All We Want for Christmas ...
Dec 17 2010
... is the chance to show our stuff at "DrupalCon Chicago":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/! At ImageX, we love to give and receive, and what better way to exchange ideas than as DrupalCon presenters? Check out our proposed sessions below and vote, vote, vote! Voting closes December 24, and remember, Santa is watching ... 
h3. "Pimp Out Your Theme with CSS3 & jQuery":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/pimp-out-your-theme-css3-jquery *Presenters:* "Alex Ventpap":http://imagexmedia.com/alex & "Shea McKinney":http://imagexmedia.com/shea Need a little bit of extra “how you doin’?” for your site? Add some bling with modern design trends and effects that don’t get in the way, and spice up your tired old navigation menus with CSS3 and jQuery. This session will teach you how to design and implement eye-catching page layouts, navigational blocks and text-effects, and will definitely leave you wanting more. h3. "IT’S COMING! Preparing yourself and your sites for D7":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/it-s-coming-preparing-yourself-and-your-sites-d7 *Presenters:* "Shea McKinney":http://imagexmedia.com/shea & "Benjamin Koether":http://imagexmedia.com/benjamin Whether you’re embracing it or bracing yourself for it, Drupal 7 has arrived. If it hasn’t happened already, you’ll soon find yourself fielding questions from your clients about D6 to D7 upgrades, so it’s time to get prepared. In this session, we’ll walk you through a real-life example of upgrading a site from D6 to D7. We’ll also cover how we successfully migrated over 100 subsites at once. We’ll talk about the dos and don’ts of upgrading to D7, best practices and how you can painlessly (and fearlessly!) welcome D7 to the world. h3. "Drupal 7 Takes Portland State University to School":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/drupal-7-takes-portland-state-university-school *Presenters:* "Benjamin Koether":http://imagexmedia.com/benjamin, "Chris Geoghegan":http://imagexmedia.com/chris & "Kristin Boden-McKay":http://www.linkedin.com/in/kbm13 Managing the hundreds of websites a university needs is no simple task. Fortunately, Drupal 7 is up to the challenge. In this presentation you’ll get both sides of the story. Kristin Boden-Mackay, Director of Web Communications for Portland State University, will share some of the challenges she faces in managing over 150 sites, as well as insights she’s learned along the way. Ben Koether of ImageX Media will show how Drupal 7 is the perfect solution for these challenges. Lesson plan includes achieving consistent branding, allowing for customizations per department, syndicating content across multiple sites, robust access control and using install profiles to save time. h3. "Developing with Courage: Test-Driven Development in Drupal":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/developing-courage-test-driven-development-drupal *Presenter:* "Chris Geoghegan":http://imagexmedia.com/chris We’re debunking the myths about Test-Driven Development (TDD)! Contrary to what those worried voices in your head are telling you, it’s not a ton of work and doesn’t take longer than traditional development methods. Just the opposite – by the end of this session you’ll understand how TDD can make you a better, faster and more courageous developer. We’ll work through a real-life application of TDD in Drupal module development, and you’ll be amazed at how easy and effective it really is. h3. "Great Expectations: Staying On Time & On Budget With Agile Software Development & User Stories":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/great-expectations-staying-time-budget-agile-software-development-user-stories *Presenter:* "Jennifer Hols":http://imagexmedia.com/jennifer We’ve all experienced it – we think we know what the client wants, but it turns out their expectations were quite different. By the time this comes to light, hours have been burned and both the budget and timeline are blown to bits. But this can be avoided! In this session, we’ll show you how you can both estimate a project accurately and meet your client’s expectations. You’ll learn how identifying client “needs” from “wants” with User Stories can significantly improve accuracy of estimates and deliver the highest business value to the client. As well, using Agile software development can help by showing working software sooner – software clients can evaluate to determine if we’re indeed building the right thing. Leveraging User Stories against the backdrop of Agile Software Development, we can plan for the successful incremental release of software that delivers value on each release, on time and on budget. h3. "Strategies for Client Management":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/strategies-client-management *Presenters:* "Vanessa Turke":http://imagexmedia.com/vanessa, "Chris Strahl":http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisstrahl & "Amye Scavarda":http://www.msamye.com/pursuits/ We're putting on a panel that pulls together experienced, mid-level and new project managers from the Drupal community to talk about strategies for client and project management. We'll be talking about instructive failure points in our own work, with personal stories of how we mess things up and how we recover gracefully. This panel will be informative, entertaining and full of audience participation possibilities. *Panelists:* Seth Brown, Lullabot Chris Strahl, Acquia Vanessa Turke, ImageX *Moderator:* Amye Scavarda, Function h3. "Content Migration: Making the Big Move":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/content-migration-making-big-move *Presenter:* "Vanessa Turke":http://imagexmedia.com/vanessa So you’ve created a shiny new website – you’ve designed it, built it and can’t wait for that big housewarming party