Road to Joomla! 5.2 It's crunch time! Joomla 5.2 is now in alpha 3, but numerous improvements & fixes are still untested and therefore cannot yet be merged into the Joomla core. New features that have been implemented into Joomla still need to be extensively tested to get a stable release. Most of the time it only takes a few minutes of your time and Joomla! has become...

It is that time again for Pizza, Bugs, and Fun. This event is to help with fixing issues and creating documentation before the major release Joomla! 5.0 due out this October. Anyone can participate no matter how technical or non-technical they are.  All skill levels are needed. This year there will be two options to join us: in person at several locations around ...

‍We wanted to bring your attention to the upcoming JUG London meeting this coming Tuesday. This meeting coincides with the release of the latest version of Joomla! 4.2. The meeting will include the usual lively conversation, tips, and Q&A. It will also include a shout out to the new Joomla 4.3 Release Managers, Olivier Buisard from SimplifyYourWeb.com, and our own SD W...

Danico Enterprises is proud to be a Community Sponsor of JoomlaDay USA 2022! JoomlaDay USA 2022 is a FIRST-EVER IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE of individuals, including web designers, site managers and other Joomla users—from novice to experienced—for a two day-long conference. We invite you to join us for this unique and exciting opportunity to learn fro...

Danico Enterprises is proud to be a Community Sponsor of JoomlaDay USA 2021! JoomlaDay USA 2021 is the  FIRST-EVER IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE of individuals, including web designers, site managers and other Joomla users—from novice to experienced—for a two day-long conference. We invite you to join us for this unique and exciting opportunity to learn from ...

What a ride! After a year of planning (and re-planning), JoomlaDay Chicago 2020 is a week away on October 17th.  This year's event is an online summit (you know already know why so I won't go over it) which is good and bad.  The obvious bad part is that we will not be able to have our Sip'n Social event to just hang out with each other.  Last year'...

 A weekend of Joomlers helping Joomlers! JoomlaDay Chicago 2020 has sessions for beginners, advanced developers, and more. Joomla! President Brian Mitchell is our Keynote Speaker. Beginner's Workshop The weekend starts with a Beginner's Workshop on Friday, October 16th. This is a full-day event led by Laura Gordon from RytechSites and Joomla User Group New Jersey. The...

Keynote Speaker, Brian Mitchell   We are honored to have President-Elect Brian Mitchell as this year's keynote speaker. Brian is the founder and president of interGen web solutions in Milwaukee, WI. Brian is responsible for business operations, strategic direction, business development and everything in between. He has been a Joomla! volunteer for years, ser...

 You may recall that back in July we shared the news that the Joomla World Conference was not moving forward.  JoomlaShack, a leading provider of free and commercial Joomla templates, extensions and Joomla training, stepped in and created the JoomlaShack Conference.  This 3-day conference will include presentations from around the world.  The conference...

Back in August we announced that we would be hosting Joomla! Pizza, Bugs & Fun or PBF.  A worldwide event to bring the Joomla! community together to work on the next release, Joomla! 4.  PBF is here!  This Saturday at 9 am the fun begins.   What is Joomla!  Joomla! is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that is used to publish w...

This past Saturday Danico hosted Joomla Pizza Bugs and Fun (PBF). It was a worldwide event to help advance Joomla!4. This event was a great way to be apart of the Joomla community. The organizers prepared lots of documentation, videos and more to help the local organizers assist their participants. What is Joomla Joomla! is a free and open-source content management system ...

We are pleased to announce that we are hosting Pizza, Bugs and Fun on Saturday, October 19th.  This is worldwide event that brings together the Joomla! community to document and test future versions of our favorite content management system (CMS).   You may be thinking that this event is not for you because you're not a hard core developer, but WAI...

The Bridge Youth and Family Service is hosting their annual golf fundraiser on Monday, August 5, 2019 at the Inverness Golf Club. The proceeds from this event go towards providing programs and services for children and their families throughout northwest suburban Chicagoland, with some services extending further. The Bridge is a non-profit organization located in Palatine,...

