When you choose to use Joomla! as your CMS, you can tap into an immense library of online templates totalling in the tens of thousands. Whether you find a commercial template for free or for a fee, you'll want to customize your template for your own business.

Want to learn the best ways to do that? Come to the February, 2010 JoomlaChicago Meeting and find out! For the JoomlaChicago February meeting, Kendall Cabe will lead a session on how to customize your Joomla! template. 

Wednesday February 10th Meeting Agenda:
11:00 - 11:50: Joomla CMS KickStart^TM - or - Joomla Pro Roundtable
11:50 - Noon: Joomla Extension Of The Month or Site Showcase
Noon - 1:00: Featured Presentation - Customize Your Joomla! Template - Kendall Cabe
1:00 - 1:30: After Half-Hour Business Networking

Sorry, this event is sold out! This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to be added to the waiting list.
You will be contacted if a spot opens up.

If you are like most of the JoomlaChicago Users, you may need a little one-on-one help to get over a particular Joomla obstacle from time to time. Check out Professional Hour from 1:30-2:30.  You must be a registered member of JoomlaChicago to sign up and attend. Membership is free, so sign up for JoomlaChicago today. If you have any issues registering, contact us right away.

Starting in December 2009, we are introducing the Joomla Pro Roundtable. This great new learning session will take place at the same location (we are dividing the space for new/pro users) from 11:00 am until 11:50 pm. Joomla Pro is targeted toward professional web developers, web designers, project managers, extensions developers, coders, template designers and site administrators. Joomla! KickStart, for newer Joomla users, will be going on concurrently.  At 11:50 am, we'll open up the walls for lunch and our Featured Presentation.

Hard to believe, just a few short months ago, all eyes were on Phil DeKoker to help us with Step One in our Site re-design: Migrate from Joomla 1.0 to 1.5. Ewww, ick. Ahhh, sweet memories. A BIG thanks goes out to all the folks who helped bring the new site to life. No, it's not done yet, and yes, we know, the JomSocial Community area still is rather a trainwreck from a usability standpoint, but overall, the new site is fantastic!

Without all the volunteer help from Robert Nowak, Joe Scarry, Mike Carson, Phil DeKoker, Kendall Cabe, Justin Kerr, JB Vanover and Monty Ksycki (photos going live next week), this thing wouldn't be where it is right now...

It may take you a few weeks or a few months, but sooner or later you'll get it. And when you do, you'll wonder what the heck you did without it. With over ten million downloads (and growing), Joomla!^TM web site software is the most prolific CMS software on the planet, period. Why? Because it's also one of the most powerful and versatile web content management systems on the planet! Sure Joomla! CMS software has a little learning curve, but once you "get it," you'll love it. And once you love it you'll want to show others all about it too! It's actually fun! Download Joomla! for free (no email address needed, no marketing pitch, no bs - go for it). There's no better place for you to learn about Joomla! than JoomlaChicago, one of the most active independent user groups for web designers, developers, administrators and entrepreneurs. Join today! It's free!

Socializing a site is never pretty. Click on "The Loop" tab, and you'll see the site lookin' a little snarfy, as we all learn (together) how to best set up, configure and USE JomSocial.  Come help out! Login (or register), create a group, start connecting to over 250 local JoomlaChicagoans! Then, give us some feedback, so we can blend the social element right into the site, and make it rock. Thanks! -John