From Graz we went towards Bonn or rather our old home. There we met some old friends, visited our parents and finished our car equipping.
‘Matilda' needed absolutely some curtains. We wanted to be able to darken it in case we want to sleep in the car and on the other hand nobody should be able to look inside when we park the car. So we bought some darkening fabric and the very talented Bahija sewed this time curtains for Matilda instead of oriental costumes. For the mounting we got creative ourselves and squeezed a pull-out shower curtain bar behind the driver's cab. There hangs a loop curtain. At the side window some sewn in magnets hold the cloth and in the back two s-shaped hooks are holding the bar. The curtain is fixed with clipping rings.
And then we bought some boxes to organize our belongings in the different storages spaces. We went to fetch our summer clothes and put them into the car so that we now really carry all our things with us. It is already a huge relief that we do not have to carry everything into the hotel room. Everything can now stay in the car and we only get it when we need it. That is absolutely fantastic!
Und dann haben wir noch verschiedene Boxen besorgt, um den Stauraum auch gut ausnutzen zu können. Die Sommersachen haben wir abgeholt und im Auto verstaut und somit haben wir jetzt wirklich alle unsere Sachen dabei. Es ist jetzt schon eine große Wohltat nicht immer alles ins Hotelzimmer schleppen zu müssen. Alles kann jetzt im Auto bleiben und wird bei Bedarf herausgenommen. Das ist wirklich super!
BarCamp Bonn
As we decided to visit more barcamps this year we went to Barcamp Bonn.
Friday
Friday was all about mobility. We could contribute something to this subject and held a session about being a digital nomad. In the session “mobility for tomorrow” some things were mentioned that we already have heard in the context of digital nomads. For example, that a car is nowadays no status symbol any more and not everybody wants to get a driver's license in the age of 18 and own a car. The subject “using instead of owning” was also mentioned several times: Car sharing or rides.
After our own session I listend to the presentation of the idea “Refill”. This is about shops, hotels, restaurants or offices, that offer to refill your water bottle with water from the tap for free. This idea is realized already in some towns and does come to Bonn now. Hopefully it will work. That would be a nice idea for more towns, though.
The last session was about parcel copters. A very interesting experiment. Reported from DHL. I'd rather be able to change the delivery address after having ordered. But maybe that will be possible one day.
In the evening there was supposed to be a part, but that did not really work out. Here you could copy something from other bar camps. I just say: “Baumbar”.
Saturday
Saturday was complety open and much has been offered. For me it was a colourful programme. I started with a session about mitochondrions. Very interesting and a motivation to do some sports.
Afterwards I went to a session about public relations. In a small but very selected and very open round we talked about DIY public relations. I learned a lot at this session and will try to do some of it.
After this I tried to be funny with 140 characters. That was not easy at all. But the workshop had some helpful hints and we really had to write gags.
Then Achim did a photo workshop with different themes. One of it was of course about “get real close”. It is always good to be reminded of things that you do know like the principals of composition. We had much fun looking at the photos of each other. And the last subject was “coffee”.
Ebenfalls in der letzten Session war mir schon einiges bekannt. Aber man kann manche Sachen nicht oft genug hören. Es ging um Entspannung im Alltag und das ist für uns ja auch ein ganz wichtiges Thema.
Conclusion BarCamp
I would visit Barcamp Bonn any time again. The location was top. The sponsors were great. We have to exercise partying. And the lunch brake for networking was missing. We did that in a small round after the barcamp and tried out the nightlife of Bonn. There is one! The date for the #bcbn18 is fixed and in our calendars though.