Exaltation of Larks

Join us today for happy hour! 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.

Exaltation of Larks is happy to sponsor the Drupal Happy Hour. 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/

The general Downtown Los Angeles Drupal meetup is on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at Sensis Agency in Downtown Los Angeles. Those interested in attending this meetup remotely are welcome to join us via WebEx.

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

What topics would you like to see a presentations on at this meetup? Post in the comments below!

Drupal Happy Hour

Join us between 5:30-7pm for happy hour 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 and drinks 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, 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 Drupal event and coworking space 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.

Are you a freelancer or service provider who's looking for Drupal work? Do you represent a company or organization that's looking for Drupal talent? Come and make new friends and turn new connections into long-term relationships at the next Los Angeles Drupal Job Fair from 5-7pm on Monday, January 28, 2013.

This event is FREE for individual job seekers and is being hosted by Droplabs, a collaborative coworking space, classroom and hackerspace in Downtown Los Angeles. In addition to being the venue of the only Drupal job fairs ever in Los Angeles in June, 2011, and November, 2011, Droplabs hosts the majority of Drupal activity, from meetups, topic-based summits and code sprints to free workshops, tutoring sessions and paid trainings, in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

• Information for Job Seekers
• Information for Employers and Recruiters
• Sponsorship Levels
  • Marquee Sponsorship
  • Featured Sponsorship
  • Valued Sponsorship
  • Party Crasher Sponsorship
• Location and Directions to Droplabs
• About Downtown Los Angeles Drupal

Light food and drinks are being provided by Chimney Coffee House, our favorite neighborhood cafe, bakery, sandwich and dessert boutique.

Drupal Payday: Getting Started with E-Commerce is a half-day workshop that introduces you to the building blocks of Drupal Commerce websites. Through several exercises and real-world examples, participants will learn strategies for configuring and running an online Drupal Commerce business.

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

This class is for beginners with little or no previous experience and who would like to run an online store. Our experts from Exaltation of Larks will guide you through setting up your own Drupal Commerce website starting from the basics. (We will be using Drupal 7 Commerce.)

At the end of the day, you will walk away with the following:

• A functioning Drupal Commerce website;
• The ability to accept payments with credit cards via PayPal;
• Hosting your website and a basic understanding of web servers;
• An introduction to the user community that focuses on this technology;
• A basic understanding of SSL security and PCI compliance as it relates to your website;
• Connections with a qualified partner who you can turn to for support;
• The confidence to take the next steps of customizing and adding products to your new Drupal Commerce website!

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.

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.

For more information about the mentored training concept and how it works, please have a look at the buildamodule.com training page. Here's a summary from Chris at buildamodule.com:

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!

Exaltation of Larks' Mentored Drupal Training

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

Join us at Droplabs for a Build a Module.com mentored training. This training is from 12-3pm on Friday, December 14th.

Sign up at https://www.larks.la/training  

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).

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

For more information about the mentored training concept and how it works, please have a look at the buildamodule.com training page.

The general Downtown Los Angeles Drupal meetup is now on the 1st Tuesday of each month! We're meeting on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at Sensis Agency in Downtown Los Angeles. Those interested in attending this meetup remotely are welcome to join us via WebEx.

At this meetup, we're having our usual news and announcements, raffle prizes, lightning talks (which are short, bite-sized presentations) and featured presentations. We're also having a 1-hour DrupalCamp Planning Meeting.

Powering SDG&E (San Diego Gas & Electric) with Drupal

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is sending Matt Grill and Dan Montgomery from their IT Department to talk to us about their use of Drupal. Sensis Agency, our host for this meetup and a full service cross-cultural ad agency with digital at its core, produced a re-branding and re-launch of the SDG&E website last year on Drupal 7.

Since the launch, the IT Department at SDG&E has started to implement responsive design elements into their site. Matt and Dan will be telling us about Drupal as an enterprise-level solution and their work to continue to modify their website over the past year.

DrupalCamp Planning Meeting

We're planning a new DrupalCamp at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2013, tentatively named GLADCamp (Greater Los Angeles Area Drupal Camp). At this meetup, we'll be devoting an hour to growing our team of organizers and discussing the following:

• Findings from our DrupalCamp Site Visit to USC
• Identifying successes and challenges from Drupal Design Camp LA, the last camp we organized in October, 2012
• Choosing the name, size and scope for the event, and begin booking the rooms

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 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! Sign up now at http://www.larks.la/training  

Our Downtown Los Angeles Drupal meetup in December is on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 and once again we're combining it with our annual holiday party and food drive. Help us raise even more than we did last year when we raised $500 for the LA Food Bank! See http://groups.drupal.org/node/267768#food-drive for details.

This event is being hosted by Droplabs, your FREE coworking and hackerspace in Downtown Los Angeles. At this meetup, we're having our usual news and announcements, raffle prizes, lightning talks (which are short, bite-sized presentations) and featured presentations, and plenty of mingling and networking with your local community during our annual holiday party. See http://groups.drupal.org/node/267768#agenda for our agenda for the evening.

Holiday Party

Even if you can't make it to the meetup, you're welcome to join us after all the raffle prizes, job announcements and presentations for our annual holiday party. We'll be mingling and networking for most of the evening, and the party is potluck-style so bring something to share that you like to eat or drink. Post a comment below to let others know what you're thinking of bringing.

Food Drive for the LA Food Bank

We're organizing another food drive for the LA Food Bank. While the LA Food Bank distributes food to over 640 charitable agencies (Midnight Mission, Boys & Girls Club, etc.). Here are some good ideas of what to bring: