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EE is a Geyser

It’s been slightly more than a day since I returned from the European The ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter Conference held last week in Leiden, Netherlands.  I’ve just about recovered from jet lag so wanted to post a summary of the experience while it was all (somewhat) fresh in my head and before cracks start appearing in the dam of on-hold projects and client demands.

EE is a Geyser
I’ve been a part of the EllisLab community since late 2002 - and for a large part of that time I felt that the products and community were often overlooked, passed over in favor of other products that somehow had more buzz. 

It strikes me this morning that EE is a geyser - and it’s just starting to erupt.

Yea - pithy, I know.  Let me explain. Wikipedia describes geysers as needing three things:

• Intense heat
• Water
• A plumbing system

Intense Heat
EE has some great developers - both first and third party - working on it.  I honestly think they are the best I’ve worked with (and that’s from the perspective of the eldest speaker at the conference currently rolling along in the 17th year in a technology-related career).

Water
EE has such an active, friendly community around it.  Like none I’ve ever seen.  I count being part of it as a milestone of my professional career. 

A Plumbing System
If a plumbing system is defined as “constrictions in the system..essential to the building up of pressure before an eruption” then it’s clear to me that the commercial nature of EE as well as it’s slow, controlled growth is a large factor in it’s current success.

All this to say - for me the most important take-away from EECI2009 conference was the confirmation that we’re feeling the rumblings of a pending EE-ruption. 

Not that the conference was in any way small or insignificant.  On the contrary—Robert and Adrian from Whoooz! Media pulled off a great event, one that surely sets a high standard for anything to follow.

But for me the most significant thing about that conference was that there was one, and that people came from 5 continents to be part of it, and that the buzz around EE is definitely a notch or two higher after the conference than it was before.

Add that to the other significant things going on in the EE world:

• The announcement of the release of EE 2.0 on December 1st.
• Add-on developer Brandon Kelly announcing that he’s going full-time with EE development. 
• EE/CI-based eCommerce solutions starting to come to market with tools like ShopIgniter, FoxEE and EECommerce.
• A healthy aftermarket of resource sites like Devot-ee, Repart-ee, Quiglee, EEInsider, EEPodcast, and my own Train-ee.
• Seeing more EE books coming into the market (both from Ryan Irelan and myself).
• Seeing global technology companies like Garmin show an interest in EE.

I can’t help but feel the ground shake and see wisps of steam starting to show, and my gut reaction is to grab a raincoat and hat because we’re gonna get wet!

Some specific thoughts on the EECI2009 Conference:

The Location
Canals, bikes, narrow streets, Dutch food, picturesque while clean, safe, and small enough to navigate on foot - Leiden was a great location for the conference.

The Venue
I’ll admit - when I saw the venue change a few weeks before the conference I was a bit nervous, but overall a good choice.  A few talks in the secondary rooms had sound and lighting issues but Robert and crew responded quickly when and where possible. Otherwise the building provided interesting backdrops for photos, seating was abundant, sound and lighting were good, restrooms only a short wait, and it was only a few minutes walk from our hotel. 

The Event
As you likely gathered from above - I really enjoyed myself.  The event flowed pretty well, people were approachable, talkative and excited, the buzz was constant, schwag, signage and materials were all nicely done, and the food was excellent.

Speaking
I’ll be curious to watch the video of myself as my talk is a bit of a blur in my memory.  I was more nervous than I expected to be - especially as I’ve spent ~25 full days talking about EE in front of people this year.  I’m not sure if it was the larger room, the microphone/lights, or knowing that I was going to be tweeted about to an international crowd, but I was a bit jumpy…;)  Overall I think I communicated what I planned to - which was a basic formula for quoting out EE-based sites and the process/tool I use for planning out EE builds.  I think my paper and whiteboard-based project wall approach probably felt a bit old-skool with this high tech virtual Google-wave audience, but it continues to work really well for me so I encourage others to give it a try (it’s not like there is a huge investment involved if it doesn’t work..;)

We’ll see how the video from the conference comes out.  I might think about creating a quick screencast version of the talk as the slides don’t really stand on their own (and weren’t designed to).  I took a bit of a risk on the slides - knowing that the other speakers would likely have highly designed and polished slides I decided to cut against that and hand-drew all my sides and then scanned them in.  Overall I don’t think it took any longer and my hope was that they would stand out from the rest without being too cheesy. 

The Other Speakers
I first bumped into Ryan Irelan and Leevi Graham over breakfast.  I’d met Ryan at SXSW - but had never met Leevi so it was cool to finally do that and experience the deep Australian accent.

From there we bumped into the boys from Erskine - Colly, Jamie and Glenn.  I had great time hanging out with them for a while and having a Dutch Pancake and beer for lunch with them.  We did a bit of a foot tour around Leiden and kept up a constant stream of patter and humor.  Jamie Rumbelow joined us - at 14 years old he and I can average our ages together and probably fall inline with age range of most of the conference attendees..;)  We later bumped into Leevi again who had joined forces with Brandon Kelly and we continued our Leiden tour as an EE-ntourage. 

From there my recollection is a bit fuzzier, but over the next 2 days I was able to reconnect with Derek Allard, John Henry  and Leslie Camacho from EllisLab, Paul Burdick now with Solspace, meet Leslie Doherty aka “Mrs Flinger” (who doesn’t swear quite so much in person, or maybe it’s because she thought I might be a pastor..;), Jonathon Longnecker—who has since become a dad for the 3rd time, and Lodewijk Schutte - who has the good fortune to live on a houseboat in Leiden.  I also had a long enjoyable conversation over dinner with Veerle Pieters and Geert Leyseele of Duoh.

I loved meeting everyone!  There was a moment at the speakers dinner where I had this overwhelming sense of being at a family reunion.  These were mostly people I’ve known and respected for quite some time and to be included was a privilege that I count high on my list of career accomplishments.

The Attendees
I can’t even being to list out all the folks I met who were visiting the conference - some that I’ve known and plenty of new ones.  I met a couple of past clients - people I’ve helped with different EE projects over the past few years.  I also enjoyed talking to everyone I met and if we didn’t get a chance to connect I’m sorry for that and hope to make it up in the future.  Just like the Train-ee classes where I always feel that so much of the value is brought to the event by the attendees, I had the same feeling here.  Good questions, thoughtful conversations, approachable, generous (thanks to anyone/everyone who bought me a beer!) - people I’d just like to hang with all the time.

After the Conference
Being Dutch and born/raised in Holland, MI USA I was anxious to see a bit more of the Netherlands than just one city.  I rented a car and drove north - first visiting the Friesland Island of Terschelling where I took a moist bike ride in the fields and woods and explored the town of West Terschelling. After that I header further north yet to Delfzijl where I stayed in the unusual Eems Hotel and visited the nearby Fraeylemaborg Castle.

I had a great time visiting the Netherlands - and feel like I got to see a nice cross section of the country from urban to suburban to rural.  I came home exhausted but thankful for the opportunity and for all the connections and conversations while gone.  My thanks again to Robert and Adrian from Whoooz! - definitely hit me up again to be a part of any similar event.

Linkage
This list is by no means complete - and as people are still getting back home and in the groove I’m sure more summaries will be published.  Best bet is to watch the Twitter hashtag linked to below.

• My Netherlands Photos
• EECI2009 Video and Slides
• Matthew Pennel’s session notes
• Flickr Photos w/EECI2009 tag
• Low’s Summary - Like a Hotdog
• Mrs Flinger - Community and The Stuff We’re Made Of
• EECI2009 Round Up by Carl W Crawley
• Twitter Search for EECI2009

 

 

 

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