The Spark 2017 Year In Review

The First of Many Years

2017 started with the soft launch of Sitecore Spark. I founded Sitecore Spark to help teach .NET developers the fundamentals of the Sitecore platform. Shortly after, the Spark Blog launched, and has proved to be the most popular part of the website.

In May I presented at the Cleveland Sitecore User Group, which was one of many presentations I gave over the year to both the community and clients. A shorter version of that presentation is available as a blog post on the Perficient Microsoft blog.

In the past year, I have learned that the Sitecore community is one of the most welcoming and helpful that I've ever encountered in my professional career. The Sitecore community is responsible for almost my entire Sitecore education since I started with the platform in 2011. I'm thrilled to be able to give back and be involved with a great group of developers from all over the world.

Sitecore Symposium 2017 was a highlight for me (big thanks to my employer Perficient for sending me!). I was able to meet a lot of the community, put faces to names, and get an awesome jump start with Sitecore 9.

What Sparked the Community

Reflecting on the past year, here are the most popular articles and blog posts that sparked the communities interest:

An Exciting 2018 Ahead

The coming year holds a lot of promise for Sitecore Spark. In no particular order, here are the highlights ahead for 2018:

More content. I'll be continuing to publish articles, short videos, and blog posts on a regular basis throughout 2018.
A new Sitecore module. My first Sitecore module will be an open source publishing report toolkit. More details and blog posts about the development process are coming in January, so stay tuned.
User Group presentations. While a few more details are being finalized, it looks like I'll be presenting in March at a user group in the central US, and hopefully again in the Midwest closer to summer.
Sitecore 9 focus. The Spark Blog has so far focused on my learnings with Sitecore over the years, but in 2018 I'm planning to spend lots of time with Sitecore 9, and will be blogging on new features such as Sitecore Forms and SPEAK 3.
Community contributions. As I hinted at earlier, I'm inviting contributions to Sitecore Spark from the community. Check back in the spring for the final announcement and more details.

Thanks for a wonderful first year of Sitecore Spark. Here's to an even better 2018!

Do you have questions, comments, or corrections for this post? Find me on Twitter: @BrandonMBruno