Fresh from the plantation

Christchurch NZPUG Meetup This Friday

tim — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:01:52 +1300

Just to let you all know that we've got the following event this Friday. Again we ask that you send an email to meeting-christchurch AT nzpug dot org so we have an idea of those who are coming along.

Again we'll order some pizzas so please bring along some money to contribute to this (usually works out at about $7-8 each).

Details are as follows:

Date: 5 March 2010
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
URL: http://nzpug.org/MeetingsChristchurch/Mar2010
Talks:

Darryl Cousins: "Demo: Building a web application using repoze.bfg"

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Christchurch NZPUG Meetup This Friday

tim — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:55:55 +1300

Just to let you all know that we've got the following event this Friday. We ask that you send an email to meeting-christchurch AT nzpug dot org so that your name goes into the draw for our giveaway book (got one on: Programming on Google App Engine).

This time we'll really order some pizzas so please bring along a few dollars to contribute to this.

Details are as follows:

Date: 29 January 2010

Time: 5:30-7:30pm

URL: http://nzpug.org/MeetingsChristchurch/Jan2010

Talks:

Michael O'Connor & Tim Evans (ARANZ Geo): "Geological Modeling software built in Python"

Look forward to seeing you all there!

LCA2010

tim — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:13:10 +1300

Well I just touched back down in Christchurch after returning from LCA2010 in Wellington. Overall the event was worth every penny and featured a number of high profile speakers from a number of FOSS projects. In fact, one thing that really struck me about the event was the number of 'offshore' speakers (in fact delegates too) - people that I would never have an opportunity to meet or hear present otherwise.

This was my first LCA and obviously coming from a Plone background, the web-related talks interested me most. So my conference itinerary consisted of (in no particular order): Puppet, Ruby, Drupal (yes I checked out 'the competition'), Pyglet (hey it's Python), PostgreSQL, Git, Xapian etc etc.

Some of the Plone highlights included: the PloneBoF - we ended up having 7 come along, which was more than the number that indicated they would come along on the wiki. The really good thing was that 3 of these hadn't put their names up on the wiki so if all the BoF'ers had come we would've had about 9 there. There was a lot of positive comments that came out of the BoF but the most interesting comment I took away was from a Systems Architect (ex-Unisys employee) who mentioned that Plone has 3 categories of user: Enterprise who only ever install the stable releases and don't upgrade at all, Developers who are always on the bleeding edge, and Everyone else whose initial attempt at installing Plone is via their distros package management system (there's probably another category of user in here who downloads the installers from plone.org but this was what he said). And as the Plone packages in most of the distro repositories are pretty out-of-date, their initial experiences aren't all to good. I was thinking that as the Plone installation process is buildout-based, this would be quite difficult to merge with the package installation process of most distros. It would be good, though, to make contact with some of the volunteers producing the various Plone distro packages and getting them to participate and interact a bit more with the core Plone community.

Attending the Drupal tutorial also opened my eyes to the excellent 3rd-party package installation experience Drupal provides for their users. Users can install 3rd-party packages directly from the administrative interface and also search for and install updates for their currently installed ones. That is something we need in Plone! Drupal does appear to be going through some of the growing pains Plone went through with content types developed thru-the-web and difficulty in porting this content type code to other Drupal instances - an essentially solved problem in the Plone space.

All-in-all an excellent event and one I'd definitely recommend to anyone. LCA2011 will be in Brisbane in February 2011 (dates to be confirmed). As an aside, I also took away some tips for Kiwi PyCon 2010, which is looking to be held in November 2010 - hopefully we'll see some of you there!

Plone Birds of a Feather Session at LCA2010

tim — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:37:30 +1300

I'm organising a Plone Birds of a Feather session at LCA2010. It'll be on Wednesday, January 20th from 14:30-15:15 in Civic Suite 3 (which is apparently in the Old Town Hall building). Topics up for discussion will include:

Plone 4 and Beyond
E-Commerce in Plone
Interconnectivity with RDBMSes
Plone Theming
Plone Support in NZ
Etc

essentially whatever anyone would like to discuss.

