DEV Community: Lotte Pitcher

Open Sourcing an Umbraco Cloud Site

Lotte Pitcher — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:43:48 +0000

Over here at Umbraco DevRel Towers, we’re working away on a new Umbraco community website. You lot are up to so many great things and we are very aware that the current site just doesn’t do you, or your activities, justice!

A deal-breaker for the new site is that the community can contribute to the codebase and help us make it a site to be proud of. We also want to drink our own champagne (much more fun than eating dog food!) and host this site in Umbraco Cloud.

Cloud already has the Umbraco CI/CD Flow that enables you to develop using a separate repository - I call it the “working” repository - and to automate the updating of the Cloud repository using e.g. GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps. The benefit of this approach is that you can follow the same branching strategies and code review processes as your other projects and work on all your codebases in the one place, e.g. GitHub.

However, this working repository will contain some sensitive data that should not be visible to unauthenticated people: specifically the license key files, and the umbraco-cloud.json file. You can’t just make the repository public and open for contributions!

So we’ve come up with a good way of working that does not have any sensitive data in the working repository. Or at least we think we’ve come up with a good way. We’d really appreciate more folks casting their eyes over it and trying the contribution workflow for themselves.

We have built a simple Cloud site with an accompanying public GitHub repository so you can see what we’re proposing. When we push to the main branch, a GitHub action pushes to Umbraco Cloud to update the repository and deploy to the live site.

There are some limitations, but we think they are easy to live with if it means the community can contribute!

You will never sync from the Cloud repository back to the working one, so version upgrades will need to be done manually on the working repository. We are happy with this! Although perhaps it is possible - raise an issue and explain to us if you think so!
When working locally you won’t be able to restore content from, or indeed transfer content to, other environments as you usually do with Cloud. Ok, we can use Deploy’s Import/Export feature instead! See issue #4

Do you want to help test this or review the GitHub action?

Go to the repository and read the readme and / or watch the recent DevRel Deep Dive where Seb & I walk you through the contribution workflow.

If you’re wondering what was involved in setting this up - perhaps you have your own Cloud site that you’d like to make open source - then checkout the setup instructions in the GitHub repo. The Cloud site I started with had just a home page (document type, template and content node). But this approach should work for cloud sites with far more!

And of course please let me know if you have any improvements to suggest!

Codecabin and Codegarden: Both Peak Umbraco, Just Very Different Peaks!

Lotte Pitcher — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 19:47:27 +0000

A few weeks ago I found myself on stage at Codegarden with my fellow podcast host Emma Burstow, getting our words confused between “Codegarden” and “Codecabin”. Despite the name mixups, we think the Candid Contributions episode is worth a listen!

The verbal mistakes did inspire me to compare the two events. They are both highlights of my calendar every year, but so very different.

Codegarden is the three-day, multi-track Umbraco conference, drawing over 600 attendees to Odense in Denmark, and many more online. This year was its twentieth anniversary, and it has always been organised by Umbraco HQ, the commercial entity behind the open-source CMS.

Codecabin is a three-day Umbraco unconference in the Peak District (North of England), with only 20 or so participants. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, an unconference has a much looser structure, usually with the attendees deciding on the topics themselves to ensure maximum engagement. Codecabin has been running since 2016, and is organised by community members.

I first went to Codegarden in 2012, and have been lucky enough to attend every edition since. It's a tech conference that embodies our friendliest community. I had a look through the various posts that I’ve made about the conference over the years. “Inspiring” is by far the most common feeling I’ve left with every time.

And it appears to be exactly the same feeling I had after past Codecabins too!

One thought I've often had after a Codegarden is that there was never enough time: so many interesting-looking sessions, so many folks to meet. If you started a good conversation with someone, you’d be cutting it short to go to the next talk.

