Umbraco down under festival

Ravi Motha — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:14:25 +0000

I’ve just arrived back in the uk .. I am still a bit jet lagged .. this seems like an ideal time to catchup on all the bits and bobs for the last 16 days

I flew in to Sydney on Wednesday 9th April arriving before my hotel room was ready ..

So while that was happening, I walked around Sydney

I then had the first quasi-religious experience of this journey
Seeing the architectural marvel that is the Sydney opera house

And as a bonus over its shoulder is the toast rack aka the magnificent Sydney harbour bridge ..
Not bad for the day one morning..

The opera house is a a brilliant physical reminder while it’s stunning it took them a long time to sort out the sound..

good design and development is so much better when it’s functional and useful

My second full day was all hackathon and hanging with Umbraco people
I was roped into hosting this , and hopefully you will have seen bits and bobs on linked in ,
Day 3b was the actual event , and it featured some great talks and discussion, and my talk on data driven design and development.. hint it’s be better than being the deliver the spec-only developer .. much relieved once done nd I got my Optimus prime gag out and few giggles even if if it was just me.

I then went on a mini adventure around Australia , and I was constantly reminded of a the sense of size and epicness but in all situations the things I come back to are the smaller personal details .. the people I’ve met, past present and future.

Be open

I was lucky enough to bump into Chris Evans at the event who I met again after 10 years (at codegarden in 2015 in Odense), this led to us visiting Manly on the ferry on the Saturday after uduf and along with Sarah me we ended end up seeing some Auckland fc fans in and then he suggested maybe we go see a footie (soccer) match .. which we did ..

It reminded me of, when you plan be open to situations be open to the road less travelled. Sometimes those choices are the hard ones, sometimes they are easier but usually when you are open you get the best results .. so do not try and belied on everything, always leave some room for extensions and flexibility.

Also that match ended 2-2 Auckland should have won 5-2

Be customer focussed

I also met another Chris and his lovely team at cantina ok it’s a tiny bar, but they are busy, and I can tell why, slinging good drinks at reasonable prices.. and they are busy doing it with personality and passion.

We often forget the client as developers . They are something that others deal with while we focus on development.
I understand the thinking but if you have good clients or just as important good work, as a developer you will be better and work harder and deliver better results .. they know this at cantina ok by telling stories , making connections and delivering with new drinks and stories of the suppliers they are building repeat customers

Do good work and people come back.

Big and Little (or small and far away)

The Great Barrier Reef reminds me sometimes things just are , it’s a massive ecosystem, but actually it’s just lots of little small components and then put together it becomes something bigger

build small things well to make bigger things better

I went on a short helicopter ride, and the change in perspective is incredible .. I feel the urge here to quote ferris bueller days off .

Life move pretty fast , "If you don't stop and look around every once in awhile, you could miss it.”

Stop come up for air once in a while and make sure you understand the big picture so you don’t just get lost

Remember to marvel and celebrate things

I went to uluru .. it was special in many ways .. whether it was tshe colours , the epic epicness , the seemingly unending landscape and that feeling of being quite short.. err I mean small in the sprawl

Or the way the stars at night bent and seemed to point at the humongous monolith .. in a weird mystical way.

But then I come backs to meeting my friends
Callum , Anthony dang, jax, Kym and jax’s marvellous dad

And all the lovely new people .. who I should have taken more picture with like Sarah Mee

So I hope to see Umbraco grow, and invest in what could be a growth market.. and hopefully that means bigger events in Oceania , and a gateway to Asia (maybe even and Indian conference — Mumbai , Hyderabad.. or kerala , and bengaluru)

Thanks Koben (Cherie, pete, Kirsty, Caleb Hannah, Jake and all the others who I met for a few minutes) luminary , bump and all the other sponsors who helped make the event happen

Drop wallabies and other notes

We may be in digital but until Ai starts paying me , remember we are still in a people business.. I know we aren’t the most extrovert bunch, but people they are pretty good, so meet them interact etc.
Join and support a local Meetup . Submit a talk to a conference both near and far

lastly

Yes that’s me with a koala ( not a drop wallaby ( you had to be there))

Umbraco CodeGarden24

Ravi Motha — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 16:11:06 +0000

It’s the last Friday afternoon, of CodeGarden24 and I am sitting here in Odense watching old and new friends wander away from storms pakhus to their respective homes and lives.

So I got a little reflective.

I first discovered Umbraco and its community in 2010/2011 and attended my first CodeGarden in 2011, and find myself feeling a bit like David Byrne and asking myself. “How did I get here?”

General Impressions

CodeGarden this year represents the past and present perfectly. It’s been fun, it’s had great content (and well done for all those who went up on whichever stage),

I think the community (which I think is its actual superpower) is still healthy based on conversations, the number of newbies, and the fact that loads of “older” faces made the journey. I especially want to mention Dean Leigh who hasn’t been well recently but has finally made it as the most joyous of CodeGarden first timers, and to see his face every so often has been an absolute pleasure.

I’m also really pleased to see the number of new faces not only attending but attending and speaking. I have heard Georgina Bidder’s talk was great, and I’m gutted I missed it, So George more talks please and I say the same for Joke van Hamme. More of this please

What does this all mean? Everyone will have their different reasoning . whether its reaffirming their connection, reconnecting with their tribe, or finding new passion and or ideas to go away and work on.. I hope everyone who came took away one new friend.

Overall Impressions

overall I feel good because my takeaway is Umbraco is growing, the community is strong and that is good. Both in the short term, and the long term for Moriyama, our customers and other companies in the Umbraco ecosphere.

My highlights

• Seeing my friends and my sort of second family
• My chats with Poul & Kevin jump
• Being able to help Briony Clark from GSK out by introducing and talking about migrations with her, Janae (ProWorks) and Arkadiusz (Etch)
• Dean Leigh
• Not being injured by the bull, and unlike most doing most of my ride one handed
• All the talks were recorded, meaning that chats weren’t truncated, if you have never done it before the chat track is ace. And the new social space was a real triumph

It could be better still if

• We had better vegetarian options (I love the food but seeing my vegan, or other dietary restricted friends nip off to storms or realize its broccoli for the 3rd time... maybe even some tofu)
• It’s never long enough (and we could have more talks and they could stretch the envelope in the project manager stuff, case studies, and longer format)
• I’m always genuinely pleased to see we have a growing tribe of women at CodeGarden, but I want to see more brown faces and other faces... so super props for the initiative supported by by HQ and Rhiannon helping Robert Foster in going to Nepal….we need more of that in India (with new MVP Dhanesh Kumar MJ from Kerala), South America the Balkans, Greece, South Africa so help us crack India and all the other places
• I was 5 minutes late for the introduction (Jamie from shout this is on you for going back for your lanyard)… sorry for not being there in time Karla
• Unique swag (also avoid brown), and more of the larger sizes

This Time, Next Year...

Next year Blend vs Moriyama hammerschalagen, but the challenge goes to bump, true, crumpled dog, gibe, proworks, marcel digital etc

all photos from the Umbraco HQ feed. yes there were two pictures of me

DEV Community: Ravi Motha