When the Community Comes Together

On the morning of the first-ever Umbraco India Festival, I stood by the door with my colleagues Emm and Tony, next to the festival organisers, many of whom had been up all night making sure everything was ready. We greeted the participants with high fives in true Umbraco fashion. Over a hundred people came through that door.

The attendees had travelled from all over India, and even from Nepal, to be in Kochi - a beautiful, vibrant and green city in the southern Indian state of Kerala. You might have seen pictures from the festival on LinkedIn already: people are still BUZZING, sharing pictures and highlights from the festival and the hackathon.

None of it came out of nowhere. We already knew the Umbraco community was growing fast in India: we've seen a steady increase in meetups, events and community initiatives over the past few years, and this year there are nine Umbraco MVPs across India and Nepal. It says a lot about the talent being fostered in the region, and I'd be surprised if that number doesn't grow next year.

But knowing a community exists because you've seen numbers on a screen is very different from standing at the door with the people who built it.

That's when it gets real.

Asking someone where they'd come from became a conversation about their home state; what people eat there, how they celebrate, the dances and the music, and recommendations for all the good places nearby to visit. Umbraco was what got all of us into that room, and by the end of the day it was only one of the things we had in common.

The sessions throughout the day had many inspiring speakers. One that stood out to me was Bishal Tim's talk “From Audience to MVP: An Umbraco Story from Nepal”. In 2024, he sat in the audience at a small Umbraco meetup in Kathmandu, where he knew Umbraco only as a beginner. This year, he became Nepal's first Umbraco MVP. What he walked us through was everything in between: answering a forum question here, helping someone debug a project there, showing up to meetups. His point was that becoming an MVP isn't one big achievement, it's small contributions adding up. And that if you're sitting in the audience still finding your footing, you're on the right track.

Part of my job is helping the Umbraco community grow, and what that takes is different everywhere. But this much I know: you can't solely build a community for people from the outside. It has to begin with local people seeing the value of being part of something bigger. Connecting with other like-minded people, and choosing to share and pass on what they learned the hard way, so the next person doesn't have to. Choosing to lift each other up and work together.

I'm heading home with a lot of conversations still running through my head, and the feeling that this week was the beginning of something big.

If you've ever been to Codegarden, Umbraco's annual conference, you might know the "Codegarden blues." That feeling after a great event: you can't quite believe how lucky you were to be part of it, you're excited about everyone you met, your head is full of new ideas - and then you realise the event is over. And you’re not ready for it to be over yet!

This time, I've got the Umbraco India Festival blues.

So - what now? If you were in Kochi: don't let that feeling slip away. Connect on LinkedIn with the people you met, keep the conversations going on the Umbraco Discord, and keep showing up and reconnecting at meetups, virtual or in person. The countdown to next year’s Umbraco India Festival in Goa starts now.

And if you weren't at the Umbraco India Festival this year, this next part is for you. People are building with Umbraco in so many parts of the world where the local community is still finding its feet. India's community didn't appear overnight, and it didn't start with us - it started with a few dedicated people deciding to come together and share their ideas. If that sounds like where you are, reach out to me on LinkedIn and let's talk about what we can do to support and grow the Umbraco community together.

Whether you're thinking of going to the Umbraco India Festival in Goa next year, to Codegarden in Copenhagen, or to a local festival or Umbraco meetup in your own city - I hope you go. And if you've been before, I hope you keep showing up. The people who come back a second time are the ones who turn an event into a community.