Codegarden 2018 Newbie: Nicolai Birkmose Oksen

What convinced you to go to Codegarden 18?

Well, besides the obvious fact that I now work for Umbraco HQ, I had heard so much awesome stuff about Codegarden from co-workers at Oxygen (my previous employer). So when I joined the Umbraco D-Team in January this year, it was an easy choice that I, of course, should attend the biggest Umbraco conference in the world (pronounced with a Jeremy Clarkson voice).

The fact that I got to celebrate my 28th birthday together with a lot of cool people, did not deter my enthusiasm. The only downside was that I couldn’t spend time with my girlfriend on my birthday 🙂

Before arriving - what were you most looking forward to?

Since I really had no idea of what was gonna happen, I mostly looked forward to meeting the community of Umbraco. Codegarden is an awesome setting for a newbie like me to get to know some of the main driving forces behind the community that make Umbraco so great.

Besides that I was happy as a child when I found out the umbraCoffee would be streaming live from Codegarden. Marcin and Callum do a fantastic job at relaying news from the past week in the land of Umbraco.

Before arriving - what were your biggest concerns about you going to CG18?

I was dead scared of Bingo.

Everyone kept telling me that no matter how much you prepare for bingo, it will surprise you. Truth be told, my worries were rendered mute, when I attended. It was a fun experience and I got the chance to enjoy a fun night with a some of my old coworkers and my current colleagues. All in all, Bingo was awesome 😀

Besides Bingo (which probably is a given for newbie?), I found the aspect of meeting the community a bit scary. How would they respond to a dude like me, who never even touched Umbraco CMS before starting at Umbraco? But as mentioned before, meeting all the great people out there really made me feel that what I do everyday makes a difference for all the community people out there (for good and bad of course).

Did you gain something unexpected from participation in CG18?

I met a lot of random people where we just talked, nothing serious or anything. We just talked about how awesome Codegarden is, how much we liked different things and so forth.

What are your top 3 favourite take-aways from Codegarden 2018?

1. What we at HQ do everyday makes a difference for people, and we should be more aware of that.
   
   
2. The community is really friendly and we get a lot of value out of engaging with them.
   
   
3. Bingo is unexplainable…..😉

What are your top 3 recommendations for CG19 first timers?

1. Attend Bingo. No doubt.
   
   
2. Make sure to bring a talkative attitude, everyone wants to talk and you get a lot of value from it.
3. Bring an extra bag for all the awesome merchandise 😉

Will we see you for CG19?

Yes.. No doubt. Can't wait to see you there!