Will Strohl's Blog

I have to be honest…  I lived in Florida most of my life.  With one exception, the only times I’ve been to South Florida were to speak at code camps, or for wrestling tournaments.  (I was a pretty good wrestler when I was in high school.)  I am continuing the trend on August 28, 2012 when I come to the FLA.Net West Palm Beach .Net User Group to talk about DotNetNuke.  It’s very exciting for me to return to Florida in such a beautiful area, and I appreciate this user group welcoming me.

Unless you’ve literally been disconnected from the internet for the past 2 months, the Day of DotNetNuke Charlotte was held this past weekend.  After having the event in many notable places like Orlando, Tampa, Chicago, Paris, and Nova Scotia, Charlotte had its turn.  Not to be outdone, the sons and daughters of Charlotte did not disappoint.  If you missed it this year, you REALLY missed it…

Man… What a year.  Really.  A lot of things have happened, and it’s already 1/4 of the way over.  The best part is that we have a brand spanking new release of DotNetNuke that features social features for all editions of DNN in the 6.2 release.  That release is right around the corner, and DNN Corp folks have been busy blogging about 6.2 features quite regularly.  But wait, there’s more!  That’s right… This is my elevator pitch, or boardwalk pitch.  You choose.  Just don’t call me Billy Mays or Vince Shlomi.  Go ahead, look them up.  One was great but passed away, and the other.  Well, let’s just not go there.

We just had the first Bay Area DotNetNuke User Group (BayDUG) meeting after having a break for over a year now.  It was a great presentation.  Chris Hammond did an overview of the features that DotNetNuke now offers to people that enable them to being rolling out their mobile-friendly websites.  As great as the overview was, it was missing something…  Why would you use one feature over another?  What should I think about before deciding the “best way” for my website when building my mobile-friendly site?

I look forward to many things at DotNetNuke World – the networking, the events, the people, and more.  But one of the things I enjoy immensely is preparing a presentation for people.  This year, my presentation for DNN World was DotNetNuke Widgets, from A to Z.  Widgets (a.k.a., skin widgets) in DNN are largely misunderstood and seldom used. 

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting with and giving a presentation to the Queen City DotNetNuke User Group (QCDUG) in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Clint Patterson had been asking me to visit the user group for the better part of a year now, so I decided to finally make that a reality.  Last Thursday, I joined many others in attending their meeting – but I also had a presentation to give…

I love to see success in any shape in the DotNetNuke community and ecosystem.  I especially love the successes that we see in user groups.  I blogged about an up and coming user group in Charlotte, NC not too long ago.  They have been experiencing incredible growth for a niche topic user group (as all DNN user groups are).  I knew then that it wouldn’t be long before I would find myself in Charlotte presenting at the Queen City DotNetNuke User Group (QCDUG). 

Every year since the first North American DotNetNuke conference (then named OpenForce), it was nothing short of the who’s who of the DotNetNuke community and ecosystem.  The buzz resulting from people before, during, and after the event was simply gravitating, and was sure to make anyone who didn’t attend jealous of those that did.  If you pay any attention to the blogs, forums, and twitter during this time, this proves true every year.

I was one of the lucky ones last year.  The two years prior, I was not able to get into the door of the annual DotNetNuke conference.   Last year was different.  I was finally accepted into the elite and mystical community of speakers that make up the annual DotNetNuke conference.  While last year it was in a different place and a different name, I fully expect DotNetNuke World this year to be the best DNN Corp conference ever!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to speak at a user group meeting.  I think the last time was December of 2010.  While that doesn’t sound like a long time, it was nearly 6 months ago!  I am attempting to make up for it next month with two DotNetNuke user group meetings in June.