known as The Launch. But before this can happen, there is one more very crucial step that is often treated as an afterthought: content migration. Somehow, you need to pack up and move all of the content from the old site to the new. Like any move, this can seem overwhelming, and can leave you wondering who your real friends are. Fear not: this session will show you how to scope, plan, pilot and carry out a successful content migration to Drupal. We’ll explore how to make a plan, how to select what can be automated, how to avoid moving things that are better off left behind, how to map information and content elements to the new structure (and make sure things don’t get lost in the shuffle). h3. "The Drupal CEO Roadmap: Lessons from the Road":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/drupal-ceo-roadmap-lessons-road *Presenters:* "Glenn Hilton":http://imagexmedia.com/glenn, "Jeff Walpole":http://www.phase2technology.com/people/jwalpole, "Mike Caccavano":http://treehouseagency.com/about-us/team/michael-caccavano, "Ron Huber":http://www.achieveinternet.com/about/bios/ron-huber, "Drew Gorton":http://www.gortonstudios.com/whoweare/people/drew, "Ben Finklea":http://www.volacci.com/the-team, & "Dave Terry":http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveterry2 The last year has seen a dramatic growth in the number of Drupal focused businesses. This is essential to the growth and future of Drupal as a platform. However, we have also seen in the past that having a great technical framework to build from doesn't create a winning business. In this session, we will take a look beyond the technology side of Drupal and share what it takes to run a successful Drupal oriented business. This all star group of presenters is coming off a roadtrip of doing a "Running a Drupal Shop" panels at many of this past year's biggest Drupalcamps (yea they took this show on the road!) Drawing from these experiences and many past Drupalcon panels, we will kick it up a notch and use a fast paced ignite style of rapid presentation to focus directly on the most key issues and best secrets. h3. "Resourcing for Drupal – Insight into Building a Stellar Team":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/resourcing-drupal-insight-building-stellar-team *Presenters:* "Glenn Hilton":http://imagexmedia.com/glenn & "Dave Terry":http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveterry2 The last few years have consistently seen 10%+- global unemployment as much of world is mired in an economic recession. However, the demand for top Drupal talent remains strong. In this session, we’ll look at the importance of team building (and balancing that with the demands of the industry), working with remote workers, and bringing out the best in employees. For Drupal business owners or enterprise-level organizations implementing Drupal, resourcing has become increasingly difficult and retaining key personnel is even more critical. *Any of these catch your eye? Cast your vote before December 24! Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to have a little eggnog ...*
h3. "Pimp Out Your Theme with CSS3 & jQuery":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/pimp-out-your-theme-css3-jquery *Presenters:* "Alex Ventpap":http://imagexmedia.com/alex & "Shea McKinney":http://imagexmedia.com/shea Need a little bit of extra “how you doin’?” for your site? Add some bling with modern design trends and effects that don’t get in the way, and spice up your tired old navigation menus with CSS3 and jQuery. This session will teach you how to design and implement eye-catching page layouts, navigational blocks and text-effects, and will definitely leave you wanting more. h3. "IT’S COMING! Preparing yourself and your sites for D7":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/it-s-coming-preparing-yourself-and-your-sites-d7 *Presenters:* "Shea McKinney":http://imagexmedia.com/shea & "Benjamin Koether":http://imagexmedia.com/benjamin Whether you’re embracing it or bracing yourself for it, Drupal 7 has arrived. If it hasn’t happened already, you’ll soon find yourself fielding questions from your clients about D6 to D7 upgrades, so it’s time to get prepared. In this session, we’ll walk you through a real-life example of upgrading a site from D6 to D7. We’ll also cover how we successfully migrated over 100 subsites at once. We’ll talk about the dos and don’ts of upgrading to D7, best practices and how you can painlessly (and fearlessly!) welcome D7 to the world. h3. "Drupal 7 Takes Portland State University to School":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/drupal-7-takes-portland-state-university-school *Presenters:* "Benjamin Koether":http://imagexmedia.com/benjamin, "Chris Geoghegan":http://imagexmedia.com/chris & "Kristin Boden-McKay":http://www.linkedin.com/in/kbm13 Managing the hundreds of websites a university needs is no simple task. Fortunately, Drupal 7 is up to the challenge. In this presentation you’ll get both sides of the story. Kristin Boden-Mackay, Director of Web Communications for Portland State University, will share some of the challenges she faces in managing over 150 sites, as well as insights she’s learned along the way. Ben Koether of ImageX Media will show how Drupal 7 is the perfect solution for these challenges. Lesson plan includes achieving consistent branding, allowing for customizations per department, syndicating content across multiple sites, robust access control and using install profiles to save time. h3. "Developing with Courage: Test-Driven Development in Drupal":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/developing-courage-test-driven-development-drupal *Presenter:* "Chris Geoghegan":http://imagexmedia.com/chris We’re debunking the myths about Test-Driven Development (TDD)! Contrary to what those worried voices in your head are telling you, it’s not a