With employees distributed in over 20 countries globally and most are working remotely, Igalia holds summits every year to give the employees opportunities to meet up face-to-face. The summit normally runs in a period of a week with code camps, team building and recreational activities etc.. This year’s summer summit was held between the 15th-19th of June in A Coruña, Galicia.

I joined Igalia in the beginning of 2020. Because of COVID-19 pandemic, this was my first time attending an Igalia Summit. Due to personal time schedule I only managed to stay at A Coruña for three nights. The overall experience was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Getting to know A Coruña

Igalia’s HQ is based in A Coruña in Galicia, Spain. A beautiful white-sanded beach is just a few yards away from the hotel we stayed. I did a barefoot stroll along the beach in one morning. The beach itself was reasonably quiet. There were a few people swimming in the shallow part of the sea. Weather that morning was perfect with warm sunshine and occasional cool gentle breezes.

The smell of sea in the air and people wandering around relaxingly in the evenings, somehow brought a familiar feeling to me and reminded of my home town.

On Wednesday I joined guided visit to A Coruña set in 1906. It was a very interesting walk around the historic part of the city. The tour guide Suso Martín presented an amazing one man show by walking us through the A Coruña‘s history back to the 12th century, historic buildings, religion and romances associated with the city.

On Thursday evening we went for the guided tour of MEGA, Mundo Estrella Galicia. En route we passed the office that Igalia used to locate at in early days. According to some Igalians who worked there before, it was a small office and there were about just over 10 Igalians in those days. Today Igalia has over 100 employees and last year we celebrated our 20th year anniversary in Open Source.

The highlights of the MEGA tour for me were watching the product line working and tasting the beers. We were spoiled by beers and local cheeses.

Meeting other igalians

Since I joined Igalian, all the meetings happened online due to pandemic. I was glad that I could finally meet other Igalians “physically” . During the summit I had chances to chat other Igalians at code camp, during meals and guided tours. It was pleasant. Playing board games together after an evening meal (I’d call it “night meal”) was a great fun. Some Igalians can be very funny and witty. I had quite a few “tearful laughter” moments. It was very enjoyable.

During the team code camp, I had chances to spending more time with my teammates. The technical meetings in both days were very engaging and effective. I was very happy to see Javi Fernández in person. Last year I was involved in CSS grid compatibility work (one of the 5 key areas for the Compat2021 effort that Igalia was involved in). I personally had never touched CSS Grid layout at the beginning of the assignment. The web platform team in Igalia though has very good knowledge and working experiences in this area. My teammates Manuel Rego, Javi Fernández and Sergio Villar were among the pioneer developers in this field. To assure the success of the task, the team formed a safe environment by providing me constant guidance and supports. Specifically, I had Javi’s helps throughout the whole task. Javi has been an amazing technical mentor with great expertise and patience. We had numerous calls for technical discussions. The team also had a couple of debugging sessions with me for some very tricky bugs.

The team meal on Wednesday evening was very nice. Delicious food, great companions and nice fruity beers – what could go wrong? Well, we did walk back to the hotel in the rain…

Thanks

The event was very well organized and productive. I really appreciate the hard work and great effort those igalians put in to make it happen. Just want to say – a big THANK YOU! I’m glad that I managed the trip. Traveling from the UK is not straightforward but I’d say it’s well worthy it.