MageTitans Groningen Relaunch: 13th September 2024
Hyvä Returned to MageTitans with 6 Team Members & 3 Speakers!
After five years, the Dutch edition of MageTitans was relaunched in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. The organizers, our friends and Hyvä Gold Partner, Elgentos, put a lot of effort into the event and made sure that everyone felt welcome, made connections, and learned something new.
Hyvä took part as a Gold Sponsor; we went with a squad of six team members. With Sanne Bolkenstein, Willem Poortman, and Andreas von Studnitz taking the stage, joined by Willem Wigman, Sean van Zuidam, and Simone Zuurveld for an epic day of Magento knowledge-sharing and excellent community vibes.
The event took place in the "Dot" an extravagant half-sphere building that doubles as a theater. Kicking off the day, we were treated to a breathtaking drone flight over Groningen, projected inside the sphere for a fully immersive, 3D experience. It was like soaring through the city without leaving our seats!
After the kick-off by main organizer Peter Jaap Blaakmeer, we enjoyed the talks, covering topics like code quality, frontend performance, Varnish, rapid code development, and the Magento object manager. Check out the full agenda here.
Hyvä Highlights
I’d like to highlight a few of the talks in particular:
Willem Poortman, our main developer behind the Hyvä Checkout, unveiled the magic of MageWire Version 3. His talk delved into the latest features and shared details about the underlying technology MageWire.
Michiel Gerritsen, owner of Control Alt Delete, presented his journey with implementing payment methods into the Hyvä Checkout.
I received some nice feedback after my talk about career options for senior developers.
And, last but definitely not least, Hyvä’s Commercial Director Sanne Bolkenstein presented learnings from re-building the Dutch Magento community under the name of Mage-OS NL after some years of inactivity.
One of the most important aspects of Magento events is the social part. On the evening before, during the breaks during the event, and during the after-parties (yes, plural: the official one ending at 8, and the unofficial ones after that), you could see people chatting, laughing, and generally having fun all the time.
With around 80 participants, there was some space left for more people, but it wasn’t too empty either.
For me, it was the first time at MageTitans Groningen, but I felt welcome immediately. I really liked the atmosphere and the friendly vibes everywhere. The talks were of high quality, and the organization was flawless with a lot of nice details.
Personally, I especially enjoyed meeting some of my colleagues after having joined Hyvä less than two weeks before, some even for the first time.
Special thanks to Finn Reinhardt from basecom for sharing some absolutely stunning photos of the event and really capturing the essence of MageTitans Groningen 2024. You can view and download the photos here.
Finn generously shared his images with the community, allowing us to use them freely (credit appreciated but not required). You can learn more about him on LinkedIn.
We will be back next year, for sure!