That’s where Codecabin shines. With only around twenty people for the three days, you have plenty of time to get to know the other attendees and make meaningful connections. You can sit in the sunshine geeking out on your different approaches to backoffice extensions, you can get your laptops out in the snug room and step through some code, you can even go on a hike across the beautiful hills of the Peak District and talk Umbraco upgrade approaches or even just life in general!

There are group sessions for discussing various topics throughout the event - but these are all suggested and voted on by the participants in the weeks building up to it. There’s also plenty of time for making real progress on that idea you’ve been percolating on, perhaps with another Codecabiner. I collaborated on my first ever Umbraco package at the 2019 Codecabin with some patient guidance from Lee Kelleher.

At Codegarden it’s possible to blend into the background, perhaps keeping to yourself between sessions or skipping the evening socials (although please know that you’re really missing out if you do). At Codecabin, however, shared meals and experiences means it’s a lot harder to hide. And while this might sound intimidating to some, I promise you that as organisers we put a lot of effort into making the experience as comfortable and inclusive as possible. You can skip a session and do some solo hacking, or take yourself off for a walk: just be back in time for Lucy’s famous Yorkshire puddings! If you do feel anxious about attending please read Andy Boot’s blog post from CC23. We’ve seen lots of folks like Andy, perhaps relatively unknown in the wider Umbraco community, quietly arriving on the first evening only for them to leave a few days later full of confidence having realised the value that they can bring to the community and the benefits to themselves and to their companies from being more involved.

For me personally, the two events have had a key thing in common: at both I started as a ‘mere’ attendee but now help to organise them. Having recently joined the Developer Relations team at Umbraco HQ, helping shape Codegardens is part of my job. And back in 2022, myself and Karl Tynan were invited to join the organising team of Codecabin. It’s one of the activities I’m still incredibly proud - and grateful - to put my “community hat” back on for!

If you would like to join this year’s Codecabin you’ve only got a couple of days left to apply - the deadline is this Thursday, July 10th. The following week we’ll let you know whether you’ve been successful and, if so, you’ll be invited to a Slack channel so you can start shaping the event with us. We aim to put a good mix of people together in terms of Umbraco experience, community involvement, new / veteran Codecabiners etc, so please don’t be disheartened if you’re not accepted, there’s always next year.

And if you need any help convincing your boss, please send them a link to this PDF!

What a Difference a Day (or Two) Makes!

Lotte Pitcher — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 08:01:12 +0000

The Umbraco Spark Hackathon and Package Jam

The word "hackathon" means different things to different people. For some there is an expectation of being given a shared task, a limited amount of time to complete it in, and even a cash prize for the winners at the end. But in the Umbraco world, a hackathon means an event where anyone with an interest in Umbraco can work on whatever they choose: be that fixing issues on the open-source CMS codebase, contributing to a package (think ‘plugin’) to extend the core CMS functionality, or reviewing others’ pull requests as they come in. But definitely no money at the end: after all, Umbraco is a free open-source project!

Several times a year Umbraco HQ looks to the community to help organise in-person hackathons - usually the day before another event such as the UK and US festivals. These are always free for anyone in the community to attend. The hope is that people will collaborate with and learn from others, thus taking advantage of being in the same physical space. In the past, there have been varying amounts of achievements at these events. Folks have had a good time, made new connections and progressed their chosen tasks, but often have found that a single day is just not enough time to work on something significant. Even with the help of the Umbraco HQ developers or other incredibly experienced community members in the room.

Last week was the hackathon before Umbraco Spark. Although this time, it was a hackathon with a twist…

Steve Temple, Technical Director of Gibe Digital (the organisers of the Umbraco Spark event), had an idea for this hackathon. He envisaged a "Package Jam" - think Game Jam, but with Umbraco Packages - where people had a shared focus to see how far they could get building a new package during the hackathon, and at Spark itself, with the final session of the day for people to demo and announce a winner.