ton of work and doesn’t take longer than traditional development methods. Just the opposite – by the end of this session you’ll understand how TDD can make you a better, faster and more courageous developer. We’ll work through a real-life application of TDD in Drupal module development, and you’ll be amazed at how easy and effective it really is. h3. "Great Expectations: Staying On Time & On Budget With Agile Software Development & User Stories":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/great-expectations-staying-time-budget-agile-software-development-user-stories *Presenter:* "Jennifer Hols":http://imagexmedia.com/jennifer We’ve all experienced it – we think we know what the client wants, but it turns out their expectations were quite different. By the time this comes to light, hours have been burned and both the budget and timeline are blown to bits. But this can be avoided! In this session, we’ll show you how you can both estimate a project accurately and meet your client’s expectations. You’ll learn how identifying client “needs” from “wants” with User Stories can significantly improve accuracy of estimates and deliver the highest business value to the client. As well, using Agile software development can help by showing working software sooner – software clients can evaluate to determine if we’re indeed building the right thing. Leveraging User Stories against the backdrop of Agile Software Development, we can plan for the successful incremental release of software that delivers value on each release, on time and on budget. h3. "Strategies for Client Management":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/strategies-client-management *Presenters:* "Vanessa Turke":http://imagexmedia.com/vanessa, "Chris Strahl":http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisstrahl & "Amye Scavarda":http://www.msamye.com/pursuits/ We're putting on a panel that pulls together experienced, mid-level and new project managers from the Drupal community to talk about strategies for client and project management. We'll be talking about instructive failure points in our own work, with personal stories of how we mess things up and how we recover gracefully. This panel will be informative, entertaining and full of audience participation possibilities. *Panelists:* Seth Brown, Lullabot Chris Strahl, Acquia Vanessa Turke, ImageX *Moderator:* Amye Scavarda, Function h3. "Content Migration: Making the Big Move":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/content-migration-making-big-move *Presenter:* "Vanessa Turke":http://imagexmedia.com/vanessa So you’ve created a shiny new website – you’ve designed it, built it and can’t wait for that big housewarming party known as The Launch. But before this can happen, there is one more very crucial step that is often treated as an afterthought: content migration. Somehow, you need to pack up and move all of the content from the old site to the new. Like any move, this can seem overwhelming, and can leave you wondering who your real friends are. Fear not: this session will show you how to scope, plan, pilot and carry out a successful content migration to Drupal. We’ll explore how to make a plan, how to select what can be automated, how to avoid moving things that are better off left behind, how to map information and content elements to the new structure (and make sure things don’t get lost in the shuffle). h3. "The Drupal CEO Roadmap: Lessons from the Road":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/drupal-ceo-roadmap-lessons-road *Presenters:* "Glenn Hilton":http://imagexmedia.com/glenn, "Jeff Walpole":http://www.phase2technology.com/people/jwalpole, "Mike Caccavano":http://treehouseagency.com/about-us/team/michael-caccavano, "Ron Huber":http://www.achieveinternet.com/about/bios/ron-huber, "Drew Gorton":http://www.gortonstudios.com/whoweare/people/drew, "Ben Finklea":http://www.volacci.com/the-team, & "Dave Terry":http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveterry2 The last year has seen a dramatic growth in the number of Drupal focused businesses. This is essential to the growth and future of Drupal as a platform. However, we have also seen in the past that having a great technical framework to build from doesn't create a winning business. In this session, we will take a look beyond the technology side of Drupal and share what it takes to run a successful Drupal oriented business. This all star group of presenters is coming off a roadtrip of doing a "Running a Drupal Shop" panels at many of this past year's biggest Drupalcamps (yea they took this show on the road!) Drawing from these experiences and many past Drupalcon panels, we will kick it up a notch and use a fast paced ignite style of rapid presentation to focus directly on the most key issues and best secrets. h3. "Resourcing for Drupal – Insight into Building a Stellar Team":http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/resourcing-drupal-insight-building-stellar-team *Presenters:* "Glenn Hilton":http://imagexmedia.com/glenn & "Dave Terry":http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveterry2 The last few years have consistently seen 10%+- global unemployment as much of world is mired in an economic recession. However, the demand for top Drupal talent remains strong. In this session, we’ll look at the importance of team building (and balancing that with the demands of the industry), working with remote workers, and bringing out the best in employees. For Drupal business owners or enterprise-level organizations implementing Drupal, resourcing has become increasingly difficult and retaining key personnel is even more critical. *Any of these catch your eye? Cast your vote before December 24! Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to have a little eggnog ...*Learn from us
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