It's been more than two weeks since Imagine 2016. Most of the posts on it have been written but I still haven't fully digested everything that happened, all the discussions held, all the people met and all the ideas sown.
To put my Imagine into perspective I am just going back to my prior goals:
Meet old and new friends
Every year that I come back there are more and more people to reconnect with. It feels more like a class reunion than business - the parties certainly help. If I missed you, I am sorry and there is hopefully always the next community event coming up or just good old email. Also met lots of new, interesting and inspiring people - the Magento ecosystem is a diverse bunch.
Finish the Big Dam Run
I did it. I ran the 10K and then some more as my goal was to see the Dam. It was called the Big Dam Run after all - but you don't get to see the dam on the 10K course. I call it the irresistible Brent upsell.
Survive giving my first presentation at Imagine
Fortunately my talk was one of the earliest ones on Monday which meant I could enjoy some of the other sessions after it as well.
Great, concise talk @foomanNZ! #MagentoImagine #deepdive
— Ben Robie (@benjaminrobie) April 11, 2016
@foomanNZ presentation at #Imagine2016 makes me want to blow off the rest of the day and go play with M2 testing framework.
— Laura Folco (@lfolco) April 11, 2016
Thanks for the great talk, @foomanNZ #learnedSomething
— Vinai (@VinaiKopp) April 11, 2016
The feedback that I got was very complimentary so would like to think it went reasonably well. If you attended and have more feedback please don't be shy and I'd be very thankful for your help to improve my speaking skills.
See Marketplace get launched
Marketplace got launched and I was part of the inaugural Marketplace council meeting. Thank you Magento for listening and the very constructive round. Congratulations on launching the first version and it's great to see that Magento is keen to iron out the edges to make this marketplace worthy of what the Magento ecosystem deserves.
Semantic Versioning
I only had time to broach this topic but I have created these follow up tickets on github after the conference to keep the discussion going:
https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/4230
https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/4228
Anyone with thoughts on these please make your voices heard.
Magento & Composer
I had some good discussions around it but further tests with the marketplace are needed. I believe the end goal is for Magento to offer the power of composer to those that want it but hide it away in the Web Setup Wizard interface for those that just want an easy UI. There are still a few scenarios to work through but I think this truly would offer the best of both worlds.
Enjoy the conference
I titled this #peakImagine as I think it personally can't get any better than this.
As an unexpected surprise Mark highlighted the Fooman story on the biggest stage as part of his keynote:
Who man? Fooman! Great we can recognize those that strive and succeed to provide great solutions for merchants pic.twitter.com/BHdQcPimzc
— Paul Boisvert (@ProductPaul) April 12, 2016
BIG SHOUT OUT TO @foomanNZ AWESOME!
— Brent W. Peterson (@brentwpeterson) April 12, 2016
Big shout out to @foomanNZ by @mklave1 at #MagentoImagine, well deserved!!! pic.twitter.com/8fWTBd8Pp1
— ebizmarts (@ebizmarts) April 12, 2016
And to top it all off it also was the year I was awarded the Magento Masters
As always the conference is over before you know it. You never get enough sleep and standing on your feet and talking all day is something my body isn't quite accustomed to.
Thank you Magento and I am already looking forward to my next Imagine.