I go to Drupal camps because I know that if I learn one new thing or meet one cool person who's willing to share their experiences with me, then it was a successful use of my time. Whatever I learn doesn't even have to be Drupal related, the point is I'm a wiser person for having immersed myself into the community. I organize Drupal camps because I want others to have that same opportunity, and it's rewarding for me to see people get together and share their brilliant ideas and work.
So, why do you go to Drupal Camps (big, small, local, international)?
Is it the networking? Sprints? Sessions? Keynotes? Chance to find work? Time to catch up with buddies? Because your company sponsored? For the after parties? Food? Happy hours?
I'd love to know :)
Comments
Community Development, Learning / Sharing
It is so important to meet new folks and share what you can. Drupal is just not fun if you do it by yourself. I go because it is often more economical than the conferences and I prefer the more grass-roots approach / vibe that camps have. My first barcamp / drupal event was in NYC in 2006? and I am so grateful for the friendships I created back then.
tshirts?
I haven't heard anyone mention tshirts yet. For me it's mostly the networking with other developers. I like hearing about all the other awesome things people are doing with Drupal. The sessions are usually not a big draw - an hour is too short to get into something interesting, or they're a repeat of the same session topic at other camps. BOFs and Sprints can be a lot of fun (and are another good way to meet a different group of developers).
There are so many
There are so many opportunities provided at DrupalCamps (attending sessions, networking, a little marketing and recruiting, etc.) that for me it's the cumulative effect of all the types of opportunities that add up to make it worth it. It's hard for me to identify one thing that's the best, so I'll mention a few highlights.
On the training front, it's an awesome opportunity for us to try out new curriculum and training tools. In exchange, our students get significant discounts and access to brand new training material. At SANDCamp this year, for example, we field tested our new Commerce Kickstart curriculum and this has led to us co-training with Commerce Guys at DrupalCon Portland.
It's also one of the best ways to catch up with people I haven't seen in a long time. In one case, we arranged for our sponsor booth to be next to another company's booth so that we were literally in the same place at the same time long enough to have a couple good conversations. We ended up inking a deal that has worked out great for both of our companies.
DrupalCamps are also very good opportunities for outreach for our user group, Greater Los Angeles Drupal (GLAD). We've had many in-person visits from members of the larger community (through the California Drupal Travelers Program) as well as remote presentations at our meetups because of conversations that started at camps.
On a personal level, I really enjoy being surrounded by a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and open source values. As a huge Drupal advocate and long-time organizer, it's always a pleasure to experience a well-produced Drupal event as an attendee and not as an organizer.
#learnmorebyteaching
I learn more by teaching.
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
Thanks for the SASS/Compass presentation
There's no counting how much time I save by having someone who KNOWS something give me an introduction to it. It tends to jump start what I am doing. This time around it was SASS and Compass. I really benefitted from going to those sessions. Went right home and downloaded Ruby, installed SASS and Compass, set up folder watch and started going. It was well worth the cost of Drupalcamp L.A. (e.g., $0, well . . . minus the cost of staying overnight at the hotel).
I have the opportunity to share
Drupal to me is like life; you breath out in other to breath in! You cant breath in only otherwise you get choked?? At Drupal Camps, i like to have a little chance to share what i have learnt, no matter how childish it may seem to a "drupal pro". Then i sit back to learn new things. Its always an eye opening experience. Even for someone who runs a Drupal Training school, Drupal camps are always refreshing.
Because I'm new, and learning!
I can share my part of Drupal, which is managing a project on Drupal!... And I'm still new to the platform, so I drink in as much knowledge as I can each time, more information helps me do my job better. I enjoy the people who attend as well, always interesting and insightful. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn, and to offer what I have learned. And the social networking events that usually happen are fun as well. So I guess I would say there are three things of great value to me at Drupal Camps:
1 - LEARNING more Drupal skills, and how others are applying them
2 - NETWORKING within the Drupal community
3 - TEACHING communications and PM skills, explaining for others improves my skills
I enjoy camps over cons
I enjoy camps over cons personally. I find that instead of just bumping into people you actually get to sit down and have more meaningful experiences. There are also a lot more detailed topics instead of large general initiatives. Things like Twig or WSCII are cool, but I'd rather see someone step through how they used a responsive theme to improve a product or how Services / RestWS can be used to solve a problem. Practicality vs theoretical I guess is the biggest difference I've noticed (in most instances at least).
Ex Uno Plures
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http://btopro.com/
http://drupal.psu.edu/
Session/Lab requests?
People learn more through experience than lecture. One of the things that came out of DC Portland is having 2.5 hour labs to get hands on experience. Sounds like that might be a good thing to do for camps as well.
It might also help presenters prep their sessions if attendees were to let them know if there were any specific issues they wanted covered ahead of time. This could be done through commenting on the camp website or some kind of session review portal. I'm sure many presenters ask for feedback from their attendees, but it might be more productive to have a record that anyone could access later on.
Why?
to feel more connected with the community.
i co-maintain a theme, and live in the IRC but in the real world. im on an island here in San Luis Obispo. so going to DCLA or BADcamp are the ways that i can talk to other drupal developers!
I think therefore I Drupal