Will Strohl wasn’t joking when he spoke about the DotNetNuke community and welcomed all us newbies to the family during his Keynote speech at Day of DotNetNuke Charlotte. Being the newest member of the Hotcakes team and new to DNN, I had no idea what I was getting myself into as we boarded the plane for Charlotte. From the moment we walked through the door on Friday to set up our sponsor booth, you could feel the Southern Fried theme in the air. Clint Patterson, just one of the many volunteers, immediately welcomed us with a “Hi y’all” as he clutched a mason jar chalice full of sweet tea.

Finally the day I had heard about non-stop for two whole weeks had arrived. The day started with the keynote by Will and progressed with sessions on skinning, DNN social, the DotNetNuke store, social media and content marketing, just to name a few that I was privileged enough to hear. During the event we were giving away a Nexus tablet and a runner up prize of Star Wars pancake molds for participants who followed us on Facebook or liked us on Twitter. The response was amazing and Sean Power won the Nexus and Brian Dukes walked away with the pancake molds.

There were several key events that we went to over the weekend where I was meeting lots of new people and being instantly welcomed into the community. There was a sense of comfort knowing that I wasn’t alone in this new adventure into the world of DNN. Over the weekend, I heard many questions and statements begin with “I am new to DotNetNuke…”

I was reminded constantly throughout the weekend by many people that DotNetNuke was truly founded on community and was an integral part to everyone’s experience with DNN. Since I am not very technical, the biggest takeaway from the event was that it is vital that we all participate in whatever way we can in the DotNetNuke community, to continue to volunteer, to teach training sessions, to answer questions in forums and share information in various social outlets that will help the community grow.

 Thank you so much to event volunteers and QCDUG who spent so much time and effort planning DoDNN, to UNCC for lending us their campus for the weekend, and to all the people that showed up to participate in Day of DotNetNuke Charlotte. We can’t wait to see you again in Palm Beach in October!