So if you'd like to find out what Plone is all about or talk some nitty-gritty regarding some specific aspect of the Plone CMS, come along this Wednesday and have a chat (I have asked that those coming along also list their names on the Plone BoF wiki page or drop me an email, just so we've got a bit of an idea of numbers).

More information is available here: https://conf.linux.org.au/wiki/PloneBoF.

Conference Sets The Bar For Future Ones

tim — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:49:34 +1300

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

November 13, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

What do 150 software developers, a 2 day conference, and a programming language called Python add up to? Kiwi PyCon 2009, which was held in Christchurch this past weekend. PyCons are held annually throughout the world but this was the first time the event had been held in New Zealand.

The main keynote speaker, Joel Burton, who was flown from the US courtesy of both the Python Software Foundation and the Plone Foundation gave his presentation on the Saturday morning entitled “Why Python Web Frameworks are Changing The Web”. His presentation looked at some history of the development of Python Web Frameworks and also why Python is becoming the language of choice for many web developers.

The conference had two main tracks, with delegates enjoying presentations on project management, science and maths, games and animation, and web development. There were also more interactive sessions with conference attendees participating in short presentations or open discussions on a specific theme.

Tim Penhey, the conference's second keynote speaker, presented his talk on the Sunday morning entitled “Launchpad: The Good, the Bad, and the OMG How Does That Work”. His presentation took a look at the lessons learned from building and running the launchpad.net project.

“The feedback we've received from the attendees has been really positive”, commented Tim Knapp, the conference's Director. “Everything went really smoothly thanks to all involved and I'm so happy that we could set a high standard for future Kiwi PyCons”. Preparations to hold Kiwi PyCon 2010 in Paihia are already underway. For more information go to http://nz.pycon.org.

-------------------------------Ends-------------------------------

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Kiwi PyCon 2009 Recap

tim — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:27:37 +1300

Just thought I'd do a bit of a recap from an insiders perspective on how things unfolded during the course of Kiwi PyCon 2009. Needless to say, the organisation of the event happened over a few months and most of the preparations had been done quite a bit in advance of the big day. So this is more of a how did all these preparations culminate and did it blow up in my face or did we bask in 'our' success :)

Friday

On the Friday of last week around midday, I went to the printer and picked up the conference programmes (they also combo-ed as a name badge). They looked great. I then swung back round home and picked up Dylan Jay as well as all the conference gear (i.e. signage, some food items, T shirts, lanyards + pouches, etc).

We got to the venue about 12:30pm and started unloading the car. Fortunately Party Warehouse had already delivered the 120 chairs, 2 PA systems + wireless mics, and the disposable eating utensils. Andrew Groom had already arrived and a few more helpers arrived in short order so I got them started setting up the chairs in both the Track 1 and Track 2 rooms. Meanwhile I shot off to the Effusion Group offices to pickup the power boards + extension power leads (thanks guys!), as well as a few coffee plungers.

After getting back to Cii, a few more volunteers had arrived so I asked if they could start laying out the power boards and power leads. The idea was to lay them out underneath the seats to allow the delegates to plugin during the sessions. I also asked if the projectors and projector screens could be setup and got Darryl Cousins to setup the registration area (Darryl also did an excellent job of looking after the registration area during the conference). In the meantime, Dylan and I got into putting up the conference banners.

Brian Chatterton arrived soon after with Andrew Turner and started getting stuck into setting up the wireless network. They had about 6 wireless APs, 3x 802.11a and 3x 802.11g. I better add that Brian did an excellent job of setting up and running the network during the conference (which is further borne out by the conference survey results). He also sacrificed going to the Pre-Conference Party and even the dinner we had on Saturday night to iron out some network issues.

Jonathan Harker of Catalyst IT arrived about this time and got stuck into setting up their sponsor table. Michael Hope had gotten into setting up his video camera in Track 2 and after finishing up with this I asked if he could also get the 2 PA systems setup. I was still dilly-dallying with getting the main front banner up and getting distracted with other issues so I eventually got Dylan to finish this up for me while I had to shoot away and take my dog to the vet about 5pm.

