uProfile January 2026 - Adam Prendergast

From boom poles to browsers

Before tech, I worked in the TV industry as a sound engineer and boom operator on UK shows including Shameless, Ideal, Hollyoaks, and Emmerdale - I even have an IMDB page 🙌

It was a physically demanding job with long hours, cold night shoots, and very little room for error. Holding a boom mic above someone’s head for hours on end in January definitely builds character and achy muscles.

What the TV world taught me though, was invaluable: compromise, delegation, thinking on your feet, and understanding how different roles fit together to make something work. Film and TV crews are regimented, fast-moving environments, and that sense of collective responsibility has stuck with me throughout my career.

Between scenes, there’s often a surprising amount of waiting around. To keep myself occupied (and sane), I started reading coding books and tutorials on my phone. I’d had some exposure to code at university - particularly through game design and basic web work - so the foundations were there. At the time, it was mostly curiosity and a way to stay creatively engaged.

That said, standing on a freezing night shoot, holding an ice-cold boom pole, the idea of working in a warm office did start to feel… appealing. Only later did I realise that curiosity might actually offer a way out of the TV world altogether.

Finding my feet in digital

I studied Electronic Imaging and Media Communications at Bradford University (essentially a Creative Media course with a technical edge). I didn’t have a clear plan at the time, it was very much exploratory. I was interested in how film and music were made, and that curiosity naturally led me deeper into the technical side of things.

My first role in digital was as a junior developer at Code Computer Love. It was also my first experience of office life and working in a development team. Stand-ups, retrospectives, planning meetings - all completely alien concepts coming from the very top-down structure of film crews.

I soon embraced it though, and started to geek out on how projects are run. I developed a real appreciation for collaboration and the idea of becoming T-shaped - something Code Computer Love actively encouraged - where shared ownership and cross-discipline understanding are just as important as depth in your own craft.

It was also where I first worked with a CMS… Umbraco! My initial “aha” moment was fairly basic but memorable “Oh… so that’s how these sites manage hundreds of pages that are constantly changing.”

And Umbraco has been a constant presence in my life ever since.

Agencies, variety, and staying curious

From there, my career took me through a mix of agency and freelance work with standout teams like Etch, Equator, Neighbourhood, and Stickyeyes, as well as time at McCann where I made the leap into a Technical Director role and team management.

I’m currently a Technical Director at Absurd, and over the years I’ve worked on Umbraco projects of all shapes and sizes - from small focused builds to complex platforms. That variety has been a constant source of learning and has reinforced how adaptable Umbraco can be.

One of the more unusual projects I worked on involved using Umbraco to power a large-scale interactive museum installation - not a website, but a physical experience driven by content from Umbraco. I love seeing Umbraco used in unexpected ways.

As my roles became more senior, the biggest challenge was stepping away from day-to-day coding. Meetings, pitches, and people management can easily take over, and at one point I felt myself drifting too far from the technical side. Since then, I’ve made a conscious effort to stay hands-on where possible - even if that’s just enjoying a good maintenance ticket or bug hunt.

I’ve also been fortunate to receive training along the way, becoming Umbraco Master Certified and keeping that knowledge up to date as the platform evolves. The pace of change in the tech world can be challenging, but I enjoy that. Learning new ways of working, including how we embrace AI in our day-to-day keeps things interesting.

I’m excited by what AI enables, particularly in terms of democratising creativity and capability. At the same time, I’m cautious about assumptions that things are suddenly “faster” just because AI exists. Understanding people and requirements has always been the hard part - and that hasn’t changed.

Community, talks, and saying yes

Community has become a huge part of my journey. My first Codegarden as an attendee was a lot of fun - not least because I snuck off on the first evening to see the stoner metal band Sleep play at Den Grå Hal 🤘

Speaking, however, felt like a completely different challenge. Ever since seeing my first technical conference talk - by Dan Hett at Reasons to be Creative, many years ago - I’d quietly wanted to do it, while also being fairly convinced there was no chance I’d ever be confident enough.

I started small: internal agency talks, all-hands presentations, and gradually pushing myself further outside my comfort zone. I still get a kick of nerves before speaking, but I’ve learned to reframe that energy as excitement and use it to try and make talks engaging and enjoyable.

My first Codegarden talk came in 2019 with “Make Space for Innovation”, followed by “Just Say No to Rebuilds – The Strangler Fig Pattern” in 2023. In 2024, I gave my first solo talk, “Bake Don’t Fry – Astro & the Content Delivery API”, and in 2025 I co-ran my first Codegarden workshop with Richard Jackson on building a developer blog with Umbraco and Astro.

Another highlight came at Codegarden 2024, when my partner Becks gave a lightning talk on Radical Candor - complete with a cameo from me and an inflatable burger. Only at Codegarden.

It was brilliant to introduce her to the Umbraco community and see first-hand just how welcoming and supportive it can be.

Along the way, I’ve spoken at meetups across the UK and helped organise the Manchester Umbraco meetup alongside Jon, Phil, and Rachel, as well as supporting the recent Umbraco in the City Manchester event.

Off the back of the workshop, Richard and I also began co-running Umbloggers - a space for technical writers to share ideas, experiment, and find time and encouragement to write.

Community matters to me because it’s where learning really accelerates. It breaks down silos, creates space to experiment without the pressure of client work, and allows people to share what works, and what doesn’t - openly and honestly.