DrupalCampLA Wrap Up « Crystal Williams

It’s been two weeks since DrupalCampLA and I think the dust has finally settled enough for me to write this.

As I said in my opening remarks, when I first started planning this event, I was really hoping for a small gathering of dedicated Drupal Developers, you know, just 40-60 people to kick things off…

Man, what the heck do I know?

DrupalCampLA saw a bit over 100 participants and about 25 unique session topics (not to mention 120 somewhat unique cupcakes) in two days at the AOL offices in Beverly Hills, and I really don’t think I could have asked for a better group of curious folks or a more supportive community.

From Project Management to Flex, Install Profiles to Podcast tools, we had some really fantastic presentations, and as always, hallway conversations that spark friendships, projects, and more than a few modules. While the attendance skewed heavily towards the developers (another surprise for me and others) we also had great participation from project managers, designers, admins, and the business development folks who are keeping these projects coming through the doors.

A big thanks to all who turned out and made this event such a success, and an even bigger thanks to our sponsors who made it possible to give an event like this to the community for free.

But wait, there’s more…

Not only were we lucky enough to have such great sponsors, but we also had the incredible support and participation of many of the top Drupal firms on the left coast. A huge thanks goes out to:

Achieve Internet not only brought a small, extremely Drupal-savvy army up from San Diego, they also sponsored Saturday night’s party at Islands. So if you’re looking for who to thank for that, look no further. They’re looking to hire great people, so if San Diego sounds like a good destination, give them a shout.
WorkHabit may indeed take the prize for largest number of Drupal devs schlepped the furthest distance, bringing their core team all the way down from Sacramento to see how so-cal kicks it drupal-style. WorkHabit provides Drupal development, integration, strategy, deployment solutions, and training.They’re also looking to hire, so if Northern Cali is more your speed, Drop them a line.
Another big thanks to Bryght for sending Chief Blogging Officer Roland Tanglao down for the weekend to speak on Install Profiles (definitely a hot topic lately).
Also, thanks to the folks at CivicActions who couldn’t be there, but send their love in the form of Some really nifty Drupal pins. Thanks, guys!
And lastly, thanks to Jen Simmons, who joined us all the way from Philadelphia, and Jacob Redding, organizer of DrupalCampNYC, who joined us on his victory lap around the U.S. before moving to China.

Other big thanks are due to Chris Charlton and everyone else who fetched ice, coffee, cupcakes, or napkins, or helped set-up, clean-up, or just generally keep the show running. It was all noticed and much appreciated.

And Now Time for the Media Frenzy…

Ok, not quite, but there was an amazing amount of recording done at this event. We’re still assembling it all, but stay tuned, we should have recordings of nearly every session available to the internet at large soon. For now, though, enjoy some glimpses of DrupalCampLA:

Video by Chris Charlton:

More video
A glimpse of the pre-opening craziness on Saturday from Mike Macadaan here That one opens with me saying “I can’t believe people are trying to email me to register this morning” (it was true), and later includes me answering “Hi Crystal” with “I need someone to go get the coffee.” This kind of sums up my morning there.