By Daisy Perper — Sep 23, 2021 11:00 AM
The 2021 Cascade CMS User Conference has officially wrapped, and we’re so thankful for all of our attendees, presenters and supporters who helped make it so successful.
Having taken place completely online, the Hannon Hill team worked to make this year’s conference experience match that of previous in-person events. The three day event featured technical workshops, an array of content spread out between both technical and strategic sessions, the ever famous Cascade CMS & Clive roadmap and more!
Diverse Content from Customers, Partners & Hannon Hillers
After a great response to our call for speakers, we were able to offer 20+ sessions covering a wide-range of topics for both Cascade CMS beginners and highly-technical users, as well as a variety of strategic content. Additionally, attendees we’re inspired by the Cascade CMS & Clive Product Roadmap and Recent Releases deep dive.
Choosing between technical and strategic tracks, attendees heard from customers, partners and Hannon Hillers presenting on topics highlighting their use of Cascade CMS and Clive as well as sessions covering web accessibility, digital strategy, content marketing and more. We were encouraged by level of attendee participation, having nearly every session go to the last minute with Q&A, as well as requests for speaker follow-ups and session recordings.
The Cascade CMS & Clive Product Roadmap, an attendee favorite from year to year, was led by Hannon Hill CEO, Kat Liendgens, and Hannon Hill VP of Engineering, Bradley Wagner. Kat and Bradley gave an inside preview of what users can expect from Cascade CMS & Clive in 2022 and beyond as well as a walk through of those upcoming updates. In addition to the road map, Hannon Hillers also offered a deep dive of product recent releases and to close out the conference, a tutorial on how to create a personalized viewbook using Cascade CMS & Clive.
Expert Led Training Opportunities
In addition to the traditional two-day Cascade CMS User Conference, attendees had the option to purchase a seat at one of two unique training tracks led by Hannon Hill experts. Each track was designed to focus on technical skill growth. Utilizing Zoom to encourage two way conversations, the goal was to enable participation from individuals with different needs and skill sets. Selling out both tracks, we were thrilled with the engagement, questions and excitement from participants.
Web Services, led by Hannon Hill Services Team Lead Elisabeth Hutzel, utilized PHP to introduce users to the Cascade CMS web services API. Elisabeth taught participants how to connect to Cascade CMS using web services, read content, and update content automatically. Additionally, users were shown how to access the site administrative area to update a site setting over multiple sites.
Hannon Hill Professional Services Developer, Fernando Blanco, led Advanced Velocity. Topics included when and how to use the Query tool, string replacements, arrays, node structure versus objects, and Velocity best practices. As this was our more advanced track, users were encouraged to attend if they had a working knowledge of XPath and Velocity basics including variables, conditional statements, loops, and traversing XML using built in tools.
Based on feedback, we hope to offer additional virtual workshop opportunities throughout the year, stay tuned!
A Community of Cascade CMS Users
One of the best parts of the annual user conference is bringing together the community of Cascade CMS Users. As our user base is known for being active and overall collaborative, we always encourage attendees to learn how other organizations are utilizing Cascade CMS & Clive. While this isn’t always as easy in a virtual environment, our networking hour gave attendees that opportunity through various Zoom breakout rooms. We enjoyed hearing our users go back and forth with open discussions around topics including Cascade CMS Tips & Tricks, Digital Personalization and Accessibility.
Additionally, with the open chat in each session, attendees were able to share their take on questions, discuss challenges and solutions to roadblocks and more. With user Slack channels, idea portals and additional outlets to engage with fellow users outside of the conferences, we hope that the relationships built during these events rollover into outside conversations that provide additional inspiration.
Don't Miss Us at HighEdWeb!
Again, we’re thankful for our amazing customer base and look forward to future events! If you’re attending the upcoming HighEdWeb virtual conference taking place October 4-5, be sure to check out Kat’s Digital Personalization presentation on Tuesday, October 5th at 12:15pm ET and also say hello in the virtual hall.
