Every year a number of Joomlers come together at the Unperfekthaus (love the name) in Essen. For what? Nobody knows in advance. All we know is the timetable (and that at least one of the days there will be Currywurst). A recap of an unforgettable event!

Imagine you and your JFriends coming together and discussing all things Joomla. One minute you’re joining a mini-presentation about a tech topic, the next you’re talking about the best way to plan your next Joomla project, and then you get best practices to become a Joombassador and make your clients fall in love with Joomla: that’s what a Joomla Unconference is all about. JoomlaCamp, in Essen (Germany) is such an unconference.

The event lasts two days. Each day starts with an introduction round so we all get to know each other. After that, it’s Post-It time. Some participants have one or more presentations ready, most participants don’t. Everyone who wants to present, talk about a specific topic or learn something new, pitches it, writes it on a Post-It and sticks that to a board. 

The next step is all participants mark the topics they find interesting with a dash. 

The Post-Its then get puzzled into the timetable, and that’s the start of a lot of lively discussions, interesting talks and knowledge sharing. 

The 2026 edition was my second one. I almost didn’t make it: despite my meticulous preparation, I overslept (setting the alarm on my phone was part of the meticulous preparation, taking the phone with me to my bedroom wasn’t) and woke up exactly one minute before my train was due to depart from the station. Luckily the train was delayed, and after an adrenaline rush type of car ride I arrived at the train station in time. 

I was only able to join the second day of the event, on Saturday. These were the topics that day:

(in case you don’t read German: MCP server, Bruno API, time management, gamification, a few YOOtheme topics, marketing… something for everyone).

I took the opportunity to sit down with Claudia and Viviana, the Assistant Team Leader and Webmaster of the Joomla Community Magazine Team, to discuss plans for the future (you’ll hear more of that when the future happens 🙂). I learned a couple of new games (thank you Benjamin), didn't get to eat Currywurst (because a. I'm a vegetarian and b. Friday was Currywurst-day) but had a lovely lunch nevertheless, got the chance to catch up with a couple of JFriends I hadn't seen in a while and learned a lot. And I discovered that my German is even worse than I thought it was, but I had a great day anyway.

Would you like to join JoomlaCamp or organise your own Joomla Unconference?

Let us know in the comments!