When Hivers and Alicante met, Hive Open Days happened

Once upon a time, to be specific, a week ago, a very nice event took place in Alicante. Hivers came to a meetup and today, I am pleased to present an exclusive report about it... What? That you have already seen the summary of this event, HOD Alicante, from most of the attendees? 😱

Oh, I know, it seems like I am a little late hahaha, but those who have met me personally or those who already know me from before know the reason why I don't get to spend more time on our platform and post more often. When life brings you nice surprises, you must live them to the maximum, right? Once the things get a bit more normal pace at my side I would be glad to share some of them with you guys, as what would a real community be if we didn’t share with each other our... if we didn’t share time to organise real-life events, or split tasks and efforts between a team of people to make everything go smoothly... or ideas on how to spend days together, hours of free time to prepare speeches or to practice for a little concert?

Yeah, no community without sharing work and experiences; each of us can contribute something different to it, like a unique perspective, knowledge, wisdom, talent, ideas, kindness, value, service or else and still, the community can feel united. And that was something that all of the attendees of the HOD Alicante could also feel by themselves, I am sure. A community-driven platform, isn’t it how we can describe Hive? No doubts about it!!

Also, no doubt that energy is needed for spending a day together! That is why we had to start our day with breakfast in ULab, the venue where days 1 and 2 were held. Day 2 was my first "official" day as the day before I worked in the afternoon and couldn't come to Alicante. Still, it doesn't mean I didn't meet some Hivers already a few days earlier 😉.

After the first cups of coffee and a few croissants and biscuits, the speeches at the Hive Open Days Alicante started with @tibfox's welcoming words and introduction.

The first was @alessandrawhite to have her speech. At the very beginning of her talk, she drew our attention to the importance of being present in time and place, that being calm but having focused attention to how we feel is the first step. As I listened to her and took a deep breath, the exercise reminded me of the moment before a performance, how important it is to calm the mind and body, and to focus on what is ahead; in my case, music, playing the piano, but I know that opening up to active listening and participation is very important in any activity or profession.

During the English speeches, the people who understand only Spanish could read the direct translation on the big screen, but then it was the turn of @palomap3 to test whether the translation works in the other direction as well. She held her amazing talk in Spanish, and it was of great help to the newbies. Her presentation was so clear and straightforward, with specific examples and guidelines. After her suggestions, there were people in the audience who felt the urge to write a proper introduction post, even though they had been on Hive for a long time 😁.

In the next speech, we could learn about the communities on Hive from @livinguktaiwan. Hive can feel immense, a place where you can easily get lost. Of course, that is why it is important for the newbies to find the specific communities that they have an interest in and start engaging with others, contribute with their ideas and posts and also get suggestions or help from the like-minded people. That is a good start for a new user.

However, there were some things even the veterans didn't know... for example, the number of the created communities. Gosh, we struggled guessing the right number! 😂
I was also happy to learn about the Hive Collectors Community, you know, there are monthly themes and Livinguktaiwan even asked the admin of that community what the theme would be for May. Well, I am afraid the topic will have to wait until June, but then I promise it is coming. I do have an idea about the next subject. 😉

She finished her talk with a nice quote... that we all thought were her words... even the one who wrote them (@ph1102) got confused, as I think he didn't expect this would be highlighted. I was so chuffed in that moment. 😇

These were the speakers in the first part of the day, before lunch. But what about the audience, where they were sitting? I guess you spotted those wooden benches/stairs/seats... I don't know what the proper word in English is for them, but yeah, we were listening to the presentations from these seats.

Although later I went down, as I remembered we had our camera in my backpack. Then I continued listening to the speeches from a different place. Not so difficult to spot me, although I camouflaged into the colours with black, white and orange.

Lunch time was great and tasty! I forgot to take a photo of the paella, which was tasty btw, but I did take a few photos of the rest of the snacks and salads. Still, I didn't stay for a very long time around food as I had to prepare my piano for the performance we had with @alessandrawhite.

