Want to learn what's on tap with Drupal 8? Maybe spend a little time in a warm and sunny place? Then Florida DrupalCamp 2014 might be just the ticket for you. Being held March 8-9 in Orlando, this year's event will feature outstanding speakers who will shine a spotlight on the upcoming release of Drupal 8.

Having been lucky enough to participate on the organizing committee this year, I've seen all the hard work that's gone into what is shaping up to be a great event. Not only will it be an excellent opportunity to get up to speed on what's happening with Drupal, socialize at a rockin' after party (thank you Pantheon!), but you'll even have a chance to give back with Community Day. Here are a few details of what we have planned.

All-Star Featured Speakers

We're very fortunate to have four excellent featured speakers at this years event. All of them will be covering various aspects of the upcoming Drupal 8 release to help get you up to speed on all the big changes.

Jen Lampton will be presenting, Rethinking the Theme Layer in Drupal 8, an overview of Drupal's new templating engine, TWIG.

Larry Garfield, Drupal 8 Web Services lead, will be taking us through the changes with Drupal 8 development.

Melissa Anderson, the lead for Drupal 8's "Migrate in Core" initiative will be talking about the efforts being made to ensure migrating data to Drupal 8 is far easier than any previous Drupal release.

Kevin Basarab, Senior Drupal Developer at Mediacurrent, will be presenting on changes for site builders with Drupal 8. Kevin will also be leading a Drupal 8 code sprint on Sunday.

Sessions for All Levels of Experience

Whatever your level of experience, we have sessions planned that will help build your knowledge and get you caught up with the big changes on tap with the release of Drupal 8. It's important to note that not all sessions will be specifically about Drupal. There is already a session on accessibility and another proposal for one on AngularJS that I'm eager to check out as well.

If you are new to Drupal, we have something special planned for you. Thanks to OSTraining, we'll be offering an all-day beginner's track to help you learn how to build high-quality Drupal websites.

Community Day

One of the things that makes Drupal unique is the strong sense of community and social conscience of its members. At this year's event we're designating the activities on Sunday as "Community Day". There are two main activities planned - Coding for a Cause and a Drupal code sprint.

Coding for a Cause brings together members of the Drupal community to work on a real project for a deserving non-profit that would otherwise not be able to afford help with their website. It's a great way to make a positive social impact with your coding and site building skills.

The second part of Community Day is a Drupal code sprint. This will be a good chance to get started contributing to the Drupal community with mentors on hand to help you get past the sometimes intimidating process of working on Drupal core. This event is for folks of ALL experience levels, so please don't be shy! Imagine the day Drupal 8 is released and being able to say, "I helped build that!" Pretty cool, huh?

Come Join Us!

We'd love to have you join us for this year's event. Orlando is beautiful in early March and of course has a lot of things to do when you're not wrapping your head around Drupal. I've also seen the hard work that's been put into making this Florida DrupalCamp the best ever - it's already on track to be the biggest, with registrations expected in excess of 300. It will be well worth your time and training budget.

So, if you're looking for a great Drupal learning experience in a beautiful city with a bunch of enthusiastic Drupalistas, we'd love see you at this year's event!