Lullabot is pleased to announce the largest independent Drupal event ever. Do It With Drupal is a 3-day seminar focused on the configuration, architecture, and processes behind building successful Drupal websites and communities.

The event is geared at attendees with a wide range of Drupal experience. For new developers and decision-makers, DIWD will offer a great introduction to Drupal and the Drupal community. For more experienced Drupalers, DIWD will offer a great chance to pick up tips and tricks straight from the experts and a chance to connect and socialize with other Drupal professionals.

The Do It With Drupal Seminar will feature the following highlights:

  • Examine and dissect successful Drupal sites
  • Discover new site-building strategies
  • Learn from Drupal's top developers
  • Hear from community-building experts
  • Connect with other Drupal professionals
  • Expand your Drupal knowledge

The event takes place at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans' French Quarter, December 10-12, 2008 and features sessions by many "big names" from both inside and outside of the Drupal community (see list of current speakers below).

The current list of speakers includes...

  • Drupal Developers
    • Earl Miles, Author, Views and Panels
    • Karen Stevenson, Maintainer of CCK, Date and Calendar
    • Moshe Weitzman, Author, Organic Groups
    • Gabor Hojtsy, Drupal Core Maintainer
    • Ryan Szrama, Ubercart
    • John Albin Wilkins, Zen theme system
  • Technology & Community Experts
    • John Resig, Creator of jQuery
    • Heather Champ, Flickr Community Manager
    • Ed Sussman, FastCompany.com
    • Karen McGrane, Bond Art + Science
    • Brian Oberkirch, Social media consultant
  • Lullabot
    • Matt Westgate, President, Lullabot
    • Jeff Robbins, CEO, Lullabot
    • Angela "Webchick" Byron, Using Drupal, Drupal Core Maintainer
    • Nathan Haug, Using Drupal
    • Addison Berry, Using Drupal
    • James Walker, Using Drupal
    • Jeff Eaton, Voting API, Using Drupal
    • John VanDyk, Pro Drupal Development

Speakers are still being added. Find the latest list here.

Visit the Do It With Drupal website at http://www.doitwithdrupal.com to find more information including the current schedule and FAQ. And be sure to check out the blog for more speaker and conference-related information as it is announced.

We hope to see you in New Orleans!

Comments

christefano’s picture

This is wonderful news, indeed, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I'm left wondering, however, what makes this event "the largest independent Drupal event ever"? I'm not sure what that means. Do you mean it's independent of the Drupal Association?



Christefano  
Founder, CEO
Large Robot
954-247-4786
http://www.largerobot.com
moshe weitzman’s picture

Yes, I'll bet that this is what independant refers to. Another way to read it is "largest drupal specific even that is not drupalcon.".

ericG’s picture

I'd think that the award for largest independent drupal event would go to this past weekend's LA Drupal Camp (didn't they have over 450 people registered for that free community centric event?).

Also, I think it is a stretch to describe an event where the primary organizers are from companies with large representation on the board of the Drupal Association as an "Independent" event.

We just pulled off the 5th NYC Drupal Camp this past weekend with about 150 people, and the total cost to put on the entire event, including space, food and random supplies was about $1,500; this "independent" event is charging between $795 and $1,195/person. ouch.

But, that all said, I hope the event is a success, even if it is a bit expensive.

I don't have a problem with this event or the groups involved, I just think this announcement is written by someone that is too comfortable with PR and spin for my taste.

dwees’s picture

I'm sure the reason why this other event is more expensive is because of the list of the speakers. The people there are some of the biggest movers and shakers in the Drupal community. Every core issue I've ever looked through has one of their names on it and the most widely used contributed modules are produced by some of these people (think CCK, Organic groups, etc...).

John Resig of course is not a module maintainer, nor does he often chime in on issues in the queue here, but of course he created the JavaScript library upon which every one of JS enabled modules relies.

Dave
My site: http://www.unitorganizer.com/myblog

Chris Charlton’s picture

Yup, exactly.

As the co-organizer of the (currently) largest DrupalCamp to date, and holding a camp in a convention center, I must admit it was EXPENSIVE!!! Like expensive to the power of 6000; no joke.

