Codegarden 2025: Tuning in from Goa
On Thursday 19th June, a few of us from the ClerksWell Goa office got together to attend Codegarden 2025 - virtually.
It was a great excuse to break from our usual routine, grab some snacks and dive into the latest from the Umbraco community. The sessions were insightful, the vibe was relaxed and the conversations sparked a lot of ideas.
Joining in from the office were Nathaniel Nunes, Floyd Fernandes, Melanie Fernandes, Shweta Aggragon, and Karl Souza.
The ClerksWell Team watching the livestream together
Eagerly waiting for the sessions to start
Next-Level Backoffice – Niels Lyngsø
We kicked things off with a session by Niels Lyngsø on how to take the Umbraco Backoffice to the next level. It was all about customization: whether you're tweaking the UI, refining the editor experience, or adding entirely new features.
Niels walking us through the powerful new customization features in the Umbraco Backoffice
What stood out was how approachable Niels made it all feel. He didn’t go deep into implementation but gave us a solid conceptual overview and shared some curated code examples to help us get started when we’re ready.
Is ChatGPT Killing the Penguins? – James Hobbs
Next up was a talk by James Hobbs that was equal parts entertaining and eye-opening. He explored the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot and the implications of using them in our work.
James raised some important questions, mainly about what happens to the data we feed into these tools? How do we explain their use to clients? And what about the environmental impact?
The ‘penguins’ reference was a humorous way to highlight the serious energy demands of AI and its carbon footprint.
It was a great reminder that with great power comes great responsibility.
James raising the big questions: where is your data going, and what’s it being used for?
A Proud Moment: Debasish Becomes an MVP
One of the highlights of the day was seeing our good friend and ClerksWell alumni, Debasish Gracias, being named an Umbraco MVP. It was such a proud moment for all of us.
Even better, Debasish videocalled me live from Codegarden to share the excitement and give me a virtual tour.
Catching up with Debasish live from Codegarden.
Day 2 from Home: Simplifying Umbraco Cloud Deployments – Paul Seal
On Friday, I continued the Codegarden journey from home and tuned into a session by my good friend and colleague Paul Seal. He walked us through how to set up CI/CD pipelines for Umbraco Cloud using Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions.
Paul made the process feel manageable. He shared practical tips, walked through the setup, and explained how to make deployments smoother and more efficient. It was one of those sessions where you walk away thinking, “Okay, I can actually do this.”
Watching Paul Seal’s session from home
Wrapping Up
Even though we attended virtually, Codegarden 2025 still felt like a shared experience. We learned a lot, had some great conversations, and celebrated a few special moments along the way.
A big thank you to ClerksWell and Shweta for sorting out the virtual passes, snacks, conference room and giving us the chance to tune into Codegarden 2025.
From Goa to the global Umbraco community, it was a reminder of how connected we all are. #H5YR
