Drupal Clinic?

The Pacific Northwest group talked at DrupalCon about a new type of event they were having a lot of success with they were calling Drupal Clinics.

It's a 1 day event, focused on helping newbies. They capped attendance at 50, at $50/pp, to keep it kind of classroom-sized, and very hands-on. An event like this is much easier to pull off than a 2 day camp - we really just need a venue and provide lunch. Having a targeted audience like this makes it clearer to newbies that this is for them, and if you have them more often (2/yr? 1/quarter? 1/mo?) then there's something for people to sink their teeth into right away, instead of waiting 6 or 9 months until the camp rolls around.

The Pacific Northwest group also used this to eliminate the beginner track from their camp, allowing it to be much more geeky and the topics more advanced. Presenters didn't spend the first 20 minutes explaining what a View is before getting to their topic. I'm not sure we want to go this far, and we have some time before that decision needs to be made, but it's worth considering. Many groups are starting to do audience-specific events instead of a general all-things-to-all-people camp. The Europeans are doing DevDays and BusinessDays, and the Design4Drupal camps are another example.

I bet we could get the Hall of Champions on board to give us a room for a weekend day 9-5, especially if we gave them first crack at the seats.

Acquia is also working on some beginner training material that we're free to use for something like this.

Links to Drupal Clinic:

• 2009 http://groups.drupal.org/node/24967
• 2010 http://poplarclass.com/home