I confess I was a bit sceptical when Steve first shared the idea with me. Would people be able to get far enough along to make an interesting demo? Would people be up for demoing in front of everyone? Would people want to spend any time at Spark itself in a side room coding away instead of listening to talks on the main stage?

Well the Umbraco community never fails to disappoint - not only did they take to the idea, but they exceeded our hopes for how much would get done and how much learning and knowledge sharing would happen as a result!

I knew people needed to be able to get started (and collaborating) as quickly as possible, so the Spark Package Jam was the deadline I needed to get my “opinionated” package starter template updated for both Umbraco 13 and 15. I am relieved to report that I hit that deadline!

And so yes last Thursday about 35 of us were welcomed into the offices of Umbraco Platinum Partner true digital in Bristol. At the start of the day I demoed my (now updated) template, and then everyone got cracking!

I've written this post because I want to celebrate how much people managed to achieve. I also hope it might serve as inspiration for other such events to take place.

What did people get up to?

The following people appeared on the Spark stage at the end of the day to demonstrate their achievements. Links to the released packages, or public repositories, will be added here when they’re available.

Kevin Jump - "Back Chat" (working title)
A real-time chat function built into the backoffice using a header app and SignalR. Kevin showed a work in progress; an 'early days' repository is linked to below. Could be a useful example for other people wanting to use SignalR to add other real-time functionality in the backoffice.
https://github.com/KevinJump/BackChat

Mike Masey - Preview mode rollbacks
Mike wants to improve the UX of the rollback feature in the backoffice with side by side ‘live’ comparisons. He talked us through how it could work, and then after the event it looks like Richard Ockerby has been making progress. Check out the GitHub repo, and perhaps contribute yourself!
https://github.com/Rockerby/Umbraco.Community.RollbackPreviewer

Zade & Tristan - Models Builder Improvements
They wanted to add back the ImplementPropertyType attribute that was lost in models builder since version 9. This allows you to override auto-generated properties by adding an attribute to your own definition (in your partial extensions). They started and released the v15 package on the hackathon day itself!
https://marketplace.umbraco.com/package/umbraco.community.modelsbuilder.propertyoverride

Jonathon Cove - Dad jokes
As his first adventure into package development, Jonathan created a header app which generates dad jokes. The first, but not the last, of the fun demos!
https://github.com/jonathoncove1/umbraco-dadjokes

Busra Sengul - Encryption Property Editor
Busra had previously released this for Umbraco 8, and started a Umbraco 13 version at the hackathon, with the aim of also releasing for Umbraco 15. The package adds a text box property editor with a built-in encryption function: the stored data is encrypted but displays in the backoffice decrypted.
https://github.com/busrasengul/Umbraco.Community.EncryptionPropertyEditor

Andy Felton - Application Insights Log Viewer
Andy’s demo showed him overriding the default log viewer in the backoffice with a version that shows all your logs from Application Insights (thus supporting coming from multiple servers).
https://github.com/stevetemple/Umbraco.Community.ApplicationInsightsLogging

Richard Ockerby - Email logger
Richard showed a new dashboard that gives visibility over emails that have been sent by the core mail provider. The package will log the send status, with the aim to allow resending after failure.
https://github.com/Rockerby/Umbraco.Community.EmailLogger

Steve Temple - Custom login page pictures
Sophie Neale, who works at Gibe, is the person we see on the login screen of Umbraco 15. As our second fun demo, Steve built a ‘custom login screen’ package that will change the login screen image when you get your password wrong, or you keep failing, with Sophie’s face getting more and more angry!
https://github.com/stevetemple/Umbraco.Community.CustomLoginScreen

Matt Begent - CLS Police
Matt’s CLS Police package adds a dashboard that compares your website core vital statistics against your competitors. If you’re significantly underperforming you get sent to jail. A useful dashboard, with a fun twist!
https://github.com/mattbegent/CLSPolice

