Sometimes I wonder if I was German in a previous life. I certainly spend a lot of time there, and I always enjoy myself. Seriously, any country that firmly believes that beer and business mix is my kind of place.
Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to be in Germany for an Eclipse Stammtisch. Stammtisch is a great tradition in Germany where a group of people with a common interest regularly get together at a pub to chat over beers. (Of course, this happens in Canada as well, we’ve just never gone so far as to invent a word for it.) As I understand it, the tradition continues even today with local politics. The locals will get together with the town mayor and councillors to hash out the issues.
Ralph Mueller has been organizing a regular Stammtisch in and around Zwingenberg where he lives, and set one up for when I was there. It was a great opportunity to see some old acquaintances and make some new ones. There was also a very nice mix of committers, plug-in developers and supporters.
A lot of the conversation focused on the upcoming Eclipse Summit Europe, and how to best organize it. We had a lot of great ideas and even better, people volunteering to help. That’s probably my next trip to Germany, so I hope to see everyone there in October.
So to Sebastien, Alexander, Michael, Alexi, Hendrik and others: Prost!
