One year in Melbourne
Umbraco's first year in Asia Pacific
The year at a glance
16 → 26 partners in the region, up 63% in one year
24/5 support from Melbourne since February, covering APAC business hours
Umbraco 360° events in Melbourne and Auckland
The first Umbraco India Festival was a huge success
Numerous online workshops throughout the year, with our latest session having 95+ registrants
A new Umbraco meetup group in New Zealand
Why being here matters
For most of Umbraco's 20 years, working with us from Australia, New Zealand or Asia meant waiting for Europe to wake up. I remember that well from my agency days. That changed in February, when our Melbourne team started providing 24/5 support coverage that includes APAC business hours. If you've raised a ticket this year and had an answer the same day, that's why.
Being local is about more than time zones, though. It means we can sit down with partners face to face, turn up at the community events you already go to, and understand how projects are bought and built here. Joining our CEO, Mats, for partner roundtables in Melbourne and Auckland earlier this year was a highlight. It also gave me the chance to sit alongside partners in client boardrooms for joint demos and pitches. That was a new experience for me, but it clearly pays off when driving regional sales.
Our partners
When we opened the office, we had 16 partners in the region. Today we have 26, an increase of 63%, across Australia, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei.
This year we welcomed Studio Bravo, Sitback Solutions, Create Studios and Lemonade as Silver partners in Australia, and Terabyte Interactive and McCann NZ in New Zealand. DigitallyMedia has also just joined us as a Silver partner. Softdebut became our first Gold partner in Thailand, and Bump Digital Australia joined as a Gold partner in both the UK and Australia. Your Teams moved up to Platinum, and Giriraj Digital became our first Platinum partner in India.
To every partner, new and long-standing: thank you. Many of you I've known for years, and you were championing Umbraco here long before HQ had an office in the region. We've learned a lot from you.
Getting out into the community
Some of my favourite moments this year happened away from the office.
DDD Melbourne in February was our first big event as a local team. We talked with more than 400 developers and students at our booth, and over 100 of them played a game we built inside the Umbraco backoffice.
Umbraco 360° in Melbourne and Auckland in March gave us a boardroom session with agency leaders and a community evening in each city. The Melbourne community session drew around 50 people, and Auckland hosted New Zealand's first Umbraco meetup, with 20 people in the room and 25 online.
We've been regulars at the Umbraco meetups in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Having organised meetups myself for years, I know how much work goes into them, so a big thank you to the organisers who keep them running.
The first Umbraco India Festival brought together more than 100 people. Kudos to the community organisers for putting on an amazing show.
Learning together
We ran several workshops this year, virtual and in person, all in local time zones so nobody had to dial in at midnight. We covered upgrading to Umbraco 17 LTS, Umbraco AI, Automate, Compose and Umbraco Cloud. We also held dedicated AI and Automate sessions with six partners, which showed us how far agencies in the region have come with AI.
Most recently, more than 95 people registered for our online tech lab on using AI to migrate from Umbraco 13 to 17. That tells me there's a real appetite for practical, hands-on sessions, so expect more of them.
Closer to our customers
This year I've made a point of getting to know every one of our enterprise customers in the region personally. Those conversations have shaped how we work here, from what we put into workshops to the feedback we take back to our product teams in Denmark. We've also welcomed new direct enterprise customers, and we're working on registering as a supplier on the New Zealand Government Marketplace.
A Team Effort
I could not have done any of this alone. The entire HQ team has been wonderful to work with. Our Accounts team helped set up the Australian entity. Meanwhile, Marketing continuously builds our brand across APAC. Whenever we prepare for a demo or talk, colleagues wake up early in Denmark or stay late in the US to help out. I won’t list every HQ team here, or I’d run out of room.
On the ground, our local team is small and nimble. Joseph Kim is my right hand, driving sales and partnerships across the region. Dennis Aaen, an 11-year Umbraco veteran, heads our 24/5 Australian support alongside Yllza Papraniku, our seasoned support specialist. Based on the Sunshine Coast, Staff Engineer Nathan Woulfe steps in for technical deep dives. We also had Alexander Jacobson, our Technical Presales Lead, join us in Melbourne on a six-month secondment, adding huge value for our partners. It is never a solo effort. This combined team keeps us moving in Melbourne so we can best serve the entire APAC region.
What's next
Here's what's coming up:
DDD Brisbane on 5 December 2026. Come and say hello at our booth, which we're sharing with some of our partners.
Umbraco Down Under Festival 2027, which we're planning together with the Australian and New Zealand community. More details soon.
More local sessions for our partners, in person and online, and more meetups across the region.
If you're an agency thinking about partnering with Umbraco, or an organisation looking at a new CMS, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach our Melbourne team at umbraco.com/contact-us.
More than 20 years of Umbraco, more than 17 of them for me, and now one year of Umbraco having a home here in Melbourne. Thank you for a brilliant first year in APAC. Hope to see you at the next meetup.