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The Importance of Community and In-Person Events with Marc Thiele

Inside TYPO3 – January 2025

The First Episode of 2025!

We are excited to be back recording episodes of Inside TYPO3! We hope everyone had a nice holiday break and is ready for 2025! In our first episode of the year, we sit down with Marc Thiele, the founder and organizer of Beyond Tellerrand, to discuss the importance of community, in-person events, and event organization overall. Marc was also a speaker at T3CON24 and gave a keynote on Why Independent Community Events Matter. 

As usual, Tom provides release information and community updates. We also talk about upcoming events including the Q1 TYPO3 Marketing Sprint, the CMS kick-off and Web Camp Venlo

Thank you for your continued support of the podcast as we go into another year! Listen to the latest episode or read the transcript below! 

Listen to the Podcast

Inside TYPO3 is available on all major platforms including SpotifyApple Podcasts and Amazon Music.

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Episode Transcript

 0:07: So here we are back for another year and another episode of Inside TYPO3. 
 0:12: Kendall, it's nice to see you again. 
 0:14: I'll be honest, I nearly forgot how to plug the microphone in, it's been so long 
since we last spoke. 
 0:18: Did you have a good Christmas and did you have a happy new year? 
 0:21: I did. 
 0:21: I was sick for most. 
 0:22: Of the holiday though, unfortunately, so a lot of downtime, forced downtime I
should say, so both good and bad. 
 0:31: yeah, no, it's felt like a long time since we got together to do this. 
 0:35: I mean, T3CON feels like it was. 
 0:38: 6 months ago now, so catching back up to do this special episode is nice, 
feeling refreshed in the new year. 
 0:45: What about you? 
 0:46: Yeah, pretty much the same nice quiet Christmas as well, but, no, back to 
normal, and I think we've got a really, really good episode to kickstart the new year. 
 0:54: I've got some news to share on the latest TYPO3 releases as well as 
updates on our community extensions. 
 1:01: And as well as this, I'll be talking about some of the upcoming events coming 
to the TYPO3 community. 
 1:05: And as well as that, I've got some news on the latest projects that have been 
given funding or granted funding by the TYPO3 association as well. 
 1:14: Kendall, I know you arranged for an interview during T3CON. 
 1:17: And I believe we're going to play it today. 
 1:19: Can you tell us a little bit more about it? 
 1:21: Yeah, so I had the privilege to sit down one on one with Marilla, who is the 
founder and organizer of the very special conference that takes place in both Berlin 
and Dusseldorf called beyond tellerrand and Yeah, we were able to carve out a few 
minutes at T3CON between everything going on and all the different sessions, 
including his, to have a conversation, talk a little bit about independent community 
events, organization, and one of the things that I'll say is, you know, to preface the 
episode is that We spent a bit of time talking about feedback from people attending 
the events and how valuable and important that is, you know, for anyone who's 
involved in this industry. 
 2:07: And one thing that stuck out to me was he talked about how making things 
accessible, even if there wasn't someone in the audience with that particular need, 
it can benefit other people. 
 2:19: So I won't give it away, but there is a portion where we talk about that and All 
of that to say I just wanted to link it back to something that you and I talked about 
earlier this week, Tom, with Luana, which was keeping the podcast in English, and 
I think that's something I just wanted to touch on before we go into the to the 
episode because it also is closely aligned with that theme, which is we decide to 
keep the podcast in English despite having a pretty big German speaking audience 
because we want to keep it inclusive and international to anyone who might be 
listening in different parts of the world who, you know, can speak English and 
that's the connecting language. 
 2:57: So. 
 2:58: Absolutely. 
 2:59: I think we should maybe try and arrange a competition as well where we can 
find out. 
 3:02: Which listener lives the furthest away from central Germany as well, but 
that's right, and another time maybe. 
 3:07: But I think Mark's talk was really, really good. 
 3:10: And if to summarize quickly, Mark is a professional events organizer, and he 
organizes two really big events in Germany, and you could, you could definitely tell 
that he does it for a living because his talk was really, really good. 
 3:22: And as someone who's in the process of trying to arrange a TYPO3 
themed event in the UK, shall we say. 
 3:28: His talk at T3CON had a lot of really useful tips and tricks for people who are 
looking to organize their first event as well. 
 3:34: So that's what we got up ahead. 
 3:36: We've got a busy year generally in the TYPO3 community this year as 
well. 
