Key contributors from 15 countries attended the recent OpenStack Summit in Tokyo. The program for Austin is doubling – find out more about the Travel Support Program.

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The OpenStack Foundation funded the travel and hotel accommodations for 12 men and 18 women who are key contributors to attend the OpenStack Summit Tokyo.

The program will bring twice the number of people to the Summit Austin, here’s more on what Tokyo recipients got out of the experience and how you can can participate.

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Winners of the Tokyo Summit travel support program.

“The OpenStack community is spread all over the world. We work every day using mostly IRC and experiencing the difficulties to interact with people in different time zones,” says Rossella Sblendido, software engineer at SUSE and Neutron core reviewer, who traveled from her native Italy to Tokyo. “The design summit is the only time when we’re all there in person at the same time. It’s really crucial to exchange ideas, coordinate and get ready for the next release. Being there makes the difference. I’m very grateful to the travel support program for giving me the opportunity to be there.”

The Travel Support Program is based on the premise of Open Design, a commitment to an open design process that welcomes the public, including users, developers, and upstream projects.

The program helps cover costs for travel and accommodation for key contributors to the OpenStack project to join the community at the Summits.

Of 124 applicants, there were 30 people accepted in the program from 15 different countries, spanning four continents. Of the recipients, nine traveled from India, five from Brazil, two from Australia and the remaining were from Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and the US.

“As an individual director, I represent the interests of the individual members on the Board of Directors. I also work for a disruptive Asian start up, Aptira. I am from India, a developing economy, where the cost of international travel is very prohibitive to most community members,” says Kavit Munshi, who was able to attend the Board of Directors meeting and the Diversity working group meetings in Tokyo. “I believe that by empowering individual directors with the travel support program, the Foundation will increase the number of people from developing economies who come forward for leadership roles in the community.”

The cost for the Foundation totaled more than $40,000 USD.

Stay tuned to Superuser for details on Travel Support Applications for the April Summit in Austin. Interested? Read these tips on how to successfully apply for Travel Support.

Sblendido says one of those tips really made a difference in her application.

“Explain how you contributed to OpenStack, don’t be shy. Write about why it’s so important for you to take part in the Summit. Be very specific and don’t forget to mention what your presence would bring to the community.”

Cover Photo // CC BY NC

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