We’ve been to Codegarden in Odense!

On Tuesday, Leon and Joakim worked from the hotel with their regular tasks, as Jens and Linus attended the Gold Partner Summit. This summit is held every year, on the day before Codegarden, and Umbraco Gold Partners from all over the world are invited to discuss Umbraco’s future as a project, a service, a community and as a partner. It gives a valuable insight into Umbraco’s plans for the upcoming year and provides an opportunity to influence the future direction of development.

On Wednesday it was finally time for Codegarden 2019! It’s a three day conference with visitors from all over the world, and this year it was bigger than ever before, with about 750 visitors and over 40 speakers. News about the platform and community is of course the main attraction, but Codegarden also offers an opportunity for networking and meeting people from the HQ, as well as with colleagues from a lot of different countries.

When the Webmind crew arrived at DOK5000, the venue where Codegarden was held, they were met by representatives from the HQ who welcomed all visitors with a high five. Umbraco is the world’s friendliest CMS and even has it’s own hashtag, #H5YR, which stands for High five You Rock. So a high five was a perfect way to kick off this year's conference. The high fives were followed by an opening ceremony which included a keynote by Umbraco’s Chief Unicorn, Niels Hartvig.

Now that the conference was officially launched, the schedule was very full, and to make the most out of the time spent at Codegarden, the Webmind crew split up and listened to different speakers. Between presentations there was still time for some other activities, such as foosball tournaments or yoga in the mindfulness corner. Apart from presentations and social activities, there was also time for discussions on various Umbraco subjects, during the last day of the conference.  

During the evenings there were a lot of activities as well, for example dinners , the famous Umbraco Bingo, and live performances, all in a very friendly atmosphere.

If you haven't yet realised the enormous potential that this product and community has, then you should definitely visit Codegarden. And if you have realised the potential, then you already know exactly why you should attend. About 750 people from many different countries, all with a passion for Umbraco and simple solutions, meet during three days. Of course, there are loads of great presentations, which obviously are a big part of why you want to be there, but it’s also everything else, like socializing, inspiring discussions, yoga breaks and bingo. It has been a lot of fun and very rewarding to attend Codegarden! –Leon Lindeberg, Web Developer

Jens, Linus, Leon and Joakim all agree that they have learnt a lot during the week they spent in Denmark. They also agree on what a fantastic opportunity Codegarden offers for meeting other Umbracians IRL . To get to meet partners, friends, community members, representatives from HQ and the heroes from the Cloud Support to discuss Umbraco is not only fun but also incredibly rewarding.

It was really special to me, to get to go to Codegarden during my first week at work. I was supposed to work from the office, but that changed drastically in the last minute and I got to go to Denmark instead. And what a week it has been! I’ve learnt so much, met a lot of nice people from the Umbraco community and had a lot of fun. The presentations were really great and interesting and there was always something that suited you. I’m really looking forward to attend other Umbraco events! –Joakim Kullberg, Web Developer/Helpdesk Manager

Just like Joakim, the rest of the Webmind crew is looking forward to the next Codegarden, and every other Umbraco event in between. Thank you Umbraco HQ for Codegarden 2019, see you next year!

Zandra Sjöberg