- Name: Nikhil Prajapati
- Pronouns: He/him
- Company name: GIRIRAJ DIGITAL
- Role: CTO
- Country/region: Gujarat, India
- Working with Umbraco for: 11+ years (from v4)
Discovering the Umbraco Community
I started my career with Microsoft .NET and over the years I have explored and experimented with many different CMS', but I stopped my search when I found Umbraco. Why? The community, of course, an answer that I know is most common! So, I was working on Umbraco and facing some blockers so decided to reach out to the community. I got the most wonderful, friendliest help and support, which attracted me to work and explore even more with Umbraco and join the friendliest tech community around.
I started working with Umbraco CMS since 2013 (version 4.0) and I got in touch with few awesome people like Shannon Deminick (Shazwazza) and Poornima Nayar. As such my journey in the Umbraco community as gone from strength to strength. As the years progress, I find I am getting more engaged in Umbraco in terms of projects and the community.
Once I found out about Codegarden, it was definitely somewhere I wanted to go, in-person. I managed to attend my first in-person Codegarden in 2022 (delayed due 2 years of Covid). I'm proud to say that I have now attended Codegarden in-person three times in a row, which is so great, especially travelling over from India, and I of course would love to join many more... The community creates such a vibrant space to learn, share and exchange ideas, information or knowledge. Indeed it’s like a second family.
Left, Nikhil and his Umbraco friends at Codegarden23, Right, Nikhil with his MVP award at Codegarden24
Getting involved with all things Community
There is a sentence in our local language which translates to “Knowledge is increased by sharing” so to keep that in my mind, I always love to share technical and motivational stuff with the community to grow together on a next stage. To do that I have to keep myself more active which gives me more energy to build good leaders for tomorrow. So I always like to dream-up something to learn, bringing new technical innovation to the team to help us grow, always keeping one question in mind – "What’s next?"
I have been active in the Umbraco Community. I wrote an article for Skrift on Integrating Algolia Global Search With Umbraco, I gave talks at both the 2023 and 2024 Umbraco Community Day events. And this year, 2024 – I have been presented my talk about Umbraco with AI on the Codegarden stage.
Last year we started our Meetup group called “Umbraco Users Group of India (UUGI)” and hosted meetups and sharing knowledge to communities. this is something I'm very passionate about.
And to top it all, at this year's Codegarden I was recognised as an Umbraco MVP, something I'm very proud of.
Nikhil presenting his talk at Codegarden24
Making great Umbraco Community memories
I have lots of great memories with the community, like Codegarden meeting people and taking selfies with them, photos etc... But 2 major experiences hold a special place in my heart.
- Umbraco Community Day: First time me & my colleague Asha presented to the community on Umbraco Community Day 2023 (live streaming). We presented Algolia search with Umbraco which was our first talk to the community and we felt glad to be a part of the Umbraco community day. It gave us the wings to grow and share more sessions across the world. It gave me the confidence to go on and present a second time at Umbraco Community Day and then at Codegarden, the biggest in-person/hybrid Umbraco Community event. So I'm thankful for that first chance to speak at UCD!
- Merry Codegarden Gift: At Codegarden 2023, I was talking with my friends and one lady came up to me and said “Nikhil, we have something for you, please come at reception.” When I reached reception there was a surprise gift of an Umbraco Heartcore widget with wi-fi connectivity (gift from my Umbraco secret Santa). I am still trying to find out who that friend is, who has spent time to build this lovely custom gift specially for me, I just wanted to meet them. If it was you, please let me know :D
So yeah, there are plenty of memories with our special Umbraco community!
What is it about the Umbraco Community that keeps me coming back for more?
“Together we create digital success” – I would say this would be the tagline for our Umbraco community. It helps me extend the horizon of my imagination and helps me satisfy my curiosity to learn something new and innovative.
The Current things I'm working on
Workwise, I am focusing on my To-do list which consists of building scalable technical architecture of any solution, Strategy for upgrading Umbraco versions, Building Umbraco packages, and help teammates to learn Umbraco and complete Umbraco certification.
For Community, I have made my timetable to spare sometime to increase Umbraco champions in India. We have started a meetup – Umbraco Users Group of India and it is growing very nicely. I am also providing training sessions to the team to grow and learn more about Umbraco and next gen technologies.
Nikhil sharing Umbraco knowledge with his colleagues
My tips for getting started with Umbraco and joining the Community
- Global Family: The power of our Umbraco community is our friendly nature & the support we offer. When you are working with Umbraco, don’t consider yourself to be alone. Join discord, ask questions on the forum and participate in Meetups, they're a great place to meet others interested in Umbraco. One community with multiple languages. Don’t be afraid to ask even 'silly' questions, all members are exceptionally friendly.
- Great foundation for Projects: As Umbraco is world’s best .NET based Open source CMS, You can build your project the way you want to build. The friendliest back office and flexible platform of Umbraco gives an extra ordinary edge to the creative ideas/products.
- Resource Library: Umbraco's official documentation is comprehensive and well-maintained. It's a great starting point for learning about various features and how to implement them. For video tutorials – we have Umbraco Learning base YouTube channel that showcase the practical implementation of amongst features.
Nikhil meeting Umbraco friends
My Aspirations for the future
I would always keep updating myself and my team – technically and spiritually. I always believe to contribute back to society, so we have made few milestones to celebrate.
- Building strong team in Umbraco.
- As a part of sustainability – planting more trees (Planted 300 trees after completing 300 projects).
- Need to adopt AI with Umbraco.
- Contribute more PRs in Umbraco.
- Accelerating the Meetup – Umbraco Users Group of India.
Nikhil planting one of 300 trees in celebration of completing 300 projects
A few fun facts about me...
- Something unexpected - It’s a trait about me, one can never expect this by looking at me but I like playing pranks with my co-workers and friends.
- What's on my desk - My To-Do list (which of of course my top priority😉), the Indian flag with Umbraco blocks, and an idol of Lord Krishna with Shreemad Bhagawad Geeta.
- My latest read - Currently reading the book Krishna Charitrya (Life of Lord Krishna).
- What would be my Superpower? - If possible, I would want be able to complete 5 times more of my work within the time period that I have! 😁
- Top of my bucket list would be - Expansion of my company along with giving back to the society and nature as much as possible.
- My most memorable meal is - We have arranged a meal at Shree Bhagwat Vidhyapith in Ahmedabad where we have done lunch together with all the students there who study Indian scriptures. It’s a custom to have meal in traditional way. I had a unique experience there along with all the members of Giriraj Digital.
- My current listen is - I usually don’t listen much on my headset but whenever I do, I prefer to listen to Katha (Spiritual story telling as per Indian traditions) and devotional songs.
- If I could be an animal I would be a - Horse. Horses embody a perfect blend of strength, grace, and freedom. Being a horse would allow me to experience the joy of running through open fields and the serenity of peaceful pastures, all while maintaining a majestic and powerful presence.
Nikhil's desk
Stay in touch!
I mainly use
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhil-prajapati-umbracoexpert
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilprajapati22
X (Twitter): https://x.com/nikhilprajapati
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