After a 12-month break, it was time to put our speaker caps back on and welcome more than 30 guests to the first Magento Leeds of 2020, kindly sponsored by Akoova.
Fellow technology partners, freelancers, merchants and agencies joined us for an evening of food, drink and insightful chatter on all things Magento and eCommerce. Attendees enjoyed talks from our friend and client, Beer Hawk, technology partner and event sponsor, Akoova, and our very own Head of Development, the one and only Douglas Radburn.
For those who couldn’t make it, here’s what you missed…
Beer Hawk and automation: what can it do for you?
A quick welcome from our MD, Lewis Sellers, was followed by the first presentation of the evening: ‘What Can Automation Do For You?’. Beer Hawk’s QA Tester, Karolina Szachonowicz, talked us through how you can reduce risk and costs by using automated tools for Magento testing. Through her experience with the Ghost Inspector toolkit, Karolina showed us how Beer Hawk’s deployments are backed by automated testing, providing peace of mind to all their stakeholders.
After taking questions from the audience, next up was Dave Gill, Beer Hawk’s Technical Lead. Dave talked us through how Beer Hawk use Jenkins to build test environments, conducting zero down-time deployments to staging and production.
We believe there is great value to our clients sharing their first-hand experience of using Magento to streamline internal business processes. Beer Hawk have worked tirelessly on their build process to ensure new features are thoroughly tested, code is monitored, and consistent checks are made prior to release.
Improvement, innovation and problem solving by Akoova
Following a short break, we heard from event sponsor, Akoova. Founder and CEO, Osvaldo Spadano, took to the stage, sharing a thought-provoking presentation: ‘You’re on Cloud…so what?’. Reminding us that getting to the heart of an issue is the first step to providing a solution, Osvaldo’s presentation focused on the importance of continuous improvement, problem solving and innovation. He provided the audience with an appreciation of four types of problem-solving, applicable to any scenario.
Client and agency collaboration: why is it so important?
We closed off the event with a talk from our very own Douglas Radburn, ‘Working alongside an internal client development team.’ Leveraging our own experience working with internal client teams, Doug discussed the challenges that come with the process. These included insightful tips on building communication and transparency between teams, the importance of setting ground rules and learning to adapt relationships to get the best out of everyone.
With the presentations tied off, the conversation continued over a drink and slice of pizza, allowing guests to mingle with fellow members of the Magento Community. A huge thank you to all our guest presenters, our event sponsor, and to everyone who joined us for what was definitely our biggest and most successful Magento Leeds event to date! Don’t worry, we won’t leave it so long next time…
We’re already planning our next Magento Leeds event so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement coming soon.
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