Downtown LA Drupal Meetup on May 19th, 2010 at Digital Playspace

The LA Drupal group continues to grow and we're pleased to announce the first Central LA Drupal meetup. We're being graciously hosted this time by Digital Playspace at their offices in Echo Park on May 19th, 2010. Please join us!

While this is a new meetup with a new venue, you're definitely encouraged to attend as many meetings as you can, including the West LA Drupal meetups in Santa Monica. Our hope is that by having a venue that's centrally located in Los Angeles, LA Drupal can offer the same great presentations, Q&A sessions, news and announcements to those who aren't able to commute to the westside for the West LA Drupal meetups.

Attending the LA Drupal meetups is one of the best ways to meet and talk with other Drupaleros. Whether it's about finding solutions to problems you've been having, sharing something you've learned or just meeting interesting like-minded people, the LA Drupal meetups are an essential resource for Drupal professionals and hobbyists alike. At this meetup there will be several presentations as well as time for open discussions and job announcements. Afterward, several of us may go to a local bar or restaurant.

This event is free – in fact, there will be raffle prizes and food and drinks will be provided – and no RSVP is required. In order to have enough food for everyone, though, we need to know how many people will be attending so please sign up by logging in and clicking the Sign up button below. Knowing how many people are interested in attending helps us better select good locations in the future and those who sign up will also have last minute details (if there are any) sent to them before the meeting.

Topics

If you'd like to give a presentation, announce a job position or ask any questions of the group, please come a few minutes early or leave a comment below. If presenting, be sure to bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.

   Introducing the Central LA Drupal meetings

This is a new meetup under the LA Drupal umbrella and we expect there to be new faces as well as long-time LA Drupal members. We'll take time to introduce ourselves, check in on what we're working on and get a sense of how the Central LA Drupal meetups can better serve our community.

   Job announcements and open Q&A

Everyone has a problem every now and then and the open Q&A session is a chance for attendees to divine answers from the collective wisdom from the group. This is also an opportunity for local businesses to make job announcements and ask for referrals and recommendations.

   Drupal best practices

Following best practices, many of which are listed in the best practices handbook pages on Drupal.org, can help help a project stay on track and keep both clients and Drupal professionals happier in the long run. We'll have an overview of the Drupal community's best practices for site building and development, as well as tips from themers and developers at Drupal shops in the Los Angeles area.

   Drupal multisite

If there's time, we'll talk about multisite, one of the core strengths that Drupal has out of the box that differentiates itself from other frameworks and content management systems. We'll discuss the various flavors of multisite and cover how multisite configurations can reuse code for easier maintainability, share content across multiple sites and provide single sign-on across multiple websites.

Location

We're meeting at the offices of Digital Playspace in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Digital Playspace is the driving force and operator of Digital Dollhouse, which was built by a team of talented designers and developers, many of whom are based in the Los Angeles area. To find out more about Digital Dollhouse, check out the case study published to the Drupal.org front page last year.

If the area looks familiar at all, it's because Bob's Market, the convenience store across the street, has been in several movies, including The Salton Sea and Fast and the Furious. Bob's is one of our favorite bodegas and it's run by the nicest couple on the planet. Be sure to tell them "anyeong haseyo!" for us if you see them.

There's plenty of free on-street parking.

About LA Drupal

The LA Drupal community in and around Los Angeles, California, is one of the world's largest regional Drupal user groups. With regular Drupal trainings, monthly meetings and social gatherings, LA Drupal is Southern California's largest hub for all things Drupal. LA Drupal is also the producer of the annual DrupalCamp LA conference, the largest independent Drupal event in the world for two years running.

If you aren't already part of LA Drupal, it's easy to become a member. We have several meetings every month that are free and open to everyone. There are also social gatherings and formal working meetings that sometimes happen throughout the month. Events are announced here and at the LA Drupal website.