Written By Tycho de Waard (SU)
2025-05-25
DNN Connect Girona...you were amazing. A recap for those who could not make it.
Thursday
Where I normally travel from Amsterdam, this year the schedule made much more sense flying from Rotterdam. I might have been there for 5 minutes and already a familiar voice: Martijn Verbeek from Bond for web solutions and 3 colleagues.
As I arrive pretty early, I have some time to finish up my presentation about DNN Tokens
[frenchAccent]Ow, Tycho, so good to see you again[/frenchAccent]
Cathy, of course. A warm hug, kind words and for the next 10 minutes, more hugs from friends we all call family.
The rest of the afternoon and the evening is filled with reconnecting. Accompanied by the Spanish way of living: excellent wines, great food and the temperature is just right.
As it is Thursday night, everyone knows: Salar won't make it this early.
Friday
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Not just because of DNN 10 (I will dive into Workflows asap) but because Sacha had a demo. And running DNN on .NET Core. Come again? Yes. He explains more about this on https://dnncore.satrabel.be/ and I'm sure that Declan will be able to share the recorded session soon. Everyone excited of course as this is huge! But also with practical feedback. Because: will we be able to migrate / upgrade in a way that fits us? Pretty soon, it became clear we all need the MVC pipeline switcher first. Basically, a switch that allows you in the page settings to be either webforms or to be MVC. This means you can have a hybrid site and replace modules in your own pace. Hang on with the Dom Perignon, make no mistake: a ton of work still has to be done.
As the community has control over the repo for only 7 years, it is actually pretty impressive. At first you need to see what you have, see what is documented well and what not so well, remove a lot of old stuff etc etc. Really cleaning house. And now a believable path to the future. I think Manneke Pis has been the most famous Belgium statue long enough, time for Manneke Trauwaen.
As it is Friday lunchtime, Salar is probably stuck somewhere. My bet was on enhanced interrogation by the guardia civil.
At first, I figured the rest of the day would be obsolete. In the contrary. Of course, Daniel showing off the latest and greatest in 2SXC, new version of Rocket Suite and if you can keep up: DNN Diva is back again. And for another year, Marco stepped up to provide the latest Google Ads tricks. Great tip about Google Grants (a staggering monthly budget of $10.000 if you are a charity or a non profit. That is a lot. Of course a DNN Connect would not be complete if Peter Donker did not find something that many of us did not know it even existed. But Zabbix is very cool, take a look. Special shout out to Daniel who spent his second session on the ransomeware attack he recently experienced. Being honest and open about it, is a key foundation to learn.
As always the day ends with something sportive. The gorgeous surroundings of Girona as a perfect setting for mountain biking a bit of climbing. Only 5 people got hurt and no one really injured. So...not bad!
Friday night and...Salar arrives!
Saturday
Saturday morning...ugh...that's not easy. Time to get energized. Meaning coffee, more coffee and more DNN Diva. Let's rock & roll. On the other track was David R (P was still in the USA) on AI and conversational frameworks. Again he seems to be ahead of the curve in his area. Michael was able to revive his demo install just in time to enlighten us with the latest DNN for intranets.
My own session on DNN Tokens got 3 kinds of responses:
- awesome & powerful!
- may be should have something like this in DNN Core
- this is maybe too powerful.
The last one was Daniel. Afterwards I thanked him a lot. Because this is what open source is all about. To exchange knowledge and views. To combine forces and make things better.
So, what else? Marco with more on Google but this time SEO. Another year means another update. As he is a Google Partner he knows every trick in the book.
At the other track Sacha made AI create Open Content templates and even create DNN skins. All by providing context using MCP. In short: me like. Me want.
In the last round, Timo took us on a tour round the latest Open Content. fresher look, better UX and an Alpaca has been replaced by a Lama. At the same time, David went further on the road of AI also touching the topic 'Security'.
The brown paper session was different this time. Instead of many projects and hoping that some/one of them will be done next year, we are on a mission. It was a unanimous decision that 1 project gets prioritized. 1 project we all know this is number 1, 2 and 3 on the list. An MVC pipeline for DNN and our way towards .NET Core.
There was a lot of commitment, energy and willing to fund. Commitment that was reflected during the General Assembly.
The perfect ending of a perfect day was a wedding just in front of DNN Connect. Of course, as soon as the newly weds left the scenery, Cathy dragged Dave to the arbor for another session: a photo session this time.
The last supper was awesome. Stunning surrounding, picture perfect views, great company, great food. As history repeats itself, we too are waiting for the second coming.
@DNN Connect: many thanks for organizing the events and taking care of us. BTW: I guess we all still need to pay for the biking tour? Just send me a Tikkie :-)