 3:39: So I'm gonna kick off with some release information and some extension 
news. 
 3:44: Let's start with release news. 
 3:46: This month saw the release of TYPO3 version 13.4.3. 
 3:50: And 12.4.25, both of which are security releases, and it's recommended that 
all users upgrade as soon as possible. 
 3:58: We also saw ELTS releases this month for TYPO3, version 9, 10, and 
version 11, which switched over to ELTS in late October last year. 
 4:08: Moving on to community extensions. 
 4:10: Content blocks for a minor release with version 1.1.4 and support for PHP 
8.4. 
 4:16: Varnish also saw a minor release with version 7.0.1 and support for PHP 
8.4. 
 4:22: Version 13 of Apache Solar was released in late December with support for 
TYPO3 version 13, the crowd in extension saw a major release with version 3 and 
support for TYPO3, version 12 and 13. 
 4:34: And finally, a true Christmas miracle. 
 4:36: The save and close extension saw a major release with support for TYPO3, 
version 13. 
 4:43: Next we have events. 
 4:44: The TYPO3 marketing team have a sprint on the 12th and 13th of February 
in Dusseldorf at the TYPO3 GMBH headquarters. 
 4:51: Places are still available as well if you are interested. 
 4:55: Then we're off to Venlo for TYPO3 Camp Venlo between the 14th and 15th 
of February with a special city tour taking place before the camp on the 13th. 
 5:04: You can find out more about these events and more at typo3.org/community/events. 
 5:10: Back in November, the TYPO3 association launched its budgeting process 
for quarter 1 2025. 
 5:16: The community were asked to vote on which projects they'd like to see 
receive funding. 
 5:20: Out of the 7 submissions, the following ideas were approved the incorporation 
of the XH profiler graphical interface for DE, a one click TYPO3 
playground for demo and local installations, enhanced internal link visualization for 
TYPO3, version 13, and an interactive guide to TYPO3's back end. 
 5:39: To track the status of each of these events, be sure to check out typo3.org 
over the course of the next 2 months. 
 5:44: Next up as promised is Kendall's interview with Mark Peeler, recorded live at 
T3CON24. 
 5:51: I'm here with Mark Tilla, the founder and organizer of beyond tellerrand, a 
conference that takes place in both Dusseldorf and Berlin, and we're here at 
T3CON, where he gave a talk yesterday on the main stage about why independent 
community events matter. 
 6:06: So Mark, if you could give us a little bit of a background about how you got 
started in this industry, what beyond tellerrand is all about, and then we'll go into 
your talk and how it pertains to the TYPO3 community. 
 6:18: OK. 
 6:19: I try to keep it short because it's, I run events for 24 years now and, the 
background actually is like already planted, in my early computer days at, when I 
used to see 64 and it was like in kind of a demo group and we went to all those 
demo parties and those had a similar approach as conferences. 
 6:36: You gather, you do something together, like different disciplines meet and  
there's a project you're working on in this case, a demo. 
 6:43: You would then hand the demo over to like the stage and there would be a 
competition and you would, you might win a prize or not, but you did something 
together, which I always like liked in a way like how the community worked and the 
friendship and all this kind of stuff. 
 6:55: And then after a while, after many years later, I went to my very first 
conference on myself, which was in Amsterdam in 2001. 
 7:05: And I felt, as if I would be back home. 
 7:08: So I had like the feeling of like, wow, that is like the good old days on the 
demo parties, right? 
 7:12: Like this conference, it was a flash conference, so Flash was the tool, which 
also was quite limited like the C64 was as well. 
 7:20: and there were so many people from many different disciplines like 
illustrators, there were type of people, there were filmmakers, animators, and they 
all use the same tool and for a different, reason. 
 7:32: And I so I felt like, well, that's great. 
 7:34: I want to do this as well. 
 7:35: And that's how I got started into running conferences back then, not as my 
single thing to do, my, my only thing, but more as one of the many things I did. 
 7:44: And then in late 2000s, roughly 2008. 
 7:48: , and that somehow something in my head grew that told me go fully into 
conferences just do this because you enjoy bringing people together. 
 7:58: You enjoy creating a platform, an atmosphere, a surrounding for them where 
they feel, safe and welcome, and then gather people from different disciplines. 
 8:07: And that's why the name Bon Terran plays into it. 
 8:10: , in Germany, you say, but in Tellerrans, which means look beyond the edge 
of your plate. 
