History of Twin Cities Drupal Community

Drupal Daze was definitely a camp precursor experience -- many presenters and organizers of DD went on to present at and help organize our first and subsequent. We applied a lot of lessons about appropriate scope and other things that worked and didn't from DD.

I don't remember anything of a camp scope earlier than DD. I know we snuck a few Drupal presentations into a few earlier annual Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Nonprofit Technology Conferences, but this was not exactly camp-like in scope.

However, I think we could also add the 2014 Twin Cities Drupal Open House (TCD'OH!) to the list. It was officially sponsored by and spun off from the camp as an intermediary event between annual camps which were to be longer than 1 year apart. Link: https://groups.drupal.org/node/408028. One day, unconference in format.

The Twin Cities has had a thriving local technical and open source community for many years. When I moved back here in 1999, the local Linux community was over 500 strong, with hundreds of people in attendance at local installfests.

A few years later, we started a PHP user group (back then, it was more of a support group for people who were running unsanctioned PHP servers under their desks, defying their companies' standards of ColdFusion, Java, and ASP). Within a few years we were over 300 members strong! The mailing list was very active and supportive, and our monthly meetings thrived. When I went to PHPCon in 2005, our group was cited as the most active user group after NYC.

A PHP user group member introduced me to Drupal in 2004, and we started using and advocating for it during meetups. I know that a lot of local developers began using Drupal at that time.

The very first MinneBar was in 2006. I presented on Drupal there, and at several of the subsequent years, but the first formal Drupal track, organized by the local Drupal community, was in 2010. It's worth noting that the second MinneBar, in 2007, was apparently one of the largest BarCamps ever; second only to Bangalore!

2006 is also when Advantage Labs became a full time Drupal shop with an ancillary mission of ensuring that there will always be access to both free and affordable local resources for Drupal users and developers. Next year will mark our TENTH anniversary of continuously providing space, food, and ideas for the local Drupal community through regular meetings and events. As Maryann mentions, TCDrupal has had a long history of code sprints, documentation sprints, and overall Drupal representin', locally and internationally.

I don't exactly know what it is about the Twin Cities that fosters this climate of participation. Maybe it's the actual climate - people getting a little stir crazy during the long, dark winters. Or the midwestern work ethic, coupled with the hippie mentality that's feeding our coops and bike sharing programs? The strong corporate/business HQ presence that nurtures a technical workforce?

Whatever it is, it's unique and wonderful, and it helped us launch one of the most successful camps from day one. I'm glad to know you all!

One big highlight for me was the Drupal 7 release party, complete with custom cake. https://groups.drupal.org/node/114219

That event also seems pivotal on our group's development. I think that was our group going off and doing something bigger and other than the usual meetings.

Then again, the user group has always been a big deal here since forever.