## Gabriel Beims Bräscher ##

**What's your name?**

Gabriel Beims Bräscher


**What was the best bit about ApacheCon?**

It was one of the most intense weeks in my life, as I was constantly learning about new cultures, projects, people, places, technologies. To be honest, at first I was afraid (as a young guy, a mere master student); however, everyone treats you equally, it does not matter who you are and where are you from, because everyone knows that you are part of the ASF community. That feels great and made me confident to interact and learn even more.


**Who was the best person you met at ApacheCon, and why?**

It is hard to tell; lots of great persons!

TAC: For sure Melissa from the TAC program is one of them; she treats every "TACer" (people -- as lucky as I -- that was select by the TAC program) as a son; Sergio Fernández and Christofer Dutz that helped us all.

Speakers: Many of the Speakers that I helped were very charismatic and thankful, some of them: Luciano Resende (also Brazilian); Shane Curcuru; Daniel Izquierdo; Dzmitry Pletnikau; Giles Sirett; Will Stevens.

TACers: Andrea Patricelli (my roommate) a very friendly Italian; Svante Shubert, a guy that could make anyone laugh (note: he is german); Pedro Giffuni; Paul King; Darshan; and many others.


**What was your favourite non-talk part of ApacheCon?**

The interaction with people: the first night when the TAC gathered us to a bar; the last night of the Apache Big data, when we got another good time to known each other and enjoy a good beer/wine with Snacks; going out to explore Seville.


**How did the Travel Assistance program compare to your expectations?**
First of all: I had high expectations! However, I received more than expected. The travel was great, the process after selected was easy and each information clear.


**What would you say to someone thinking of applying to TAC for the first time?**

It is a great experience as a programmer, researcher, and human being. This opened my mind to new cultures, Apache projects, technologies and contacts from Apache and the project that I am involved (Apache CloudStack). As a Speaker and also invited by the TAC program, I gained confidence for presenting projects and interacting with people from different cultures.
 
In exchange we, as "TACers", have to help with the conference, mainly introducing Speakers. The TACer has to help the Speaker to set up, and make sure that he/she is ready and comfortable for the presentation. That also helps on learning how to interact with the audience.


**What did your project get from having you at ApacheCon?**

With the TAC project, I got the chance to travel and present as Speaker a bit more about the Apache CloudStack. My presentation (Why Apache CloudStack) provides a feedback of why people should consider CloudStack and a discussion of why it is not as popular as it should be (considering how great piece of software the ACS is). Additionally, I presented a bit of a project that I work, which is a plugin for the Apache CloudStack.