The summit is an annual one-day event hosted in Odense by Umbraco HQ right before Codegarden. It is exclusively for Umbraco Gold Partners from all over the world - they get a hands-on overview of Umbraco’s roadmap and an actual opportunity to influence the development and strategy of Umbraco.
We then decided to go a step further and initiate a regional Gold Partner Summit. More on why below.
It is simple, really. We wanted to be closer to our partners. Hosting regional events allows us to facilitate the collaboration better, be even more engaged in dialogue with our Gold Partners about the future of Umbraco.
We started with the UK as it constitutes the biggest part of the Umbraco Gold Partner family. And next year we’re planning even more regional networking events, so stay tuned.
We had a packed agenda and we started with presentations by Umbraco HQ members: yours truly - Partner Friend Maker Mike Pedersen, CEO Kim Sneum Madsen, CFO Poul A. L. Jensen, CTO Jacob Midtgaard-Olesen, Product Owner Rune Strand and Sales Director Anders Trans Sørensen. We covered insights to the commercial side of Umbraco, including Gold Partner benefits, marketing and lead generation, the UK market, financial transparency and product-related updates.
Then we moved on to two open discussion groups. One angled on technology (the CMS, deployment, workflows) and the other on commercial with the topic of “How to structure the perfect pitch”.
A very special thanks goes to our guest speakers. Dave Brislane from Sigma talked about “Choosing your battles and setting the right team to win”, Jamie Jefferson from Equator covered the topic of “Knowing your audience and the ethos of pitching”, while Darren Chapple from Method4 and Anthony Dang from Radley Yeldar shared their experience with deployment setups - which lead to many interesting discussions around deployment setups and strategies.
The first Umbraco UK Gold Partner Summit saw the discussions continue with an excellent dinner at London Steak House and then the Umbraco UK Festival pre-party. Lots of new connections were definitely made during the socialising part of the day/event.
Attending the summit Umbraco Gold Partners have an opportunity to share their experiences, get feedback and learn from others in the same industry. Perhaps another agency has faced the same problem as you and successfully solved it, or perhaps you’ll learn new angles, new ways to develop that next delightful Umbraco solution.
“It was a delight to have been invited along to speak at this event – Umbraco Gold partnership members include some of the UK’s leading digital businesses and it’s a rare privilege to get to have everyone together, let alone to share my experiences since founding Equator 20 years ago to such an engaged group. We had a really open and inspiring discussion about pitching and winning business and the opportunities that come with being part of the Umbraco community.”
- Jamie Jefferson, Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder, Equator
The summit is also a fantastic chance to expand your network, to establish new connections and exchange ideas. Future collaborations are formed, new partnerships and friendships are born.
“We see the summit as a great opportunity to discuss topics relevant to our business both with Umbraco HQ and other Gold Partners. It brings our agency a lot of value as we are able to exchange quality ideas, share experiences developing Umbraco solutions and increase our professional network.”
- Anders Holt, CCO, Novicell UK
You get a closer relationship to Umbraco HQ decision makers and have a chance to influence Umbraco’s roadmap. Because the summit enables a live dialogue with the Umbraco HQ management about the future of Umbraco as a project, service, community, and, of course, partner.
“I found the summit a rare and valuable opportunity for a group of senior executives in the digital consultancy space to discuss their common challenges, share best practices in Umbraco market positioning and business development, further reinforce our enthusiasm for the platform’s future, and even to take some group comfort in sharing war stories! I certainly left the summit a better digital agency CEO than when I arrived.”
- Lee Adams, CEO & Co-founder, Cantarus
If you are already an Umbraco Gold Partner, make sure to join the summit, be it international or local, next time and don’t miss out on what it has to offer your business. While networking is just a small part of the partnership, it is an important one in the gold partner family.
And if you’re not yet our Gold Partner, consider to become one. There is a long list of benefits to be our most valued partner, not least Umbraco Support and discounts on our products:
Today, we’re extremely happy and proud to announce the launch of our headless CMS offering - Umbraco Heartcore. This new Software As A Service product opens the door to a world of exciting and diverse digital projects - while providing a well-structured and user-friendly experience at its core. What’s Heartcore all about? How do you take it for a spin? Let’s dive in: