T3DD15 for non-attendees

By: Florian Weiss

The Top 10 reasons why you missed out on something (in no particular order)

The Castle
4 days of lodging and events in a castle – yes, a castle. Usually a youth hostel, this location has been exclusively reserved for the TYPO3 event.
Care to have a beautiful view over the city of Nürnberg on the battlements after attending a session? At the T3DD15 you could.

The TYPO3 sessions
Templating, Page loading speed, lock mechanisms for caching, functional tests in TYPO3, test-driven development, Fluid Content Elements and many more, I should not need to tell you why those were great to hear if you work with TYPO3.

Non-exclusive sessions
While the main focus of the sessions was of course TYPO3 CMS, the organization also supported the hosting of non-directly related entries. Therefore you also found general website technique (e.g: PHPStorm, Composer, LESS/SASS/CSS), Development environment (Vagrant, Puppet, Docker), Neos (2.0, content dimensions, page speed optimization, news package) and even health related (Stay fit at work, Yoga) sessions. Furthermore, highlight talks of well-known people from other projects were held. (e.g.: Terrence Ryan of Google)

Wi-Fi quality
2.4 GHz, 5 GHz – good reach over the place, good speed over the whole event.
If you live in the 21st century and you proclaim that free internet access is a basic convention participant right, you were at the right place. Hassle free and solid throughout the days.

Free non-alcoholic beverages
Free like free – nada – nothing. And I’m not talking about 0,25l bottles of tap water, I’m talking about soda, mate, energy drinks, tea, coffee – you name it. By the way – at the time the temperatures rose higher and higher the organization started to hand out 1 l bottles of water, good move!

The organization team and helping hands
They were everywhere! Managing daily support regarding organizational questions, handing out beverages, setting up rooms, offering goodies, and so much more. I’ve never seen a more dedicated and friendly event team.

The Core team labs
Two rooms connected to the main hall having glass walls, allowing you to see the people working inside. The labs housed the two core teams of TYPO3 CMS as well as Neos.
A very nice idea, that not only allowed you to see (the end of) a codesprint, but also gave you the feeling that this is a very open community, inviting you to have a look and talk to the devs.

The giveaways/goodies
The TYPO3 team offered stickers, pens, notepads, glasses, pins, cigars, beer mugs – most of these for free. Most valued non-TYPO3-branded goodie of the event: JWeiland power bar (phone recharger)

Coding-Night
Everyone and their mother coded. Core-devs tirelessly introduced people to the ways of contributing to the core (I saw Markus Klein supporting new folks for over four hours and I’m sure others did the same), people worked on projects, people had conversations about best practices and the future of TYPO3.
You could meet the devs of extensions first hand, receive support, give support, help testing, help coding – time flew and I went to bed around 4 a.m.

The Community
It is said that the TYPO3 community is a very friendly and inviting one and that the events therefore have a special quality. You could feel that at this event. Everyone I met had a very open mindset and while preferences naturally exist and arguments can be had the atmosphere is always very positive and constructive. Especially with the recently new found energy, effort and dedication the core team shows (if you still haven’t checked CMS 7 out yet - you definitely should), the spirit seems to multiply and affect those around. The orange train got rolling again and is making good speed.

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