Before MozFest
Hana has already registered for MozFest - she registered for an early bird ticket in January - and joins the Slack a day before MozFest begins. She takes some time to create a comfortable space at home to participate in the festival. She double-checks the sessions she signed up for over the past few weeks and adds them to her calendar.
During MozFest
The next day Hana gets up early, grabs a cup of tea and a bite, and logs on to MozFest! She scans the program, gets set for her first live sessions on Zoom and Miro, and says hello on some of the Slack channels that interest her the most. She also catches the opening circle and first plenary, which are live-streamed.
The first session delivers a thoughtful, provocative discussion about what digital inclusion means for people around the world. Hana leaves energized and gets some lunch. She comes back well-ahead of the next session she wants to attend and chats with a few new friends on Slack and in the festival’s social spaces on the Spatial Chat platform. They talk about their first sessions, as well as what brought them to MozFest. Before they know it, the next session begins. They decide to keep talking and to look for a session they can go to together later during the festival.
Hana repeats that cycle of inquiry, attending sessions, making new connections, and forming new relationships and communities as the festival continues. Hana also explores a few of the self-paced art works and skill shares curated by the festival over the first festival weekend which is meant for reflection and rest between busier parts of MozFest.
By the end of MozFest, Hana has half a dozen communities, projects, and organizations she wants to stay connected to and contribute to year-round.
After MozFest
For Hana, MozFest has been an opportunity to join a caring, inclusive community of people from around the world dedicated to helping each other make the internet a healthier, more inclusive place where the kinds of decisions people make about data, privacy, security, and artificial intelligence serve other people and keep them from harm. She can’t wait to rejoin that community tomorrow and create connections that will last the whole year. She has a clear idea of the people and projects she wants to support throughout 2022 as a volunteer and she is already thinking of submitting a proposal for MozFest 2023 and returning as a Facilitator next year.