Penedesfera Day 1 / Primer dia de les jornades

Today was the first day of the Penedesfera meeting in Gelida and, initially, I must admit feeling a bit sceptical. But after a slow start and a quite unfortunate power blackout, things suddenly took off when Cristina Barbacil presented Fundació Mas Albornà. They have won prestigious prizes for groundbreaking work to use blogs and the Internet to support the integration of handicapped people into society.

After her, the initiative taker to Penedesfera, Daniel García Peris, summed up the history of with the project. He had all reason to be happy since more than 50 people (more than 85% were men) had turned up - that was more than enough to make small Gelida’s parking infrastructure collapse – and he had managed to arrange wi-fi access in the otherwise all but modern performance hall where the meeting took place.

After a short break, Catalonia’s most read blogger – Marc Vidal – entered the stage and encouraged all business people to start making use of Internet 2.0 in their marketing activities. 'Never before in history have small enterprises had the opportunity to reach so many potential customers', was his positive message.


Finally, to underline the social side of this face-to-face blogger meeting, wine blogger Pilar Vidal had organised a tasting of three caves and three white wines - all from Penedès, of course. We live in a great part of the world if, one day, I would want to learn more about wines. I mean, I cannot continue studying languages forever, can I?
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Avui hem tingut la primera de dues Jornades de la Penedesfera i l’impulsor Daniel García Peris te tota raó per somriure i ser content. Més de cincuante persones han vingut i això era suficient per que l’infraestructura d’aparcaments d’un poble com Gelida colapsés totalment. A veure com serà demà, i ara no penso a la meva pròpia participació (a les 10.00) sino als polítics blocaires que ens seguiran a les 11.30.

Que el Saló d’espectacles acollirà més persones demà que mai ha fet durant la seva llarga història? Probablement no, però sóc segur que mai abans hi ha hagut tants ordinadors com ara i que mai hi ha hagut una xarxa wifi en aquest local. El contraste entre l'interior del edifici i el tema que estem tractant és un valor afegit a l’esdeveniment.