I am a member of the Joomla Extensions Directory Team and I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to attend J and Beyond 2013, which was held in Noordwijerhout in the western Netherlands from May 31st until June 2nd. Before the conference began I experienced the Netherlands a bit and I tell a few stories below, but there was a moment on the first official night of the conference when I grasped just how wonderfully global and diverse the Joomla community really is.
After a very funny keynote presentation from Peter van Westen, attendees migrated to one of the fabulous restaurants at the NH Conference Center Leeuwenhorst. I sat down to dinner with Saurabh Shah, my colleague from India and a member of the Joomla Social and Events Teams, and OSM Board Members Javier Gomez from Barcelona, Spain and Ofer Cohen from Tel Aviv, Israel. Four guys from four countries on three different continents talked about Joomla and recent strides the community has made to reach more users worldwide. Saurabh shared his passions for marketing Joomla internationally. Ofer told a story about Eden Orion, an Israeli who was making Joomla more accessible to Hebrew-speakers. Javier talked about the importance of people like Guillermo Bravo, who won a J!OSCAR Personal Contribution Award earlier in the night for his work promoting the JCM to Spanish speakers.
A few days earlier I arrived into Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and met up with Matt Baylor and Tessa Mero, also of the JED Team. We traveled by train and taxi to the conference center where we enjoyed lunch and a Belgian Trappist Ale. Later that day I rented a bicycle and rode to Noordwijerhout and witnessed the beautiful landscape, the floral agriculture industry, and some of the local establishments and culture.
The next day I traveled back to Amsterdam to meet Saurabh and Ryan Ozimek, former OSM Board President. We spent the day walking around Amsterdam. Fortunately for us, Ryan had been to Amsterdam a few times and served, very effectively, as our tour guide. Yes, the architecture in Amsterdam is fascinating; yes, the food is eclectic; yes, there is a pub on every corner; yes, there are coffee shops that don't sell coffee; and yes, there is a place called The Red Light District where we were advised to avoid direct eye contact and put our cameras away. It was the diversity of the people in the city, though, and the history of the city captured by the local museums and written onto the cobblestone streets, that stood out as being Amsterdam's most attractive feature.
That evening we returned to Noordwijerhout in time for the pre party where I met more members of the community. Through the conference the JED Team was productive as we wrote and published a JED 3.0 RFP and a draft of the new JED Terms of Service. I was able to attend several presentations and keynotes and, of course, I got to watch the Joomla Bug Squad in action. It was an incredible week.
The coolest part of the experience, though, was getting to meet the people behind the avatars. Up until that point I only knew most Joomla community members as headshots and skype handles. Yes, Marijke does bring Stroopwafels to Joomla Events; yes, Brian Teeman does talk a lot (in a good way); yes, event attendees have an affinity for alcohol; yes, David Hurley is exceptionally nice; and yes, Saurabh is cooler in person. I have been working with Joomla since 2011 when I joined CloudAccess.net. Over time I have been introduced to various aspects of the community by contributing articles to the JCM or by taking part in chat groups, but meeting and connecting with the people behind the project and learning their unique stories was by far JAB's most appealing feature.