When I got invited to the TYPO3 Conference 2024 to give a talk I thought “Why would my topic and what I have to say matter at a TYPO3 Conference?”. Well, I guess, my event is titled beyond tellerrand, so how could I say no, if someone running an event about topics not being my core topic? I mean, that is the idea of my event, right?

I have been asked if I’d like to stay in the hotel, but I said, that I live very close, so maybe I stay one day. When I told my wife, she instantly said, that I know how much I appreciate if speakers are there for the full event and actually also around the event to socialise with the other speakers, the team and attendees. Surely she was right, so I stayed in the hotel and that was a good decision, since I got to meet so many new and interesting people.

The closer the event came, the more I was looking forward to being on stage. The title or my talk was “Why Independent Community Events Matter” or “Why I do what I do and how I got do to it”. I spoke on day two after the lunch break on the main stage and really enjoyed speaking there. I have seen head nodding, people smiling and listening to me and Frank Schmidt, who was the MC for the whole event, not only did a great job during the three days, but also made me feel very welcome on stage.

When Daniel Fau asked me during the awards gala how I liked it and how my experience was, I stated that I was surprised how open and welcoming the TYPO3 community was and that they achieved to build a good community around the product TYPO3. I also had my organiser’s hat on and stated that everything was absolutely well organised during the event and especially at the awards gala on which, next to the talk during the main event, I was interviewed about the process of our job in the jury for the awards, which was great fun also as the moderators – Emily Whigham and Matt Beadle – did a fantastic job and made the whole 5-hour event feel snappy, fun and not boring at all.

As I said earlier, I had a fantastic time throughout the whole event and made many new connections. During the after show party after the awards gala, many people came to me and said they were happy to meet me, since a lot of employees of them would attend beyond tellerrand for many years and always came back inspired and happy – well, that makes me happy!

Thanks a lot to the organisers of the event: Luisa, Myrna, Daniel, Carsten and all the others involved. Well done.

Links to coverage:

• T3CON24 Recap by Panagiotis Semitekolos
• Wrap-up by Kendall Litton (who also interviewed me for a podcast that is going to be published soon) on Linkedin
• My talk description

I am invited to speak at the TYPO3 Conference this week and have also been part of the jury this year. Thanks for the kind invitation! I knew it is going to be tough as it is conference seasons right now and we ran SmashingConf New York and Antwerp, I ran beyond tellerrand Berlin and I have been part of a big organisers meeting in Vilnius.

Now it is two days until I speak at the TYPO3 Conference in Düsseldorf and all I have written down is the title of my talk. Well, yes, in my head I know what I gonna speak about, but I need to bring it into a certain structure. That means, if you expect an answer to your email this week: sorry – not happening. The next two days I am writing and then I am attending on Wednesday and Thursday.

What will I talk about, you ask? They said, they want to hear a bit about the story and background of why beyond tellerrand came alive and I said, it might be a bit exotic for the audience of a TYPO3 Conference, but well, I guess that is the idea of “beyond tellerrand”, right? I will also spice it up with a few bits about why I think that independent events, and there is not just mine, are important. For diversity, for an independent curation of talks (vs. sponsored or product talks) and for your net work and our community.

If you like, grab a ticket, drop in and spend a good time at the event together with me. Oh, and as it happens, I still have a couple of free passes. Simply email me to get one.

See you there!

This is the last episode of by appearance at the devslove.it podcast. Alex, Dominik and I were speaking – in German – about education, why events matter for this and about the IndieWeb movement.

With this third of three episodes all three episodes are live and I want to thank Alex Bürner and Dominik Laube once more for the invitation and the lovely conversation.

The work of Swiss graphic designer Anna Monika Jost for Olivetti from around 1966 is amazing!

Off to attend #feedesign in Vilnius which is not only a design festival, but also a meeting of 50+ event organisers to discuss, learn about and help each other with today’s pain points.

A short note as maybe someone does not know, like I did not know. Did you know that you can hold down a key on your keyboard in MacOS for special characters, like you can on iOS? I never tried this and certain characters can’t be typed.

For example: if I want to type the name or my friend Tantek Çelik, for the Ç I can press the keys option+shift+c (⇧+⌥+c) gives you the special Ç in his last name. If you try this with the ć and think that typing ´+c like you’d do for an é it, for some reason does not work (does anyone know why, actually?). I was wondering if there would be a way of typing this anyways instead of copying it from the glyphs panel.

That was the time when Tanja, my wife, stood in my back and said: _“Have you tried pressing and holding down the c-key?”_. And look! It does indeed work, like on iOS? This made me very happy, as I can now use it in any program. Every time I now press and hold a key to get its special characters, I have a smile in my face. Things I did not know … ;)

beyond tellerrand Berlin 2024 is over already again. I started this adventure in 2014 and much happened to the world since then. But the positive vibe at the event last week gave me a lot of hope.

Fact is that 2024 many things have been much, much harder for a lot of my event organising friends. Some had to cancel, some suffer from less attendees and most suffer from less sponsors. Companies and agencies focus on big events these days again or decide to set up and host their own events. Both often is harder and more expensive than supporting independent community events like beyond tellerrand.