After getting back to Cii around 6pm-ish, I finished the setup of the entrance area (particularly getting the partitions for the Cii reception area in place) and also asked if Michael Hudson could confirm where he would be taking the post-registration photos. We ended up draping one of our white table cloths over one small section of wall and using this as a backdrop for the photos. I also asked if Natalia Tyan and Jane Hill (both from powerHouse) could setup the boardroom as this is where we would be putting out the conference food.

The projectors and projector screens were now setup but we were using a whiteboard in Track 1 as a projector screen and it was really not suitable as a projector screen. This was partly due to our wanting to keep the whiteboard in Track 1 as that is where the Lightning Talks and Open Spaces Sessions would be but also because we only had 1 proper projector screen (we actually had 2 but 1 was permanently fixed and therefore couldn't be repositioned for our needs). Things were getting a little stressful as it was already about 8pm but Jane phoned up Steve, the powerHouse CEO, and he said he could bring his projector screen in for our use - what a lifesaver! Jane then made another call to another contact and arranged for him to bring in his newer and brighter projector for our use. Even better!
It was around 8:45pm now and we'd pretty much finished up the setup of the venue so Dylan and I headed over to The Twisted Hop for the Pre-Conference Party, which incidentally was a great venue and thanks to Marek had lots of yummy food!

Saturday

I woke up about 5am and couldn't get back to sleep so got showered and dressed, woke up Dylan and headed over to the venue about 8am. Natalia had already opened up and there were already delegates lining up at the registration desk, which was a bit of a surprise given we'd said 8:30am was registration opening time. So Natalia and a few others mucked in to get them signed in and I headed upstairs to get the projector going with the event/sponsor slides and to switch on the background music.

Something that was raised the day before regarding displaying the venue's sponsor logos was raised again and we decided to cover them up with the event's sponsor logos. Some last minute signage was also made up for the Track 2 door, some signage on the entrance as well as the boardroom and then the event was underway with my welcome speech.

There was a good sized audience for the opening speeches. Danny Adair (NZPUG President) followed my speech with a few opening words and then Joel Burton began his speech: Why Python Web Frameworks are Changing The Web. Joel gave a captivating speech and drew a few laughs from the audience with some of his witty comments.

I'd organised for a couple of local cafe restaurants to heat up our savouries for the morning teas and this all went very smoothly both with delivery and pickup by our great team of snack runners: Dylan, Michael, Natalia, and Darryl. So following Joel's talk we were into our first morning tea, which all went very well, including Natalia and Michael's hardwork in the kitchen pumping out the plunger coffees.

Then Track 1 and 2 split off into 2 sessions and I chaired Track 1 while Guy Kloss chaired Track 2. I kept a fairly tight rein on the timing of the talks and Guy and myself also tweeted each of the talk titles as they unfolded throughout the day.

Papas pizzas delivered our 75 pizzas labelled and on time and I also kicked off the lunch break with our first draw of 4 books courtesy of our schwag sponsors.

Guy had spent some of the morning tea break scheduling the Lightning Talks and finished this off over the lunch break. So following lunch we all gathered again in the Track 1 room for the 12.5 Lightning Talks (the first one by Morris Johns was a very brief intro to his arduino robot).

Then again we split into 2 tracks until afternoon tea, which again went very smoothly thanks to Natalia and Michael's efforts in the kitchen. Things did get fairly hot in the Saturday afternoon in Track 1, though, due to the lack of air conditioning at Cii but Morris did manage to prise open a window, which helped alleviate things. I also did another draw of 4 books during the afternoon tea break. All in all I did 4 draws over the 2 days, with the draw for the Webstock schwag being made on the Sunday lunchtime.

Day 1 finished without a hitch and we ended up heading off to Tulsi for dinner, which was something we organised as a spur of the moment thing on the Saturday afternoon.

Sunday

I got an early night on the Saturday night and ensured I slept at least 8 hours so I'd have enough energy for the last day. We arrived at Cii at about 8am and it was all shut up. So I used my Cii access card and security code to open up and gave the coffee barista a quick call to see how far away he was. We'd organised for him to setup outside the front entrance, where he'd serve fresh espresso coffee out of the back of his converted kombi van from 8-10am. It went down really well and the delegates lined up and handed over their free espresso voucher. Take my word for it, this coffee is the best in New Zealand!

