DNN Summit 2017 Denver was a successful event. The organizing team has received a lot of positive feedback from conference attendees, sponsors, and speakers via the DNN Summit app, emails, and word of mouth.
Now that we’ve all had time to get back and regroup we’d like to share a brief recap with everyone…
DNN Association Reflective
The organizing committee can vouch for the fact that it is indeed stressful to host a conference. There are so many details to consider in order to create a positive experience for conference attendees and sponsors. There are a few areas in which we could have executed a little better, but for the most part the event went well. As a committee, our goal is to serve the DNN Community and we feel that we did a good job of that in hosting DNN Summit 2017 Denver.
So what all happened at the event… well it kicked off with the Code-a-thon…
Code-a-thon & Sponsor Set-up
Day 1 started with the Code-a-thon. The DNN Community was fortunate that the team at Engage Software, led by Brian Dukes, stepped up to lead the Code-a-thon. We had a great group that turned out for the Code-a-thon. As organizers, we were pleased with how many people showed up. The room was full and we had people spilling over into the hallway.
Training, Business Roundtable, & Speaker/Sponsor Dinner
Day 2 included training, the business roundtable, and the speaker/sponsor dinner. Training was well received and went smoothly other than one room having some initial issues with virtual machines which we worked diligently to fix. One thing that was notable from the feedback we received was that conference attendees want even more training options (that could be shorter in length) and we will work to meet that need.
The business roundtable was a new addition to this year’s conference and it was a hit! It was very interesting to take part in the session as there was representation from all types of people. We had DNNCorp personnel, module vendors, sales guys, integrators, business owners, etc. It was a great, free-flowing style session where attendees discussed various topics all related to DNN. I think everyone left with new perspectives.
After the day was done the speaker/sponsor dinner was held in the evening. It was another top-notch event with food, drinks, and a first-class skyline view of Denver. It was a great time to connect and engage with some of the most influential people in the DNN Community and beyond.
Conference Day
Conference Day was a non-stop whirlwind! We started the event off with a fantastic keynote from Scott Hanselman. It was an hour filled with info and some witty jokes that only “techies” would understand. We were happy to have Scott join us for the event and he got the conference day started off on the right note!
After the keynote, we rolled into sessions and people were soaking in the knowledge freely shared by fellow DNN Community members. Following the morning sessions, we had a very nice catered lunch + an Evoq demo session by DNN Corp.
Right after lunch we returned to the afternoon sessions where wisdom was again shared across the community.Then at the end of the day we gathered again for Ignite sessions, giveaways, and closing announcements. Aderson Oliveira and Ryan Moore gave compelling Ignite speeches and then we gave away a lot of “swag” items including a paid for trip to DNN-Connect courtesy Managed.com. We also gave away the "Travel Awards" which were given to the individuals who, by count of hours, it took the longest time to arrive to Denver for DNN Summit. Pictured below is Waldo who traveled from Australia to attend DNN Summit.
Cassidi Peterson closed us out with a brief presentation on the efforts required of DNN Association to host DNN Summit and the people behind the conference. As our main conference day was running a little long it didn’t take long before it was “DNN After Dark” time where the socializing and networking continued.
The DNN Yeti Song!
And, in case you haven’t heard, during conference day the DNN Community was blessed by Ron Miles on Twitter with a theme song for the event based off the DNN Summit 2017 Denver mascot, the DNN Yeti. If you have not seen/heard the video you can see it online: DNN Yeti Song on YouTube (or in our recap video below).
About the Live Stream
We did have an issue early in the day with the live stream. After troubleshooting for a while the live streaming company pinpointed the issue. The hotel had a firewall in place that prevented the live stream from happening. Once the issue was identified it was corrected, but unfortunately that was after a few sessions had occurred.
This caused the keynote and first session to not be live-streamed. However, even though they were not live streamed they were still recorded and will be posted at some point in the future. Follow @DNNSummit on Twitter to be notified when these post.
The Slopes!
After a conference day full of learning, connecting, and socializing the DNN Community awoke the next morning, ate breakfast, walked around a women’s march, found the tour bus and headed to Winter Park, Colorado for 2 full days of tubing, skiing, & snow mobiling fun!
We received a lot of positive feedback around the “slopes” portion of the event. We took Winter Park native, Cassidi Peterson’s, word at our guided adventures and she did not disappoint. From the cabins, to tubing, to the après ski social times & locations, to the skiing and snow mobiling outings everything was top notch… and yes it was cold!
Post Conference Video
We’ve scoured the Twitter-sphere and nagged people for videos and created a post-DNN Summit recap video to help visually make you feel like you were there. Check out the below video
Conference Takeaways
In hosting the conference we learned several things that we will work on to make the next conference better:
- The Community likes Denver as a host city and the DNN Yeti as a mascot
- The conference has brought about some energy & enthusiasm in the community
- The Code-a-thon response was great and as such we’ll plan for larger crowds in the future
- The Business Roundtable session was well attended and appreciated
- The Community wants even more training options
- Get the hotel to remove the firewall blocking the live stream
- The “slopes” portion of the event was loved by many & a great time to connect in a social setting
If you made it to DNN Summit2017 Denver we hope you enjoyed it. If you were unable to we hope to see you next time! Thanks again to the sponsors who made all of this possible!