Three days of Umbraco love with 250 Umbricians in Copenhagen
came to a close late Friday afternoon on 25 June 2010. A
collective sigh of disappointment that Codegarden was over and a
gasp of excitement about the potential for using all that was
learned was felt by the crowd. While some walked away with
fabulous prizes (leather
biker vest!) all left with a deeper knowledge of the Umbraco
project and the technology underneath and around it. There
was no doubt the community is what makes Umbraco successful and all
who came to Codegarden participated in a meaningful way.
(all photos courtesy of Doug Robar - thanks Doug!)
Codegarden 2010 consisted of a one-day pre-conference focusing
on ASP.NET MVC followed by a day of keynotes and sessions and a
final day of open-space discussions.
ASP.NET MVC Bootcamp
We had the pleasure of hosting Simone Chiaretta, Jon Galloway and Steven Sanderson who
delivered a two-track ASP.NET MVC bootcamp. In preparation
for the upcoming Umbraco 5 release, which is based on ASP.NET MVC,
we offered this pre-conference day free for all attendees.
The response was very good with nearly 200 attendees present for
the day.
(all photos courtesy of Doug Robar - thanks Doug!)
This day corresponded with the Scandinavian Midsummer
celebration and, in true Umbraco community fashion, the entire
group of attendees, speakers, and various hangers-on boarded a pair
of canal tour boats for a turn around Copenhagen's canals to view
the festivities from the water. It was difficult to determine
if the real spectacle was the groups of Danes gathered around
bonfires burning witch effigies or the canal boats full of
Umbricians flying the Umbraco Pirate flag.
Keynote
Day one of Codegarden dawned bright (as expected) as the
official conference (er, festival) kicked off with Alexander Kjerulf (aka The
Chief Happiness Officer) talking about Happiness at Work. The
site and sound of over 250 attendees greeting each other with an
enthusiastic high-five and "You Rock!" was a fitting opening to the
enthusiasm of Codegarden.
Umbraco 4.5
As Niels Hartvig presented the Umbraco keynote we released Umbraco
4.5 - an amazing release that is more stable, much more
performant, and has more features than any release to date.
The response was, and is, overwhelming and something the entire
community can be proud of.
our.Umbraco.org
Not only did we release a new version of Umbraco but we also
released a new version of the Umbraco Community site, known as Our 2.0. Taking community
feedback from the past year, we gave the community site some
serious attention, and it shows. More proof that the
community is the most important part of Umbraco.
Core Team Developer of the Year
While every member of the Umbraco Core Team is an exceptional
developer who gives generously of his time, this year we decided to
award the most productive developer (as measured by source-code
commits) the title of 'Umbraco Core Team Developer of the
Year.' This year's award goes to Shannon Deminick and it is
well deserved.
Most Valuable People
By community vote we awarded five Umbricians the title of
MVP. This year's Umbraco MVPs are: Dirk De Grave, Lee Kelleher, Warren Buckley, Richard Soeteman and
Doug Robar.
Congratulations to these five amazing community members!
Karma Fund
We also announced the creation of the Karma Fund. In
short, this is a 10.000 EUR fund to be awarded to the top five
packages, as determined by community awarded Karma points, at next
year's Codegarden. If Umbraco Community recognition was not
enough, the 10.000 EUR Karma Fund is our way of giving back to the
best CMS community in the world!
Bingo
Codegarden is not complete without a few rounds of Umbraco
Bingo, and this year was no exception. The fabulous prizes
this year ranged from a USB vacuum signed by 'The Umbracos' to a
photo-realistic painting of the core team in repose.
(all photos courtesy of Doug Robar - thanks Doug!)
Demonstrating that we are never ones to take ourselves too
seriously the bingo round was briefly interrupted by Niels shouting
'bring in the horns' and the entrance of a brass band which
proceeded to march through the conference venue come bingo
hall.
(all photos courtesy of Doug Robar - thanks Doug!)
Open Space
This year the second conference day was again given over to the
community as the day's agenda was defined by the attendees.
Forming what may well have been one of the largest open-space
opening circles ever the agenda quickly filled up.
(all photos courtesy of Doug Robar - thanks Doug!)
There was some incredible output from the open-space day.
Some of our favorites are the Umbraco
Core Values and the
multi-node picker source.
Packages and Skins
The final (official) event of Codegarden is the package and
skins contest…always an entertaining exercise in how many things
can go wrong in a seven-minute demo. The package contest
winner was Shannon Deminick's
multi-node tree picker and the skin contest winner was Warren
Buckley's
retro theme.
The Best CMS Community in the World
Umbraco Codegarden is truly the community's event and the
Umbraco Community again demonstrated why this is the way it should
be. We at Umbraco HQ are honored that such a large, diverse,
and generous community has chosen Umbraco and supports the project
and the rest of the community with generous contributions of time,
effort, money, and humor.
Can't wait to see you at Umbraco Codegarden 2011 - 15-17
June 2011 in Copenhagen.
