Drupalcon DC: Gone in a Flash
Last week members of our management team and I had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC to attend the Drupalcon convention. It was a jam packed week with sessions running solid from morning to night with too many good options to choose from in many cases. It was our first Drupalcon to attend, and I have to admit that we were all quite impressed with how tight the event was planned and executed. Everything was well organized and the quality of the training was beyond my expectations. Hats off to all the sponsors, session trainers, along with the Development Seed team for the amazing job they did along with all the Washington DC Drupalers who contributed in helping make Drupalcon such a success! It was neat to see thruout the week the buzz in the media around the event as Drupal continues to gain recognition worldwide for it’s rapid growth since its inception less than a decade ago.
With almost 1500 in attendance it was somewhat overwhelming seeing the amount of Drupal based companies that are now in existance. Up until attending the conference we had been in contact with a handful of other firms. Probably the closest has been our partnership with Mediacurrent in Atlanta. It was great to finally have the chance to connect with some of their team in person as we’ve been collaborating with them via phone and email over the past year. It was equally encouraging to have the chance to meet so many great people from other Drupal shops along with myriads of freelancers from around the world! According to Boris Mann of Bootup Labs there are now over a thousand Drupal companies world wide and many more intependant Drupal contractors.
For me the highlight of the week was the Birds of a Feather sessions that we had with the heads of other Drupal shops. I found it helpful to learn what other firms are doing to keep rolling thru a tough economy along with having open discussions about common challenges in running a design/development shop. Drupalcon was definitely a success and my only complaint was that it ended too soon.
