EE Roadshow Event

www.eeroadshow.com
Launched on September 25, 2008
Technology, Make Conferences, Teach People

Read about this project on the blog

In early 2008 Kevin Shoesmith of Venn Communications approached Travis with the idea of bringing EE users and developers together in the “real world”. His original idea was to start an ExpressionEngine meetup group, or something along those lines. Monique Trottier of Boxcar Marketing was brought into the conversation, and soon the “meet up group” idea evolved into something more ambitious - the EE Roadshow. The organizing committee decided to host a one-day event slated for the busy fall season that would be part training, part brainstorming, part networking and geared towards ExpressionEngine users and developers. They also wanted to be able to present EE to a wider audience of people unfamiliar with it and evangelize on how fantastic and versatile it is as a CMS.

Update: The description below is accurate, but we have since held a second event, EERoadshow 2009, in Seattle in October 2009.  It was attended by 80 people and was well received.  Where will EERoadshow 2010 be? Stay tuned!

As the event details came together Havana Theatre and Restaurant on Commercial Drive was chosen as the venue and the date was set for September 26th, 2008 to coincide with Barcamp Vancouver. A dedicated website for the event was set up in ExpressionEngine and ticket sales were made available through eventbrite.

A very important step in the event planning was for Kevin to approach Rick Ellis, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ellis Labs, about attending the event in person. Lucky for us he said yes, and brought his ultra secret special guest Derek Allard with him. The schedule developed from there into four fourty-five minute sessions: “Templates and Buckets: Getting Started in EE” by Susannah Gardner of Hop Studios, “EE 2.0 Control Panel” by Rick Ellis and Derek Allard, “ExpressionEngine and Search Engine Optimization”, a guest panel of experts moderated by Monique Trottier, and “How to Build your First EE Extension” by Travis Smith and Justin Crawford.

We are happy to say the event was a big sold out success, with Havana Theatre filled to capacity. There was a good mix of experience levels in the audience. Most were already users of ExpressionEngine, (some having started as far back as the days of PMachine Pro), while others had yet to do an installation of EE, or were beginners who had come to learn more about it and confirm how awesome a CMS it is. While the majority of people in attendance were from the Vancouver area, we did have enthusiastic users come from as far away as Smithers (BC), Seattle, Portland, Ottawa, and New York State.

National Park Central Reservations
Live on January 13, 2012

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