Planning Drupal 8 Release Party in India

The day is soon upon us! Drupal 8 is scheduled to be released on Nov 19, 2015, which is a major milestone not just for the Drupal world, but the PHP world, open source world, and web technologies in general. Drupal 8 is a testament to how open source communities can achieve the best of all worlds through massive collaboration and still leverage modern industry standards and practices.

India is one of the biggest users of Drupal and also a significant contributor. It is fitting that various communities in India come together (in spirit) to celebrate the release. Let's discuss various options for the release party and how we can make the best of it.

Current locations in India

Collaboration

It is ideal to have the party at the same time across all locations in India. This helps us achieve maximum output for our marketing efforts both before and after the party. Also, we could collaborate on more than just marketing if we have it at the same time. More about this in Format section.

Party Date

Drupal 8 release is scheduled for Nov 19, 2015. However, given the timezone difference, it is unlikely we would see a release on Nov 19, 2015 in India (IST). Also, November 19 being a Thursday wouldn't attract a lot of people. Based on past experience, the most convenient day for people to attend would be a Saturday, which is Nov 21, 2015. While this would be about 36 hours after release, it is better to have more people be able to attend rather than try to match the time.

I am also open to having it on different days depending on what works best for your location. However, please be aware that we lose out on collaboration benefits if we pick different days.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Please respond with your thoughts on the matter. You can also take a quick survey at http://bit.ly/celebr8d8-india.

Format

While most release parties are going to be just that - parties, it does not seem entirely feasible at the moment. I suggest activities along the following lines and I am open to suggestions.

• Start the day with sessions on Drupal 8 - intro level or crash course format. There could be different sessions for developers, themers, and site builders.
• Follow up with celebrations - lunch, if possible, cake, snacks, etc...
• Hackathon - Build something amazing with Drupal 8 or just get your hands wet. This could even be a training.
• I heartily discourage sprinting on this day, unless your inner contributor moves you to.
• At the end of the day, an after party to celebrate the release. This could be where each person pays for themselves for dinner, drinks, etc...
• Depending on resources and other plans, we could collaborate to broadcast sessions to all locations. We could also have a panel discussion, question answer sessions, etc... on this channel to encourage attendees to interact more with other cities, helping build a national community.

Please follow up your with your suggestions. You can also take a quick survey at http://bit.ly/celebr8d8-india.

Sponsorship

We have very little time to manage sponsorships and hence I would recommend to plan the activities with the budget that each local community can bear and support. That said, sponsors are more than welcome to support communities in the release party activity. The Drupal 8 release celebrations will be coordinated not only in India, but throughout the world. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your support for Drupal project and communities throughout the world.

Community

Come for the code and stay for the community - this is our motto and tagline. Let's demonstrate that by building and sustaining communities on this momentous occasion. It can only happen with your help, each and every one of you. Come, let's get together and build something amazing!