 8:16: So it's kind of look, think outside the box, which doesn't match it really 
because I think outside the box is usually, something you say if you have a certain 
problem and you have to think outside the box. 
 8:27: whereas beyond tellerrand is more general, it's more like, widen broaden your 
horizon. 
 8:32: , yeah, think a bit further than you usually do look. 
 8:36: I mean, you can literally say like if you have food on your plate, it's tasty, you 
say like, well, I have tasty food, but there's like tasty food left and right as well. 
 8:43: So that's the idea of the event and , again, I really like, to see how 
something that you do with like running an event, create something that so many 
different people meet and exchange and like, I, I, I really love to watch it from the 
back of the room and just see people mixing and mingling and chatting and 
laughing. 
 9:04: I really like it. 
 9:06: So when you talk about events and where you got started in it, you said that 
it felt like home going to that first conference and I think we've all been to 
conferences where we've either felt like we're at home and there are a lot of 
familiar faces and it's  a nice rejoining of a community we've also been to events 
where. 
 9:25: They're big, you know, grandiose, you feel a little faceless, lost in the mix, 
and they both, you know, serve different purposes, but so as we're talking about
TYPO3 and really at the heart of what the community is. 
 9:38: Would be community events  which are, you know, organized by people in 
the community they're obviously done with love, with attention and I myself have 
the, the first introduction I had to TYPO3 even before working was going to a 
camp, so I went to the camp in Dresden and I was just overwhelmed with the 
organization and the attention to detail and how warm it felt, you know, as an 
outsider from the coming into the community for the first time so. 
 10:06: In your talk yesterday you talked about why independent events matter and 
so I'm curious from your perspective looking at things like TYPO3 beyond tellerrand 
around like what is the value and especially after the pandemic still bringing people 
together, what have you seen that has changed with that and are people still 
interested in coming together like that outside of the TYPO3 bubble but just in in 
general, yeah, so, to get to this question, I need to tell a little anecdote when I was 
organizing a little roadshow for someone. 
 10:36: a company, through England. 
 10:40: And we started in Brighton and that was January 20. 
 10:45: 22 I'd say, or 23. 
 10:47: I'm not, I'm not sure, mixing up the years, but I think  and it doesn't matter 
anyways but it was one of the early ones that we did. 
 10:55: And  roughly 60 people have been there. 
 10:58: And  there were two speakers and we had like a little mixer afterwards, like 
with, with drinks and pizza. 
 11:04: And one person came to me and said, You know what, it's great that you 
did this because I forgot how lovely it is to come together. 
 11:10: And that's the point I want to point out. 
 11:13: People have forgotten during the pandemic, how important and how nice it 
is to meet people and, meet people in real and what the difference is, in my 
opinion, any random things that can happen would never ever happen in front of 
your screen. 
 11:27: Workshops, yes. 
 11:28: Learning, yes. 
 11:30: Maybe even a conference and watching the talks would work, but it isn't the 
same because what I think what, what makes a, any meeting, not just a 
conference of the conference, any meet up really important is any random, any 
random person you meet, you would not meet in front of the screen by like 
bumping into that person during getting your coffee or a drink or anything, right? 
 11:50: And you start talking and out of that chat might come like  a project or like 
the next like whatever idea or you know. 
 11:59: So, I think that is something that we need to emphasize on again with those 
meetups, conferences, whatever kind of events that. 
 12:07: , the interconnection between people is really important. 
 12:11: And that's something that's, so, how do you say, enriching, like, it, it is so 
valuable, and I think it's a value that is hard to sell upfront, but as soon as you 
have been there, you understand, oh wow, yes, I get it, you know. 
 12:28: and, nowadays even more like as we, as I said in my talk also, it's like we 
are so, so addicted to those screens of our phones, of our computers. 
 12:37: Which is like a, a, a great tool to work with and it makes a lot of things easy, 
communication easy. 
 12:43: But again, like it lets us forget like how important it is to meet in real life and 
exchange and, and, and communicate. 
 12:51: I myself have worked remotely for quite some time now since the pandemic 
and I forget as well how important it is, especially to get outside of my bubble and 
meet people again and I think something that was really unique, for my colleague 
Panos and I was that our, our boss Luana suggested that we come to the camp 
in Dresden as our first introduction to TYPO3. 
 13:12: So before starting work or getting to know. 
