The CMS Association will also hold a half-day optional pre-conference "Kick-start" session on Wednesday, December 3rd, designed specifically for new users. The session will give people a primer on Joomla, prior to learning sessions on Thursday and Friday.

Intended for business professionals in the commercial and non-profit arenas, the main thrust of the CMS Expo will be focused on one CMS in particular, called "Joomla." Joomla (or "Joomla!" as it is officially titled by the non-profit software organization's leadership team, Open Source Matters, Inc.) has enjoyed rocket-propelled growth over the past three years, since its fork from its derivative mother ship, called Mambo.

At the CMS Expo, there will be learning tracks at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels, in addition to the Wednesday kick-start session. In all, there will be 26 learning sessions.

Last May, the newly formed organization held its first Expo - then called "JoomlaExpo" in Chicago, at the Renaissance Hotel. The event organizers were expecting a mostly local crowd of 100-200 attendees. They had little idea of the demand for training and business networking which was to come. Nearly 300 attendees jammed the sell-out event, with most attendees coming from outside Chicagoland.

Event Co-Chairman John Coonen turned to the Joomla Community to source the best presenters and relevant topics. His own local group in Chicago from www.JoomlaChicago.com pitched in to help, as did several members of the Joint Commercial Software Developer's Association (www.jcd-a.com). Said Coonen, "We simply could not have done this without their help, and this event ended up being one of the most positive, energizing events many of our attendees had ever been to."

The first JoomlaExpo also helped ignite interest among the open source development community to pitch in and help on a new Digital Excellence effort in Chicago, spearheaded by the event's keynote speaker, Hardik Bhatt, the CIO of the City of Chicago. In Chicago, the CMS community is now poised at the very forefront of "what's happening" on the Chicago scene, helping to launch a portal which is intended to help bridge the digital divide in one of the world's most happening (and windy) cities.

"We had folks flying in from all US time zones, plus a large contingent from overseas," said Coonen. "When you've got attendees making the trip from Canada, Mexico, Central America, Europe and Asia, there is a little light bulb moment that tells you you're on the right track. What has been formed is more of a community than simply a group of 'users' looking for instant gratification and knowledge. We've got people who are now forming friendships, a vitally important support network and long-term business relationships, based upon coming together to learn more about their software."

The CMS Association was formed on July 3, 2008 to provide a home to the creation of that community. Their Chicago-based Community Group runs two and a half-hour meetings each month. Since the software is free and open source, there's no sales pitch in the meeting. "It's all about empowering the individual," says Coonen. The meetings are at capacity every month, with fifty members. The CMS Expo is a natural outgrowth of the local meetings.

December's CMS Expo aims to bring users from all over the globe together in Denver.

What: CMS Expo - Winter 2008
When: December 4th & 5th, 2008
Where: Brown Palace Hotel - Denver, Colorado
Who Should Attend: People who are interested in building Joomla websites
Who Is Hosting the Event: The CMS Association

For more information http://www.cmsexpo.net