TYPO3 Agency Meetup Days 2015 – A report on the Copenhagen and Berlin meetings

Participants

At the Danish meetup seven different agencies gathered with representatives of the TYPO3 CMS core team, of the marketing team, and of the TYPO3 Association. These being Mathias Schreiber, Benni Mack, Alain Veuve, Fabian Stein, Bianca Niestroj, and Naike Schulthess. At the Berlin meetup instead five agencies have come together. While the TYPO3 CMS core team has been represented by its Product Owner, Mathias Schreiber, the marketing team by Alain Veuve and Bianca Niestroj, and the TYPO3 Association by Naike Schulthess. The agencies' representatives had varied roles within their organizations: project managers, marketing managers, business owners, and sales managers.  

The Agenda

1. Introductions

Just like any other event, each of these two T3AMDs have started with a general introduction on the expectations of the marketing team, on why the meetups take place, and by giving the chance to each participant to introduce him or herself.

2. One-year retrospective

Alain Veuve presented to the participants what has been done during the last year, with a clear focus on solving the "management and technical debts" that have been clearly underlined during the last edition of the TYPO3 Agency Meetup Days. But while the past is key to shape the future, the future is what counts now and there is the view of a bright one, subject to a mind-set change which sees engaged people on-board the TYPO3 ship again. At both meetings the agencies' representatives expressed the wish of hearing and understanding more about the TYPO3 CMS and Neos split, as well as to hear about the future of Neos as a separate product.

3. Marketing Material

Fabian Stein (CPH) and Bianca Niestroj (BER) have introduced the development done within the marketing team since the beginning of 2015. The style guide has been presented, together with the created marketing collaterals, and the idea of the merchandise shop. In Copenhagen the participants underlined that one of the key issues related to the image that TYPO3 has in the global market is shaped by typo3.org running on TYPO3 CMS version 4.5. A need for a responsive website is recognized, as well for a leaner one. This is definitely in the list of priorities of the marketing team, together with the idea of renewing the "typo3.com" website for business purposes. There has been the offer by one of the participants to take charge of creating the styleguide.typo3.org page for the use of the Community. In Berlin the request for a German version of the available marketing material was strongly marked. The Berliner TYPO3 agencies also wish for clear communication on the style guide and marketing material and to receive information on where and how to find and get the needed merchandise. The marketing team also used this opportunity to repeat the need for more engagement from the community at the <link http: t3marketingsprint.org _blank>marketing sprints.

4. A look into the future

This section of the agenda has been shaped in form of a workshop. Each participant could write down a list of things he or she expected from the TYPO3 Marketing Team. Quite few ideas have been expressed here, to name few: an easier webpage with a simple overview of what TYPO3 is about (typo3.com), better exposure of cases and clients projects -also through the use of videos and storytelling, funding local PR activities and local marketing events, provide marketing material for shows and fairs (rollups, flyers, etc.), a dedicated newsletter with marketing content, personalized TYPO3 landing pages for the agencies, and more platforms for exchange such as the T3AMDs.

5. TYPO3 CMS

Mathias Schreiber has presented TYPO3 CMS 7 to the participants, explaining that one main focus of the core team was to make the life of a TYPO3 editor a bit easier. Mathias, also known as Mattes, has explained the main changes linked to each session and answered to a series of questions regarding the upcoming versions and releases. For more details on the regular releases of TYPO3 CMS 7, check the news section on <link http: typo3.org news article announcing-typo3-74-nothing-is-impossible _blank>typo3.org. In Berlin the conversation has been partly focused on the idea of the TYPO3 Marketplace for extensions, which has been extensively discussed also during the <link https: typo3.org news article summary-of-the-2014-agency-meetups _blank>2014 Agency Meetup Days. The agencies expressed doubts on whether the marketplace would limit their creativity and freedom somehow, but there is common understanding that the need for quality is a priority and that this can be reached through a regulated platform. *The planned TYPO3 Agency Meetup Days 2015 were originally 12, however London has been cancelled as the minimum number of participants was not reached in due time.