 13:15: Anybody behind the screen, yeah, so we came to the camp and we went to 
the warm up dinner which is always a really nice, aspect of the type of three events 
in the camps and we got to meet everybody and so starting work that following 
month felt so much warmer and accepting because I already had met everyone 
and spent multiple days with them in workshops and dinners and so I, I definitely 
see the value in that and. 
 13:39: As we're talking about the value, I was curious on your opinion so you 
mentioned in your speech yesterday that it's hard to make the selling point  for 
employers sometimes to go to an event, especially a conference that maybe isn't 
necessarily, you know, the, the, the selling points aren't exactly straightforward as 
to why they should attend from a business perspective. 
 13:59: So I'm curious as an organizer, what would you, what advice would you 
give to employees that want to participate in like an independent community event. 
 14:09: And how could they kind of sell that to their boss as being beyond learning 
certain professional skills or or networking for one specific purpose. 
 14:17: It's a tough tough one to do because  I think again here if the employee has 
been at the event and comes back pumped and energized and motivated to like on 
comes on has a new technique, a new idea, a new project, a new whatever, and 
it's like just eager to do something, right? 
 14:33: Like wants to like create and and do. 
 14:36: So it's very productive, I think. 
 14:37: the, the problem really is how do you sell this upfront? 
 14:41: How, how would you like to tell someone? 
 14:42: I promise they come back energized and they will do stuff, right? 
 14:45: Like, so it is a tough one. 
 14:48: I try to create a convince your boss PDF. 
 14:51: But it's, it's really, really hard for me because again, I my, especially my 
event is not on a specific topic. 
 14:57: So I, I cannot promise if that person learns anything. 
 15:01: but again, I think it is like also like in terms of human relationships really  
important to interact and  
 15:09: I don't know. 
 15:10: So like my advice would be like as soon as people want to go there and  you can, y
ou, you can afford that, not like just financially but also like in terms of  like having 
them leaving the office for 2 or 3 days. 
 15:21: Possibly do that with like whole teams, like 234 people and they have all  the same 
experience. 
 15:26: So they, they . 
 15:28: How do you say, So it's a team experience and that like enriches the,  
the kind of like bonding also between them. 
 15:35: It's a really great team exercise. 
 15:37: Last year in Berlin, there was a team of 10 people from the UK and they  
celebrated their 10th birthday of the, of the team of that office. 
 15:45: Which is wonderful because they, it's a strong team bonding. 
 15:48: It's like a really, a really great thing to do. 
 15:50: They did this together, they have the experience together, they have  
something they will talk about like for years and after that, after that, you know. 
 15:58: What's the price for that?
 15:59: That's really hard to put on, right? 
 16:01: Like what can you charge for that or what, what, what would the value be if  
the employer would know what they gain from that, right? 
 16:08: So. 
 16:09: Yeah, it's really tough. 
 16:10: If you, if you can help me with this, I'd be super happy. 
 16:14: No, I, I, I think that's exactly the point though. 
 16:16: I mean, for us, the TYPO3 team worked on a convince your boss letter as  well 
and so there were a lot of brainstorming meetings about talking about what  would be 
the value proposition for us to convince someone to come to T3CON and  it really went 
beyond. 
 16:31: You know, the straightforward aspects of it that you would expect like that  
you will learn this this and this it was also about you're coming to a community  
event you're going to be networking you're going to be meeting with different  
people, you know, even from the ministry  from the government and so we really  
tried to make it more of an experience and that and also with team building, you  
know, come with your colleagues, have an experience and then you can yeah,  
build off of that. 
 16:55: But yeah, I think it's, I think it's really tough and for us, you know, as well  
we, we host the developer days we host T3CON and you know for myself as a  
non-developer, going to the developer day still had a lot of value for me as a  
non-developer because I got to. 
 17:10: Listen in on the talks for sure, but also it was a lot about being  
with the community and  and and getting myself out there and sharpening some of   
those social skills that were lost during the pandemic, which is a real thing. 
 17:24: It is and it has been worked beforehand. 
 17:27: I mean, it's not easy. 
 17:28: Sometimes you, you don't get your ass up, right? 
 17:30: You sit on your couch and you go like, I was this friend calling me and then 
he invited me to a beer and you go like, oh, no, not today, but you know, it's always 
if you go then. 
 17:40: Oftentimes you go like I'm happy. 
 17:42: I'm happy that I did because I haven't seen that person for a long time. 
 17:45: And it's kind of the same effect with like events. 
 17:48: It is work to get, get up and go like, well, OK, I commit to it. 