Berlin 2024 turned out to be wonderful, though. The conversations I had with lovely attendees, the absolute stunning speakers who all gave their best and brought thought-provoking, inspiring, and motivating presentations and last but not least a team that excelled in being welcoming, helpful and friendly.

The wonderful two days flew by and while I thought I’d stop Berlin after this one for a while and would not run a Berlin edition in 2025 changed my mind. It changed my mind in a direction, where I now say “Now even more it is needed that I work hard on keeping this little island of friendliness and positivity”. And you, those who were there, made this with me. Your warm and wonderful feedback changed my mind and anyone to whom I mentioned that I might take a break in Berlin said “No, please not”.

But that needs your help. Spread the word about beyond tellerrand. Let other people know about it and tell them what it is and what it gave you while attending and when being back home.

I feel empty and exhausted, but my heart is full of lovely memories that will last. Thanks so much to anyone who was involved in creating a festival like this and made it what it was!

(Fotos by Florian Ziegler – complete set of photos here)

I have been guest of the devslove.it podcast and it was a lovely experience and a – as I think – fun conversation with Alex Bürner and Dominik Laube. This is part 2 of 3 titled “Speed Snack” in which we had “quick” Q&A session.

This was our second edition in Antwerp. At least for a while it will be our last one in Antwerp either. Well, at least in the wonderful Bourla Theatre as it will be restored for the next couple of years (the estimate is between 3 and 5 years). We are looking into other options for Antwerp, though, as we really like the city.

We run the complete show in Antwerp on my tech and therefore I am not able to take as many photos as usual, but here is at least a selection of photos from the days in Belgium.

I might have been slower during the last couple of weeks in replying to your emails. Well, the reason is, that I am on the road with the Smashing Team, running SmashingConf, been away with the family and am going to run and attend and speak at more events in the upcoming month.

In the last two weeks, I have been in New York, being part of the Smashing Team, running SmashingConf New York (← photos of the event), after a break of one year. Big success, great atmosphere, everybody was/is happy. After New York, arriving at 5am in Frankfurt, I went to a family birthday party and the night after, at 4am, we drove to Austria to spend a week with part of the family (as our oldest daughter is in Sydney and our son studying, they sadly have been missing) in the Austrian mountains with best weather – it was woooooonderful.

We were hiking in the mountains during the day and I was preparing beyond tellerrand during the night.

Now I had a week to work on beyond tellerrand things 24h and got a lot of stuff sorted (already also working on the Düsseldorf 25 edition – page and first speakers coming in a few days). When writing these lines I sit between boxes and tech already and still have to write a talk and prepare things for a conversation with other event organisers 🙈

So, coming up …

SmashingConf Antwerp

After last years success we are back in Antwerp in the lovely Bourla Theatre. A great venue and if you want to be part, better do this now, since the lovely theatre will be closed for the next years (see photos of last year, if you want to know what I am talking about). Right now I prepare the tech, as we use my gear to run the stage tech and also anything that is used to stream the show.

beyond tellerrand Berlin

After ten years of running beyond tellerrand in Berlin, I did not expect this one to be the toughest one in selling tickets. Never ever has a btconf sold less that this one. I think the reasons are many (Berlin changes, too many events at and around these dates with a clearer focus, death of social media etc. – happy to chat, if you want to hear my full thoughts), but one thing is very clear: anyone who comes will get the best show that’s possible. As usual. The team, the speakers and I will do out very best to make this a wonderful experience and, hey, look at this line-up. I am SO looking forward!

Festival Eastern European Design

The week after beyond tellerrand, I will be in Vilnius at the Festival Eastern European Design. Next to attending the event, I have been invited to be part of an organisers event, where we discuss problems that each of us (independent) event organisers has these days, trying to find solutions for some things, but also maybe building a network of events. I am always excited to learn about and from other events, to share knowledge and grow my network. Exciting to see what comes out of this.

Skate-Aid Night

Since a couple of years I am also (indirectly) involved in the Skate-Aid project. One of their yearly events I attend for a few years now is the Skate-Aid Night on which we raise money for new projects of Skate-Aid. This time my good friend Rob Draper made a great piece that will be auctioned and he will also be onsite doing his “Your Words, My Hands”, where he creates wonderful posters with copper or silver ink on black with your words and, well, his hands. He does this at beyond tellerrand for a while now and it is highly popular, raising quite a bit of meany each time for charity (100% of the money always goes into those charity projects).

TYPO3 Conference 2024

Marc? TYPO3 Conference. Why that, you might think. Well, I think that also people running events with a focus on certain topics understood that you need topics from beyond the tellerrand to attract people from outside their bubble. Next to TYPO3 being an excellent btconf Partner for 2024, not only talking about the people, but also about understanding an audience of an event, they invited me to be part of their T3CON24 as part of the Jury Panel and to give a talk (which I also still need to write 😱).

My talk is going to be something along the lines of “Why independent events matter for the event industry and where they come from”. If you like to come, just join us, I am happy to being able to give out a few free full conference passes for this event. Please email me to get one

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If you are at any of these events, please find me and say hello. I love a conversation with other people at events and am super happy to meet you again or for the first time.

See you!