It was our turn to continue with the afternoon activities. Although Alessandra is a good speaker, I think that musicians are generally better at playing their musical instruments than at talking, so yeah, for me it is more comfortable to express the fun through music. I just hope the audience also had a good time and fun, as that was the goal of this concert.

The spot where I was sitting at the piano was too bright, i.e., the light was shining into my eyes and blinding me, plus I looked paler than I actually was. 😅

I was happy to play with this lady at our little Hive meetup! 😇

Once the concert finished, I packed the piano and climbed up the benches/stairs/seats to continue listening to the presentations. And then... then something happened, and I got caught at this crime!! 😱 😂

I guess too much adrenaline and excitement from the performance drained my energy... It was just a few minutes' nap, I promise.

So, I see that I am missing the photos of the last two presentations of that day, where we could hear about @threespeak and @mantequilla-soft presented by @tibfox and the updates about @worldmappin presented by @ninaeatshere. My phone was getting full, no space for more photos, so in the meantime I had to delete some of the old videos and photos to get more space as the day was still not finished. ;)

The girls (Nina 😁) decided we should have a cup of coffee/drink, allowed just for the female population of the HOD Alicante. That is how we ended up in Madness!!!

Yes, madness it was! So cool place, we even visited the toilet, a proper material for the Hive loo-loo community! The rest of the decoration was also peculiar, but the Hive girls had to add another detail to the whole experience. Under the glass cover of our table, we saw a bunch of business cards and advertising material. Well, the Worldmappin sticker had to be added there too!!

Selfie time, camera set with timer... 5 seconds of waiting for @ninaeatshere, @honeydue, @livinguktaiwan, @ratona and me for this photo. 😂

This was our order, clearly leaving space in the centre of the table for the new sticker.

I wanted a smoothie, so Beso de cereza was my choice. This tasty treat of cherry, mango, cranberry and strawberry came in a particular glass container... well, in a bottle.

Relax time in a huge comfy leather sofa before we left the madness and went back to reality.

We went to meet the rest of the people, so that is when I also met @enraizar, who arrived from Madrid that afternoon. We all had tables reserved in the restaurant MishMish. I didn't take a group photo, but here is the food I had: lentil soup and lamb shared with my husband.

The very next morning, there was an excursion to Tabarca island and the Cleanplanet activity... I couldn't go there as I had to play at a wedding ceremony so the plan was to join in the afternoon/evening when everyone comes back to Alicante. My husband started feeling unwell, he stayed at home to rest, but in the evening we went together to meet the Hivers. The first challenge was to find a spot to park our car as all the parking lots were full. After circling for 45 minutes, we parked close to a hospital and went to the meeting point that @godfish suggested - La mala buena.

I didn't want to be a party breaker and order some juice, but as I don't drink beer, this one without alcohol was what I ordered. Ok, the Hiver who comes from a city that doesn't exist (he will recognise himself 😂) said this in not beer. 🤷‍♀ What do I know haha, I am not a beer consumer. Although at least it resembles beer, so I fit into the place and ambience.

Several of these small tables were set together and even then, there was not enough space for all of us to fit into one photo. With high probabilities to miss someone out (I am sorry if it happens), I will do a mass tagging now 😂: @enraizar, @edje, @tibfox, @m31, @lemonycricket, @curangel, @haastrecht, @ratona, @palomap3, me, and on the other side that are not visible on the photo but shared beers and food @ph1102, @alessandrawhite, @bitterirony, @godfish, @honeydue, @ninaeatshere, @livinguktaiwan, @sinochip, @schmidi, @igormuba, and @nonsowrites.

Now I am felicísima (very happy) that I reached almost the end of this post, after 1800 words and four hours spent on writing them down. I sorted out the photos yesterday with the idea of starting the post, though the writing part happened just today as I cancelled some activities to get better (🤧) and have a bit of rest.

I am also hungry, especially seeing this photo of the empanadas I had in La mala buena.

Closing words...? I don't want to say things that sound like a cliché... but I do have to say that meeting Hivers in real life in such meetups gives joy, energy, it strengthens the friendships made years ago and also gives the opportunity to build new ones!