Session Picks for DrupalCon Denver Next Week!
Session Picks for DrupalCon Denver Next Week!
03/13/2012 - 15:27
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It's that time of year again! Next week, DrupalCon descends on Denver so we Drupallers can teach each other cool things, and get some well needed face time with our friends and collaborators. I'll be representing AB solo this time round, so don't be shy if you want to come chat about what we've been up to lately.
It's hard to believe, but this will be my 7th DrupalCon since spring of 2008, and it'll be a pretty different one for me. Late last year I stepped down from my position as Drupal Documentation Co-Lead, and have been taking some time to reset priorities and goals for myself careerwise. I'm not giving any sessions, or hosting any sprints or BOFs - for the first time in a while, I'm going to be purely *gasp* an attendee. It will be a welcome change of pace to just be able to decompress and soak it all in.
Where the week will take me will be a surprise as always, but I am hoping that I'll have time for a good mix of technical and project management-related sessions. I used to go to a lot more intermediate to expert level developer-oriented sessions (even ones well over my head), as a way to learn a bit about new technologies that the team has been interested in, or to bring back to them. But lately I've been attending almost exclusively project and client management sessions to help hone my own skillset. I've picked out a good mix for my schedule this time round, as there are a lot of interesting new things going on that I'd like to wrap my head around.
As always there are too many good sessions overlapping (and also some Drupal Community ones I'd like to try and get to), but overall the sessions I'm really looking forward to are:
Project Management
Not a lot of PM track sessions this year but these all sound like great topics - I'll try and get to all three of them plus the one BOF on the schedule (Project Management / