I was lucky enough to attend the fantastic Umbraco US Festival held in Chicago at the start of October. This was my first Umbraco event in the USA and also the very first US Festival organised by the Umbraco US Foundation, a not-for-profit whose mission is to create a vibrant and inclusive community in the United States.
Events like this take a massive effort to pull off, and given how fantastically it was executed, it’s a testament to the dedication of the US community and particularly the Foundation - so a massive shoutout to (in alphabetical order) Adam, Alex, Allen, Blake, Erica, Heather, Karla, Kyle, and everyone else involved for making it happen.
The event had everything you’d expect from an Umbraco conference - talks, workshops, and, of course, a strong sense of community and learning, and all set against the fantastic backdrop of Chicago.
The event was held at MHub, located in the vibrant Fulton Market District of the city, which was just outside the main downtown area, which was great as it allowed us to explore the city in way we might not have done otherwise.
The setup of the festival was structured across two days, with the first day being all about workshops and interactive sessions.
There were two core workshops, one called 'Unpacking Umbraco: A Developers Introduction' - great for breaking down the core concepts of the platform for newer developers...
... and another on 'Extending the Backoffice in v14' - a hot topic at the moment and something us Umbraco developers need to brush up on, especially ahead of the next LTS (Long Term Support) version when v17 is released in November 2025 (not long away at all!)
In addition, there was a Hackathon in a separate space, and as it was October, this kicked off Hacktoberfest with a bang!
Coinciding with the festival there was also the US Partner Summit, arranged by Umbraco HQ.
After a day filled with learning and hacking, everyone gathered for a brilliant pre-party at District Brew Yards - a ‘pour your own beer’ brewery tap ⚠️.
Huge thanks to Moriyama for organising this... it was the perfect wrap-up to an action-packed day.
Day two saw the main conference, where we were treated to 20 talks and panel discussions spread across two stages.
In true Umbraco style, we were welcomed by some “gentle” but expertly delivered pyrotechnics and also introduced to the (official?) US mascot, Narly - continuing the Unicorn vibes (Narwhals are the Unicorn of the sea right!) and a fun nod to last CodeGarden’s election special.
There were some fantastic talks, and here is a breakdown of the ones I managed to catch.
Heather Burns: An Umbraco Carol: Past, Present & Future
Heather Burns gave an insightful presentation on the Past, Present, Future state of Umbraco.
As a Senior Solutions Engineer at Umbraco HQ, Heather shared her perspective on the new Umbraco versions and the challenges we all face as we transition from older versions.
Her session included some fantastic visual slides on how to talk to clients about the importance of investing in upgrades and keeping technical debt low.
I'm definitely going to draw upon these visuals and analogies - especially v8 as the crumbling house 👏.
Heather also shared some updates on the acquisition of uMarketingSuite and its new name and branding as Umbraco Engage.
I'm looking forward to see what the future holds for the product.
Janae Cram: An Enormous Editor Experience from a TinyMCE
Janae Cram (from Skrift magazine fame) delivered a fantastic demonstration of advanced Tiny MCE features, especially its premium, cloud-based functionality.
Given the recent news that Tiny MCE is no longer the default editor for Umbraco, Janae showed that with premium features, Tiny MCE still has a lot to offer. From handling rogue copy-pastes to customising display and even integrating OpenAI for a ChatGPT-like experience. She also shared some great resources for configuring these features
Janae's GitHub Repo for the talk can be found here
Heather Floyd: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Improving the Architecture of an Existing Site
Heather Floyd, gave a talk that hit home for many of us. She discussed the common challenge of projects that have “lived a life” and accumulated technical debt, CMS structure and editor issues - what she humorously called the “FrankenSite”.
A site with bits tacked on here, there and everywhere, creating a bit of a monster.
Heather took us through real-world examples, sharing advice on how to iteratively resolve, migrate, and improve sites over time. I made plenty of notes on this one, and there’s a resource available online for more detailed information.
Resources for Heather's talk here
Jason Wodicka: Being Human
I was fortunate enough to catch Jason Wodicka’s talk, “Being Human”, which I missed at CodeGarden.