 17:51: I go to it. 
 17:51: I have to travel to it. 
 17:53: I have to organize my trip and all this kind of stuff. 
 17:56: But again, like the payoff is like really  I think a wonderful experience most 
of the times and no matter to which conferences I go. 
 18:03: As my topic is beyond tellerrand, I often go to like more technical conferences 
as well. 
 18:07: But I recently, quite recently, I've been in one, at one in Vilnius, where it 
was all about book design and poster design and stuff, so completely different again, right? 
 18:17: But it's interesting because those people, if they have a story to tell, no 
matter about what it could be a baker or a butcher. 
 18:24: it's great. 
 18:25: They have a story to tell, listen, and it's always rewarding to listen to it. 
 18:28: And no matter if you are, if you want to be a baker or not, like, great 
insights sometimes and surely you can take the one or other thing that they talk 
about for your work, right? 
 18:38: Like in terms of like approach or attitude or so I think, any, any kind of 
event. 
 18:45: Driven with a passion thinking or by a passion thinking person, 
person has got, absolute value, really.
 18:53: And as you say, like, you were talking about like  smaller meetups as well, 
like, that, that are done by the community and often that is like the kind of 
infectious thing that happens at events. 
 19:03: People go like, well, that's wonderful. 
 19:04: I want to do something like this. 
 19:06: And then they start a meetup in their local city. 
 19:09: Where they gain 1020 people, but they do something great for the 
community and that's like spreading out, right? 
 19:15: So they say they, they do gather like another 20 people and maybe one of 
those again, does this in his city, you know, it's like a good effect and I've seen that 
happening a lot of times that those, meetups pop up after people had been to a big 
event a conference. 
 19:31: And so as we're talking about. 
 19:34: Well, let me go back. 
 19:36: I was recently at the Tapa 3 camp in Vienna and this is going to segue into 
my next question and something that you touched on yesterday in your talk which 
is. 
 19:47: I was having a wine with the organizers. 
 19:50: we did a wine tour in the vineyards of Vienna the night before, which was a 
really nice touch to, yeah, to going to Vienna and, the camp was really wonderful 
for me as a non-German speaker being in the TYPO3 community, it's the one 
international camp of the year. 
 20:05: well, they, they also do one in Venlo, but this is regarded as the 
international camp English in Vienna, so I was very much looking forward to be 
able to understand the sessions completely. 
 20:16: But when I was sitting with the with the organizer Volker, he asked me, do 
you have any feedback on the language being English because what we've 
learned is that most of the people who are attending are speaking German and do 
you see the value in it's still being in English? 
 20:31: and I said yeah I do because it still opens up the possibility to the 
surrounding regions and to other people to come, you know, from there were 
people from Poland, from Hungary, you know, so it it it does have this inclusivity to 
it, but. 
 20:44: What I'm curious because you mentioned feedback yesterday and as an 
organizer you said that most of the feedback you've received is always positive or 
from a good place that people are just wanting to give you the feedback to really 
improve the event and I'm curious what is the best piece of feedback you've ever 
received from someone or one that really stuck with you? 
 21:03: That's a tough one. 
 21:05: what was the best piece of advice? 
 21:08: , small things sometimes where you don't think of, what would, what would 
it be? 
 21:19: What would it be? 
 21:21: Well, one thing I learned, for example, and it's not really has been advice 
from someone but feedback more. 
 21:27: so one year, I started to have a captioner, live captioner who captions the 
talks and next to the screen, it would be text on a big display. 
 21:36: And I to myself thought, well, I don't have too many people that, are having, 
hearing problems that are deaf. 
 21:44: So why should I do it? 
 21:45: So I was asking the audience afterwards. 
 21:47: I was like, how is this helpful for you also? 
 21:50: And then everyone was like, yes, absolutely, because, yeah, we 
understand English, but sometimes people speak fast or have a certain accent. 
 21:57: And then this totally helped and I thought to myself, well, it's not needed, 
right? 
 22:00: I don't need it actually because it's quite expensive and if I don't have any 
deaf people in the audience, why should I do it? 
 22:05: So, but I stuck with it nowadays, I have it, it's like standard now. 
 22:10: So it's always there like Andrew from Scotland who like  types in like what 
he hears over there in Scotland or sometimes he's on site. 
 22:17: But that's something I wouldn't have done if I wouldn't have asked for 
feedback for it, right? 
 22:21: So, again, some things for you might be obvious, but you are wrong. 
