Despite arriving at 9:15, over an hour before the scheduled beginning, there were already people sat waiting. Either they wanted to ensure they got a good seat or they had only just got in from the pub. I never worked out which but arriving early wasn't a bad idea as the room only had 85 chairs and 90 people had booked.

Dave set about the task of collecting money, without menaces, from everyone whilst I ran around like the proverbial blue a*sed fly setting up projectors and ensuring that all the speakers had actually arrived. Johan had tried to wind up Phil on the Friday by pretending he didn't know about the day or that he was supposed to be the main speaker but it didn't fool me.

10:30 and the queue of people trying to get into the room and find a seat was building up but Dave efficient as ever got everyone registered and seated for the scheduled 10:50 start.

I began the day with a talk entitled "LAFonline.org - Case study of using Joomla in a non-profit organisation" but at the last minute I decided to include a basic introduction to Joomla! and Free Software in general as well as the Five steps to creating a Joomla site. A pdf of the presentation is available here.

After a short drinks break we were all back in our seats to hear the maestro of the template designers Barrie North explain "how to make a Joomla template" and why google is blind. A pdf of the presentation is available here.

Lunch was next and the hotel didn't let us down. There was so much food that even the assembled crowd couldn't finish everything although I have been told that a few people tried to fill a doggy bag for later.

Chris Adams of Rochen was next on the agenda with a quick guide to the infrastructure behind hosting joomla.org. Great to hear that Rochen have everything in place to cope with the expected exponential growth in demand when 1.5 is released.

A nervous Phil Taylor was next on the floor. Despite not knowing at what level to pitch his talk Phil did an admirable job explaining how easy it is to start creating custom components for Joomla!. A pdf of the presentation is available here. 

Another drink and smoke break and next up was Igor Dutra. Igor wowed us all with a sneak preview of the upcoming Porsche Brazil website. I think it is fair to say that when we all lifted our jaws off the ground we were all in awe of the work that Igor and his team have done in producing this site. A pdf of the presentation is available here.

Finally up stepped Johan Jannsens, better known as Jinx, the lead developer for Joomla 1.5. No matter what I may think of my speaking skills etc I am sure that Johan was one of the main reasons that people were at Joomla!Day. This was the opportunity for us all to see what's under the hood of Joomla! 1.5 and to find out "everything you wanted to know about Joomla! 1.5, but were afraid to ask". Johan did an admirable job explaining all the hard work involved and showing us some of the goodies we can expect to see on a website near you very soon. A pdf of the presentation is available here.

The day ended with my surprise early birthday cake for Joomla! and everyone joined in singing "Happy Birthday". Thank goodness they did as my voice is best described as appalling.

Looking forward to seeing even more people at Joomla!Day UK 2007

All images used on this page are © Peter Russell, www.yorkshiremedia (not to be re-used without permission),