Nikolaj Geisle - Enhanced media
Nikolaj’s day job is working on the CMS Team at Umbraco HQ, but at the hackathon he got to hack on his own package: adding functionality to the Media Library. He demoed a new dashboard for the media section that lists any unused media items, and allows you to quickly delete them. He also added some functionality to improve the experience of restoring from the recycle bin too.
https://github.com/Zeegaan/UnusedMedia

Georgina Bidder - Lorem Ipsum Generator
Having implemented this for several clients, Georgina built a package that adds a Tiny MCE addon so that editors can quickly insert Lorem Ipsum content into rich text editors. Georgina managed to release this, her first ever package, on the day of hackathon for Umbraco 13, and will look to implement the same function in Tiptap for Umbraco 15.
https://marketplace.umbraco.com/package/umbraco.community.loremipsumgenerator

Paul Seal - Dynamic Images
Paul showed progress with a package he had started on that would dynamically add text specified by the editor in the CMS to an image. Nothing publicly visible yet but I’ll post when there is!

Lee Kelleher - Clippy
The final demo of the day fell to Lee, one of the most experienced Umbraco package authors. When not helping others make progress with their ideas, Lee flexed his package building skills and finally implemented what we’d all been waiting for: Microsoft’s office assistant, aka Clippy, in the backoffice!
https://github.com/leekelleher/umbraco-clippy

In the last week, I also learned that other hackathon attendees had been making progress:

Jacob Overgaard - Server Variables
Jacob, frontend team lead for the CMS at Umbraco HQ, was a tad busy assisting others at the hackathon, but on his journey back to Denmark after he worked on his own package: a low/no-code solution to access server variables with JavaScript in Umbraco. Check out the package on the Umbraco Marketplace to learn more
https://marketplace.umbraco.com/package/umbraco.community.servervariables

Owain Williams
Owain has been working on a package to add some mental health related tools to the backoffice, more on that coming soon I’m sure!

How did the Package Jam work?

If you’re considering running a similar event, here’s how we (mainly Steve Temple!) managed it:

When people bought their ticket to Spark they were asked to tick a box if interested to hear about the hackathon / Package Jam
A couple of weeks before the event, Steve shared a google sheet with the interested people to log their ideas for what packages to build
Umbraco HQ created a Discord channel specifically for the #spark-packagejam to encourage collaboration and aid communication
People were asked to put their names against packages they were keen to work on
At the hackathon a lot of people used my Opinionated Packages Starter Template so that within a few minutes they had a complete working solution ready to push to GitHub and collaborate with others
There was a side room at Spark for people to continue hacking on their packages during the main day
The final session of Spark was the “Package Awards”:
- I’d asked people in advance if they were willing to demo: 13 brave folks agreed!
- Myself and Sophie Neale from Gibe hosted the session, and explained to the attendees how the event had worked
- Each person had a couple of minutes to plug in their laptop and talk us through what they did and who they worked with
- After all the demos were finished Sophie and I read out each person and their package name and asked the crowd to cheer for who they thought deserved to win
- The Spark attendees chose Georgina Bidder and her Lorem Ipsum Generator package as the winner! Congratulations George: we hope to see more packages from you in the future!

And Finally…

A very big thank you to Steve Temple for having the idea and making it a reality, to true digital for being such wonderful hackathon hosts, to everyone who came along to the hackathon, but most especially to those 13 people who demoed their achievements in front of everyone at the Spark event. No-one had technical fails or looked nervous, and considering for quite a few it was their first time on an Umbraco stage, that was no mean feat. High Five You Rock to each and every one of you!

Check out this video that true posted on LinkedIn of the hackathon (slide right to see the after-video).

The Extreme Sport of Solo-Conferencing

Lotte Pitcher — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:23:10 +0000

I've been to a fair few conferences in the last two months. Different countries, different audiences and wildly different ticket prices. But without doubt, what made the most difference to the experience was whether I was "flying solo" at the event.

