#horaextra Geeks on Beer + Geeks on a Plane

Last tuesday at 19h started the event that changed my life. I’m not saying this because we managed to get some guys from the Geeks on a Plane to our meetup with almost 100 carioca entrepreneurs. Quite an accomplishment!

I’m saying because this meetup proved to myself and other community fellows that we are in the right path to succeed.

I could tell you how a group of 8 local geeks managed to get almost 100 people, 6 geeks from Geeks on a Plane and a place in only 24h. That was a incredible history, I know. Instead, I prefer to share with you why we did it.

First of all, for does that don’t know much about Rio’s tech community, you must read the Small Acts Manifesto. Those are the principles that guides us through all our actions. We have a strong belief that small acts can make great revolutions, and we’ve been experiencing that.

Everybody knows that Rio de Janeiro is one of the best tech hubs in Brazil, right? WRONG. Apparently people outside Rio don’t know that we are changing the reality here. Apparently they don’t know that the #horaextra, dojorio, openspacerio and a lot of other initiatives have been changing the lives of hundreds of people, not only in Rio, but all over the country. Can you believe that? We couldn’t.

When we saw the Geeks on a Plane agenda in Rio we’ve got very disappointed. How could they come from that far to see what geeks are doing here and they don’t. How could they spend a whole day attending only political meetings and leave Rio without meeting actual geeks? If we had stay quiet they would go back thinking that Rio is only samba and carnival. And it isn’t!

So, as geeks… as hackers, when something is not right with a system, we must go hack it and fix it. And that’s exactly what we did:

That’s it my friends! We couldn’t get all the Geeks, but we did our job. Mission given, parceiro, is mission accomplished!

I want to thank the Geeks on a Plane and all our community fellows that were there. I had an incredible time with you all. We are working to make that meeting, a monthly event, and sooner than you think you will hear news from us.

If you’re reading this, but didn’t attend to our meetup, consider yourself invited to our weekly happy hour, every monday, at Lanchão & CIA, at Rua do Ouvidor n° 23 at 19h. Just show up and join us!