January 23, 2013 was CiviDay. A celebration of an OpenSource Software that had made an impact on non profits across 5 continents. And so it was fitting that the celebration was not limited to the US but was held across the globe.

We in Web Access were possibly the first Global Meet that kicked off the CiviDay celebrations. The meet up was expected to gather around 6 to 8 people. So all of us were pleasantly surprised when we had over 14 registrations. And even more surprised when 18 people showed up.

The first event was the ice breaker. Introductions had to contain a funny or interesting fact about yourself that no one knew. Most managed both at the same time. And there were a few gems, such as “I used to be a singer and no one took me seriously. And so I became an Open Source Developer. And no one takes me seriously, even now.”

Deepak, a core CiviCRM developer gave an insider’s insight into CiviCRM and how organizations could extend the product to fit their requirements. This was followed by a presentation from Andrew Tombs from Zing. Andrew had come to Mumbai from London, and was nice enough to extend his stay in Mumbai to attend CiviDay. Zing supports technology in partner organizations and have taken the initiative of developing CiviHR as an extension of the core CiviCRM. This will benefit non profits not only in the UK but also globally in their HR needs.

All good parties need good food and drink. Extremely tasty club sandwiches and a choice of sodas had everyone well refreshed and ready to dive in.

Claudian that’s myself, from Web Access then gave a quick insight into the various initiatives taken by Web Access in developing CiviCRM for clients as well as the community. Some of the community members had similar implementation needs and this sparked some more discussions.

Kurund, the development lead for core CiviCRM had the floor. And made an awesome presentation on the upcoming features in the soon to be released version 4.3. Every feature announcement was greeted by an applause till the next feature which got even more applause. I wouldn’t like to be a spoiler and so will allow you to have a look at the presentation yourself: http://prezi.com/n7_bdhzsbr67/whats-new-in-civicrm-v43/

The final presentation was made by Yashesh Bhatia who presented their work in CiviCRM.

Since the India core development team was present, we had an excellent mix of user and integration related session with fellow members who had specific doubts and queries in their CiviCRM Implementations.

The success of the event was highlighted by the fact that most of the participants wanted the meet up to be a regular event. And we will planning for the next event soon. As soon as we finish celebrating the global success of the CiviDay event.