I conducted two brief interviews to understand what the goals of local event organizers were.
[13:19] yoroy> ok, inital goals:
[13:20] yoroy> - get a first idea of how many and what kind of people/shops are using/working with drupal
[13:20] yoroy> make them aware of each other's existence
[13:21] yoroy> since it was the first one
[13:21] yoroy> we tried to be as 'open' as possible, something for everyone
[13:22] amazon> and business goals?
[13:22] yoroy> though 'Translation' was the central topic for the hands-on part of the day
[13:22] amazon> ok, great
[13:22] yoroy business goals: not explicitly, just the networking part
[13:23] yoroy again, first time so we didn't really know who/what to expect
[13:23] amazon What education did your users want?
[13:24] yoroy well, the profs said they missed the opportunity to go in-depth, code-wise, that day
[13:25] amazon Different audiences then
[13:25] yoroy scaling Drupal, workflow for staging > live site, e-commerce solutions are topics I remember
[13:25] amazon Ok, great
[13:26] amazon What's the goal of this next meeting you are organizing?
[13:26] yoroy oh yeah, different audiences for sure. I read that from reading other experiences in g.d.o groups and it turned out to be very true
[13:26] yoroy - newbies
[13:26] yoroy - pro's
[13:26] yoroy little common ground in the middle
[13:27] yoroy Goals for the next meeting: more explicit business networking, actively invite people who are looking for Drupal service providers
[13:28] amazon Is that beneficial to you?
[13:28] yoroy Mind: I'm not directly involved with organising the next one
[13:28] amazon Ok, understood
[13:29] yoroy but it could be.
[13:29] yoroy as a designer 'in the know' it should be good opportunity to showcase a bit
[13:30] amazon I see
[13:30] amazon That's useful to hear
[13:30] yoroy good!
[13:30] amazon I think that's all I have
Comments
Interview 2 - Goals for your local group
Interview with Elvis McNeely
* Groups.drupal.org provides a centralized meeting place to connect. It reduces friction in event organizing.
* On campus group - may have a ton of questions, GDO provides a centralized place to communicate and get them onto the mainstream and help learn
* His campus, Purdue does not use Drupal. There is no organizations wrapped around it. When he sees other universities using Drupal inside their department, research website, it’s a big thing. He wants to introduce his faculty to do things faster quicker, create a business to provide services. Get programmers and get talent. There’s not enough Drupalers to keep up with demand in the marketplace.
* Maybe do two types of groups, one for administrators, and one for programmers.
* How to get over the hump. He knows there are materials, it would be nice if there was a selected few to help jump start the group. Be able to have something for programmers versus administrators. The aha moment is when organizers can see videos or what Drupal can do.
Drupal community adventure guide, Acquia Inc.
Drupal events, Drupal.org redesign