London calling – employees from the TYPO3 GmbH head to the UK
As part of a wider initiative to promote TYPO3 in the UK my colleagues and I participated in two conferences in central London at the start of 2024.
UKGovCamp 2024
Our first event was UKGovCamp24, a one-day “unconference” held annually in central London. The event itself is aimed at individuals working in IT and the public sector and is organised by volunteers. With no set speaker or session list, the unconference format allows attendees to pitch potential talks to other attendees and have them vote on which talks they’d like to see take place.
This year we saw a number of talks being selected, covering a range of topics including data privacy, the continued use of AI in the public sector and several discussions regarding the financial challenges facing the public sector at both local and national levels.
A time to listen
Our main objective at the event was to listen and gain a better understanding of some of the challenges government departments face and in return talk about how TYPO3 is being used in central Europe and around the world to tackle similar challenges. One common theme being discussed was surrounding the use of multi language and how critical it is to select a content management system with rock solid support for publishing content in multiple languages on day one as well as the legal requirement to give employees the ability to use internal software (such as a CMS) in their chosen language. In addition, we also heard about the challenges some departments have in recruiting developers to work with their chosen CMS stack and the difficulties they face when competing with the private sector to retain talent.
Everyone loves free stuff
No good conference is complete without some freebies to take home. As the official “merchandise” sponsor for this year's event, we were pleased to offer each attendee a branded GovCamp water bottle and tote bag. Coupled with our brand new TYPO3 signage we had curious attendees visiting our booth throughout the day, providing us with the perfect opportunity to talk about TYPO3, its featureset and the incredible community behind it.
PHPUK
PHPUK needs no introduction, as one of the oldest and largest developer conferences in Europe, we were pleased to be one of this year's gold sponsors for the two day event held in the stunning “Brewery” venue in central London.
PHPUK is aimed squarely at developers and with twenty four talks over two days there was something for everyone. With over 350 people in attendance, including friends from the Laravel, Symfony and Doctrine communities, we felt right at home.
Freebies with a little something extra
Similar to GovCamp we had our own booth, with our now (infamous) backlit signage on display. As well as having some very nice custom “TYPO3 loves PHPUK” lanyards and some classic TYPO3 pens on offer, we also gave participants the opportunity to win tickets to this year's TYPO3 Developer Days. The response was incredible, with over fourty attendees entering our draw to win a ticket. As a result, four lucky winners will be flying down to Karlsruhe to attend the Developers Days this August from the UK.
Challenging old perceptions
Contrary to popular belief, TYPO3 has had a strong presence in the UK. Having been used both in the public and private sector and it’s still being used today by agencies and organisations in the UK including health agencies in the north of England, government organisations in Wales and it’s also being used by one of the largest political parties in the UK in what will be a very busy years for UK politics. A lot of the people who we spoke to at both events told us that they had used the CMS in the past, but it had been a long time ago and their understanding of TYPO3 only went as far as versions four and six.
One of the core talking points for us at PHPUK was to remind people that we’ve seen an extensive overhaul of the backend and our documentation has seen drastic improvements over the last ten years. It was also great to see our friends at Prater Raines (a UK based TYPO3 agency) taking part at both events and talking about how they use TYPO3 for their projects.
Measuring success
These two events mark the first time we (as a community) have had a presence and actively contributed to events in the UK and that in itself marks a major milestone given TYPO3’s age. Over the combined course of three days we spoke to many people who wanted to find out more about TYPO3 and the people and organisations it serves.
We also took the time to tell people about the massive improvements we’ve seen over the last three releases and encouraged former editors, integrators and developers alike to take a look at TYPO3 again for their next project.
Going forward, you can expect to see us taking an even more active role in the UK. We are already planning our return to PHPUK next year with a set of workshops planned for the event.
For me personally, having been a part of the TYPO3 community for the last fifteen years, it was a pleasure to finally get to represent and promote TYPO3 in the UK.
Want to find out more?
Check out the landing page we created for PHPUK attendees. It contains a short summary of TYPO3, the technology stack it runs on, some recent case studies and information on how you can get in touch with me in case you have any questions.
If you have an event that you think that we should participate in or you’d be interested in me presenting a talk about TYPO3 at your event or user group, please get in touch. You can also find out more about a project we did in collaboration with the University of South Wales.
