The Umbraco UK Festival is BACK! Finally, after four years, it's almost time to reunite with the best community! In this year's event, we'll learn from the people who make Umbraco one of the leading CMS solutions (and, of course, share what we know in our projects).
Innerworks is coming soon...
This blog was originally published on our previous Cogworks blog page. The Cogworks Blog is in the process of evolving into Innerworks, our new community-driven tech blog. With Innerworks, we aim to provide a space for collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and connection within the wider tech community. Watch this space for Innerworks updates, but don't worry - you'll still be able to access content from the original Cogworks Blog if you want.
Move aside, Glastonbury; festival season in the tech world is still in full swing.
It's been four years since Cogworks hosted the last Umbraco UK Festival.
This year, the Umbraco Foundation is holding the event; a full two days of engaging talks and networking with a hackathon thrown in, and we can’t wait!
We’ve hand-picked a few of our favourite talks from an incredible lineup, covering everything from headless commerce to women in tech.
As event sponsors this year, we will split our time between rooms 1 and 2, eating snacks and chatting with the talented bunch who shape how we work with Umbraco.
In this post, we're shining the spotlight on some excellent speakers. After all, Umbraco is all about celebrating innovation, learning, and community.
1. Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot and Codespaces
Microsoft Azure AI is right up our development team's street, and this talk by Henk Boelman and April Edwards on OpenAI Services is no exception. Both are community leaders and advocates, specialising in the technology and practices we use in our projects (Azure, GitHub, DevOps), so this one will engage with plenty of food for thought to take back to the team.
2. Bringing legacy apps back to life with web components.
The Cogworks team will know we're not opposed to the internal discussion on web components!
So this merged with the talented chaps Joe Glombek and Jason Elkin at BUMP digital will be great; we had a taste for this topic back in Umbraco Codegarden 2023 and look forward to exploring it more.
3. What you should be testing in Umbraco
Testing is a huge part of what we do. It's a significant part of our project process, so we're always working on improving, polishing and powering our testing capabilities as a team. This UK Festival talk by Matthew Wise is one to be noted!
4. Headless Umbraco commerce.
With some of our recent projects being headless, we've got to get a seat at this one. We've followed Umbraco's user-friendly commerce solutions for over a decade, from the 2010 Umbraco package, Tea Commerce, to Vendr, and now Umbraco Commerce!
5. Women in tech by Abhispa
Umbraco thrives on technology, tips, and tricks, but the community brings it to life. We're excited to dive into Abhipsa's talk on diversity in the tech world, gaining insights on nurturing an inclusive community where everyone, regardless of gender, has a vital role.
6. Optimising Umbraco websites for a connected world.
Last but not least, Damiaan Peeters is set to deliver an essential talk about optimising Umbraco for a connected world. Connection speeds vary globally, so getting the latest tips and tricks will be valuable to ensure everyone has a great end-user experience, regardless of location.
Umbraco UK Festival 2023 will be magic.
One thing is for sure: the festival will include a little magic. We have suspicions about who may be performing the ‘magic surprise’, which has inadvertently created a little buzz in the Cogworks team, especially for those who've yet to experience an Umbraco UK Festival!
We look forward to seeing familiar and new faces next week in this year's Umbraco event space in Shoreditch (conveniently right next to our London office).
Of course, we're hoping to get a seat at every talk throughout the day, but cloning has yet to be fully available to the mainstream; we might not be able to be at two places at once; we'll certainly give it a go, though.
See you there!
Cogworks