Downtown Los Angeles Drupal Meetup at Sensis Agency and via WebEx on December 4, 2012: Powering SDG&E with Drupal and DrupalCamp Planning Meeting

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christefano's picture
Start: 
2012-12-04 17:30 - 21:00 America/Los_Angeles
Event type: 
User group meeting

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

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!

Sensis Agency 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.

Exaltation of Larks - Expert Drupal strategy, consulting, development and training 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.

Droplabs Los Angeles 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 free coworking space around with a freemium business model: come work here for free and only pay for the extras, such as 24/7 access, equipment rental and a locker for your belongings.

Drupal After Dark

Even if you can't make it to happy hour or the meetup, you're welcome to join us afterward for a Drupal After Dark. After we wrap up the meeting and clean up, a group of us will go to a nearby restaurant or pub. Stay tuned to the comments below for suggestions for a Drupal After Dark location.

Agenda

After happy hour at Takami, we'll start our meeting at Sensis at 7pm. Our meetups follow a basic format and start off with Drupal news and announcements, local job announcements, raffle prizes and full-length presentations.

As always, we'll also have community Q&A, during which time anyone in attendance can ask questions, divine answers from the crowd and give brief, 5-10 minute-long presentations known as lightning talks. We'll finish off the night with more networking and a Drupal After Dark at 9:00pm.

For any changes to our agenda for the evening, stay tuned to this meetup announcement or click the Sign up button below (or both!) to be notified when the agenda has been updated.

   5:30pm
   Happy Hour at Takami
   Projector and Tables / Chairs Setup

   6:55pm
   Start of WebEx Meeting

   7:00pm
   News and Upcoming Events, including:
     • Drupal Travelers Program
     • Drupal Coworking Friday
     • Interesting events listed at http://groups.drupal.org/events
   Breakout Sessions
   Users Helping Users (continued)

   8:00pm
   Raffle Prizes!
   Lightning Talks
   Featured Presentations
   DrupalCamp Planning Meeting
   Powering SDG&E (San Diego Gas & Electric) with Drupal

   9:00pm
   Wrap-up, Clean-up and Close-up
   Drupal After Dark and more networking

Join us on WebEx and Twitter!

The featured presentations at this meetup will be broadcasted via WebEx, courtesy of Exaltation of Larks. WebEx works in your browser, whether you use Linux, Windows or Mac OS X.

To join the meeting, click the Sign up button below to receive the meeting URL and password (a Drupal.org account is required).

During the meetup, several of the event organizers will also be monitoring Twitter for feedback and questions that mention @DowntownDrupal.

Breakout Sessions

We have several spaces available for breakout sessions. This is an open, multi-track format where we break into groups and discuss a variety of topics. Each breakout session is led by a volunteer who picks the topic, picks the space and can optionally report back to the larger group in the form of an announcement or lightning talk.

This is also an opportunity for Users Helping Users, which is a participant-driven format where members of the community give and receive help with whatever questions and problems they're having with Drupal.

Please note that while Users Helping Users is not designed to be a replacement for bona fide consulting from a Drupal professional that there are plenty of Drupal experts and professionals who attend our meetups and sometimes they need help, too!

Featured Presentations

At this meetup, we're having our usual news and announcements, raffle prizes, lightning talks (which are short, bite-sized presentations) and featured presentations.

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

Raffle prizes! Collect them all! Must be present to win!

Raffle prizes at this meetup have been provided by Exaltation of Larks. Our raffle prizes often include discount codes, magazines, DVDs, books, and free seats to professional Drupal trainings. We are always grateful to our sponsors for their continued support.

If you have any items you'd like to donate to the raffle, please contact any of the organizers at the meetup. Thank you!

Location and Directions

   Sensis
   811 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 2050
   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.

  1. 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/

About Downtown Los Angeles Drupal

The Downtown Los Angeles Drupal group regularly meets in and around Downtown Los Angeles, California. We organize a large number of weekly and monthly events on various Drupal topics, including the general Downtown Los Angeles Drupal meetup that has been meeting regularly on the 3rd Tuesday of the month since early 2010.