Jason’s perspective on the rise of AI in our lives was eye-opening. Their talk was a thoughtful exploration of what intelligence actually is, how we should remain sceptical of the hype, and why critical thinking is essential when evaluating these claims.
It left us all with plenty to think about regarding our role as humans in a world of rapid technological progress.
It's a fantastic talk and expertly delivered - I recommend you watch the recording here from CodeGarden 2024.
Joe Kepley: Let's make a package!
Joe Kepley from Blend Interactive presented an excellent introduction to building packages for the new v14+ backoffice.
His talk offered practical examples and a fresh take on Web Components, Lit, and the new workflow.
I feel it's important to watch, read and digest as much content on this subject as we can at the moment, especially as we inch our way toward the next LTS when we will all be on the new backoffice.
Joe also shared some code resources if anyone’s looking to dive deeper - available here
Paul Daly & Marc Love: An Award-Winning Workflow: Umbraco + uSkinned Site Builder
Paul and Marc from uSkinned delivered an excellent introduction and overview of the uSkinned extension and Site Builder, which lets you work with pre-built themes and provides a low-code/no-code alternative for building Umbraco sites.
It is a powerful tool for Umbraco, and with the right client, it can be a compelling alternative to other low-code solutions like WebFlow and Framer. The advantage being, it’s also a full Umbraco solution at its core, allowing you to extend and customise with additional components just as you would with any other project.
It was brilliant to finally catch up with the uSkinned team after using their product on some recent projects.
You can find out more about uSkinned here
Callum Whyte: Global Umbraco Cloud
Callum also presented a talk titled Global Umbraco Cloud, exploring how we can elevate the Umbraco cloud to the next level through global distribution.
He covered technologies like Cloudflare geo-steering and Azure Front Door for robust, globally distributed cloud solutions.
Callum also covered personalising content based on a user’s location and even extending to other cloud providers where Umbraco regions aren’t yet available.
Top content for anyone looking to scale enterprise solutions on Umbraco Cloud.
Matt Bliss: Editor First Design: Putting the content editor in the driving seat
Matt Bliss from Moriyama gave a fantastic talk on Editor First Design - a different approach to CMS architecture that prioritises the editor’s experience.
Often, we focus on the frontend user experience, which can lead to overlooking the editor’s needs. Matt reminded us that many complex UX decisions end up being tackled by developers, which can be a tough and sometimes unfair expectation. This level of thinking often requires a different mindset from coding and should ideally happen much earlier in the application design process.
This approach of involving clients and UX designers from the start is one I agree with, even when it requires more upfront investment.
During my time at McCann, we implemented a similar approach, which ultimately led to us winning the Best Editor Experience at the 2023 Umbraco awards. So from personal experience, it definitely has mileage, and can literally reap rewards.
... and myself 😊
One of the main reasons I attended US Fest was to present my talk, “Bake, Don’t Fry - Astro and the Content Delivery API” that I have previously presented at CodeGarden and a number of meet-ups this year.
I enjoyed giving the talk state-side and it was really well received. I'm looking forward to continuing to build on the talk as Astro & Umbraco develop, so do get in contact if you would like me to present at any future event.
I can also now tick 'speaking with mild-severe jetlag' off my list 😅.
As other speakers will well know - writing, preparing and rehearsing these sessions takes a lot of effort, so it’s been rewarding to see it take on a life of its own.
If anyone’s interested in learning more about the writing process or needs support with their own talks (no matter how small), feel free to reach out. I’d be more than happy to help.
For those “in the know,” my talk is baking-themed, and just as at CodeGarden, we managed to source some next-level baked goods for everyone to enjoy at the end - they were seriously good!
Huge shout-out to the other speakers that I did not manage to catch.
It was a fantastic event filled with insightful talks, workshops, community spirit, and the wonderful city of Chicago to explore in between...
... also, the deep-dish pizza from Pequod's was a game changer 😚👌.
🙏 A massive thank you to...
Absurd & Klevret for the sponsorship of my talk and helping me get to the Windy City.
Also thanks to Ravi, Jen & The Umbraco US Foundation for some of the pictures used above.
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