This JUG has been active for a long time and has always had a nice group of Joomlers visiting. I have visited this JUG when my job was still in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and always enjoyed the level of information shared. Let's visit Joomla User Group Eindhoven!

Where is your User Group located?

Before Eindhoven, this group was called Joomla User Group ‘s-Hertogenbosch and situated in a local pub / brewery in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Because most of the attendees, and more important: the organizers, live closer to Eindhoven than ‘s-Hertogenbosch, we’ve moved to Eindhoven at the beginning of 2020. We had (only) two live meetings at The Trafalgar Pub, a British pub located in the center of Eindhoven near the train station. Since the COVID lockdown we only have online meetings. Where the rest over the Netherlands switched back to live meetings we’ve stuck to the online meetings. Saves us all a lot of travel time.

For how long has this User Group been organizing events?

As mentioned above the Joomla User Group Eindhoven, or JUG040 with the area code of Eindhoven, we organize the events in Eindhoven and online. Before that we ‘s-Hertogenbosch was the place to be for us. The first event of JUG073 dates back to early 2010, directly after the Dutch JoomlaDays of that year.

How many people are involved in organizing and how many visitors are joining your meetings?

JUG040 is a small group and the amount of attendees fluctuates between 4 and 20. Most of the time we can welcome 6 attendees. And at this moment Hans Kuijpers is the only organizer.

Are your meetings in person, online or hybrid?

Online, with no intentions on my side to switch to in person. We tried a hybrid form once and failed: the people on the other side of the screen couldn’t follow the conversations.

How did your JUG evolve during the years?

Every event is listed on the website of the Dutch Joomla Community. One week before the event a reminder is sent using AcyMailing. Attendees register on the website, using RSEventsPro and can leave a question for Dr. Joomla - returning topic of the event. Shortly after the event itself a summary is published. All questions, mentioned code and references to YouTube, Codepen resources and websites are included. 

It is nice to see that regular visitors stay and evolve from n00bs to masters. We’re here to help each other by sharing our knowledge.

What topics are usually/mostly being presented at your meetings?

We are very pleased with our returning presenters regarding changes and new features in Joomla. The first event after each Joomla update has a spot for this. Other topics that pass by are basic HTML, simple and advanced css, PHP logic, creating backups and restoring them, working styling, coding, backup and restore, and not to forget Dr. Joomla. The latter is a spotlight part of the meeting where everyone can drop their current issue on a Joomla project. All attendees present try to solve the issue together.

Which topics have been popular lately to get information about?

Where speed and SEO were kinda hot topics years ago at this moment I see a shift to accessibility. And with that being properly dealt with, the speed and SEO issues are solved by itself. Kind of… :-)

What difficulties do you face organizing your JUG?

Finding interesting topics for everyone. And finding time to prepare the presentations for these topics.

What is your most precious meeting?

Not just one meeting but a person instead. He grew up from being able to login Joomla to a person creating his own Joomla website using a custom made component, template overrides, alternate layouts, custom Javascript and custom CSS. And all due to attending our Joomla User Group meetings.

Do you need extra volunteers, or help?

Always! And not only that… speakers too!