Here's some details of throwing an event at a venue like where Doing It With Drupal will take place, but notes are from where DrupalCampLA 2008 took place at (Los Angeles Convention Center):
* Every single power outlet you want turned on (yes, turned ON) costs $150 and requires a credit card for any wattage overages and power spikes (500W limit). Nuts huh!
* Each room has Wi-Fi costs, and Wi-Fi was pretty super duper expensive for us at the camp. Imagine around 200 people costing $5,200.00 USD. Again, no joke. We paid for 125 people or so and asked people to keep their iPhones off the wireless and buy their own ($12.96/day) wireless access on site if they didn't want to share.
* Our presenters were free for us. They paid their way because they're dope and wanted to help a lot of people knowing the entire event was powered by donations of time. A flight from Seattle to Los Angeles with a room for two nights, round-trip, costed an attendee about $800 USD, so to them they paid $800 for a two-day, awesome camp - which in all industry fairness sounds about right in terms of price for medium-high levels of learning material and networking.
* Our location was free. That saved us $1200-2500 per large room (we had two), and $250+ per small room (we had two).
* Projectors at the convention center would have cost $350/each per day to rent, and the screens were separate for $250/each per day. We had three rooms and the schedule projected. We're nuts huh!
* No food. It was going to cost us $25 per gallon of coffee, plus serving costs, plus clean up costs, plus blah blah blah cost. Needless to say no food or coffee was served.

... okay, I can't say more because my wallet is crying again. I'll do a more detailed post for DrupalCampLA, but I posted this in all reasonably sized events no matter the technology - this stuff is expensive and everyone needs to really be more understanding at prices for learning and events. You didn't pay for Drupal except in time, and these people put in tons of time since they're doing Drupal itself and are teaching us about it.

Much love to the L'bots and Drupal helpers worldwide!

Chris Charlton
Manager
LA Drupal
Drupal Author
Published since 2007
ericG’s picture

As the primary organizer of the past two NYC Drupal Camps, I totally understand what you are saying. Putting on a free/low cost event costs a lot of money (and people's time). That brings me to my first point, sponsorships. In order to pull off low cost events, we need to rely on sponsors. Those sponsors have a limited pool of funds.

There are three primary types of Drupal events: DrupalCamps and unconferences which are free or low-cost; more formal DrupalCon events which have moderate prices; and high priced private/group trainings that cost a lot of money. Each of these models is valid; if done right, each builds off of and supports the others.

In my opinion, this event should not be pulling sponsorship money from the rest of the community. An event can either be community-centric and ask for sponsors, *or* it can charge people $400/day and rely on those funds. By both charging more than the average member of the community can pay and seeking sponsors, I feel that this event is working against the community's best long term interests. Those of us working on community centric events need those sponsors, an event where folks can afford to pay $1200 to attend does not.

My second point of grump is front page listing on drupal.org. Somewhere along the line, events like the LA and NYC Drupal Camps were explicitly defined as inappropriate for the front page of drupal.org, some have said that because they are insignificant local events they don't belong on the front page; NYC Drupal Camp had people attend from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Virginia, Missouri, and Pennsylvania -- among other states and countries. I'm sure that LA had similar regional attendance. I find it troubling that an event like this can be given the official seal of approval that comes with being promoted to the front page, but our larger regional events can never get that recognition.

Finally, something seems odd about the timing of this announcement. Last week, we were told to watch the front page of the site, as the location and dates of the next DrupalCon North America was going to be announced. Instead, I see this event.

I have to wonder if this does not reflect a factional dispute in the Drupal Association. This is not a D.A. event; it is simply put on by 20% of the voting members of the D.A. and advertised in a way that is intentionally confusing (to the point where there are multiple items in the site's FAQ to clear up any confusion) and seems to be in direct competition for attention and sponsorships with the upcoming DrupalCon.

I've got no problem with the high-priced lullabot trainings, I've heard many good things about them. But this seems to be the same old thing with a spin that lacks a certain amount of transparency.

Again, I wish the organizers the best of luck, I just have some problems with how they are promoting the event and confusing the line between community and for-profit event.

Amazon’s picture

Eric, sorry we didn't get time to hang out this week. Looks like a video conference call is in order.

