---
layout: post
title: 'Year of the High Five was Awesome'
status: publish
type: post
published: true
categories: news
tags: '2017'
---

Thanks to all of our [illustrious sponsors!](/sponsors/2017) We especially want to recognize Seattle Central College. They've been amazing each and every one of the five years that they've been our host. This year, though? They went above and beyond and managed to find us five new rooms for our sessions, just one week after a very, messy, no-good HVAC issue drowned out our original rooms.

We also want to thank all of our fine community sponsors for bringing their enthusiasm, their pals, their kids.. even their very adorable dogs. The expo floor was a thriving hub of friendly activity and excellent new connections this year. We especially want to thank the [Free Software Foundation](https://www.fsf.org/) for helping us with promotion and accounting work as our fiscal sponsor, as well as continuing to send some of their lovely employees to SeaGL each year.

We have so many high fives to give out to our behind the scenes volunteers! Core volunteers have been showing up for weekly meetings for months. (Seriously, months of Monday night meetings.) People have pitched in over the years with many, many things like getting our volunteer info organized, making sure our prospectus is professional, hosting our website, schlepping our stuff and putting us in touch with potential speakers, sponsors and volunteers.

Our onsite volunteers this year were amazing. They warmly welcomed our attendees, they made sure our speakers were taken care of and they disposed of many dirty coffee cups and pizza boxes. They hopped in and helped each other get up to speed and they continually asked "what else can I help with?" We are very lucky to have attracted such a stellar crew this year.

Also, our lineup of speakers was off the hook this year! Two great keynotes, fifty-five informative and thought-provoking sessions, eight speedy lightning talks, six brave slide karaoke participants and two lovely party emcees! Every single one of our speakers donated their time, their energy, and their enthusiasm to help us make this community a continually learning, growing and improving place. They took time away from their families, their other hobbies or their work to be with us. Whether they travelled from Peru, or Minnesota, or just strolled down Capitol Hill, we can't thank them enough.

Our Program Committee did a truly excellent job putting together a fantastic program this year. They deserve all the thanks for helping folks polish their talk ideas, reaching out to new speakers and for sorting though the many proposals we received. Their tremendous dedication and support of new speakers makes SeaGL a special event with fresh ideas and diverse voices.

Speaking of people who deserve all the thanks -- congratulations to Lance Albertson who [won this year's Cascadia Community Builder Award](https://opensource.com/article/17/10/cascadia-community-builder-award)! He's a tireless champion for open source who is busy mentoring the next generation of developers and advocates at the Open Source Lab. (The OSL is always accepting donations for their work, if [you are so moved](https://osuosl.org/donate/).) We'd also like to thank everyone who serves on our CCBA commitee and everyone who took the time to nominate someone.

Finally, thanks to all of our attendees! We really, really like you.
Did we forget anyone? Let us know @SeaGL and tag it #shoutouts