 22:27: That's, I mean, I think I always watch movies with subtitles on and even in 
English, so I, I completely understand and it's really difficult, especially, yeah, for 
non-native speakers to be listening to a speech where someone's speaking quickly  
so that that's a really nice touch and it also touches on. 
 22:44: One of the topics at T3CON which is accessibility so it is just baked into the 
experience that you already have that accessibility for someone who may be hard 
of hearing who may not be hard of hearing but just has a hard time, yeah, 
comprehending, yeah, so I think that's a great piece of feedback for us, some of 
the feedback that we've received about it's, it's funny because most of the 
feedback was that the social nights. 
 23:09: Needed to be at the end of the events so that people could celebrate 
properly, that it didn't kind of  Stop the event, you know, when you have it in the 
middle, then all of a sudden everyone has had this really intense night and then 
you have to go back to talks and the attendance wasn't as  lively so to speak. 
 23:26: So anyway this is all really valuable feedback for us as well and I'm not 
even planning the events but hearing the feedback from the community and how 
people are. 
 23:36: Eager to let us know how we can improve is always so valuable. 
 23:40: And even, even sometimes if it's stuff where you where you have thought 
about it and you won't do it for a certain reason, then you have the chance to 
explain why you do what you do in the way you do it. 
 23:49: You know, that people are sometimes they don't see the other like see you 
and that you have thought through and you go like, no, no, I don't do this because 
of, and they were like, oh, yeah, sure, makes sense. 
 23:58: OK, yeah, but sorry, it's like, no, no, no, don't be sorry. 
 24:00: It's great. 
 24:01: I mean, again, What I said is like, if people identify with the event and they 
connect they own it a little bit and they deserve to be able to give feedback to you. 
 24:09: They come back, right? 
 24:10: They come, they return back like every, every year or maybe every other 
year, no matter, like even for the first time, like if they have feedback for you, listen 
and  if you do think ah no, that's not valuable for me, maybe explain it, give them a 
reason why you don't do what they suggest or you have thought about it and that's 
the reason why you don't do it. 
 24:30: I think that's always fantastic. 
 24:32: But it's a dialogue and it makes someone feel, yeah, a part of it and it adds 
the human element to it again as opposed to being at a very massive conference 
where you're one of many people in attendance.
 24:44: It really makes you feel like you're connected to the event and I will close 
by asking you touched on this yesterday in your talk as well, but you said that one 
thing you wish people knew about events is that especially for someone who's 
independently organizing them as you are that with the tickets, you know, the, the, 
the longer you wait on them, the more of a. 
 25:07: I don't know if I'd say burden, but it becomes very stressful on the organizer 
and so I was curious if you could explain a little bit about that so just that people 
would understand from our perspective too, you know, I've been monitoring how 
the T3CON tickets were doing and it really comes down to the last, you know, 
week or so that you're getting a full picture of what it's going to look like so if you 
could. 
 25:28: Yeah, just elaborate a little bit on what you talked about yesterday and 
what's important to know about that. 
 25:33: So especially if someone starts running an independent and say like, so 
what I mean by that is also some individual is, is setting up the conference and is 
paying for the conference. 
 25:43: It's not a company that has allocated a certain budget for the conference 
and they say like, well, that's part of our marketing budget or whatever.
 25:50: But taking me as an example and many, many other ways like Remy 
Sharp and in Brighton or like  Dominic who is here like from,  from Switzerland. 
 25:58: what we do is usually, especially with the first events, we take the money 
that we earn through the ticket sales before the conference to already pay bills like 
flights, hotel, anything that has to be paid upfront for this conference. 
 26:13: And if no one buys a ticket, there's no money with that, right? 
 26:15: So, before the pandemic that wasn't. 
 26:18: Such a big problem for me because my event ran so well that I had built a 
little buffer like I had a bit of money on my bank account so that I could always like 
prepay the next conference from the one before. 
 26:29: But after the pandemic, that got a problem again and people totally 
changed in the way they buy their tickets nowadays. 
 26:35: beforehand, roughly 1450, 2014 and 2015. 
 26:40: I was sold out like 2 months in advance and had 200 people on the waiting 
list. 
 26:45: And this is a great thing to have, right? 
 26:46: Because you, you're a, you know, this event is gonna be full, which is 
always great for the atmosphere. 
 26:52: But also you had the money to pay like the bills for again, for flights and, 
and, anything that you have to, put into the hotel again, already. 
