Following the dharma in the 21st century

I first picked up Joomla! a few years ago, when I was poking about in CPanel and saw it under Fantastico. I had played about with various other CMS systems but not really been able to get my head around how they worked, or they just didn’t do what I needed!

Fast forward several years and who’d have thought I’d be designing professional sites for clients around the world, and starting to pass on my knowledge to others who are just taking babysteps into the world of Joomla!

It was a combination of the helpful people on the Joomla! forums and the uber-power of Google Search that helped me fumble my way through figuring out how Joomla! worked ….. read the manual?!?!?! You must be kidding! Nowadays I REALLY wish I had known the people I have come to meet through my work, it would have made the process so much easier!

JoomlaDay UK is the second of its kind to be held, and is a perfect opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals who use Joomla! for a wide range of tasks – you’ll meet some of the big-scary-core-team (they’re not really that scary honest!), some of the demi-god component developers will be there, but there will also be many people like you and I, who are using the system to create websites for people on an informal or formal basis.

This event is not about hardcore presentations and mind-numbing speeches, but revolves entirely around the community and what YOU want to get from the event. Got a question about JCE editor that you want answering? Ask the developers! Creating a new component and want everyone to know about it? Present it in the “famous for 5 minutes” sessions! Have an idea to improve some aspect of the Joomla! community and want to sound it off others? Raise it as a community break-out session and discuss with others!

There is going to be something for everyone at JoomlaDay, with various “streams” which have been tailored to specific groups, such as “newcomes”, “developers” and so forth, but you can choose which sessions to attend so it’s very flexible!

Of course, it’s not all work and no play! There will be socials on the Thursday evening before the event starts, and various other events during the course of the event.

So, here’s the information!

JoomlaDay UK 2009

Dates: Friday 13th – Saturday 14th March 2009
Location: Oakwood House, Oakwood Park, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 8AE
Price: £45 per day or £85 for both days (+£1.85/day booking fee or £3.20 for both)
Accommodation: Plenty available locally, please see the JoomlaDay UK Forums for information