On November 9, 2024, the time had finally come: The first major ioBroker community meeting took place in the "Gläserne Werkstatt" in Solingen. Several months of intensive planning and organization paid off - the event was a complete success.
Organization and thanks to the community
This meeting not only marked an important event in the history of the ioBroker project, but also underlined the strength and enthusiasm of our community. As an open source project, ioBroker thrives on the support and commitment of its users - and this was exactly what was shown in the organization of the meeting.
Special thanks go to Ingo Fischer (apollon77), who as the central organizer planned this meeting with passion, as well as the entire organization team, consisting of Arthur @arteck, Eric @Eric2905, Lissandro @ldittmar81, Moritz @foxriver76, Olga @shadowbit21 and Rafal @DutchmannNL. Without you, this event would not have been possible! We would also like to thank Solingen Digital for their great support and Shelly as the main sponsor. Ingo recently wrote a recap with his personal impressions in the ioBroker forum. If you would like to find out more about the event, you can read his report here: a little ReCap by Ingo.
Participants, presentations and highlights
The event was well attended with around 160 participants - including many well-known names from the community. Due to the limited capacity of the premises and for safety reasons, the number of participants could not be increased any further. Nevertheless, the interest was overwhelming and the tickets sold out quickly.
From the beginning, there was an open and warm atmosphere. Many people were happy to finally see the faces behind the nicknames and projects, and there were numerous opportunities for personal conversations and exchanges.
The program was packed:
12 exciting lectures were spread over two slots. It was particularly pleasing that technically demanding topics also found a broad audience.
- Denis Haev (ioBroker GmbH) @Bluefox - "2013-2024: The history of ioBroker"
- Nils Gerken (Solingen Digital) - Welcome
- Mircho Mirev (Shelly Group) - "Smarthome with Shelly and ioBroker" (English)
- Andy Walter @HansJochen - "Live from the engine room - heating control with ioBroker"
- Ingo Fischer @Apollon77 - "Matter - brave new smart home world?"
- Christopher Beye @cbeye - "Using solar energy intelligently: AI agents and ioBroker as your energy saving advisors"
- Marc Jäger (Jaeger Residential & Building Intelligence) - "Next-Level Visualization: The Revolution for ioBroker"
- Moritz Heusinger @foxriver76 and Alexander Müller (Haustechnik Fleck) - "ioBroker in building services: Innovative application scenarios for the commercial sector"
- Institute for Internet Security / Westfällische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen - "KISSHome: Who controls your smart home?"
- Marcel Kunze @simatec - "(ioBroker) Backup - but properly!"
- Rafal Drozda @DutchmanNL - "ioBroker in the professional sector - did you know that?"
- Arthur Rupp @arteck - "Zigbee - what's interfering with my communications or "an overview"
- ioBroker Core Team - "Insight into ioBroker Core development and questions for the core team"
The speaker Dr. Marc Jäger was unable to attend in person at short notice for family reasons. Thanks to the well-organized streaming setup, however, he was able to give his lecture live from a distance. The implementation worked smoothly and was extremely well received by the participants.
Some lectures were also broadcast from the ground floor to the basement.
The main sponsor Shelly also caused excitement with a little surprise: each participant could receive a gift package in exchange for a voluntary donation.
The mix of well-founded lectures, interactive discussions and personal exchange made the meeting an unforgettable experience for everyone involved.
Feedback and impressions
The feedback from participants was very positive. They particularly appreciated the opportunity to talk to the “heroes” behind ioBroker, ask questions and get to know their work better. The direct interaction between developers and users was a highlight for many.
The audience was also highly motivated: the presentations stimulated exciting discussions and the Q&A session with the core team was informative and lively.
A look into the future
Following the success of this first meeting, there will be a structured feedback survey among participants in the coming weeks. We would like to know what was particularly well received and where there is still potential for future events.
We would like to thank everyone who took part for their enthusiasm and commitment. Together we showed how strong the ioBroker community is.
We are already looking forward to the next meeting – until then, ioBroker remains your reliable partner for home automation!
Your team at ioBroker GmbH
