Downtown Los Angeles

We've planned a second site visit to University of Southern California (USC) on February 15, 2013, at 3pm, to catalog and photodocument the spaces reserved for us and the Greater Los Angeles Area Drupal Camp (GLADCamp) that we're planning on April 26, 27 & 28, 2013. In the tradition of several other site visits that we've gone on, this visit is open to everyone and is an excellent opportunity for anyone who's interested in starting to help organize this event.

Sign up at http://groups.drupal.org/node/282568#signup or post a comment at http://groups.drupal.org/node/282568#comments if you're interested in joining us as we tour the facilities. Those who sign up will be on this site visit's mailing list. We'll also send you our phone number and any last-minute details if there are any.

What to Bring

Bring a camera if you have one. This is a walking tour and bringing a laptop, power cables, etc. is not necessary.

A Call For Research!

Is anybody interested in joining me this Saturday evening at about 5:00 p.m. to research bars/restaurants near U.S.C.We are looking for a venue for the after party that will take place the Saturday evening of the camp.

This will be hands on research, so come hungry and thirsty. I am looking for suggestions but here are three places, that we can start with:

Traditions (Trady's)
2-9 Cafe
The Lab -gastropub

Join us at Droplabs for a Build a Module.com mentored training. This training is from 12-3pm. Bring your laptop, your lunch and learn Drupal!

Please bring a WiFi-enabled computer that you can use to connect to the internet and watch videos on (and a set of headphones). Those without headphones can buy or rent headphones from the venue.

    Sign up today at http://www.larks.la/training  

The entire Build a Module.com library is available during our mentored Drupal training, and this time we will be focusing on the Advanced Site Building series:

   http://buildamodule.com/video/advanced-site-building-in-drupal-7-welcome...  

Here is a description of Advanced Site Building:

Welcome to the "Advanced Site Building" collection. In this series, we're going to be covering many of Drupal's most powerful modules for laying out and displaying information on a site. The tools you'll be learning are ones that you'll find yourself using on nearly every Drupal project. We'll be exploring how to build complicated displays of content with the Views module.

How to lay out pieces of a page using Panels, Display Suite and Context. We'll explore how to import content using the Feeds module and how to create and modify a slideshow with the Views Slideshow module. We'll also look at displaying and manage content on a site as well as how to protect our site from the inevitable spam we'll get.

We'll dive into which modules are helpful for speeding up the administration of your site, but most importantly, we're going to explore how all of these pieces fit together; where these modules overlap in functionality, and how to decide which tools are right for which context. There's a lot of modules out there, and figuring out which ones are right for a particular job is hard. And if you start with the wrong tools, you could find it time consuming and frustrating to change gears later on.

So, this collection of videos will speed you through the process of how to pick the right tools and will expose you to ways of thinking about these tools that will really pay off in the long run. If you already have a little experience with Drupal, or have watched the "Build Your First Drupal 7 Web Site" collection, you'll already know what you need to in order to start with these videos. If you don't have that experience, you may find that we gloss over some basic Drupal concepts.

Pricing

Suggested donation: $20.

No one will be turned away from this workshop. If you are unable to donate to Droplabs we ask that you volunteer some time helping Droplabs run more smoothly when you drop by and cowork.

Classroom space is limited, so please sign up early.

About Mentored Training

What's the difference between this mentored training and the 3-hour lunch-and-learn Introduction to Drupal Workshop that we're offering next door at the same time?

In short, the 3-hour introductory workshop is better suited toward business owners and project managers. This mentored training is geared for folks who are interested in diving deeper into Drupal's systems and APIs, module or theme development or using popular contributed modules (e.g. Views, Rules, Features, etc.) for site building.

What is Drupal? For large and complex websites, nothing beats it! Where do you start? What is the best way to organize your project to get the best chance of success? This workshop will help you turn your ideas into a concrete todo list — whether you're building the site yourself, handing it off to a developer to build, or something in-between.

    Sign up today at http://www.larks.la/training  

This is the perfect workshop for you if:

• You're new to using Drupal and need a jumpstart in planning a large project
• You're investigating Drupal's viability for your next project
• You're wondering whether to invest time in learning Drupal
• You don't have the time to learn Drupal but will be involved in a Drupal project

Seating is limited. You'll have access to the experts at Exaltation of Larks — a Drupal strategy, consulting, development and training company in Los Angeles — learn about Drupal and have a fun day!

Join us on April 26, 2013 in Downtown Los Angeles for Drupal Development Best Practices, a full day of Drupal training! This training is being produced by Exaltation of Larks, a Drupal strategy, development, consulting and training firm with a team of experts in Los Angeles.

This one-day workshop gives you a comprehensive tutorial on the right way to manage your Drupal website. You'll learn about version control for your code and ways to manage changes in your data. You’ll also see how the Features module can enable you to keep your configuration changes in version control.

We'll cover industry-approved deployment strategies that let you move smoothly through development, testing and live environments. You’ll get a high-level overview of how to modify the way your site looks by sub-theming, preventing hours of frustration should your original theme be updated.

Several of the organizers of Greater Los Angeles Area Drupal Camp (GLADCamp) have scheduled a planning meeting and scrum tonight, February 11, 2013 between 7-8pm Pacific (10-11pm Eastern). Anyone who's interested in being part of the organizing effort or is just interested in seeing how this conference is coming together is welcome to join us!