First, the Drupal Association doesn't control the content on Drupal.org, it just so happens that many of the members of the Drupal association have long histories over many years of helping to maintain Drupal.org and have elevated permissions, including the ability to promote stories to the front page. The are many more site administrators on Drupal.org than there are Drupal association members, which totals 25 permanent members, 4 (16%) of which work for Lullabot. But all Drupal.org site administrators are subject to the buddy system and are requested to schedule their front page posts.

You first point says that DIWD is pulling sponsorships from the Drupal community. I think this is a misunderstanding. DIWD is creating value for sponsors that did not exist, and would not exist if those innovative entrepreneurs at Lullabot did not create them. It's one thing to do what you want, for example organizing a local camp, and then asking for help doing it. Let's call that goodwill sponsorships. It's another thing to create a series of time consuming and expensive high quality marketing opportunities for businesses and then take the huge risk of hoping that you've created enough value that businesses will buy those sponsorships after you've committed to huge capital expenditures. They are creating new marketing opportunities and selling them. Do not complain if someone buys marketing opportunities for their business that you are not creating or selling. It's like complaining that someone got paid for a module you were never going to write.

To put this in perspective, at Drupalcon Boston we probably spent over 500 hours creating direct marketing opportunities for businesses through the program guide, banners, job fair, sponsor lists, web site banners, and website advertisements. We sold those sponsorships and marketing opportunities for over $150,000. Sure, lots of companies just wanted to give back to the Drupal community, but lots of companies wanted the business value we were creating and selling. It's hard work and high risk.

You are right to point out some inconsistencies for local event announcements for front page posts. I allude to the challenge of having an estimated 800 local events across 150 local groups world wide in a response down below. But this event was not a local or even a regional event. It was a ambitious new marketing and training opportunity to address a massive problem in the Drupal community, how do we grow the Drupal talent pool?

The Drupalcon North America announcement was estimated to happen last week. We've delayed that announcement until key contracts are signed. We recently had a major Drupal conference announced and then canceled on the front page of Drupal.org. We are trying to avoid those kinds of embarrassments by being cautious.

Will DIWD compete for sponsorship at Drupalcon North America 2009? Yes. Will every Drupal trainer who gives private training to their customers compete with Drupalcon? Yes. Will books compete with Drupalcon? Yes. Will DVDs from Lullabot and Lynda.com compete with Drupalcon? Yes. Will 800 local events across 150 local groups compete with Drupalcon North America? Yes. What are we going do?

As a community, we are lucky to have such talented and giving individuals as yourself who organize events. We are also lucky to have entrepreneurs and innovators who create new products like books, DVDs, modules, and private training classes. There will always be a tension, and you are right to call it out when you see it.

Kieran

Kieran Lal

starbow’s picture

I don't understand the policy that puts this on the front page, but DrupalCampLA doesn't get mentioned anywhere except on drupal.org.

Senpai’s picture

Starbow, just so you know, this isn't a policy-specific post. It's an announcement of sorts, and a call to action, and a 'celebrate with us' message. There's also no reason that the DrupalCamp LA meeting isn't mentioned on the front page, except that nobody's written anything about it. Yet.

I think I'll do that tomorrow.

Congrats to the Lullabot crew for pulling off a strong training event in a swamp that's legendary for it's musical history and historic legacy. May this seminal seminar be as awesome as I suspect it will be but cannot witness for myself due to scheduling constraints.

Cheers!
______________________________
Senpai (also see my Drupal Dojo account)
  ~ Build a better WorkHabit ~

****
Joel "Senpai" Farris | certified to rock score

starbow’s picture

Hi Senpai, I agree with everything you say. But it seems to directly contradict the explanation for pulling the BADCamp announcement off the front page last year. You can see the discussion at:
http://drupal.org/node/183135

Senpai’s picture

Ok, I've read the entire thread that you linked to, and here's what I have to saw about it. Promote your product, or die out.

Any all-day event that deals in training and instruction of the Drupal system MUST be on the front page of this site's river of news. If we don't place these things on our homepage, we run the very real risk of dying out as a viable system. Think about it for a second. There. See what I mean?

