 Hi everyone and welcome to Moodle's YouTube channel. My name is Sonia Trivedi, communications manager here at Moodle and today we have a really special guest, Diego Fabra, founder of Fabra Davis, events and brand innovation consultancy for business growth. His agency has a network of creatives, consultants and strategists who work with the selected number of directors and entrepreneurs to grow and develop their brands. Hi Diego and welcome. Hi Sonia, thank you for having me. Great to have you with me today to discuss a very interesting topic, this year's Moodle Mood Global. But before we get there, can you please tell me a little bit more about your relationship with Moodle? I have heard it's quite long. Yes, actually I think it's been four or five years since I started collaborating with Moodle. We started doing, well I was in charge of doing all the moods around the world. So I've done one in Philadelphia, one in Cote d'Ivoire, I was preparing one in Barcelona, the first Moodle Mood Global. I was preparing to do the Australian one and the Indian one and of course the rest of the years. But then COVID happens and we were not allowed to do any meetings and we had to do something completely different. And I thought we did something really brave and really successful. Now everybody is doing this kind of meetings and it's normal, but at that time nobody was doing anything and nobody believed that it was possible to do a conference online and we did it. We did it. We had around 2000 people for five days. We had more than 250 speakers, so it was like fantastic. And then when Moodle, well when everything allowed us to start again and having meetings and conferences, well of course they asked me if I wanted to carry on doing the global moods. Yes, of course, because I really like working with Moodle. So I did last year and I'm preparing this year as well. I'm curious to hear that you have over 15 years of experience in organizing events. I'm curious to know a little bit more about your experience and how do you organize events that bring people together from all around the world. Last year we had about 850 people attending Moodle Mood Global, right? Yeah, it was like really incredible to have so many people from so many places together in Barcelona for four days. It was like fantastic and of course it was the first time that everybody was able to meet after two years of not having moods or not having conferences and then it was like the energy, it was like incredible, it was like, I don't know, I think sometimes I think that even if I don't have a really bad job, because the energy was so great everybody will have that same experience. But this is what I'm thinking. What they do, I try to welcome everybody into not a conference, into an experience. I'm looking for people to get the knowledge that the conference, the speakers gave you. Also I want to get the networking moment, so allow them to meet with other peers and have a fun time. It's really important to have a fantastic time and enjoy the conference. Because everybody goes to hundreds of conferences, I've been to Paris for 20 years, going to the same conference. I never had time to go to the Eiffel Tower or to the museum, to the Love Museum. So I like to integrate the city of where we're doing the conference into the conference, so at least people can get the chance to go out and enjoy and do something about it. So it's not only the content, it's all what is around the content that makes the conference great. Yes, that sounds awesome. Actually, I can really sense your passion for organizing the conference, which is great. And also notice something in your profile that you have art history major. Does it influence your creativity? Can you tell us more? Well, I did art history and I'm specialized in 9th to 12th century. So this is Romantic and Gothic. I don't know if this is something that you can integrate in these modern days. What I can say is that it did give me a sense of beauty and creativity. And I always want to transmit something that is wow. When you see a piece of art that is fantastic, you look at it and you have a shock. So I always want to bring something into the conference. The people are shocked about it and will remember. And maybe this is what I learned from my degree, babe. OK, great. And because you mentioned the history with Mudo, I wanted to ask you a little bit more. What inspires you to work with us? Well, let's say that when you start a business, you work with a lot of different people and then you realize that there are some customers that they match or they are more aligned with your values. And then you realize that this is what you really want to do. And Mudo is one of these companies that their values are aligned with what they think is companies that they give us something to society. It's not only about the breadth of a blue number at the end of the year. It's something that is community, is giving back to society, is making the world a little bit better. So that's why I really enjoy working with Mudo. Great, great. So let's talk about this year's Mudo Mout eventually when and where it's going to be. Tell us more. This year is going to be again in Barcelona. It's my hometown and I love Barcelona. I think that I've been there for a long time and every time I can discover new places and new things. So it's suddenly changing the world in the city. So I think it's a great place to have a Mudo Mout global. Also, we're doing it in September. This year is from the 18th of September to the 21st. The 18th is the pre-conference, so it's the jump. And the 19th, 20th, 21st is the actual conference. It's going to be a little bit early than last year, so it's a week earlier. So it would be sunny, hopefully. It'll be hot, so shorts and t-shirts. People who can go to the beach if they arrive a little bit earlier or a little bit later, enjoy the city, and still it's like a happy summer vibe. So we are hoping that this will be integrated into the conference. Yes, I really love Barcelona. I've been there a couple of times. So love to come again in September. But going back to our questions, why do you think Mudo Mout global is so popular? Obviously, you have organized