Codegarden 16 is approaching fast, and as a first timer at the conference, these are my expectations. 

I'm in a bit of a special situation, as i work at Umbraco HQ, meaning that I'm in the middle of all the planning, and gets all the insider information about what is going to happen, and what we would like to see happen. Even though I was hired some 6 months before Codegarden 15, I didn't have the chance to attend, as my wife was expecting our second child just after the conference.

That also meant that I heard all the buzz, and hype at the HQ, but didn't get any fun out of it :-(. That is going to change this year. The date is set, and the family has been notified that I'm not going to be around those days.

I'm in the lucky situation that the CG venue is located some 15 minutes on a bike from my home, so getting there and back shouldn't be an issue.

As for the conference itself I'm really looking forward to hearing some inspirational talks from people using Umbraco in their day to day life. The sessions currently published looks awesome, and I'm excited about seeing stuff like "Personalization in Umbraco", "Flexible Load balancing" and "Pushing Umbraco to the limits".

Furthermore, I'm excited to be able to meet some of the people that has been using Umbraco as a Service, and get some of their stories about how they are utilizing the system, and hear their opinions about it. Learn if the know about Echo Deploy, or have gotten "Have you tried turning it on and off again" from our support. Reason is of course that I'm primarily working on Umbraco as a Service, developing new features, and brushing off tweaky ones. 

Besides the sessions and the more serious content, this conference is about the Community. I've heard a lot of positive mentions about this being the best community, and that everyone there comes with a open mind, willingly to meet new people and just have fun. The pre-Codegarden party is a must attend (insiders at HQ already knows not to miss it), there is even Pull Requests coming in from the Community (check image below).

Besides the Pre-Codegarden party, what I'm really looking for is the infamous Codegarden Bingo. The current situation at Umbraco HQ is that we are getting mail/packages from all kind of weird places. These are all accessories for the Bingo. I can't spoil anything, but I promise It'll be fun, and it's a must attend for everyone attending Codegarden. 

Company wise, Codegarden is the time of year where all members of HQ gets uKnighted. The company is spread over multiple locations, mostly in Odense, but also Paris, Bellingham and London. Having all members attend gives us the opportunity to get some socializing done with our colleagues, that a can't be done in a Hangout/Skype session. Internal lingo like SuperTak will be flowing through the HQ.

Finally, being locally based, I'm looking forward to show some of the city for the people that comes to Odense for their first time. It really is a great city with lots of hidden gems throughout the city. If we are lucky the weather will be nice (which it usually is in Denmark in June), and the city/harbor (next to the CG venue) will show its greatest sides.

I hope to see and meet as many of the people of the Umbraco community in Odense in June as possible.

A little image from the Codegarden workshop, where all the props for CG is being created.