 27:01: And if that doesn't happen, it makes you insecure and like the questions of, 
will I be able to pay all my bills. 
 27:08: And it's something especially as a small team or an individual that you don't 
need because that blocks you from the actual things from the content and the stuff 
that is enjoyable for the attendees. 
 27:18: So if you constantly think about like, will I be able to pay all my bills, it is 
completely a nightmare to do, organize a conference with this in your head all the 
time. 
 27:26: and I've seen this year, like many, events had been canceled. 
 27:30: They were announced, tickets were on sale, and after a while, people said 
like we need to cancel it because they weren't sure. 
 27:36: Of the poker game if they would win, right? 
 27:38: So they have sold 200 tickets, but that would just the ball like cover the 
base cost. 
 27:43: But you know, after the event, it comes a lot of costs as well. 
 27:46: Like the venue has to be paid, the technicians have to be paid, the tech 
that you rent has to be paid. 
 27:53: Well, and if you don't sell more than the 200 tickets, in this case, you 
just cannot afford it. 
 27:59: And if you have then like have to pay with your private money and 
maybe don't have the money, that's not what an independent organizer really, 
really needs. 
 28:09: So I can only  ask people that know the event industry and they go to 
smaller events. 
 28:16: If you could buy your tickets early or can convince your boss to get the 
ticket early, don't wait till the last minute because it's really, really stressful for 
anyone who puts up an event, no matter how small or big it is. 
 28:25: But if they, if they organize out of their passion and they 
really like into it, it's so, enjoyable. 
 28:35: So it's like honestly so stressful to get to organize an event with 
the money thing in the head because you know, it's not that those people want 
to get rich anyways. 
 28:45: They don't do it like to get super rich because you don't get rich with this. 
 28:49: But at least you want to make sure, A, I want to pay all my bills, and B, 
what maybe a small profit would be nice to financially reward yourself for like 
running those conferences. 
 28:59: Yeah. 
 29:00: And thank you for that because I think it's really valuable for people to know 
that and with independent community events and smaller festivals and really you 
know you're owning all of this you know and it's not a it's not a company sponsored  
conference things like that. 
 29:19: Yesterday in your presentation you ended with giving some examples of 
other independent conferences that take place across Europe and I just wanted 
for anyone listening, how, what advice would you give for. 
 29:32: Searching for independent festivals or conferences or more niche meetups 
so that people can support people who are doing what you're doing as well and 
take part of a more intimate or niche kind of settings one advice I can give the 
companies because oftentimes evolve around the tools or software. 
 29:52: so it would be great if the actual producer of those tools or like the owner 
of those things would. 
 29:59: Have a platform to advertise those meetups. 
 30:02: That would be wonderful. 
 30:03: and for anyone who searches like, like out of the blue, there's  things like 
design calendar for design events, for example, or it's like Neon Moray. 
 30:12: It's  done by Thomas Dam in, in, in the Netherlands and they collect all 
those events and they're doing a really good job in having a calendar where you 
can actually look into topics. 
 30:23: Is that something for me and they, you can look into, well, what kind of 
price range is this event because sometimes that also matters, right? 
 30:30: You cannot afford an event, somewhere, for $4000 or something, to go to 
like Los Angeles or like whatever. 
 30:39: But you can afford someone, some event that's €150 or like €300. 
 30:44: And  so you can really sort all this in, in, in these tools and it's quite nice to 
do. 
 30:49: Well, that's really nice, and I'll put that in the show notes as well and I'll also 
put beyond tellerrand on and all of that where people can find you. 
 30:55: And my last question is, what has been your experience at T3CON this 
year? 
 30:59: You were a speaker, you've attended. 
 31:01: Will you be at the awards tonight as well? 
 31:03: OK, so what has been your experience so far and yeah, what's your 
impression? 
 31:06: I mean, as, TYPO3 is also one of my partners for this year's events of 
beyond tellerrand. 
 31:13: I thought to myself when I got asked like, do you think we, we, we would 
be a good partner? 
 31:18: I saw like. 
 31:19: A TYPO3 is not the topic that's gonna be like  on stage in my event. 
 31:23: but as soon as I met the people running this, and as soon as I understood 
that they understood how valuable those community events are, no matter if they 
are, TYPO3, or, or even, even because they are not TYPO3 related, because, you 
know, if you're always preach to the to the people that know you already. 