 For events we use Auctria for guest and auction management.  Typically, our clients have a combination of online preview, online and silent auctions to help raise funds for their causes.  While we love to see the fun-natured ribbing as guests chide each other to increase bids, there is also the ability to use mobile bidding.   To understand how mo...

The other day I was speaking with a client about the upcoming JoomlaCamp Chicago event that is this Saturday, September 22nd at DePaul University's Loop Campus. I was giving him some lighthearted ribbing about not having registered and his reply caught me a bit off-guard. He asked me, "What would I get out of coming?". It was a great question. Many answers collided in my h...

For more information on Joomla, a top Content Management System (CMS), go to: joomla.org To see our mentors and find out more information, go to: joomlacampchicago.com Are you a Joomler and want to interact with like minded individuals, or are you interested in becoming one?  JoomlaCamp Chicago is the place for both. Maybe you're wondering what Joomla! is. Joomla...

Tonight in downtown Arlington Heights is Flamingo Friday! An event ideal for getting together and strolling through the local shops. It's a great chance to get to know the owners and see all that they offer. In addition to getting reacquainted with businesses that have been here awhile, it's also a great time to be introduced to new ones such as Sedona by Manzano Jewelers....

For the past several years we've had the privilege of providing our services to Palatine-based non-profit organization, The Bridge Youth & Family Services, for their annual golf fundraiser.  This event helps The Bridge raise funds to provide services to children and their families, regardless of their ability to pay, to keep them happy, he...

The 8th Annual Palatine Paints the Town Green is this Saturday, March 17th in downtown Palatine.  The Parade kicks off at 11a.m.  The festivities begin at the Irish market under the tent outside of Durty Nellie's at 180 North Smith Street in downtown Palatine from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM.  New this year is a scavenger hunt through the town.  It's a great...

It was a GREAT day at this year's JoomlaDay Chicago.  The temps were over 90 degrees, a rarity in Chicago, especially in September.  This year the event was at a new home, DePaul University O'Hare Campus.  The staff was very nice and worked with us to create the event.  A quick recap of the event can be found in the October issue of Joomla Magazine.  There presentations and photos are available on joomladaychicago.com. I'm already looking forward to the next one which will be in 2019.

Check out the JoomlaDay Chicago 2017 Recap

After months of planning, on April 7th we successfully launched our client Woodridge Deck & Gazebo Co. showroom open house in Rolling Meadows. Layered with experiential marketing, Danico Enterprises was onsite to showcase Woodridge's latest accomplishments and relate the brand's incredible story to the many attendees. Out of his Rolling Meadows home office, Eric Hoffma...

Having trouble finding a template to meet your needs? Just prefer creating your own design? This hands-on training class will give you the basics to get you started building your own Joomla! Template.   This class is led by instructor Alonzo Turner of Subtext Productions, a Chicago-based company specializing in custom design and programming for Joomla! CMS System. ​Ti...

One of my favorite parts of planning events is putting together the raffle baskets. We are starting that now for the Are You Smarter Than an Acorn? Trivia Night Fundraiser to benefit the Ancient Oaks Foundation! The event is Saturday, January 23rd at Columbus Center, 365 Surryse Road in Lake Zurich. The games start at 7 pm. It's sure to be a great eventing of trivia, games, raffles and more with special guest emcee Lake Zurich's own Chip Brewster, 2006 Lake Zurich High School Grad and FoxNews6 Milwaukee Reporter. Grab your friends and sign-up at: ancientoaksfoundation.org.

Today, I'm excited to have Avery Cohen from Mertrist Partners at this month's Joomla User Group Chicago North (JUGCN)meeting.  Each year Avery comes and shares his insights on the upcoming year's SEO trends.  I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say, his topic is The Evolution of Search: Find Your Tribe.   The JUGCN group meets at Durty Ne...