Then at 9am the sessions kicked off again with me giving my Getting All Your Web Apps To Wear The Company Brand presentation in Track 1 and Stuart Mitchell presenting in Track 2. Again morning tea passed without a hitch and Guy used this time and lunch to organise the Open Spaces Sessions. I also made an announcement preparing the delegates mentally for aiding in the big tidyup that would be needed at the end of the event.

A couple of talks later and we were together again for the second keynote by Tim Penhey: Launchpad: The Good, the Bad, and the OMG How Does That Work. Tim also gave a great keynote and looked very poised in front of the 150 strong crowd (he even finished within time!).

Then it was time for lunch with John at Subway delivering on time and even throwing in a bunch of free cookies to boot, which were a real crowd pleaser.

Following lunch we were into our Open Spaces Sessions, which went quite well but did feel a little rushed at 30 minutes a pop (originally they were set at 45 minutes but the delegates pushed for 30).

Following the Open Spaces Sessions we had our last afternoon tea, which again went swimmingly well and then it was the homeward stretch to my closing speech, which too came off really well. As part of my speech I again called for volunteers to help out with the final cleanup and also let everyone know the 4 overseers who had been assigned to each area of the venue. The response was absolutely amazing with most of the attendees pitching in directly after my talk and the whole venue being cleaned up in about 30 minutes (some reckon it only took 15!).

All-in-all a very successful event, which I felt was organised well enough and also wouldn't have been possible without the great team of volunteers who helped out in all of the key positions.

Looking forward to Kiwi PyCon 2010 in Paihia!

Conference Emphasises Language's Benefits

tim — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:58:28 +1300

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

November 2, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Simplicity, Flexibility, Beauty!" is the theme for Kiwi PyCon 2009, a conference being held this Saturday and Sunday in Christchurch to promote the Python programming language in New Zealand.

Python has been described as the closest programming language to the English language and is therefore very simple to learn. Due to its simplicity, Otago University have decided to teach Python as part of an introductory course to programming and there will be a presentation at the conference regarding how the course has benefited students at the university.

Python also runs the software on the XO laptops, which have been distributed to over a million children in developing countries worldwide as part of the One Laptop Per Child project. There will be a presentation regarding OLPC at the conference including a demonstration of a number of XO laptops in action.

Python's flexibility will also be highlighted throughout the conference programme, with presentations on how it is being used in the field of animation, in computer games, on cellphones and websites. Some of the presenters at the event will be coming from England, America, and Australia.

“Registrations sold out 4 days prior to the registration closing date” comments Tim Knapp, Conference Director, “which really highlights the great level of interest in the language throughout New Zealand.” The conference starts at 8:30am this Saturday at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator. For more information go to http://nz.pycon.org.

-------------------------------Ends-------------------------------

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Update on Preparations for Kiwi PyCon 2009

tim — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:50:00 +1300

Its exactly 2 weeks until Kiwi PyCon 2009 and preparations are all in hand for a really great event. We'll be releasing another media statement the week of the conference to remind the media about the event and also to get a last bit of advertising out there about the event.
Registrations closed yesterday but we actually sold out the event about 4 days before the registration closing date, showing the great amount of interest in this event, not only in New Zealand but throughout the world. We've got registrants coming from all around New Zealand, from across the ditch in Australia and even from as far away as England.
I'll be sending an email reminder out to all delegates the week of the event with some conference tips courtesy of EuroPython 2009 and also with a little bit more information about the event.
All the organising has come off really well too. The T shirt design, compliments of Matthew Allen, will blow the socks off most other technical conferences worldwide (but hey I'm biased). The T shirt order has also been submitted to the screenprinter for printing. The conference programme design, thanks to Michael Dunstan, has been pretty much all done and will be on its way to the printer come early next week. Even the menu for the 2 days of the conference has been vetted by Nathan Torkington and Jenine Abarbanel.
We've got a last planning meeting with the Kiwi PyCon 2009 Team this coming Tuesday at 1pm and following that its just counting down to the big day. For those who are registered, see you all there on November the 7th!