 31:42: What's the sense, you know, so they did a clever job and they also 
understood usually partners of my events, get a briefing from me that tells them not 
to do their trade fair booth, not to go like in a suit, sit behind their laptops on a 
table, you know, like cause I know my audience, they want to be like connected, 
entertained in a way, you know, like they want to have something where you, 
where you can talk about like. 
 32:04: I had one company once have a chocolate configurator. 
 32:07: so you could find out like, which kind of chocolate are you? 
 32:10: So, and you would get a chocolate at this because they, they, they would 
measure your, your body size, whatever. 
 32:14: I don't know what how exactly this worked again. 
 32:17: They took a photo and ask you some questions and then you, I was like, 
conflate like so I got a cornflake chocolate afterwards. 
 32:23: That's great stuff. 
 32:24: And I think the people from Tapa 3 understood this, and they made a great 
job in running their booth. 
 32:29: it was well attended, it was well received. 
 32:31: I got good feedback from them and then coming to the event, I thought to myself 
like, well, I don't work with TYPO3, to be honest. 
 32:40: I know what it is and I, I had a look back when I was still was developing  
websites. 
 32:45: But nowadays I run a conference. 
 32:48: So it's a bit exotic but I speak there on stage. 
 32:50: And then I said to myself, wait a minute, you run an event that's called 
beyond tellerrand, you know, yeah, so please do the same. 
 32:57: Like your, yeah, your topic is exotic, but who knows? 
 33:00: Maybe they want other person will be inspired and, and, and understands 
or has a different view on the stuff that organizers like me do. 
 33:07: So yeah. 
 33:08: Well, I found your talk to be very inspiring very in line with what we do at 
TYPO3 and The events here are so special and so many familiar faces, so it was 
very nice to meet you. 
 33:19: I appreciate you coming to talk with me and also I hope to be at beyond 
tellerrand next year. 
 33:25: I wasn't there this year. 
 33:27: I live in Berlin, but I will hopefully attend next year. 
 33:30: So thank you so much. 
 33:32: Thank you. 
 33:37: So that was the interview with Mark Tla at T3CON this year, and I hope that 
everyone enjoyed this special episode and conversation with him. 
 33:45: A big thank you to Mark for carving out some time to speak with me at the 
conference. 
 33:49: I know it was really busy and there were a lot of things going on, and I hope 
anyone listening, you know, has a greater understanding and  yeah, appreciation 
for all that goes into the planning of independent events and Yeah, realizes why 
they matter, and especially as they pertain to TYPO3, so I hope you enjoyed the 
episode. 
 34:10: To wrap up, when will I see or where, where will I see you next? 
 34:14: I believe I'll see you at the marketing sprint. 
 34:16: In Dusseldorf in February. 
 34:18: Yes, so we have the marketing sprint coming up and there's still time to 
register, so we'll put the link in the show notes if you're interested in coming to the 
marketing sprint in February, kicking off the new year, strong already with lots of 
travel, camps, conferences, so everything is back in full swing. 
 34:34: Now we've had, haven't had confirmation yet, but  at the time of recording, 
we believe that Daniel has landed in Florida. 
 34:40: And that he is safe. 
 34:42: So I think next month we'll see if we can persuade him to come onto the 
show and tell us a little bit about what he's been doing at the CMS kickoff 
conference with Janus Boye in Florida as well. 
 34:54: So I think it'd be quite nice to see, see what he's been up to. 
 34:56: And I think it's on everyone's minds in entire community. 
 34:59: I think we're all wondering and worrying whether he got sun burned as well. 
 35:03: So we need to find out as soon as we can when he comes back if he's safe 
and suitably tanned. 
 35:09: So yeah, that's something to look forward to next month. 
 35:11: That's the burning question in all of our minds. 
 35:14: And also as an American, of course, I'm dying to know Daniel's 
impressions of the US. 
 35:20: I see he's already had some American beer and an American burger, so 
you know, you basically said it all at that point. 
 35:27: We should have weighed him before he left. 
 35:31: And waiting when he came back. 
 35:32: Could we say that? 
 35:33: Yeah, we're going to say it. 
 35:34: OK, we should have done that. 
 35:35: But until February, I will see you then and take care. 
 35:38: See you next month. 
 35:44: I'll schedule the message to go out in the morning or something, but yeah, 
it'll be alright. 
 35:48: Cool. 
 35:48: OK. 
 35:49: OK, thanks. 
 35:50: Bye bye bye.