LA Drupal Main Monthly Meetup - February 22, 2011

The next West LA Drupal meetup is on February 22, 2011 at the corporate headquarters of at Media Temple in Culver City, CA. The meetup begins at 7:30pm but the doors open a little earlier at 7pm for Users Helping Users, which is a chance for members of the community to help and be helped by others with whatever questions and problems they're having with Drupal. Several of us may be going to a local bar or restaurant after the meetup for a Drupal After Dark.

If you'd like to give a presentation, announce a job position or ask any questions of the group, please leave a comment below and plan to come a few minutes early. If presenting, be sure to bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.

This event is free – in fact, there will be raffle prizes and food and drinks will be provided – and no RSVP is required. Those who sign up, however, will have last-minute details (if there are any) sent to them before the meeting. It's also good to know how many to expect so that we can arrange adequate seating, food, drinks, and so on, so please sign up by logging in and clicking the Sign up button below.

We want your feedback!

During the meetup, we'll be gathered in the #drupal-la IRC channel and all are welcome to join us. The event organizers will also be checking Twitter for feedback and questions that mention @ladrupal or use the #ladrupal hashtag.

Location

We are meeting at Media Temple's corporate headquarters at 8520 National Blvd. in Culver City, CA. There is on-street parking as well as a parking lot on Hayden Ave, but the street parking is closest to the venue. To find the meeting space, first park and then enter Building C (the corner building; suite 101). If you enter Building A you will be led by a Media Temple employee to Building C, where the meeting is being held.

(mt) Media Temple is a webhosting and virtualization service provider and has one of the largest virtualization deployments in North America, with more than 95,000 customers and more than 800,000 domains on both coasts of the United States. Media Temple is a new venue sponsor for us but was one of our gold level sponsors at DrupalCamp LA 2010.

Agenda

   Users Helping Users

The meetup begins at 7:30pm but the doors open a little earlier at 7pm for Users Helping Users, which is a chance for members of the community to help and be helped by others with whatever questions and problems they're having with Drupal. Please note that while Users Helping Users is not designed to be a replacement for bonafide consulting from a Drupal professional that there are plenty of Drupal experts and professionals who attend our meetups and sometimes they need help, too!

   Job announcements and open Q&A

Everyone has a problem every now and then and the open Q&A session is a chance for attendees to divine answers from the collective wisdom of the group. This is also an opportunity for local businesses to make job announcements and ask for referrals and recommendations.

   Presentations

Drupal 7 Entities by Erik Webb and Ashok Modi
Wondering what entities, bundles, fields and formatters are all about in Drupal 7? They're a huge advancement from how things are done in Drupal 6 and as announced in the comments below, Ashok Modi (@btmash) has prepared a presentation introducing entities and their place in Drupal 7. Erik Webb (@erikwebb) will then demonstrate some basic hooks and usage. There will be time at the end for questions and answers.

   Lightning talks

We have time as well for lightning talks, which are 5-10 minute presentations from attendees who would like to share something with the group. If you'd like to give a lightning talk, be sure to come a few minutes early and bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.

As always, please feel welcome to leave a comment below and let others know what you'd like to present ahead of time.

   Raffle! Prizes! Collect them all!

We love our sponsors and have several raffle prizes from our sponsors in the Los Angeles area and around the world. If you or your company would like to sponsor a raffle prize at the LA Drupal meetups, please come early or contact the LA Drupal managers.

   Breakout Groups

As we've done for the past few months now, we'll split up into groups (sometimes called BoFs, or birds of a feather) and each group can jump into a particular topic that's set at the beginning of the meetup. The topics for these BoFs so far have ranged from high performance websites, Features-driven development, PCI compliance and general "getting started" discussions.

   Wrap up and Drupal After Dark

Several of us may be going to a local bar or restaurant for a Drupal After Dark afterward. Leave a comment below if you have ideas of a possible bar or restaurant that is nearby.

About LA Drupal

The LA Drupal community in and around Los Angeles, California, is one of the world's largest regional Drupal user groups. With regular Drupal trainings, monthly meetings and social gatherings, LA Drupal is Southern California's largest hub for all things Drupal. LA Drupal is also the producer of the annual DrupalCamp LA conference, the largest independent Drupal event in the world for three years running, and Drupal Design Camp LA, a design-oriented conference that was on February 5-6, 2011.

Attending LA Drupal events is one of the best ways to meet and talk with other Drupaleros and we encourage you to attend as many meetings and special events as you can, including the LA Drupal meetups in Santa Monica on the Westside and in the San Gabriel Valley. Whether it's about finding solutions to problems you've been having, sharing something you've learned or just meeting interesting like-minded people, the LA Drupal events are an essential resource for Drupal professionals and hobbyists alike.

If you aren't already part of LA Drupal, it's easy to become a member. We have several meetings every month that are free and open to everyone. There are also social gatherings and formal working meetings that sometimes happen throughout the month. Events are announced at http://groups.drupal.org/la/events