Plains FM Interview regarding Kiwi PyCon

tim — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:44:43 +1300

Edit: the podcast for the radio interview is available here.

Interviewee: Tim Knapp, Conference Director
Interviewer: Edward Swift, Plains FM

What is Kiwi PyCon?

To promote the use of the programming language Python in New Zealand the NZ Python User Group (NZPUG) is holding the first Kiwi PyCon conference in Christchurch at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator on November 7th and 8th.

What is Python?

Its an open source programming language that is very simple and flexible to use. In New Zealand, Weta Digital use it to produce the special effects and animation in movies such as King Kong and Lord of the Rings. YouTube runs on it and Google rely on it for their day-to-day operations, just to name a few companies who are making use of Python.

What's going to be on the conference programme?

The event will include talks highlighting how Python has been used in web and desktop applications, in the field of science and maths, in gaming and animation, and in various other fields.

The main keynote speaker at Kiwi PyCon, Joel Burton, an internationally recognised trainer and presenter, will explain how Python is becoming the language of choice for developing websites.

The conference has also attracted a lot of interest from many universities throughout the country and staff and students from Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago universities will be presenting regarding how they've used Python in their research.

There will also be an unconference part of the event where delegates will be able to give short 5 minute presentations regarding how they've been able to benefit from Python. So it will be a very interactive event for everyone.

How can people find out more about the event?

Head over to nz.pycon.org. We're expecting 150 delegates from across New Zealand and Australia. We've had 115 registrations thus far and registration closes on October 23^rd so get in quick so you don't miss out.

The event has also only been possible due to the generous support of our sponsors: Canonical, Catalyst IT, Weta Digital, the Python Software Foundation, Unfold Limited and Tait Electronics. As well as Encode Limited, powerHouse, PretaWeb, VortexDNA and the Plone Foundation.

Again, the website to find out more about Kiwi PyCon is nz.pycon.org.

How a programming language is changing the Web

Tim Knapp — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:11:33 +1300

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

October 5, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The main keynote speaker at Kiwi PyCon 2009, Joel Burton, an internationally recognised trainer and presenter, will explain how the programming language Python is becoming the language of choice for developing websites due to its simplicity and flexibility. The conference will be held at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator in Christchurch on November 7th and 8th.

Other tracks at the conference will include: GUI, Science & Math, Game, and Applications. The conference will also have a dedicated Web track, which will include presentations about many Python web technologies, such as: Django, Twisted, Zope 3, Grok, and Plone.

The conference has attracted a lot of interest from many universities throughout the country and staff and students from Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago universities will be presenting regarding how they've used Python in their research.

“As Christchurch has the reputation of being the Silicon Valley of New Zealand, its been really great to see a number of electronics companies in Christchurch support the event”, said Tim Knapp, the conference Director. Tait Electronics, a radio communications manufacturer, is a Gold sponsor for the event.

“The positive response we've received from the IT community in New Zealand has been really encouraging” commented Mr. Knapp. “Really, no matter what industry your business is in, this conference will be of benefit to you.”

Registration closes on October 23rd and registrations are limited. For more information visit nz.pycon.org.

-------------------------------Ends-------------------------------

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Conference brings programming language of the year to NZ

tim — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:17:34 +1200

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

September 21, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

What do Google, YouTube, Weta Digital and the New Zealand Government share in common? They all rely on the 2009 Programming Language of the Year - Python, for their daily operations. To promote Python's use in New Zealand the NZ Python User Group (NZPUG) is holding the first Kiwi PyCon conference in Christchurch at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator on November 7th and 8th.

The event will include talks highlighting how Python has been used in web and desktop applications, in the field of science and maths, in gaming and animation, and in various other fields. The programme will also include interactive sessions with the audience and opportunities for delegates to give short presentations regarding ways they have benefited from Python.

Python is used in New Zealand by reputable companies such as Weta Digital, the company behind Lord of the Rings and King Kong, and is also used extensively by the New Zealand Government, by academic institutions throughout the country and many other commercial organisations.

