Earlier this month, members of the Lightburn team attended the Umbraco US Festival 2024, and it was an incredible experience. We connected with some of the brightest minds in the industry, explored the latest in Umbraco technology, and returned with fresh insights and ideas to share with our team and clients.
For over a decade, Lightburn has been building both simple and complex websites on Umbraco. It’s one of our favorite .NET solutions because of its flexibility, scalability, and ability to deliver great user experiences.
We’re excited to announce Lightburn recently became an official Umbraco Silver Partner! This means our developers will be certified by Umbraco, we actively participate in the community, and Lightburn is informed about the latest releases and product roadmap. The festival further reinforced why we chose to deepen our expertise on the platform and make it part of our development strategy.
Key Takeaways from the Festival
Unified Design Systems Streamline Multisite Management
The event featured an exciting lineup of keynotes and workshops covering the future of Umbraco, best practices, and new integrations. Lightburn’s own Nora Lahl and Stacy Hannemann took the stage to present their session, “From Chaos to Cohesion: Using a Unified Design System to Maximize the Power of Umbraco Multisite.” They shared how a unified design system can streamline multisite management, offering efficiency and consistency across brands, making Umbraco an even more powerful tool.
Umbraco is the friendly CMS with a Strong ROI
Colleen Campbell had the opportunity to join a panel discussion, “Umbraco in Context – Carving Its Niche in the CMS Landscape,” to discuss where Umbraco stacks up against other CMS platforms and discuss digital strategy with other agency leaders from the U.S and UK.
As Lightburn’s Director of Production, Stacy Hannemann, put it “Understanding the potential the platform has for more complex site needs was refreshing! I'm also happy to hear that the developer community seems strong and welcoming.”
Umbraco Engage & Marketing Suite Stood Out
We also got a look at the new Umbraco Engage marketing suite and insights into the product roadmaps. The Umbraco Marketing suite adds advanced marketing analytics, customer insights, A/B testing and personalization to Umbraco, making it a great choice for clients who need a full Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to power their websites and digital experiences.
The Power of Community
While we walked away with a ton of technical knowledge, the best part of the festival was the sense of community. Umbraco’s open-source nature means it’s surrounded by a network of passionate developers and digital leaders. We loved getting to know them, sharing ideas, and feeling part of something bigger.
Nora particularly enjoyed the partner session the day before the festival. “There is clearly a sense of community amongst the partners, and Umbraco HQ genuinely listens. We got a sneak peek of the future roadmap, and there’s a lot of care and thought going into where Umbraco is headed next,” she said.
Scott added, “By leaning into the community and its ecosystem, Umbraco really can compete with much more expensive DXPs.”
Looking Ahead
We’re excited to apply what we’ve learned to upcoming projects, lean into new training opportunities that come with Umbraco Partnership, and keep a pulse on the product roadmap. Whether it’s integrating new tools, refining our processes, or simply delivering better solutions for our clients, there’s lots of opportunities and potential with Umbraco.
As Scott put it, "It was inspiring to see how the Umbraco ecosystem is evolving, and we're eager to bring these ideas back to our clients."
Get in Touch
If you’re looking to upgrade from Umbraco 8 (or older versions), evaluating Umbraco as a CMS/DXP solution for your next project, or curious about leveraging marketing add-ons we’d love to chat!