J and Beyond is an international Joomla conference taking place in the Netherlands in early May.

The first J and Beyond conference was held in Germany last year and was a huge success, attracting Joomla developers from all over the world.

We spoke with Robert Deutz, one of the organizers, about this year's event:

1) Tell us a little about yourself and your background

I am a developer and own a company called "Robert Deutz Business Solution". I do custom development, consulting around Joomla! and started with development for mobile devices like iPhone and Android.

2) How did you get involved in Joomla?

I was a Mambo user and so I was around as Joomla! was born. I made and I do a lot of things. I am the co-author of the 1.5 Beez template and I was an Accessibility Team member. Since 2010 I have been an Open Source Matters Board member and the Events Team Leader for Joomla!

3) Tell us about the event that you're holding

J and Beyond is an event for the global Joomla! community. Looking at the attendees list today you will see over two hundred attendees form over 30 different countries from as far as New Zealand, Myanmar, Nigeria and Argentina.

J and Beyond has become a truly international Joomla! Conference. It is an event founded on the principle of ‘by users, for users’ with over 60 presentations and workshops led by attendees.

4) Who should come to the event?

Everyone is welcome but this event is specifically for site builders, integrators, developers and experienced Joomla! users. You won't learn how to install Joomla!, but you can learn how to keep track of 50 installations and updates and backup them, develop custom extensions, design using the latest techniques and integrate and extend the latest extensions.

In this, the second J and Beyond, there is an increased presence of sessions on Mobile Apps highlighted by our keynote speaker, Tony Guntharp, the Director of Developer Relations at Appcelerator.

5) What are the precise details we should know?

• Date: 6th-8th May 2011
• Location: Rolduc Conference Center, Kerkrade, Netherlands
• Price: 199 Euro (ticket sales will close 30th April)

You can find our much more about J and Beyond at http://jandbeyond.org.