Drupalites Flock to Vancouver Island

Sep 15 2009

If your’re a budding Drupaler still uncertain about attending a Drupal event — hesitate no longer!

Victoria Drupalcamp

Last weekend, Tom, Alex and I took the ferry over to Vancouver Island to attend Victoria’s annual Drupal Camp hosted by North Studio. The Victoria School of Business and Technology (where the event was held) was abuzz with Drupal enthusiasts from as far away as Boise, Idaho. In true open source fashion, the event welcomed all comers ― from people who have never used Drupal all the way up to those who seem to eat, sleep and breathe Drupal Core.

As one of the only women in our office, it’s always particularly interesting to meet other Drupalistas! It’s a rare treat to be able to discuss Drupal project management, information architecture, yoga and shoes in a single conversation. After meeting Anne Stefanyk, a fellow Solution Architect at NorthStudio, I was able to do just that!

Our group hopped the pond with Katy Laan of SeascapeWebDesign. I first met Katy at the Spring 2008 Vancouver Drupalcamp and she’s always made me feel very welcome at the Surrey Drupal Meetups as well. It was Katy who suggested Jeannine Mitchell’s Student Finance 101 Society project for the code sprint. The website helps Canadian students and grads deal with student loans. Jeannine must done some research on the way to a developer’s heart – she filled the table in the code sprint room with chocolate chip cookies!

As devotee of Social Networking, I particularly appreciated Stikky Media’s Simon Vreeswijk’s presentation on Drupal and Social Media. Simon explained that while content should still be optimized, Drupal provides a great platform for organic SEO, Social Media and Community websites. He even shared some tips and tricks for integrating some great new Social Media tools into your Drupal website.

One of the sessions I know many participants found very helpful was Chris Shattuck’s Drupal Development Evolved: From your first Drupal site to team-driven deployment. Chris discussed tools for managing multiple developers on a Drupal project. He talked about the use of version control, Drush for updates, WebEnabled as a development platform, Acquia Drupal, and simple project ticketing. I also got a chance to have a great conversation with Chris about his Drupal UX work.

Thanks to Richard Pattee for his gourmet burger barbeque on Friday! Thanks also to all of you who stopped by for my presentation on preparing Information Architecture for Drupal. As promised, here is the link to my presentation slides. You can also check out Alex and Tom’s presentation on Drupal Theming From Design to Development. Stay tuned to this blog for more of Alex’s and Tom’s informative Drupal design and theming advice!

Your level of involvement in the Drupal community doesn’t need to mirror your skill level – share your passion for this CMS with others, learn, teach, play and find common ground with a great bunch of folks. The next event in our neck of the woods is the Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit — October 24 & 25, 2009, a regional conference for Pacific Northwest Drupaleers. Check the Drupal.org events calendar for happenings near you, or even consider organizing your own Drupal Meetup!