As DrupalConSF ramped up today, it became evident that the convention was even more successful than expected.
Gaining entrance into the first session of the morning proved to be a bit of a challenge for Ken and I, simply due to the sheer mass of people that filled the hallway. We managed to squeeze into a full-capacity room, though, for a quick introduction to DrupalCon.
I should mention that there are many sessions available at this convention. In fact, new sessions on new topics run approximately every hour, in several different rooms. The organizers have split the topic categories up into six different categories:
- Welcome to Drupal
- Configuration, Set-Up, & Administration
- Design, Theme, & Usability
- Under the Hood
- Providing Professional Drupal Services
- Leveraging Drupal for Your Business
This means that six different sessions are running roughly every hour on the hour. What’s kind of amazing is that nearly every session that I attended hit max capacity. I was even dumped into an overflow room on one occasion, which was kind of nice because by that point I needed to find an outlet to plug into.
The highlight of the day, was the keynote address by Drupal founder Dries Buytaert. For someone who, self-admittedly, was nervous about speaking in front of such a large crowd, he did a fantastic job of keeping the information interesting, well-paced, and humorous. He covered a few different main topics during his address, including the a report on the progress of Drupal 7, the need to keep Drupal relevant while still being innovative, and the increasing involvement of large corporations such as Microsoft and Google – both sponsors of this event. As a wrap up, the location for the European 2010 DrupalCon was announced – it will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark this fall.
Other than the keynote address, which Ken and I both really enjoyed, we both had our own favorite sessions that we attended.
As a developer, Ken focused primarily on the programming and development side of things, of course. Understand that Ken is normally a rather quiet guy, but after the Drupal As A Web Services Platform session with Greg Dunlap of Palantir services and Josh Kopel of Kolaborationstudio.com, it was evident that the interest was really starting to percolate. Basically, what this particular session focused on was how to use Drupal as an information distribution source that feeds other applications such as iPhone or Android. Warning to our managers, he’s coming back with some ideas. 🙂
For myself, my focus is primarily on professional services such as consultation and training. I found a great deal of value in the last session of the day, Planning and Executing a Successful Drupal Implementation with Michael Morris and Jeff Walpole of Phase II Technology. These guys did a great job of outlining common issues that project managers and analysts face when working with large Drupal projects. They provided some sound tips regarding how to effectively prepare for and handle these issues.
Stay tuned for more coverage of DrupalCon San Francisco as we head into Day 2.