Join us today for happy hour, sponsored by Exaltation of Larks! We're meeting between 5:30-7pm on January 15, 2013, at Takami Sushi & Robata Restaurant (one floor above Sensis, our venue of this month's Downtown Los Angeles Drupal Meetup at 7pm).

Takami serves the highest quality Sushi, Robata and Japanese-influenced entrees and boasts unparalleled views of the LA area with outdoor patio dining. Happy hour at Takami is between 4-7pm and their phone number is 213-236-9600.

Come one, come all!

Location and Directions

   Takami Sushi & Robata Restaurant
   811 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 2100
   Los Angeles, CA 90017

Public Transportation

Our venue is 100 feet away from the 7th Street / Metro Red Line Center Station. For information about bus routes, see http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/bus_overview/images/802.pdf  

   7th Street / Metro Center Station
   660 South Figueroa St.
   Los Angeles, CA 90017

   213-922-6000
   http://www.metro.net

Parking

Anyone who carpools and parks at United Valet Parking, Inc. (757 South Flower St.) will receive complimentary $5 parking courtesy of our parking sponsor, Exaltation of Larks.

• United Valet Parking, Inc. (757 South Flower St.; 213-622-0137)

Both parking locations are within a 3 minute walk of our venue and have a $5 evening rate if arriving after 4pm.

Street parking is $5 per hour from 8am-8pm Pacific. There are ample parking lots and garages in the immediate area. For additional parking locations, see http://en.parkopedia.com/parking/815_west_7th_street_los_angeles_ca_90017/

To carpool or catch the Droplabs shuttle from Union Station, post below in the comments.

You don't have to work alone. We're happy to take part in yet another Drupal Coworking Friday at Droplabs, a collaborative coworking space, classroom and hackerspace. Join us!

We're in Downtown Los Angeles and are happy to host members of our local community and anyone who is just passing through for some coworking, networking and collaboration. We'll be offering the following FREE services to help rock your workday:

• Free parking on Clover St. and N. Main St. and in our large parking lot
• Free, metered WiFi
• Desks, chairs and Ergotron mobile workstations in our open coworking room (on a first-come, first-served basis)
• Hundreds of square feet of whiteboard space
• Use of our private conference room (unless previously reserved)
• Access to our shared lounge area (unless previously reserved)
• Heat / air conditioning

Droplabs is supported by memberships, donations, sponsorship of our events, venue rental and paid upgrades, including high-speed, unmetered WiFi, access to a full kitchen (with stove, oven, fridges, sinks, etc.), equipment rental, locker space for your belongings and unlimited coffee, tea, filtered water, sodas and espresso.

The general Downtown Los Angeles Drupal meetup is on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at Sensis Agency in Downtown Los Angeles. Those interested in attending this meetup remotely are welcome to join us via WebEx. This meetup is now on the 1st Tuesday of each month.

At this meetup, we're having our usual news and announcements, raffle prizes, lightning talks (short, bite-sized presentations) and featured presentations. In previous months, we've had presentations on simplytest.me, Responsive Web Design, integrating Drupal and Redmine (a popular ticketing system), a behind-the-scenes look at BuildaModule.com, and DrupalCamp planning meetings.

This time we'll be featuring a SANDCamp Debrief and GLADCamp DrupalCamp Planning meeting. Is there another topic you'd like to see a presentation on at this meetup? Post a comment below!

To carpool or catch the Droplabs shuttle from Union Station, post below in the comments.

Drupal Happy Hour

Join us between 5:30-7pm for happy hour, sponsored by Exaltation of Larks, at Takami Sushi & Robata Restaurant (one floor above Sensis). Takami serves the highest quality Sushi, Robata and Japanese-influenced entrees and boasts unparalleled views of the LA area with outdoor patio dining. (Happy hour at Takami is between 4-7pm and their phone number is 213-236-9600.)

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Our venue sponsor is Sensis (@SensisAgency), a cross-cultural advertising agency with digital at its core. We got our start building websites and have expanded into a full service advertising agency, helping our clients take advantage of the fundamental changes taking place in the marketing world.

Our parking, happy hour, video conferencing and raffle prize sponsor for this event is Exaltation of Larks, a Drupal strategy, consulting, development and training company with a team of Drupal experts in Los Angeles. We create fun websites, mobile apps, virtual worlds and e-commerce sites. Follow us at @LarksLA to learn more about our Drupal services and upcoming trainings.

This event is being organized with help from Droplabs (@Droplabs), a collaborative coworking space, classroom and hackerspace in Downtown Los Angeles. We're quickly gaining a reputation for being the only coworking space around with a with a low-cost business model: come work here and use our tables, chairs, WiFi and conference room with a low, daily or monthly membership fee and only pay more for the extras, such as 24/7 access, equipment rental and a locker for your belongings.

Join us at Droplabs for a Build a Module.com mentored training. This training is from 12-3pm. Bring your laptop, your lunch and learn Drupal!

This training will be focused on Site Building. Please bring a WiFi-enabled computer that you can use to connect to the internet and watch videos on (and a set of headphones). Those without headphones can buy or rent headphones from the venue.

    Sign up today at http://www.larks.la/training  

Pricing

Suggested donation: $20.