Umbraco Community Beyond Code: August 2019

The sunny month of August may have been a bit slow, but we are getting closer and closer to the kick-off of the Umbraco festivals’ season, and the activities surrounding the festivals are steadily picking up a higher pace.

So if you’re thinking about getting involved, the upcoming fall season might just be the perfect time for you! 

… But before we look at the festivals, let’s explore some of the updates related to the Umbraco meetups.  

A new meetup group in North Carolina, USA!

The Umbraco meetup network has currently reached a total of 34 meetup groups. And that is thanks to a recent addition made by Graham Davis who created the new Umbraco Raleigh-Durham, NC meetup group.

H5YR Graham 🙌

The group is open to everyone who would like to learn Umbraco, share their knowledge, and connect with the local community. If you happen to live in the area, Graham would love to see you get involved.

As a matter of fact, he might need your assistance in getting the group off the ground.  

If you would like to do the same and start a new Umbraco meetup group in your local area:  

• See what it takes to set up your own meetup group. Give the organizer’s guide a quick read.
• TL;DR? Get in touch and let’s have a chat.          

And if you’re wondering how active the community is when it comes to organizing and hosting meetups, here are some numbers: 

Please note that the numbers only reflect the progress of the groups that are part of the Umbraco Meetup Pro Network. 

Event leaders of the Umbraco community unite and take over! 

A title not as rhythmic as The Smiths’ writing, but hopefully it still got your attention 😉 

If you haven’t guessed it already, we are launching a new group called “Umbraco Organizers”. It is an exclusive group for all local organizers of the global Umbraco community. The purpose of the group is to create a space for the events’ leaders to connect and share best practices via quarterly webinars. 

If you organize Umbraco events, this group is for you!

Your ideas, experience and stories about getting involved are important and add a lot of value. They help demystify the process for newcomers and encourage the current ones to keep going and know that they are not alone. 

The group will not be limited to the meetup organizers.

If you are organizing festivals or any other format of Umbraco event, you can join. The group, however, uses the meetup.com platform and as a starting point, the invites will be sent to the meetup organizers, as it’s relatively easy to identify them on meetup.com.  

The first meetup will be scheduled for next month, and the members of the group will be notified through meetup.com.

The 2019 fall season of the Umbraco festivals

The fall season of the Umbraco festivals is starting very soon, and we couldn’t be more excited. 

In September, the local Umbraco communities in Sweden and Denmark will be able to attend a full-day of Umbraco sessions and workshops.  

Last year, the attendance at the Swedish and Danish festivals reached respectively 80 and 170 people.

Next month, we invite you to join and help the organizers reach new records!

Getting involved can also mean showing support to the event organizers by attending the festival, and sharing your experience with others who are new to Umbraco.

At all Umbraco festivals, the organizers work hard to get a relevant and interesting program for the day - have a look at the programs for the upcoming Swedish Umbraco Festival and Danish Umbraco Festival.  

The festivities do not end in September though!

More events are coming up in October and November... But you will hear more about the great work the organizers of the Polish, Dutch, and UK festivals are doing in the next issue of this blog post series. You might, however, want to grab your early bird tickets before it’s too late!

• The Polish Umbraco Festival - 4 October
• The Dutch Umbraco Festival - 11 October
• The UK Umbraco Festival - 7-8 November

… And you might also want to consider doing a bit more than “just” attending…

How? … What about getting on stage?

Your contribution is highly valuable when you do a talk and share your knowledge with the Umbraco community. If you have already submitted a proposal to an Umbraco festival, or you’re already scheduled as a speaker, H5YR!

It is the great and rich content that helps make an Umbraco event successful, and that cannot be possible without having more community members submit proposals and do talks at meetups, festivals, and Codegarden.

You often find the “call for speakers” on the festival's website and then it’s “just” about you picking up the courage and willingness to share your wisdom with other Umbraco users.  

And speaking of which, it’s never too early to start planning your talk for Codegarden. It might seem quite far in the future, but very soon you will be able to submit your proposal to Codegarden 2020 which will take place in Denmark on the 27th-29th of May 2020.

The Codegarden call for speakers opens on the 7th of November 2019. You can learn more about the process on Codegarden’s official website.  

Feeling inspired? Have a look at the Community section on Our to learn more about how to get involved and what the community is working on.

And please remember … All contributions matter! ❤️