Fun-draising event to benefit The Bridge Youth & Family Services  On Thursday, October 22nd from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Bottle & Bottega, Arlington Heights, 10 W. Campbell Street, Arlington Heights. This will be a fun painting event where you are led by an instructor in creating your very own masterpiece to display in your home. Not a Picasso or Van Gogh? No worr...

So by now hopefully have heard that JoomlaDay Chicago 2015 is coming September 19th to the Donald E. Stephens Center.  This is a great event to connect with open source technology enthusiasts, both in the area and beyond.  The event includes many sessions on Joomla! (obviously) but also information that is helpful no matter the technology.  2015 marks the 4th time this event has been held in Chicago and I can tell you it is truly a labor of love to put this event together.  

The team behind this event has been working hard to bring to you some of the top speakers around.  Last year's event included David Hurley (WebSpark and joomla.org), Michael Babker (Joomla.org), Steven Pignataro ('corePHP'), and many more.  This year's event is shaping up to be just as spectacular.

On Monday, we had the privilege of providing event services (registration, check-out and auction services) for The Bridge Youth & Family Services of Palatine.  If you are a regular visitor of our site, you may have noticed that we are a huge supporter of The Bridge, which provides programs and services to children and their families in northwest suburban Chicago, regardless on one's ability to pay.  

The event was their annual Peter D. Cunneen Memorial Golf Classic, named for past executive director Peter D. Cunneen.  At the Inverness Golf Club, nearly 200 golfers and dinner guests. bid on live and silent auction items, entered a raffle for a chance to win some cool prizes (iPad, 60" Smart HDTV, Bose Headphones, or One Week Vacation for 4) and best of all, participated in goodhearted competition in Fund-a-Cause (you may know it as a paddle raise).  

Do you need another reason to go to The Streets of Woodfield?  Here you go...  

On Thursday, July 31st from 11 am to 2 pm,  grab lunch at Chipotle at The Streets of Woodfield, 601 N. Martingale Rd., Schaumburg, IL 60173 and 50% of the proceeds will go to The Bridge Youth & Family Services, a non-profit organization in Palatine, IL.  The Bridge’s mission is "to help young people and their families achieve social and emotional health”.  They provide services to all Palatine Township residents regardless of ability to pay.  The Bridge has been serving the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago for nearly 50 years, focused on children 0 to 17 and their families. 

Event season is nearly upon us. One of the many tasks is a site visit.  Every planner does it and you should too. There are many checklists on the web, in books etc. but none of them will speak exactly to your situation.  Over the years I can say I have never used the exact same checklist twice and I've been working events for a decade. Each time some addition/subtractions are necessary. 

So, let’s talk about event check-in.  I know it’s not a “sexy” topic but it is one that needs a discussion.  And no, I’m not talking about checking in with Foursquare, Facebook or any of those social media things.  I’m talking about the “Welcome, to our event.  May I have your name please” kind of check-in.  (I will discuss the pros and cons of using technology during your event in future posts).

So in The Art of Check-in, I touched on tech at events and promised to get back to it in another post. Well, that is has turned into two. A discussion of the Hybrid Approach and Full Tech Approach.

With all the different ways tech is apart of my everyday life some think I would be gung-Ho for a fully computerized event. But I'm not.

Take for instance the event that Danico provided registration and check-out services for on March 15. The event was for The Bridge Youth and Family Services, it was their annual gala. For this event the Hybrid Approach was used for the the guest check-in, donation entry, auction tracking, and guest check-out. The evening was structured in a way where except of a few guests who needed or wanted to leave before check-out officially opened, that by the time things wrapped up from a program perspective and moved to more entertainment, everything was entered and ready for the guests.

Over the last few months we have been working on a surprise birthday party for a long time Danico supporter.  There was a fear from all that were involved that she would put the pieces together.  Fortunately for us she did not!  We were able to not only surprise her with local friends and family but also with some out of town guests.  

Whew! All done…well, almost!

The prizes have been awarded, auction items carried off to their new homes and the decorations have been packed away.