CMF2006 Aarhus Denmark

I am writing this on the flight back to Boston after having spending a couple of very enjoyable days in Aarhus, Denmark at the CMF2006 event. This was (unusually for me) a positive experience both personally and professionally. I was there ostensibly to provide the closing keynote, but I also enjoyed the company of industry peers such as Lisa Welchman, Erik Hartman, Stephen Arnold, my new boss to be Tony Byrne, my good friends at Wipro Apoorv Dhurga and Kashyap Kompella, Pranshu Jain and of course the event host Janus Boye. A veritable smorgasbord of web content expertise, all people whom even a brief and humorous chat over a cup of tea, leave you better informed, and I suspect a better person ☺

My speech was quite different from that at ECM Plaza (I think) a few weeks ago, in that I focused on understanding (or trying to understand) the content management market. I used my Cow metaphor again, though being in Denmark she should really have transformed into a pig, for I discovered that 100,000 pigs a week are slaughtered at the nearby slaughterhouse, a fact given me by a friendly taxi driver (the kind of information I don’t need) who also gave me an overview of the much loved Royal Family (though I suspected from his comments that the French born Crown Prince could a little more to endear himself), the joys of hunting, his 10 days driving a truck in England (including accidentally driving on the wrong side of the road and going under a bridge that was not tall enough for the truck (again information I didn’t need). Amazingly I booked the same driver to take me back this morning!

I don’t think I have anything major to share, other than to encourage you to attend this event next year if Web Content Management and it’s variants are important to you. I suspect this is the premier global event of its kind – and provides a very open and hospitable atmosphere for discussion, education and business. In addition it gets you to a part of the world you probably wouldn’t normally see, along with superb hospitality – and good food!

By the way if you do get to Aarhus next year be sure to see the Cathedral (Domkirke) and if you get the chance eat dinner at Globen Flakket (for the food and hyggelig), enjoy breakfasts of incredible Danish bread, eggs (runny and yummy) and cheese at Villa Provence, if Lisa Welchman offers you medical advice ignore it, and thoroughly enjoy CMF2007.

On a separate note…as a reminder, as of next week I shall be officially working for CMS Watch and industry specific blogs will be posted there, I shall use this blog for broader discussions – and intend also to pick up the topic of outsourcing much more, something I have learned a little about in my time at Wipro!