General 2/19/2019

For the third time in a row: two Magento Masters at integer_net

A few weeks ago, the Magento Masters 2019 were announced. For the third time in a row our colleague Sonja has been awarded, for Andreas from our team it's the first time. In 2017 and 2018 Fabian was also one of the Magento Masters.

Team Member: Sonja Franz Sonja Riesterer, Magento Master "Maker" 2017-2019

Team Member: Andreas von Studnitz Andreas von Studnitz, Magento Master "Mentor" 2019

What are the Magento Masters?

"Magento Master" is a program by Magento (which is now a company of Adobe) to award those 20 persons who were the top contributors in the community. These contributions can include:

  • Talks about Magento at conferences and other events
  • Blog posts about Magento
  • Organisation of Magento focused events like conferences and meetups
  • Documentation
  • Code as part of the Community Engineering Programm
  • Support in the Magento Forums and the developer platform StackExchange
  • Other activities which help to advance Magento and its community

This program is offered annually since 2016. Individuals can be selected as a Magento Master up to three times.

Why were our colleagues chosen?

Sonja was selected based on her contributions at organising MageUnconference and the Magento meetup Aachen as well as her work on the official Magento translations. You can read more about it in the official announcement of Magento Masters in the category "Makers".

Andreas was mainly selected in the category "Mentors" based on several talks about Magento related topics in 2018, his blog posts in this blog, organising Magento meetup Aachen (together with Sonja) and code contributions. Again, more details can be found in the official announcement.

What are the benefits of the program?

An important point is the recognition by the worldwide Magento community and the possibility to get in touch with a lot of people. At the main annual Magento event, "Imagine" in Las Vegas, the Masters are officially introduced on stage during one of the keynotes where they receive their awards. A meal together with the leadership team of Magento round out the programme at Imagine.

Furthermore, the Masters are offered a more direct contact to Magento employees and sometimes get a chance to consult in questions regarding the community. In the course of the year, there are conference calls with all Masters as well as Sherrie Rohde and Ben Marks, the Community Managers of Magento, with the goal to exchange information about current projects in the community.

There is no financial benefit in being a Magento Master. You do get a little discount for certifications and the participation in courses of Magento U.

For us it is a great honour to be the only company with two Magento Masters in their team and that for the third year in a row. At our current team size, 25% of the team are or have been selected as a Magento Master. Sonja, Andreas, and Fabian make sure that the whole team is always up to date about what is going on in the community. When we stumble upon a question about Magento products in a project, they are quick to find the right person to talk to. Their contributions also help promote integer_net. Congratulations to all Masters and especially to the Qualified Alumnis, those individuals who have qualified for the fourth time for a Master award.