## Annual Report
The 2025 Annual Report is all-but-baked. Deepa and I would like to be completely confident in the final financial figures before publishing. The Board has seen these final numbers, during their all-day work day two days ago. I heard from multiple Board members that they’re ecstatic with how Deepa presented the financial report. This was a massive amount of work for Deepa to contribute in her first month volunteering as our new Treasurer and we all really appreciate the work that she’s put into this.
## GUADEC and Gratitude
I’ve organized large events before and I know in my bones how difficult and tiresome it can be. But I don’t think I quite understood the scale of GUADEC. I had heard many times in the past three months “you just have to experience GUADEC to understand it” but I was quite surprised to find the day before the conference so intense and overwhelming that I was sick in bed for the entire first day of the conference — and that’s as an attendee!
The conference takes the firehose of GNOME development and brings it all into one place. So many things happened here, I won’t attempt to enumerate them all. Instead, I’d like to talk about the energy.
I have been pretty disoriented since the moment I landed in Italy but, even in my stupor, I was carried along by the energy of the conference. I could see that I wasn’t an exception — everyone I talked to seemed to be sleeping four hours a night but still highly energized, thrilled to take part, to meet their old friends, and to build GNOME together. My experience of the conference was a constant stream of people coming up to me, introducing themselves, telling me their stories, and sharing their dreams for the project. There is a real warmth to everyone involved in GNOME and it radiates from people the moment you meet them. You all made this a very comfortable space, even for an introvert like me.
There is also incredible history here: folks who have been around for 5 years, 15 years, 25 years, 30 years. Lifelong friends like that are rare and it’s special to witness, as an outsider.
But more important than anything I have to say about my experience of the conference, I want to proxy the gratitude of everyone I met. Everyone I spoke to, carried through the unbroken days on the energy of the space, kept telling me what a wonderful GUADEC it was. “The best GUADEC I’ve ever been to.” / “It’s so wonderful to meet the local community.” / “Everything is so smooth and well organized.”
If you were not here and couldn’t experience it yourself, please know how grateful we all are for the hard work of the staff and volunteers. Kristi, for tirelessly managing the entire project and coordinating a thousand variables, from the day GUADEC 2024 ended until the moment she opened GUADEC 2025. Rosanna, for taking time away from all her regular work at the Foundation to give her full attention to the event. Pietro, for all the local coordination before the conference and his attention to detail throughout the conference. And the local/remote volunteer team — Maria, Deepesha, Ashmit, Aryan, Alessandro, and Syazwan — for openly and generously participating in every conceivable way.
Thank you everyone for making such an important event possible.
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