Good morning,
I just joined this group, looking for training opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. We moved our site (www.co.polk.or.us) over to Drupal this past summer, so I am pretty much still a newbie. Now that the basic framework is in place, I want to work on improving the theming (not at all happy with what we're currently using), setting up a better search tool, etc.
Can you recommend any training options? We are near Salem, Oregon.
I found the information regarding the Drupal 2010 conference in San Francisco and am trying to talk my boss into letting me go. He wants to know what other training options might be available closer to home, which would cost less money (we are a small local government with strapped budgets). Is the Drupal conference always held in San Francisco or is there a chance that it will be in Portland or Seattle next year?
Thanks in advance,
Leslie Friesen
friesen.leslie@co.polk.or.us
Polk County, Oregon
Comments
Future DrupalCons
I heard rumors when I was in Paris last fall that the next European DrupalCon would be in Copenhagen and the North American 2011 DrupalCon might head toward Chicago. I think Copenhagen is official now and I think Chicago is a firm decision as well.
http://groups.drupal.org/drupalcon-north-american-regional-organizing-group
Drupal Camps
Hi Leslie,
I attended Drupal Camp LA 2009 last August and that was a really great time. It was free thanks to the great sponsors. I missed out on Drupal Camp PDX 2009 and Drupal Camp Seattle 2009 last year. I believe there are still videos from Drupal Camp LA 2009 (check the News section) that you can use to learn from. That event allowed me to get an up front view of the Drupal community. I learned from the sessions, and best of all, it gave me a good vision of what I needed to learn to improve.
You might check back on the appropriate websites and Drupal groups to see when tentative dates for nearby 2010 Drupal camps will be held. These might be a more affordable option than DrupalCon. You might try to find meetup groups nearby as well.
Garrett Vogenbeck
Website
Interactive Résumé
You might try to find meetup
Yes, while these aren't necessarily focused on any particular kind of training, they're a great way to meet people and learn from them. Being near Salem, you're in luck. There's the Portland group that meets the 2nd Wednesday of every month. They're well established and are a little more targeted towards discussions that are of interest to people who've been using Drupal for a while, so some people just starting out have reported that the discussions can be hard to follow. And there's this group, which hasn't organized regular local meetups yet, but we are having one tomorrow at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Training...
I just finished my first series of in-depth trainings for a group of students at a local university, I'm hoping to take that, make some improvements based on how things turned out, and talk to other colleges and universities into doing something similar. Maybe we can get it added as community education, or something like that.
Doing it in a university or college setting is nice, as they have computer labs that can be used, complete with a projector and computers for those without laptops.
I'm also looking to spend the summer taking everything I've put together and turn it into two textbooks - one for general administration (adding content, working with your content, making changes to your site, etc.) and one for site administration (working with modules, updates, etc.). I've been asked to do this since the how-to's I write tend to include a number of screenshots and use verbiage that is easy for people to understand. Once I get it done, I'll let everyone know. I'm taking the summer off from getting my degree in order to focus that time on the books.
Jenni Simonis
http://www.forwardsupport.com
Lullabot
Lullabot is an awesome company that specializes in Drupal training. They put on conferences and workshops throughout the year, but those are pretty expensive. Their website, however, is full of free articles, podcasts, and links to books. There's also the http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/ website, where for $95, you can get access to video recordings of past conferences, where folks from Lullabot and other experienced organizations presented some great material.
Jenni: That's awesome that you're bringing Drupal education into the colleges and universities. Congratulations! Please post more information about that as you have it. I'm very interested in that!