Recap: TYPO3 Camp Mitteldeutschland 2018 (T3CMD)

Last weekend all TYPO3 eyes were on Dresden where the TYPO3 Camp Mitteldeutschland 2018 (T3CMD) took place. In previous years there have been lots of TYPO3 Camps in other parts of Europe and Germany. But T3CMD is the very first TYPO3 Camp that has been held in the area of the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt.

As the organisational team put it: “We’ve been to other TYPO3 Camps, have loved them and wanted to fill the geographical gap by creating a new annual event hereabouts. Yet we didn’t know how people would take to it.”

Being the first time round, it was difficult to know how much buzz the event would get.

Vertical take-off, I’d say! The TYPO3 Camp Mitteldeutschland was fully booked, the talks were truly inspiring and both old hands and newbies worked with considerable commitment to make the event a success. It looks like this event may well gain a foothold and become one of the places to be once a year!

The idea of creating the T3CMD was born in 2015 at the TYPO3 Camp Mallorca and has been three years in the making. During the introduction session, Rico Schüppel (CEO of davitec GmbH) and Björn Jacob (CEO of TRITUM GmbH) gave us an insight into why it needed time to shape the event in a good way. Besides the excitement over the freshly conceived idea of launching a new TYPO3 Camp and extending TYPO3 community activity, there were also insecurities and doubts that needed to be overcome.

Since then, TRITUM GmbH has taken an active role in organizing the annual eCommerceCamp in Jena, thus gaining valuable experience and knowledge in organizing large-scale events. This paved the way to putting the T3CMD idea to action.

With joint forces, the TYPO3 User Group Dresden (T3UGDD), davitec GmbH and TRITUM GmbH decided to give it a try and called for sponsors. All three report that they were pleasantly surprised by the large number of people interested in supporting the idea. And that’s how TYPO3 Camp Mitteldeutschland started moving from an idea to becoming reality in January of 2018.

With more than 200 participants, T3CMD 2018 was one of the larger TYPO3 Camps. The location, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden was very comfortable and convenient for the event (short note on the side: their website is powered by TYPO3 CMS!).

A remarkably large number of participants raised their hand to the question “Who is attending a TYPO3 Camp for the first time?” Accordingly, quite a few encouraging sessions were offered to support them in joining the community. The location was well-chosen in that it offered generous spacing for running six sessions at the same time in different rooms. In two of the rooms the sessions were recorded and streamed live for those who couldn’t attend in Dresden.

You'll find these instructional clips (and all sorts of other helpful videos!) on our TYPO3 YouTube channel.

Sessions are part of the game for making TYPO3 Camps successful. Another important aspect is the socializing and networking. There was a warm-up party on Thursday evening at the Café 100, and on Friday evening we took our socializing to Dresden’s famous Bärenzwinger Club. Camp participants came together to spend the evenings getting to know each other better, sharing information, networking and having drinks. Lots of contacts were made – another valuable step in strengthening and growing the TYPO3 community.

With the growing significance of ensuring professionalism in the IT area, TYPO3 certifications play an important role in the industry and can make the difference between your business winning or losing a pitch. To meet this market demand, the TYPO3 education team offered on-site exams for the TYPO3 Certified Integrator (TCCI), the TYPO3 Certified Developer (TCCD) and the TYPO3 Certified Consultant (TCCC) on Friday afternoon. 33 camp attendees took their respective exam(s) and the results were announced on the same day. We want to congratulate those who passed!

Investing in TYPO3 events benefits the entire community. We could not accomplish our goals without the support, involvement and enthusiasm of all the committed supporters. A big thank you goes out to all the sponsors, the organizational team and of course the helping hands whose generous support, time and effort made this special TYPO3 Camp possible.

A big thank you also goes out to all of the enthusiastic participants: to the old hands for sharing their experiences and helping the newbies to accommodate, and to the newbies for bringing their curiosity and all of their fresh input into the TYPO3 community. It’s the combination that makes TYPO3 Camps the outstanding events they are.