Downtown Drupal Meetup + Droplabs Holiday Party + Food Drive for the LA Food Bank! December 16, 2013

We're scheduling an extra special Downtown Drupal meetup this Monday, December 16, 2013, and you're invited! This time we're combining a brief Drupal meetup with presentations and raffle prizes with our annual holiday party and food drive.

As we did at our award-winning holiday parties in 2011 and 2012, we're organizing a food drive for the LA Food Bank. Our goal is to beat our combined proceeds from 2011 and 2012 and raise at least $1090! See https://droplabs.net/node/382#food-drive for details.

This event is being hosted by Droplabs (@Droplabs), a Drupal-friendly coworking space, classroom and computer lab in Downtown Los Angeles.

We're the leading low-cost coworking space in the Greater Los Angeles Area and have programs, services and workspaces that are uniquely designed for entrepreneurs, freelancers and remote workers.

Drupal Meetup

Our meetup begins at 7pm and follows a basic format 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.

For any changes to our agenda for the evening, stay tuned to this meetup announcement or click the "Sign up" button at https://groups.drupal.org/node/387878#signup (or both!) to be notified when the agenda has been updated.

Holiday Party

Even if you can't make it to the meetup, you're welcome to join us at 8pm 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 at https://groups.drupal.org/node/387878#comments 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, a 501c3 non-profit which distributes food to over 640 charitable agencies including Midnight Mission and the Boys & Girls Club. Here are some good ideas of what to bring:

• Cash (seriously, food banks can do a lot with a dollar!)
• Checks written out to "Los Angeles Regional Food Bank"
• Proteins, including peanut butter, canned tuna, canned chicken, etc.
• Soups and stews
• Pasta and rice
• Cereal, including breakfast cereal and oatmeal
• Canned vegetables, including tomatoes and tomato sauce
• Canned or dried beans and peas
• Canned fruits
• Fruit juice, boxed or canned
• Prepared box mixes, including macaroni and cheese and Hamburger Helper
• Shelf-stable milk

If you're thinking of bringing perishables, baked goods and home-made dishes, bring those to the holiday party instead!

Does your employer match donations? Check to see at http://www.lafoodbank.org/matching-gifts.aspx to find out — and let us know!

Drupal After Dark

After the meetup and holiday party, we'll be rearranging the room and pulling out our couches to set up for the last movie night of 2013. We'll have popcorn and drinks and screen the movie that gets the most votes. Current contenders are Office Space and Sneakers.

Location and Directions

This event is hosted by Droplabs (@Droplabs), a collaborative coworking space, classroom and makerspace in Downtown Los Angeles.

   Droplabs
   651 Clover St.
   Los Angeles, CA 90031

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.

Droplabs is in the Mission Junction neighborhood of Los Angeles at Big Art Labs, just 1 mile down Main St. from Philippes (the first-ever venue for Drupal meetups in Southern California!) and Union Station. We're one block west of The Brewery, the largest live-and-work artists' colony in the world.

Free parking in our large parking lot is first-come, first-served. After parking in the lot, follow the yellow signs that point to Droplabs. (If our lot is full, you can park for free on Clover St.)

Droplabs is a brief walk from the Main St. / Lamar St. stop on the the Metro Local 76 bus line. This is also the Lincoln Heights / Chinatown DASH stop.

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

What to Bring

Just bring your laptop, your business cards or whatever else you need. You're also welcome to bring some light food, sodas or beers to share with others at the meetup.

Please note that our guest wireless network is limited to 1Mb per client, so bring your MiFi router or a phone you can tether with if for some reason you need a lot of bandwidth. Access to our high-speed network is included with a Droplabs membership.

About Greater Los Angeles Drupal

With several weekly and monthly events, the Greater Los Angeles Area is one the most active areas for Drupal in the world.

Formerly named Downtown Los Angeles Drupal, we've been meeting regularly in and around Downtown Los Angeles, California, since early 2010, and now organize a large number of events in the area. Our signature events include the Drupal Job Fairs and the Downtown Drupal, Frontend Drupal and High Performance Drupal meetups.

Our members and organizers have produced hundreds of Drupal events, including job fairs, meetups and workshops, conferences, paid trainings, coworking days, study group sessions, movie outings, FREE tutoring sessions from Drupal professionals, and website barnraisings to benefit non-profits and members of our community.

Attending Drupal events in the Greater Los Angeles Area 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 Greater Los Angeles Drupal events are an essential resource for Drupal professionals and hobbyists alike.

If you aren't already a member of Greater 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/node/219129  

We proudly participate in the California Drupal Travelers Program, which aims to connect businesses and community members who are visiting the area with our local community and events. Inquire within by contacting any of the Downtown Los Angeles Drupal organizers, or by joining the global Drupal Hospitality Network.