a lot of the moves. I think... Okay, when I started working with Mudo, I thought that the moves were not arriving to their peak. And my intention is to grow them where they are the place that I think that they should be. And what I really love and I would try to do is that these moves become the voice of the community. It's a place where the community can come and show their work for the last year, the new ideas that they have. And it's a place where the community can meet together, learn about what the other people are doing, learn about what Mudo is doing. They can meet the people from the Mudo HQ, ask them questions directly, and this is something that doesn't happen in other conferences. Also, all of us, we go to all of the conferences from education, from technology, from different things. And maybe you can find that 10% of the people, the attendees and the speakers are talking about Mudo. Here is like 100% talking about Mudo. All of the attendees are the community. So anybody who you talk to is somebody that understands you and you can ask them questions. Well, I think this is why it's coming. Also, because they organized it and we have fun time. This is something I must say. But this is something, this is why I think that they are so popular because it's a place to meet and a place to express yourself. Yes, yes. And I imagine there will be streams and teams to suit a lot of audiences, right? Can you tell me more about that? Well, yes, I can, of course I can. One of the trickiest things that we've found is that we've got a wide audience. That we've got people who are from the educational world, say teachers and users, all these kind of things. We've got technical people, so developers that they are working. And we've got people that they are technical, but they are more in the hardware or cooking things. So we've got the business side of it. Companies that they are using are probably using Moodle for their business. So we've got a really strange variety of people. We've got also people that they are really into Moodle. We've got people that they are just so right to Moodle, so different levels. So this is really complicated. So that's why we try to divide it in three parts, in three streams. So you can have always a choice of three conferences, three speakers. So you can find something that is most suitable for you, for your background or for your knowledge of Moodle. We are trying as well. I really love when I go to a conference and I'm sort of hung on. So I try to do more and more workshops so people can actually bite and get their teeth into the actual protocol or solution and then get involved and go out with something that they learn that they can use afterwards in their life. So I'm hopeful that we will find really good speakers. Also, some of the comments sometimes that we got that people say that some of the sessions are not high quality. We are trying our best and because this is the community talking, we try to everybody to be able to speak. So we cannot control everybody. We can help them, we give them lessons, we give them a coach, we give them how to do things, we look at their stuff. And at the end of the day is that person talking. So if you are good talking, it's great. If you are not so good, well, it won't be so good. And we're trying our best with the whole team of the Moodle Academy is working on it. Last year, I think it was great and this year is going to be even better. So please come because you're going to enjoy it and learn a lot. I'm sure, I'm sure. And I have heard there will be also hackathons, right? Yeah. The price. Yes. The first day is more like the developers day is the pre-conference. So we'll have all day. I think we've got this year, we've got three different streams of different for different background people, different kind of people. And then we'll be all day doing what they like more, like coding and looking at numbers and things that I don't understand a single thing, but it will be enjoying it. And I will be giving them caffeine and beer at the end so they can be working hard and have a price at the end of the day. OK, OK. And finally, I know that you have a big part in planning Moodle Moodle Party. So, which I can imagine you're really good at. About this year, yeah. This year, OK, my last year, so three years ago, the first one that they organized for Moodle, it was really good. Last year, well, for me, it was awesome. If you were there, I don't have to tell you anything. If you were not there, I'm sorry, you miss one of these occasions that they are like incredible. Because we were in a theater from nine hundred and nineteen or three and it was kept originally. We've got a live music. It was like brilliant. So my situation is like I need every year to do something different and better. And this is really hard. So this year, we're going to go for more. Completely different from last year. We're going to a classic, one of the classicals discos in Barcelona, that is from the 80s. It's a place that is for storage for levels. So we have like four different parties going at the same time. Communicate this by stairs. You go up and down, you go, you meet people, you get different kind of music. You is, well, it's fantastic. I spend, I think, most of my jokes there and I have got memories that they are great. So it's going to be fantastic. I can, I can, it's going to be different from last year and it's going to be awesome as well. So please come and join. And it will be a fancy dress as well. This is something that I started doing like four years ago. And everybody's really like it. And I don't know yet what I'm going to do, but I cannot tell you it would be a sort of a surprise. Later on, you will you will learn about it. Leave it as a surprise, definitely. Thank you very much, Diego, for these interesting insights. I'm very much looking forward to the event. And if you are like me, now you can register your interest by visiting Moodle.com slash events slash Mood Global. And thank you very much for watching our YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you do that so you can stay up to date with our news and events. Looking forward to seeing you next time. Bye bye.