Rob, Jam, and guests tell the history of DrupalCon, from Antwerp to Amsterdam, from the point of view of those whose lives were changed by them. This video includes "Oh, and one time, at Drupal Camp", "The Drupal 8 Bug Elimination Challenge", a guest appearance by Captain Drupal, a performance of "The Drupal Song", a re-enactment of the genesis of Acquia, a "Never Marry Me" proposal, and a stunning performance of "Memories" by Bryn and Campbell Vertesi.

It also concludes with the inaugural instance of "Selfieception", the culmination of the underlying metaphor behind this show. Inspired by Daniel Kahneman's TED Talk about "the future as anticipated memories", Rob and Jam set about to create a show that ties our collective experience to "the experiencing self that lives in the present, the remembering self that maintains the story of your life", and to use "storytelling as a function of what we remember from our experiences".

As we tell the stories of our DrupalCons, and how they defined us (remembering self), we engage in a dialog with the audience, who has to pay close attention to capture every moment (experiencing self), as indeed we'll have to do through the coming days of sessions, meetings, chance encounters, and business opportunities. But in a tip-of-the-hat to our remembering selves, we decide to take selfies to remember the moment by. However, to frame the shot in an optimal way, we must all turn our backs on each other, and thus the conflict between experiencing self and remembering self is embodied: the remembering self demands that the experiencing self sacrifices the performer-audience dialog, and turns the back to the present in anticipation of a future memory.

Thanks to the Drupal Association for supporting our ongoing tradition of the DrupalCon Prenote, thanks to the 1,500 people who got out of bed to be at our show at 8:00 in the morning, and thanks to everyone who stood up to tell their story.

Tags: Drupal PlanetDrupalDrupalConSelfieception