If we haven't met, you should know that I am a “card-carrying extrovert” (phrase credit to my fellow card-carrier and frequent conference buddy Emma Burstow). I know that introversion is not the same as shyness, so I should acknowledge that I'm no wallflower either. Conversation is my happy place and, yes, even in the much-dreaded situation of talking to new people.

The other thing you should know about me is that I don’t only attend events, as nice as that jobs sounds, but I also organise them. So for me, every trip to an event is an experience for learning and reflecting. It’s with that in mind that I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

So (and please read this in the style of Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex in the City if you’re old enough to remember that TV show)

If I find solo-conferencing challenging, how do less socially confident people manage...?

Before we dive into the details, let me take you through my recent 'world tour'.

My first solo flight this year was at NDC London at the end of January. To me this was the classic developer conference: a lot of attendees, several tracks of talks to choose from, sponsor booths, folks in branded t-shirts, and never a queue for the women's bathroom...

The second conference was FOSDEM in Brussels. FOSDEM - the Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting - proudly advertises itself as a place for 8000+ hackers. Not only is it free to attend, but you don't even have to register or wear a lanyard. It's held at a university, and anyone is welcome to enter any of the 35 different rooms (unless the laminated 'room full' sign is stuck on the door). It felt like the anarchic home of open source, tempting even the most reclusive bedroom coders out into the light to geek out and add to their sticker collection. This time I conferenced with a friend, thank goodness, as at times it took both of us to successfully navigate the campus and its plethora of food trucks.

Then it was back to London, and back to solo-conferencing at SOOCON24 (the State of Open Con). This is one of the 'fringe' events to FOSDEM, and lots of people who work in and around open source had gone from one to the other, often swapping t-shirts and jeans for a suit in the process. SOOCON is where open source maintainers get to meet and lobby UK policy makers and regulators. If FOSDEM was the playground of open source, this was the boardroom.

After that it was Umbraco Spark in Bristol, arguably a home fixture for me as I’ve been in the Umbraco community since 2012. I must have known at least half of the folks there. But I know there were some for whom it was their first Umbraco community event, and their first experience of our friendly community.

The final stop on this tour was last week, where Emma and I were fortunate enough to attend the Microsoft MVP Summit at the Microsoft campus in Redmond near Seattle. I can’t say much about what happened at the event as a lot of it is under NDA, but if you read any of the LinkedIn articles tagged with #MVPSummit you’ll find one common theme - the people made the conference the special event that it was.

Upon returning home, I had an opportunity for reflection. These events have given rise to thoughts about how we can make solo-conferencing easier for those brave enough to do it. Attending in-person conferences and meetups can be so rewarding and inspiring because of the people you meet. And if this post makes just one person feel more prepared to attend, or one conference organiser try something new to make it easier for solo-flyers, then all these keystrokes will have been worth it!

When you solo-conference (if I use this phrase enough, it will become 'a thing', right?) you have two options:

Keep to yourself and "hide" behind a laptop and/or phone
Put yourself out there and see what happens

If you take the first option then sure, you'll be on top of your emails and slack messages by the time you leave. But really was it even worth attending? Especially if the talks end up online for you to watch later.

If you're brave enough and try the second option, then I truly believe that you will get so much more out of the event. But it can be quite the challenge, even for me.

So let's say we've agreed upon option 2: then how can we make things less daunting? I have suggestions for conference organisers, my fellow solo-navigators and those attending with friends or colleagues.

Let's start with the organisers...

Organiser Suggestion 1: Green Lights

How you're met on arrival sets the tone for the day. A volunteer greeter at SOOCON described his role as a "welcome bot", but what a great bot he was! A positive, friendly smile on arrival already starts the barriers falling.

