At the end of 2011, we were excited to hear that the Drupal Association was planning a series of global training days, when high-quality Drupal workshops would be scheduled all around the world and all on the same day. We believe 100% in this initiative and talked with Jacob Redding, the Executive Director at the Drupal Association, about how to bring it to Los Angeles. We quickly settled on some common goals, including how to work together to promote Drupal to as many newcomers as possible.

Everything was moving forward until we learned that one of the key pieces of the Drupal Association’s strategy is that Exaltation of Larks and other Drupal companies with well-developed training programs were being asked to produce these trainings at low- or no-cost to attendees. This one had us at a loss — literally! — and had us wondering how to sustain the growth of our training program without sapping resources from our consulting and development divisions, not to mention the attendance at our upcoming paid trainings.

One of the things we enjoy the most is a good challenge, and we immediately started coming up with ideas to make it work with our training program’s existing costs and our dedication to quality. In the end, we succeeded on all counts with two parts planning and one part luck.

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