“We've got a great lineup of talks prepared and we've also arranged for a couple of very talented and engaging keynote speakers for the conference” said Tim Knapp, the Director of the event, “so we really do encourage all members of the IT community in New Zealand to come along, including management, to find out how Python can be used in their organisations”.

The event is supported by reputable organisations Canonical, Catalyst IT, Weta Digital, the Python Software Foundation, Unfold Limited and Tait Electronics. Other supporting organisations include Encode Limited, powerHouse, PretaWeb, VortexDNA and the Plone Foundation.

150 delegates are expected from across New Zealand and Australia and registration for the conference is now open with limited numbers. For more information visit nz.pycon.org.

-------------------------------Ends-------------------------------

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Zope Essentials 7

tim — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:00:56 +1200

I gave a presentation at Zope Essentials 7 in Japanese regarding Deliverance, the new flexible theming technology for Plone. Funnily enough, 2 years earlier, I also attended and presented at Zope Essentials 6, so this was as much a resurrection of the event as an opportunity for me to present again to the local Plonistas.
17 attended including myself and following my presentation I fielded a number of questions from the attendees, which was a good indicator of the level of interest in the technology. Following my presentation, Takanori Suzuki gave a lightning talk regarding eggifying an existing Zope 2 product using ZopeSkel and setuptools. In his presentation he used his PloneSlimbox product as an example. After this, Takeshi Yamamoto presented regarding his efforts to translate the eduCommons project into Japanese, and finally Manabu Terada gave a brief talk on accessibility in Japanese Plone-based websites.
A special thanks to Jay Hotta for helping organise the event, to Manabu Terada for MCing, to the JZUG for supporting it, and to ASCII MediaWorks for hosting.

Kiwi PyCon 2009

Tim Knapp — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:29:42 +1200

On November 7-8, 2009, Christchurch, New Zealand will host the first PyCon in the Asia Pacific region. The event is being organised by the NZPUG and the call has already gone out for speakers and potential sponsors. So please if you're able to help out with either giving a presentation or sponsoring the event, we'd love to hear from you! (the deadline for speaker proposals is August 2!)

World Plone Day

Tim Knapp — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:16:23 +1300

On November 7th, 2008 we will stage the first worldwide event to market Plone to the masses. The event's objective (according to the official event page) is to introduce Plone, via introductory talks, to business, government, NGOs, and universities. The community of developers and consultancies surrounding Plone is second to none and this has been shown once again with the number of countries rallying together to organise events for World Plone Day - 30 events in 22 countries on 5 continents (and counting).
Here in New Zealand where World Plone Day will see the first light of day, we have 3 events happening nationwide in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. The number of government Plone sites in New Zealand is huge so I've accepted an invitation to give an introductory Plone talk in Wellington (our capital) - thanks to Nate Aune for the talk material!
Other activities on the day will include: prize giveaways, refreshments, examples of how Plone is being used in the 'real world', and opportunities to chat to Plone experts.
A big thanks to all our sponsors, to Meghan Murphy for the awesome World Plone Day logo, to all those who've volunteered their time thus far in organising the events worldwide (and on the day!), and to the great Plone community who foster an environment where all this is possible!
Lets make sure World Plone Day is a roaring success and please share the success of your event with the rest of us by tagging any blog posts, photos, videos, or anything else from the day with 'worldploneday2008'.

Inaugural New Zealand PloneGov Meeting

Tim Knapp — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:15:22 +1200

On Tuesday, July 1st, 5:30pm at 3months' offices in Wellington, New Zealand we had a meeting with many representatives from New Zealand Government to introduce the PloneGov project to them. Joel Burton also made a guest appearance (thanks Joel :)) and did an excellent job of introducing Plone 3's features from both the perspective of a user and/or developer. Until then I'd only heard about Joel's excellent teaching skills but now I can personally say he's a very engaging and interesting speaker!
We had about 15 attend from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Auditor General, the Treasury department, the State Services Commission, the National Library, the Electricity Commission and some from the commercial sector. We've had good feedback from many who attended and have already begun organising a followup event in the form of NZ's first Kiwi Bootcamp and Sprint for around February 2009! Anyone is welcome!
Video's of both mine and Joel's presentations are available from plone.tv.