The Downtown area is the most active area for Drupal in the Greater Los Angeles Area and has seen hundreds of Drupal events, including job fairs, meetups and workshops, study group meetings, conferences about design and theming, paid trainings, FREE tutoring sessions from Drupal professionals and barn raisings to benefit non-profits and members of our community here in and around Downtown Los Angeles.

Attending Drupal events in and around Downtown Los Angeles is one of the best ways to meet and talk with other Drupaleros and we encourage you to attend as many meetings and special events as you'd like. Whether it's to find solutions to problems you've been having, sharing something you've learned or just meeting interesting like-minded people, the Downtown Los Angeles Drupal events are an essential resource for Drupal professionals and hobbyists alike.

If you aren't already a member of Downtown Los Angeles Drupal, it's easy to join our community. Our community calendar is on our "Events" tab on our home page at http://groups.drupal.org/dtla

The Downtown Los Angeles Drupal group proudly participates in the California Drupal Travelers Program and can host businesses and community members who are visiting the area. Inquire within by contacting any of the Downtown Los Angeles Drupal organizers.

Comments

Good news, everyone! San

christefano's picture

Good news, everyone! 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, 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.

Thanks to Sensis and SDG&E

nodiac's picture

Thanks to Sensis and SDG&E for this presentation!

Kraken Digital Media & Technology
Founder
http://www.larks.la  
Droplabs
Robot Coordinator
http://droplabs.net  
Greater Los Angeles Drupal
Organizer, Dragonslayer
http://drupal.la &n

I'm excited about this, too.

christefano's picture

I'm excited about this, too. How was the transition during delivery and client hand-off? Also, what is SDG&E using for hosting and deployment? I look forward to talking about these things and more tomorrow at the meetup.

WebEx URL has changed

christefano's picture

Tonight's featured presentation about SDG&E and Enterprise Drupal will be broadcasted and recorded via WebEx. If there's interest, the DrupalCamp planning meeting can be broadcasted, too.

Unfortunately, the accompanying WebEx URL for has changed. Please update your bookmarks! Anyone who signs up at http://groups.drupal.org/node/270453#signup will receive the URL and password.

… and signups have been

christefano's picture

… and signups have been re-enabled.

Does anyone know how to prevent the Signup module from automatically closing signups once an event has started?

How do I log into webex. ....

jhemsley30's picture

...The link is #join-online and isn't sending me anywhere. Please help.
Thanks,
James

The #join-online link isn't

christefano's picture

The #join-online link isn't going anywhere because the event has already started and the Signup module on this site is automatically turning off signups. :(

Send me your email address via my contact form and I'll invite you directly via WebEx. Meanwhile, I've re-opened signups, but they'll close again when cron runs.

Re-opening signups after the

christefano's picture

Re-opening signups after the event starts does leave signups open but only for a short time before cron runs and Signup module closes them again.

I think what we'll need to do from now on is post the Drupal Happy Hour and Drupal meetup as two separate events. This means more event announcements, but right now I don't see another way around this and still have accuracy in the event calendar and iCal feeds.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

So, it turns out the Signup

christefano's picture

So, it turns out the Signup module has a "Close x hours before" setting:

The number of hours before the event which signups will no longer be allowed. Use negative numbers to close signups after the event start (example: -12).

We can file a request in the groups.drupal.org issue queue to change this setting, but what should we request that we change this to?

My guess is that most events on Drupal Groups are an hour. If this can be corroborated by the Drupal Groups maintainers, how about requesting that signups close 1 hour after the event start?

WonderWoman's picture

Here are some take aways from the 12/4/12, 7pm PST Downtown Drupal Meet-up at Sensis
speaker: San Diego Gas and Electric Drupal team
they converted around 2000 pages of static web to a Drupal site
here is the site they built: www.sdge.com
started 2011 with 6 people in 6 months
make sure to use SAS and Compass
go full responsive design since google indexes information and looks for consistancy
text sizing with (rem) root em
they use Acquia
have a hidden accordion menu hidden in mobile

webex

Tony-Mac's picture

Thanks
I was on the webex session and the audio was a bit muffled, except for Christo's voice. I did understand something about images and would have liked to hear what was said in that context.
Thanks