SparkFun's Going to Amsterdam!
A small contingent from SparkFun will be in Amsterdam in February for FITC 2014. If you're in that neck of the woods maybe we can drop in on your Hackerspace!
Conferences are a subculture unto themselves. Folks here at SparkFun have attended many conferences over the years in many capacities - as red-shirted guests, speakers, sponsors, all the way up to running huge soldering tents.
This year SparkFun is hitting the road to a few places that we've never visited before. One such example is the Future · Innovation · Technology · Creativity conference in Amsterdam, February 24th and 25th. FITC, as it is abbreviated, is an international conference that also pops up in other cool locales like Tokyo and Toronto.
SparkFun is helping to sponsor the conference and attending with a small group of three people. I'll be there to give a talk on The Business Case for Open Source Hardware (talk slides available here). SparkFun ÜberEngineer CTaylor is coming loaded with gadgets to showcase for our Dutch friends, and COO Trevor brings additional support having an authentic Dutch last name.
The conference is right in the heart of the city in between Centrum and the Jordaan - the latter being my favorite part of that lovely town. This is as good a time as any to mention how awesome it is to work for a company like SparkFun and go to such terrific places just to talk to cool people and see cool things!
Do you live in or near Amsterdam? Do you have a hackerspace or a cool company we should come visit? It's no everyday thing to cross the pond, and we've never had boots on the ground in that corner of Europe, so we're looking for friends in the SparkFun community that we should visit. Comment below if we should come see you!
Gauw tot ziens!
"Gauw tot ziens!" does mean "See you soon!" literally, but the commonly used term is "Tot snel!". This still means "See you soon!", however I would recommend going for "Tot dan!" meaning "Till then!". It is more commonly used than "Tot snel!" and feels less translated.
Bedankt! I've been to Amsterdam a couple times before and try to pick up useful bits of language wherever I go. This is a good phrase to know!
Amsterdam - cheeses, beautiful boats, Dutch hot chocolate, coffee shops and window shopping. If it wasn't the middle of Winter it'd be the perfect trip.
Though it'll be fun to see how a gang from the Rockies handles flat sea-level terrain. You'll probably all tilt toward your uphill legs and suffer from too much oxygen in the air :-)
Seriously, have fun!
Why didn't you take 4 people? Their website says 20% off a 4 pack of tickets.
As a sponsor we have two tickets in a package deal with our speaking spot and demo space, so additional tickets are on us. Also, a few hundred in savings in conference tickets can turn into a lot more overall for one more spot on a transatlantic flight.
I live in helsinki! I plan to show up in Amsterdam... will say hi!
So, guys, did you find some interesting places to visit while in the Netherlands? Or are you still open to suggestions?
Check out Technologia Incognita, http://techinc.nl/ that's the hackerspace in Amsterdam (the one and only).
You might want to visit the RapidPro event on Feb 26th and 27th. It is dedicated to rapid prototyping for industrial and home professional applications (http://rapidpro.nl/h/home-professional/). Extra bonus: this event takes place in the smartest region in the world!
Nice conference, Also here in the Netherlands, pretty close by. Too bad a ticket price ranges from €159 - €300 (student price). I can buy allot of electronics for that money... If i had it...
In the Netherlands is everything close together, its possible to cross the country in a few hours. Have fun!
who won the caption contest?
We'll announce it later this week! Lots of captions to sort through.
You can visit us in the middle of Germany.
Why you already live in Colorado?! kidding ofcource, have a nice trip its a BEAUTIFUL country! cant express that enough!
Spain is far away for you?? ;)
" as red-shirted...." Never admit to being in a red shirt. You know what happen to them on Star Trek... ;)
And congrats on the trip! SparkFun will wow them.