With three days of CMSExpo, one could write a book about all that took place at the CMSExpo in Chicago.
But I guess since a blog is a blog and not a book and my reporting expertise is limited at best, I’ll do a little focused reporting.
Who needs energy drinks when you can have CMSExpo?
One can’t describe the excitement and energy that was displayed by both the businesses looking for the right product or the developers that would supply the product. But the most exciting, mind boggling phenomena was the amount of respect this event allowed me to gain for my fellow Joomla 3rd party developers. Not only were they professional in introducing their products, businesses and services, but the ability to sit at the same table, share ideas, experiences and promote one another (Yes open-source beer DOES exist).
Construction or Destruction?
The ability to accept constructive criticism, give feedback and the willingness to work on tasks together as a team rather than competing entities is amazing. One could say this goes on all the time at most expos but I have gone to many expos and events such as this. From MLM (in my younger wanna get rich quick days) to construction, from rubber stamp making to business networks. None have been as personally or business gratifying as CMSExpo.
Causation
Was it the multiple CMS’s involved, turning the focus on one CMS against the other? Or was it the mentality of the Joomla 3rd Party development community? I had the great pleasure of sitting and talking with some of the most respected minds in the Joomla community. Discuss business and socialize over a few ….. coffee (yeah, that’s what we drank, honest), allowing me to rethink my goals, business plans, model and how I can make my business better. I would like to think that it’s the mentality of this community in general rather than the different CMS’s that make the difference.
Effect
People from similar industries were able to sit and discuss ideas and strategies superbly. At the same time, the individual industries didn’t suffer from this openness. I had the pleasure of being able to show off our latest extension, jSocialSuite, to many developers and potential customers alike. All though to a potential customer this is/was grand, the ability to show to other developers was extraordinary. It allowed me to show off jSocialSuite for integration with their extensions/templates and what all it could do.
In the process of showing it, I discovered that jSocialSuite can be used for 3 totally different markets by simply disabling some of the internal plugins. Was it not for a developer asking (what he thought was dumb) questions, jSocialSuite would still be promoted as a social extension. Due to this experience, we can now market jSocialSuite as ….. (Do we still call it jSocialSuite when not used as a social extension?)
Closing
Earlier in the article I commended the Joomla 3rd Party development community for their ability to sit, meet and greet in a manner of pure professionalism. But was it all due to them?
One thing we can’t overlook is the people behind CMSExpo. John and Linda Coonen did a magnificent task of placing booths in a manner that allowed the competing businesses to interact on a one to one basis. These are the people behind CMSExpo. The organizers who organized everything so perfectly and made the expo run flawlessly and smooth. At the end of the day, these are the people I want to thank the most for this grand event that will hopefully set standards for many to come.
John and Linda Coonen, thank you both for such a wonderful event!
