We've said it before: we love the CMS Expo. Last year was our first, and it was tremendous. We attended as sponsors for CMS Market last year and had an absolute blast. This year we're returning as Pixel Praise, and flying the JoomlaPraise, Projectfork and AdminPraise colors.

We're a little more involved this year. We're silver sponsors again, but this year I'll be presenting on Web Design and Projectfork. We also had the honor of creating the design & template for this year's CMS Expo, and had a blast doing it.

Design Presentation

On a daily basis, we're desiging Joomla! frontend templates, Projectfork UI themes, and AdminPraise administrator UI templates. That's a lot of variation in design, with very different goals, processes, and design trends. If you'd like to get a glimpse of how we approach all this check out our session.

Projectfork Presentation

We've got lots of work going on behind the scenes for Projectfork right now. If you want to get the low down, make sure to attend our Projectfork session for insider tips and a sneak peak of what's to come.

Insider Tips

Ok, so we've only been to the CMS Expo once, but we feel like we gathered some useful tips:

Don't Be Too Serious
While there is certainly business to be had at the CMS Expo, lighten up. Everyone is super friendly and natural conversations will lead to business benefits in one way or another if you don't push too hard.

Get Your Elevator Pitch Down (but don't be a sales guy)
If you have a service or product, don't bore people to death with mundane nerdy details. Get your message down to a quick, concise and entertaining 30 seconds. The only give more details if people are genuinely interested.

Go To The Pre & Post Expo Events
Besides being the most fun (not that the Expo wasn't fun), the pre and post events such as the NXNW Pub Crawl were far more valuable for further developing the invaluable connections you'll make at the CMS Expo. A little Chicago blues and booze never hurt no one, but try to squeeze in some good zzz's you'll need 'em.

Talk To The "Enemies"
We're mainly Joomla! guys, but we crossed enemy lines to chat with devs from other CMS's and truly enjoyed it. It may be strange at first - their modules might not be the same as your modules, but the experience is eye-opening.

Find John Coonen
It won't be hard, he's the guy ADHD and a smile on his face all the time. John is the most polite and insightful CMS guru you'll find. Don't pester him or stalk him, he'll somehow find time to chat with everyone.

Check Out The Town
Evanston is friggin' beautiful. Walk around and discover all kinds of gems. Chi-town ain't too far either. Here's some fun stuff to check out.

Stay As Long As You Can
We weren't able to stay the entire time last year and truly regretted missing out on the entire experience. This year we're flying in early and staying the duration.

Say Hello To Us
Please talk to us, we haven't had true human interaction in so long :( Seriously though, don't forget to say "hi" to me and Gary while you're there.