I was lucky enough this year to be able to be part of both OpenForce Europe in Amsterdam and OpenForce North America in Las Vegas. One of the things that struck me most as big difference is the larger sense of community I felt being in Las Vegas.

Even though the venue Mandalay Bay is much larger than De Leeuwenhorst in The Netherlands, a couple of special happenings made me feel more at home in Las Vegas.

First of all, the fact that a relatively large number of companies paid for a booth in the expo hall caused that DotNetNuke was really there! Both DotNetNuke Booths and the other booths by well known companies in the community made it so much easier to connect to people during expo hours. It was also very good to see that companies in the dnn community start to grow and are able to pay this kind of money.

Second, I have to thank Will Morgenweck (ActiveModules) and Bill Walker (DotNetNuke Corp.) for the genious idea to organize a community event with prizes donated by companies all over the world. Almost all OpenForce attendees attended this community event, which was a great opportunity to connect to people in a more relaxed setting

One of the things that I hope will come from this (DNN-Europe) group is ideas and suggestions on how we can make OpenForce Europe better. I'd like to know from European DNN Professionals why they attended OpenForce this year, and why they didn't. Why didn't we see European DNN companies sponsor the event? Don't get me wrong. For me it's not about the money, but I would like to understand better what moves the professional DNN community in Europe!