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Events

DrupalCon Munich

DrupalCon Munich took place last week—well, last-last week, I guess—and it was pretty rad. I just got home a couple days ago, myself. My wife Erin and I figured that as long as I was in Germany already, we may as well make a trip of it, so she flew out on Friday (the sprint day of the con) and we spent the weekend in Munich, then flew up to Berlin for the following week. The whole trip was a blast, but we're talking about DrupalCon here.

If I'm being honest, the first couple days of the conference were largely lost on me. I was more jet-lagged than I thought, and I think a little bit culture-shocked by failing to understand just about everything that was being said around me. I took a year of German in college (eight years ago now), but that did remarkably little for my ability to communicate with people there.

It's almost time for Munich!

Holy crap, can you believe that DrupalCon Munich is just two weeks away? This summer has been flying by!

I, for one, am equal parts excited and apprehensive. DrupalCons are always exciting: I get to see friends I've made over the last couple years, and always meet a ton of new people. But, at the same time, I'm a little bit worried about two things: finding my way around, and being on a panel.

I really shouldn't be nervous about the panel. I'll be speaking with Karyn Cassio, Addi Berry, and Paul Johnson about making local meetups work, in the last session slot on Wednesday. All three of them are easy to talk to, and we've got a ton of information and ideas to share.

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Video: Drupal is Stupid (But I Love It Anyway)

This past weekend was the second CapitalCamp here in DC, and I wound up doing a session on Friday morning. I was one of the organizers of the event, but submitted two sessions early on (mostly to start filling up the Proposed Sessions list). When it became clear that we had a ton of great session proposals (and I was going to have my hands full all weekend), I withdrew my proposals.

But, a speaker had to cancel his session a few days before the camp, and since I had previously done this talk at the DC PHP user group back in November, I was asked if I could fill the slot by doing it again. I think it worked out well: I've been asked by a lot of people who couldn't make it back in November if there was a video available, but at the time, I didn't really know how to use Keynote and failed to record it. This open timeslot gave me a chance to record a video, and to update some of the content of the talk.

In any case, I think it went pretty well. The audio peters out near the end: the Q&A became more of a discussion, which was great at the time but didn't get picked up by the mic.

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Follow-up: This Module Doesn't Work Right (And What You Can Do About It)

I gave this talk at Drupaldelphia this past weekend, and finally got around to pulling together some resources for those interested. The video is below; it was recorded in Keynote, so it's just the slides and the audio is so-so.

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Speaking Gigs Coming Up

I've got an exciting couple of months ahead of me!

Next Friday, June 22, I'll be speaking at Drupaldelphia: This Module Doesn't Work Right (And What You Can Do About It).

The last weekend of July will be the second CapitalCamp here in DC. Session selections are happening this week, so the chosen sessions will be announced soon.

In August, I'll be off to Germany for DrupalCon Munich. I'll be on a panel about organizing local meetups, along with Karyn Cassio, Addison Berry, and Paul Johnson: To Beer Or Not To Beer? Making meetups work.

It's going to be a nerdy summer!

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Let's Talk About Sex

As it often is, sexism in the tech industry was the topic of a lot of back-and-forth on Twitter this past week. It started with the revelation1 that a modeling agency in Denver had been contracted to staff "booth babes" in the DrupalCon exhibit hall back in March, and continued (as it so often does) with debate over what behavior is appropriate at professional-ish industry events like DrupalCon.

The issue of "booth babes"2 is the one that got under my skin the most, so let's talk about that. First, allow me outline my basic position on the issue:

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The Boston Initiative in DC

Last night, a handful of us in DC got together to discuss bringing the Boston Initiative to DC. My notes are on the DC group, with links to lots of additional info for those unfamiliar with the project.

I expected a pretty quick planning meeting: how often can we do sprints, where can we hold them, who wants to help organize them, etc. Instead, we quickly got off on a tangent about the merits of LearnDrupal.org and concerns about the content, how it's structured, and whether it's just duplicating existing training materials.

I was a bit frustrated by the way it went, but after sleeping on it, I'm really happy it did.

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DrupalCon Denver Recap

I don't even know where to begin. This is the best I've come up with:

DrupalCon Denver was a roaring success.

This was my second DrupalCon, and I had even spent a week in the Colorado Convention Center a few years ago. I had a pretty good idea what to expect, and it did not disappoint.

I'm still in Denver and still deeply in recovery mode, so I can't muster much of a recap beyond bullet points, but I think that'll do. The links to sessions even include videos.

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DrupalCon Chicago

I know it's been over a week, but I'm finally getting caught up on sleep and email after Drupalcon.

This was my first DrupalCon - well, my first anything-con, really - and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I don't mean that in a bad way: I just didn't really know what to expect, I guess, so reality wasn't quite what I was imagining. I had a lot of fun and learned all sorts of things, but I definitely learned some important lessons for next year.

Sleep more the week before the con. This one is obvious, and I even had fair warning that it would be a sleep-deprived week, but because of other projects I didn't get to stock up as much as I should have. Frankly, I got a solid 6 or 7 hours every night I was there, but there was so much going on all week that it was far more exhausting than a regular week at home.

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DrupalCon Chicago Prep

I never did get around to writing anything about the Webchick Drupal 7 Tour after the Lullabots came through DC a few weeks ago, but at this point, DrupalCon looms much larger on everyone's mind.

I couldn't be more excited. Even though I worked for four years at an event management company, and handled on-site IT for several technology conferences during that time, I've never actually attended a conference. I started working with Drupal just a few months before San Francisco, so it was too late to make arrangements to go by the time I really got into the project, and I couldn't afford a trip to Europe for Copenhagen. But, I have spent the past year attending the Drupal meetups here in town and occasional training events (like the Webchick tour), and from everything I've seen, next week is going to be a big hotel full of 3000 people that I'd really like to hang out with. They say, "Come for the code, stay for the community," and it's true: the Drupal community is so much friendlier and more welcoming than that of any other open source project I've dealt with.

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Drupal MD

(Originally posted on BrockBoland.com.)

Thursday night, Dave and I braved the wilds of suburban Maryland to check out the Drupal MD group.

It was a nice change of pace from the DC group. The DC group meets in the upper room of a local bar. There are typically around 20 to 40 people there, and a few people will give lightning talks, then everyone kind of mingles.

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Lullabot Module Development Deep Dive Week

(Originally posted on BrockBoland.com.)

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