Sweet Home Chicago

Chicago has three Joomla meetings a month for you:

Original JoomlaChicago - Palatine
JoomlaChicago In The Loop
JoomlaChicago South

Founded in 2008, JoomlaChicago is a registered Joomla!^® User Group, with over 600 members. Each meeting has its own format, topics, speakers and focus, conveniently timed and located to suit most everyone! Come one, come all!  See listing of upcoming meetings.

Once a year, JoomlaChicago meets on the eve of the annual CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference for a one-of-a-kind meeting with users from around the world. Great national and international business networking opportunities! If you only come to ONE meeting a year, make it this one!!!

JoomlaChicago Meetup Monday Night!
ONE HUGE Joomla! User Group Meeting - Free For Members Worldwide!
Special Guest: Paul Orwig, President, Open Source Matters

Monday, May 7th, 2012
Hilton Orrington Hotel - 9th Floor Conference Center
Evanston, Illinois

Register here on JoomlaChicago.com
or call Linda at (815) 455-2900

Come Monday night, May 7th, starting at 7:30 PM at the Hilton Orrington Hotel for "Meetup Monday Night!"  We'll have a 90 minute international Joomla! Night, free of charge.

This event is free for all, but you (and any guests) must RSVP in order to attend, as seating is limited. There is no other JoomlaChicago Meeting in May in either the Loop or Palatine - this is the ONE unified meeting to attend!

Come to the April 2012 JoomlaChicago Meetup for "Making Joomla Mobile" - a Joomla User Group meeting dedicated to helping businesses understand and take advantage of Joomla's mobile capabilities. With mobile traffic often surpassing 50% of visits (depending on your market), it's critically important for your Joomla-powered CMS Site and apps to be mobile-native.

Sign up for the April 11th meeting in Palatine to learn more about how to go mobile with your Joomla-powered CMS Site! Login to JoomlaChicago, then Register here for the April JoomlaChicago Meetup

April 11th, 2012 Meeting Agenda:

11:00 am: Joomla KickStart for Newer Joomla Users - Templates & Extensions
11:45 am: Lunch & Business Networking (free, thanks to our sponsors)
12:15 pm: Joomla Site Showcase & Brief Announcements
12:30 pm: Featured Session: Making Joomla Mobile - For Advanced Joomla Users
1:15 pm: CSS Tips & Tricks - For Advanced Joomla Users
(Ends at 2:00 pm)

This meeting is FREE, including lunch, thanks to JoomlaChicago's sponsors:
Arc Technology Group, JoomlaZoomla! & Electric Easel Internet Marketing

New Joomla Version 2.5 Released Today

Good news for Joomla users everywhere! Joomla version 2.5 was released on January 24th! If you're already running version 1.7, the update is easy as pie. If you need to migrate from 1.5, check this link for detailed instructions on the migration process. For even more assistance, JoomlaChicago will host a live learning session on Joomla 1.5 migration at the JoomlaChicago meeting in March (Palatine, March 14th). Here are some of the highpoints of this major long-term release of Joomla version 2.5:

• Advanced SmartSearch Capabilities
• Multi-Database Support For Enterprise
• Automatic Update Notification
• Powerful New JPlatform Release (under the hood, for more power, less footprint)
• Much more!

THANK YOU to all volunteers who helped Joomla 2.5 take flight today! Developers & engineers, UX pro's, designers, marketers, infographic artists, documentation writers and 3rd party developers ALL "came together" to make this long-term release possible!

Joomla 2.5 adheres to Joomla’s newly-adopted six-month release cycle that began with the previous  Joomla CMS release of Joomla 1.7 in July, 2011. Downloading the latest version of Joomla is the best way to ensure organizational and personal security needs are being met since it will have the most recent updates to protect against the latest security threats. 

Get Joomla 2.5 Now, And Take Your Site Even Higher: 

• Download Joomla 2.5
• JRelease Announcement
• New Features in 2.5
• Changelog

Want To Get Involved?
If you, or someone you know would like to get involved in spreading the good word about Joomla, either here in Chicago or at an international level, LET ME KNOW, we'll get you involved! You'll be happy to know, there's a group of over 70 people working on improving communications and "evangelizing" Joomla! If you want to join this group, contact John Coonen today.