Campus Party BR8
February 8, 2015
My first Campus Party finally wrapped up, and it was fantastic. Here’s a quick recap.
Before the event
Getting ready for Campus Party wasn’t easy at all — even though everything was already booked (flights, food, tickets), my grandmother had been in the ICU for a few weeks and passed away on a Sunday night. I was feeling pretty down about going, but we decided to go anyway.
Day one — 02/03/15
On Tuesday our journey to Campus Party really began — “our” because I had the best company I could ask for: my wife Jefa, also in computing, who was very interested in the event as a way to bring new ideas back to UNIT’s computing courses. It turned out to be very worthwhile, with big projects already in motion for 2015.
Day two — 02/04/15
This was the day of discovery, with every booth open: games, talks, and more. Hard to do it all in a single day — we decided to just catch some talks and get to bed early, since sharing a tent with a suitcase and five backpacks is a tight squeeze.
Day three — 02/05/15
By day three we were already dying to go home, we were so tired — but that feeling passed the moment I woke up and saw the arena packed with content. We spent the day catching talks and hunting for swag. We watched URC, the “robot UFC,” in the Submarino arena — quite a show.
Day four — 02/06/15
I finally got my 3D-printed Submarino miniature (still waiting for it to arrive, actually). We met Qwant, and I really liked their idea of rewarding people who found bugs. I think they still need to build out a bit more to stand out from competitors. The scariest moment was coming back to camp and finding a “bill” waiting — gave me a real scare, until I realized it was just a company flyer. Great marketing move.
Day five — 02/07/15
After four days packed with talks, we were nearly wiped out when we got invited to a paintball match — pretty intense, since our team had never played before, while the opposing team trained federal police officers. Even though they went easy on us, it was still nerve-wracking. Huge thanks to the Baidu crew for the invite — already looking forward to a paintball arena inside Campus Party next year.
Day six — 02/08/15
Pure rushing: a 10am flight, so we bolted out at 7am to skip the lines and still grab a coffee at the airport — where I nearly forgot my bag with all the event swag (lucky for me, it was still there five minutes later). We got home at 2pm, after a layover in Brasília, and one of the best feelings was stepping back into Aracaju’s heat and sunshine.
Campus Party ♡
I highly recommend the event for every corner of tech, from robotics to education — whether you just want to play, land a job, join projects, or find employees and friends. And for the efficiency-minded: Campus Party alone counts for over 600 hours of extracurricular credit toward a degree. I believe every computing student should go at least once — and they definitely won’t stop at just once.
