Southern Fried DNN Recap

In April we had the pleasure of attending Southern Fried DNN in Charlotte, North Carolina. Applied Innovations participated as a platinum sponsor and had a great time attending training/sessions, networking with attendees at our fun “photo booth”, and even participating in the infamous bull riding competition.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend an Admin 101 class hosted by Joseph Craig and Rob Brynn. They did such a great job walking through the installation, upgrading, and backup of DNN sites that even a mere marketer like myself could easily grasp the processes (ok maybe I’m a bit technical, but there were many non-technical attendees that had a great time and learned a lot). It’s probably also the fact that DNN really is easy to use! Many other attendees got great value out of the training including topics such as skinning and programming. There were even attendees who flew from exotic locations such as Portugal and Australia just to receive the training and they even said it was worth the jet lag!

On day two, Southern Fried DNN was kicked off by an amazing Keynote, presented by none other than “The Real Will” a.k.a. Will Strohl. He reminded us all that a key to success is to participate. If there is anything I have learned about DotNetNuke, it’s that they have a phenomenal community of employees, developers, and users who are extremely engaged and helpful. In case your not on twitter yet, I highly recommend you join and check out all the DNN action (using hashtag #DotNetNuke).

As the sessions commenced, the crowd was excited and very interactive (maybe it was all the sugar in the sweet tea). The sponsors had a lot of fun discussing the latest in DotNetNuke at our booths and we got some great pictures along the way. More importantly though, I am pretty sure this was the best food we all ever had at a conference. Who can say no to fried chicken and hot sauce? Not this girl. After chowing down, we got to have some more picture fun at the Applied Innovations booth. You may recognize some friendly DNN faces or you may not (some were sneaky and wore masks, but I’m not naming any names.) Check them out below.

At the end of the sessions, we all clamored together for the Ignite Sessions, MVP announcements (congrats to the winners!), and closing comments. I spoke about marketing lessons we all learned in kindergarten and much to the surprise of some folks, my PowerPoint slides included the younger pictures of many of the DNN superheroes! If you missed it, no worries it will be posted soon and you just might see a contest for who can pick out the person behind each of the photos.

To cap off the day, we all headed to Whiskey River for the infamous bull riding competition. I respectfully declined the taunting to partake, but Jess Coburn, our fearless CEO, stepped up to the plate. I’d describe the fun but I wouldn’t do it justice. Plus, there may be a video posted soon, hint hint. 

Overall, there is no other word that can be used to describe this event other than AWESOME! The organizers at QCDUG did an amazing job and we’re very thankful we got to enjoy all the action.