We saved three XL-sized t-shirts from our recent all-company meeting in Istanbul. At first we thought it would be a good idea to give away the shirts through a random drawing. But after mulling it around in our minds for a day or two, we thought we should make it a bit more fun, so we decided to have a small quiz (don’t worry, it’s only one easy question).

Before we get to that, here’s a run-down of what we did in Istanbul. Our community and documentation guys (Daniel Bartholomew, Colin Charles, and Kurt von Finck) had the great idea to create an “Istanbul Haber” (aka Istanbul newspaper) for each day of the meeting. In each issue we shared what happened the previous day and the schedule for current day.

Day One: Friday, 8 Oct 2010

Istanbul Haber Day One PDF: MP Istanbul2010 Day One

Day Two: Saturday, 9 Oct 2010

On day two of our Monty Program Ab All Company Meeting Istanbul 2010 we joined together with SkySQL and enjoyed a talk by Mark C. and Domas M. from Facebook.

Istanbul Haber Day Two PDF: MP Istanbul2010 Day Two

Day Three: Sunday, 10 Oct 2010

Day three of our Monty Program Ab All Company Meeting Istanbul 2010 was on Sunday, 10 Oct 2010. Instead of taking Sunday off and seeing the sights, we decided to work and go on an excursion on Monday. Saturday and Sunday are the heaviest days for tourists in Istanbul so we figured it would be a good way for us to avoid the crowds.

Istanbul Haber Day Three PDF: MP Istanbul2o1o Day Three

Excursion day (aka our final day): Monday, 11 Oct 2010

The last day of our Monty Program Ab All Company Meeting Istanbul 2010 was on Monday, 11 Oct 2010. We spent our last day experiencing Istanbul. The theme of the excursion day was:

• Downtown and then really down, over the sea, up and a surprise, then crossing the gap, and a warm and relaxing final, …

The description of our excursion day was riddle like and many people asked me about the details. So, for the curious, here is a more in depth description:

• Downtown and then really down: downtown to the old city of Istanbul. Really down: Basilica Cistern

• Over the sea: a Bosporus tour on a private boat crossing the Bosporus from the European to the Asian side.
• Up and a surprise: up to the Çamlıca Hill, having a quiz about Istanbul and eating “raw meat patty” without knowing it.
• Crossing the gap: back to the European side of Istanbul by crossing one of the two suspension bridges.

• Warm and relaxing final: having a Turkish Bath

Here’s the final Istanbul Haber:

Istanbul Haber final PDF: 2010-10-12-newsletter

Thanks

We would like to thank

• The staff at Hotel Tilia.
• My Widenius for choosing the restaurants and helping to organize the conference.
• Our t-shirts and badges were handled by Hatice Gökçe, who organizes the Galata Fashion Festival in Istanbul twice a year in June and December.
• Nezih Karagöz and Sami Yürekli from the http://traways.com/ travel agency.

T-Shirt Giveaway

Now that you know what we did in Istanbul, it’s time to give away some t-shirts. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, we have three XL-sized MP Istanbul 2010 t-shirts to give away. The first three participants who answer the following question correctly, will win one of those t-shirts (only one t-shirt per person).

Question: What is Maria in MariaDB and how is it connected to My and Max?

Email your answers to “istanbul2010-contest [at] askmonty (dot) o r g” before 31 Oct 2010. Good luck!

By the way, the design on the t-shirts looks like this: