Umbraco Fans in North America: Roll Call!
Join the NAUUG and show the world that Umbraco is a force in North America!
Umbraco in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico has been under the radar the past few years despite a reportedly large install base. The size of the countries and the dispersed partners mean that, while there are active pockets of the continent using it, its largely out of the conversation for most people. We all know how awesome Umbraco is and one of the key pieces to that puzzle is the community.
In the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, etc there are strong user group communities that host Hack Days, Festivals, Meetups, and other awesome ways to build awareness and community.
Just a quick look at these groups makes us jealous (in a good way):
- Umbraco UK Festival
- The Bristol Umbraco User Group
- Belgian Umbraco Users Group
- Dutch Umbraco Users Group
- The London Umbraco Meetup/
- Umbraco User Group Deutschland
At Codegarden '12 a few of us in the far reaches of that continent across the Atlantic decided we wanted to help push things in North America. Could we put together a festival? Could we help raise awareness of Umbraco?
One of the first steps in that direction is a roll call. Who's using Umbraco at their organization, but hasn't been certified. Who has been certified, but isn't visible on Twitter or Our Umbraco? Who is the Project Manager or Marketing Director who has never engaged in the Umbraco community? Who is the owner or content manager who is using Umbraco because your partner built your website with it?
Lets join forces and find these kindred spirits. Lets show the world what the Umbraco community really looks like in North America. My bet is that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.
How will we do this? Well, we are web developers. so we created a website!
North American Umbraco Users Group - http://www.nauug.com/
If you are located in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico and use, sell, or build with Umbraco, please join us and tell us about yourself. Then take the event interest survey and let us know what kind of events would interest you. Then invite your Umbraco friends and colleagues to do the same.
If you are in Europe and have friends or colleagues in North America, give them a heads up about the site. And in the future we would love any help, advice, or tips about putting on a Festival, Hack-a-thon, or other cool things we are all jealous of over here!
If you are interested in how some of the search functionality was built, check out the 24 Days in Umbraco blog I wrote called "Razor and Faceted Search In Umbraco".
