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Perhaps it's the famous British reserve or just sheer laziness, but it has long surprised me that despite having one of the highest densities of Joomla users of any country in the world, there are remarkably few Joomla User Groups in the UK (just two*) and there has been only a single JoomlaDay (and that way back in 2006). So it was a particular pleasure to be given the opportunity to play a part in kickstarting at least one new JUG in the UK and to help promote the upcoming JoomlaDay UK 2009.
The venue was the LinuxExpo Live event in London and it took place at the tail end of last week, 23rd to 25th October. By the time we heard about the event I only had a couple of weeks to make all the preparations, so my apologies for the out-of-date flyers and the hastily thrown together CD's! In the end it all went remarkably smoothly and it was a great pleasure to be able to meet and talk to so many people who use Joomla on a regular basis as well as the many people who came by having heard of Joomla but not knowing much about it.
Ryan Ozimek and I were on hand for the full three days and we were kept busy by a constant flow of people asking questions or just dropping in to say hello. Well over 200 people visited the stand during the event.
Andy Wallace joined us and gave the upcoming JoomlaDay UK 2009 its first public outing. Almost everyone I spoke to was interested in the event so I would recommend registering early to avoid disappointment.
James Kennard, author of "Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development" (available from the Joomla shop), also joined the stand and was kept busy answering questions. As was Mike Lloyd, who as a Londoner was persuaded to take the plunge and finally get a London Joomla Users Group started. Although London is a good four hours travelling time from where I live, I look forward to making it to at least one of the London JUG meetings in the near future.
Special thanks to our friends from Packt Publishing who arrived bearing a gift of books. I put together a quick questionnaire with the books as prizes and this proved very useful in learning more about the people who were visiting our stand. A huge thank you to Packt for supporting the Joomla project and open source in general.
Our gratitude is also extended to:
- uklinux.net and Linux User and Developer magazine for the stand space in the .org village and for promoting Joomla in the magazine.
- Rob Clayburn (pollen8) for being a great friend and fellow exhibitor. Best of luck with Fabrik.
- Pete Coutts for his assistance in preparations for the event.
- The London Linux User Group for inviting us to join their special event meeting. Good, honest pub food and interesting company.
Finally, a huge thank you to Ryan Ozimek, Andy Wallace, James Kennard and Mike Lloyd for their valuable time and support for the event. We certainly raised the profile of Joomla in the United Kingdom!
* In case you are wondering about the two UK Joomla User Groups they are:
