Umbraco UK Conference: A Few Days in London
Coffee. Code. Repeat. And this week, a fair bit of whisky and doughnuts too.
I've just got back from London after the Umbraco UK Partner Summit and the Umbraco UK Conference. It was a packed few days, and I learnt a lot, so let's get into it. Fair warning, the journey home was a bit of an adventure.
Wednesday: Trains and Whisky
I jumped on the train from Edinburgh down to London on Wednesday. I arrived in time for lunch and then met up with a couple of friends, Matt Wise and Ollie Picton. We headed to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society on Greville Street in Hatton Garden.
Very enjoyable afternoon. Great company, a good catch up and a chance to try the latest offerings from the SMWS. Perfect.
Then an early night back at the hotel. I knew what was coming.
Thursday: Umbraco UK Partner Summit
Up early, breakfast, and off to the Partner Summit.
I'll be honest. I've been to Partner Summits before and they were always a bit, meh. Lots of promises, not much action. I'm very pleased to say this year was different. I went along as the Initials Labs rep and came away with pages and pages of notes. I'm really looking forward to working with the Umbraco partner team (Aaron, Jacob and Gemma) to see what's possible over the next year.
Some highlights:
- Jenny Bradshaw from Moriyama and Kirstie Buchanan from Cantarus gave really great talks about their own experiences with Umbraco and as partners.
- Aaron Green (Partner Manager, UK) and Jacob Howell (Regional Manager, UK) delivered great business talks. The passion these guys have for Umbraco is refreshing.
- Rune Stand (Product Manager, Cloud) talked about the future of Umbraco Cloud. It finally feels like a product you can use in the real world.
- Mats Persson (CEO) and Filip Bruun Bech-Larsen (Umbraco CTO) also gave great talks about Umbraco and its products, and brought all the partners up to date.
All in all, a brilliant day. Not something I thought I'd ever say about a business summit!
Thursday Evening: Flight Club
That evening was all about socialising at Flight Club. I got to make new friends within the community and chat with fellow Umbracians I hadn't seen since Codegarden.
It was great to see my old pals from Gibe too. Always a pleasure, especially when you end the night drinking whisky with Tristan. Hmm, there might be a theme here.
Friday: Umbraco UK Conference
Friday started with breakfast, then I met up with my colleague Jack and we walked over to CodeNode, where the conference was being hosted. We collected our swag, grabbed a coffee (the first of many) and the day kicked off.
The new Umbraco Conference brand was announced, and having the rebrand explained was really interesting. After that, Bolette Kern (Head of Products at Umbraco) gave the keynote and product update, and she did it on her birthday! Happy birthday Bolette!
Here are the talks I attended:
- Automate in Minutes, Not Sprints: Introducing Umbraco Automate, by Rick Butterfield
- Beyond the Happy Path: Non-Functional Requirements in the Age of AI-Assisted Engineering, by Carole Rennie Logan
- CSI: Umbraco, Forensic Tools for Catching Performance Killers, by Jason Elkin
- Ghosts of Umbraco Past: Coding Practices to Lay to Rest in 2027, by Joe Glombek
- The Great Umbraco Search Shake-Up: Examine, Algolia & Azure Compared, by Busra Sengul
They were all great talks and I don't want to pick a favourite. I got something from every one of them.
The time and effort that goes into preparing a talk is always appreciated, so #h5yr (that's high five, for the uninitiated. More details at H5YR.com) to everyone who spoke at the event.
The QR code on our badges was for a fun game of The Traitors. You had to scan other people's QR codes, and if you were a Traitor, you "killed" them and they were out of the game. If you were a Faithful, your aim was to stay alive and scan as many people as you could. The more scans you got, the better the prize. The first tier was a Lego minifigure, which, thankfully, I managed to get. The top prize was a ticket to Codegarden!
It was a lot of fun and a great way to get people talking to each other.
Now, the food. The food at the event was great and the snacks were immense. The doughnuts were so good I could have eaten the entire box. Biscoff doughnuts. Yum!
The closing keynote came from Lotte Pitcher and Sebastiaan Janssen, and it was really good. Funny but informative. Oh, and did you know that backoffice menu separators are back? Yes, really.
I spent the evening socialising with new and old friends and called it a night around 10pm. Back to the hotel to pack my bag.
Saturday: Board Games and a Very Long Way Home
On Saturday I met up with a few friends and headed to Arcanists Tavern, a table top game cafe. A great selection of games and a really nice way to spend a few hours before heading back to Edinburgh.
Then came the journey home, which was eventful. I got within 15 minutes of Edinburgh station and the train stopped. Then it started going in the opposite direction. We couldn't go any further because the signals on the track had gone out! I ended up having to ask my wife to come and pick me up, which was a 45 minute drive each way. Not great at 11pm!
Wrapping Up
A fantastic few days in London, signal failure aside. I learnt a lot, made some new connections and caught up with old friends.
Until next time!