Then comes the registration process (FOSDEM excepting). I love the initiative of having traffic light stickers that you can add to your lanyard to indicate your willingness for conversation:

GREEN: happy to talk to anyone including new people
AMBER: happy to talk to people they know
RED: not willing to engage in conversation

I first encountered this approach at a conference called “Beyond Tech” in London in 2019 and it made all the difference. If I saw someone on their own with a green sticker, it was a literal green light for me to go over and say hello, introduce myself and see where the conversation flowed. As I’ve said already, I don't mind starting a conversation but I do appreciate that not everyone does. I remember being at a conference where I spotted the keynote speaker back at his laptop a few minutes after he'd come off stage. I tentatively approached and asked if he had a minute to talk. He said he was grateful for the interruption as he was just pretending to be busy as he felt uncomfortable doing nothing and he just can't initiate conversations. And yet he's confident on stage speaking to hundreds!

At NDC London one of the speakers told me he hoped people would come up and talk to him afterwards, as a major part of why he gives talks is to hear from other engaged people.

So yes, green lights (of some sort or other) enable those who want conversation to seek it out, or to be sought out. And equally (more?) important for those with amber and red stickers as they will know that their boundaries should be respected.

Organiser Suggestion 2: Conversation Station

We all agree naming things is hard. "Conversation Station" is just my starter for 10 for the name of a designated space that people can congregate in when they want to talk to new people. If you’re in the space then you’re allowed - and expected - to talk to anyone else there.

This would be especially appreciated at meal times. I once lunched at a London members-only club whose house rules state that if you sit at a table in the middle of the room then you are open for conversation and any other member is welcome to join you. Sitting at a table around the edge of the room, however, indicates that neither company nor conversation is wanted. So could you have a designated area for sociable eating at your event?

Organiser Suggestion 3: Sociable Activities

At Codegarden, the annual Umbraco conference, people can sign up to join a bike ride or a padel competition the day before (Codegarden 2022 was my first padel experience and I’ve been playing ever since!). At this year’s MS MVP Summit I heard that some went bouldering. These are great ways to enable people to find their buddies for the rest of the event.

Perhaps you can have activities in the venue itself that encourage groups to form. Have a table with knitting/crochet needles and yarn, or boxes of lego. At Codegarden we have several Hammerschlagen logs that always attract groups of people, but I appreciate it might only be possible in Denmark with their more relaxed view on health and safety!

Organiser Suggestion 4: Quiet Spaces

I do appreciate that all this interaction might sound, and indeed be, exhausting to some. Many need some quiet time to replenish their social batteries. If they can’t find this at your venue they usually have to return to their hotel rooms, and if these are far away then they are likely to not return. So I’m a big fan of designated quiet spaces at conferences too (and make sure that they really are quiet).

And now to the solo-conferencers...

Just Say Hello!

"Excuse me, may I sit here?"

"Hello, may I join you?"

I've never had a bad experience using either of the above phrases. At NDC London I didn't want to eat lunch with just a phone for company. Having spotted a table with a spare chair, I asked its occupants if I could join them. "The answer is always yes!" was the particularly wonderful response I was given: thank you Guy Royse!

Remember you already have one thing in common with every person in the room. You're all at the same conference so this is not actually a room full of random strangers, even if it might feel like it.

For reasons that don't matter, I was once at an event for Anthony Trollope fans despite having never read a Trollope book in my life. I was somewhat concerned as to what I could talk to people about. Turns out acknowledging my situation and asking people for their recommendation for my first Trollope read was a perfect ice-breaker! The consensus was “The Way We Live Now” if you’re curious.

In the world of tech conferences I don't think anyone is going to question the use of ice-breakers such as "What has been your favourite talk so far today?", "which talk are you most looking forward to?", or even the old favourite "tabs or spaces?".

Do Your Research

For multi-day conferences especially, find out where other attendees are staying. Ask on social media for recommendations if you can’t find any. This will give you plenty of opportunities for making connections: in the hotel bar afterwards, or as people are heading out in the morning. Let’s be honest, you can usually spot a conference attendee from the other folk staying at the hotel!