I'm still gonna write a post about the LA camp, and promote it to the front page, just because it was so amazingly huge. There were almost as many people attending as the Szeged Con had, and the numbers surprised everybody. The Family is growing. Cool.

______________________________
Senpai (also see my Drupal Dojo account)
  ~ Build a better WorkHabit ~

****
Joel "Senpai" Farris | certified to rock score

Amazon’s picture

I don't have the exact history but at some point in the last couple of years, as local camps really started taking off there were a lot of requests to get front page posts for local events. At first, it made sense to reach out to the largest audience possible. But it quickly became obvious that these posts were really off-topic for 99% of the visitors to the Drupal.org front page since they were unlikely to be able to attend or benefit directly from the events.

The second problem became how do you consistently post announcements for local events on Drupal.org. If the Bay Area has 6 million people, Southern California has 23 million people, and NYC metropolitan area has 19.5 million do you make exception for large urban areas since they naturally are going to have large audiences. What about Shanghai? What about Hyperbad? What about San Paolo?

With an estimated 800 Drupal learning events going on in 2008, how do you decide which events get announced. Lately, we've tried to keep the local events off the front page and focused at http://groups.drupal.org. A large non-local event like DIWD seemed to not fall under the local group umbrella. The event was targeting an audience well beyond the New Orleans audience.

Kieran

Kieran Lal

ericG’s picture

Given that we already have a good team of folks doing the hard work to sort through content and promote items to the front page, I really don't see how it is that much harder to make decisions if we allow them to consider local events as valid.

In another thread, some suggest that there is not any policy that would keep local events off the front page, while your posts here suggest that there is.

Can we get some clarity on this issue so we're not debating a non-issue?

Do the site maintainers that worry about what to put on the front page consider local events as valid content or not. While that remains hazy, this debate is not going to go anywhere.

christefano’s picture

While that remains hazy, this debate is not going to go anywhere.

The debate is indeed going somewhere, albeit not here in this thread. Please see #279479 for the current discussion. #183135 and http://groups.drupal.org/node/14896 are also related.



Christefano  
Founder, CEO
Large Robot
954-247-4786
http://www.largerobot.com
Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

I think this announcement is not the right place to discuss this. With the drupal.org redesign, the concept of "promoted to front page" will disappear anyway, so it looks pointless to debate it at this point. See http://www.disambiguity.com/category/planet-drupal/

Chris Charlton’s picture

Is the event posted on GDO at all? I like to subscribe to those. :D

Chris Charlton
Manager
LA Drupal
Drupal Author
Published since 2007
julma’s picture

No sessions for project managers ?

I would love to see more project managers involved in the drupal community.
See the group : http://groups.drupal.org/projectManagement

jjeff’s picture

Hi Julma,

We've actually got a few project-management-related sessions planned, but they haven't made it onto the schedule yet. We think that an understanding of project management and in particular the needs of a Drupal site from a project manager's perspective is ESSENTIAL to the success of a Drupal project. I'll try to get those sessions on the schedule in the next few days.

--= Jeff Robbins | The Do It With Drupal Seminar =--

shiva7663’s picture

I can't see paying a thousand dollars for a seminar. That would buy a whole lot of ramen noodle packets.

Zahor’s picture

Lol - it's not gonna work for everyone. I can see paying $1000 if it would be of great benefit to me(I don't think this one would be since the subject matter seems aimed at more novice users). I know a lot of people who would love something like this, since you ca learn what it may take you months and months to learn, time which you may not have. Think of it as an investment.

Think of the amount of ramen noodles you could by when the company you work for as an intern promotes you to developer and doubles your hourly rate due to your new found knowledge!!

crutch’s picture

I'm going. This is closest drupal event to East Coast USA and I'm excited to learn more and possibly get some questions answered.

vkr11’s picture

roshan_shah’s picture

All the best guys! - Rock it!

-
Roshan Shah

flash menu’s picture

Yeah
there'll be so many full of energy people, that I'm afraid of black hole producing :)

Pfabb’s picture

Don't tell me such terrible thing.
I want to get there.

Konstantin_by’s picture

See ya in N.Orleans!

_
http://daadaa.net