to get in touch with me, too.