Being beyond the tellerand the first time

Oh man, what a ride. This week I was attending the beyond tellerand conference taking place in Düsseldorf for the very first time. And despite the fact I was that shy guy walking around, watching all these nice people, I had so much fun. But let me go back to the start. The moment when it happened that I will be going to beyond tellerand.

Nightlybuild.io

I was attending the another conference in 2015. A small, intimate after work conference taking place in cologne. We had the possibility to send questions via twitter that were asked in a Q&A session after the speakers had finished their talks. So I took the chance to tweet a question for Bastian Allgeier creator of Kirby CMS. Now, what you may not know by now is, that there was a raffle for all questions send in.

So at the end of the conference host Christan Heilmann was anuncing the winners of the raffle. All winners from last to number two. There were some nice things to win, and was kind of disappointed not winning one of those prices. And was not even hoping for the first price which – you may have guessed it – was a ticket to beyond tellerand, sponsored by Marc Thiele.

Christian drew the last Name. I was not paying my full attention at the time, thou I was sitting in the front row, until the point my said my name. BOOM! I was full awake. Turning my head around, left and right, to see if anyone else is standing up. But no one did. I slowly lifted my hand, applause set in and I was told to get in touch with the guys from nightlybuild, to clarify how I will get the ticket.

Marc Thiele

Some days later, I wrote a mail to the guys to give them my details. The forwarded everything to Marc and got back to me, asking if I wanted to have one for Düsseldorf, or for the upcoming event in Berlin, where only 11 tickets were left. Berlin is nice but would take me too much time and I had to invest more money on travel and accommodation. So I decided to take the ticket for Düsseldorf. Marc told me I will get the ticket the time the sale starts and he will get back to me.

Sales started and I got a little nervous. I heard nothing form Marc since the last mail, so I mailed him, asking if he has forgotten about by ticket. The ones of you how know Marc may know his blog post about recent circumstances. He excused for forgetting me, explaining why and pointing me to this post. And I have to say, I felt a little uncomfortable, because he did not need to give account for why he had forgotten about me.

Well I got my ticket via the ticket system and all was good. Till the day I got mail again. Saying I needed to enter my details for the ticket. A little confused, I checked my order and there were two tickets. One with all my details filled in, and one that was obviously new. I must confess, I wasn't even tempted to ask a friend to use this ticket. Isn't there this german saying?

Einem geschenkten Gaul steckt man nicht noch einen Gaul in die Satteltasche.

Sorry, there's no translation into english. Maybe that's because this saying doesn't even exist in this way in german either. (laughing). I just thougt that could be a mistake, wich turns out it was, as I reported to Marc, telling him I want to give it back, as there probably are some people on the waiting list. And the answer from him didn't supprise me, as there indeed were 53 people waiting to get a ticket. So any of you,who got a ticket: You're welcome.

Speakers at btconf

Let's take short break, and take a look at the superb speakers that Marc was able to get speak at the conference (order of appearance).

Lucky me

There were sponsors with some raffles and I took part at some. Well, you remember I won the ticket right? Right. You remember I returned the second ticket right? Good. On day one said to myself: "oh how funny it would be, if I win this RC drone. That would be so freaking weird, as it's almost impossible". Oh, hell. Marc drew a sheet from the box and BÄM! My Name "Manuel..." hit my face. But wait a minute! There was a Manuel at the Burger Truck outside, taking my (ok, his) Burger. So he must have been the one. How much time can pass between the first and the last name? "...Schulz" went trough the room.

Holy moly. That is just not possible. I really won that drone. Being one of hundreds twice. Who is good at statistics? Legen-

wait for it

-dary! At this point I really thougt there could be something like karma. Maybe because I wasn't greedy, I won that drone. But who knows. That night, when I got home, tired and exhausted. But the inner child told me that I can't go to bed right now, without even testing if this drone is working properly. And yes, it did. In the end my goddiebag was added an additional awesome item.

Thanks

Finally, I want to thank every one how made this conference possible. Marc and his crew, and the attendees. Nice seeing you. Yeah, did not talke that much to others. I'm the shy guy, you know. But I'll do better next year in Düsseldorf I hope. See you there!