Often conferences advertise social events or ‘mixers’ the night before - go to them! And get there promptly. Not just in case there is a free bar at the start 😉, but also because they can get quite busy. Go early, stay for an hour and you can still get a good night's sleep!

Be Willing to Change Your Plans

You may have mapped out in advance the sessions you’re going to. But if you find yourself with a nice group of people who are going to a different talk, why not stick with them a bit longer and go to the other one? After all, I often find that the sessions I attend by accident turn out to be the most rewarding.

And finally to those lucky people attending with friends or colleagues...

So I think that this group of people can make the biggest difference to those flying solo.

Those Three Magic Words

Several times at NDC London I was asked "Lotte, have you met {insert name here}?" It made me realise just how powerful those three words are. If you find yourself with people you've met before (even if only two minutes previously) then you can be their "connector" to others. Introducing people allows them to form their own direct connection, thus making their conversation a lot easier. It’s a small thing but I believe it makes a big impact, and it’s so easy to do!

As an aside, I really wouldn't worry about forgetting people's names. I have never taken offense to being told "I'm sorry I've forgotten your name". I bet if you say "have you two met?" then they will introduce themselves by name and save your blushes.

I have found myself referring to Dylan Beattie as the “Super Connector of the .NET world” (although I haven’t told him this yet so hope he’s comfortable with the description!). On many occasions in the last few years he has made me feel included and welcome at an event by simply introducing me to other folks he knows there. I should say that after the recent MS MVP Summit, Hannes Lowette comes in a close second. It’s something I try to do too - so if you ever spot me at an event please come and say hello: I shall do my best to live up to their example.

The Pacman Rule

We should all know and employ the Pacman Rule (thank you Eric Holscher): when standing with a group of people, always leave a space for someone to join. When they do, open another space for someone else. Leaving space is a clear indication that other people are welcome.

The aforementioned Dylan Beattie even made a video to illustrate the Pacman Rule in action.

// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1111619036809449472-448'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1111619036809449472&theme=dark" }

And if they ask permission to join then remember the Guy Royse Rule (as I am now calling it) - the answer is always yes!

In Conclusion

I hope I haven't come across too preachy in this post. I just think if we're going to go to conferences in-person, then let's really do this ‘peopling’ thing.

As organisers we can do our bit by employing initiatives to make it easier for those solo-conferencing. If you’re with people you know, invite others in and introduce yourselves. And if you're flying solo then take a deep breath, smile, and ask to join: the answer should always be yes!

If you have any comments or thoughts on how to better fly-solo, or things that organisers can do to help then I’d love to hear them either here below, or you can find me on Mastodon, X, or LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading, and happy (solo or otherwise) conferencing!

Oh and if you need any more convincing on the power of meeting people then I can highly recommend listening - forgive this shameless plug - to the Candid Contributions podcast that Emma and myself recorded at the MS MVP summit with some of the lovely folk we met there.

Well hello there!

Lotte Pitcher — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 04:16:41 +0000

It's always polite to introduce yourself when joining somewhere new, right?

Well hello, I'm Lotte Pitcher 😊

I'm a web developer from London, focusing on Umbraco and .NET development. I'm a Microsoft MVP in Developer Technologies, and a member of the Developer Relations team at Umbraco HQ.

For more than ten years I have actively contributed to open source software through attending and organising meetups, hackathons and conferences, delivering talks, releasing software, and hosting events both on and offline.

As a passionate advocate for being an active member of a healthy, inclusive tech community, I'll be blogging here about Umbraco, .NET and life in the tech world.

I am one of the four hosts of the wonderful, even if I do say so myself, Candid Contributions podcast. We talk things all things open source from presenting on stage, being a good conference attendee and making code contributions. Although I confess our release schedule is currently "sporadic".

When not at a laptop, you can most likely find me on a padel court (fancy a game?!) or playing the ukulele.

You can also find me on twitter @lottepitcher, on Mastodon and hanging out in the Umbraco Discord server.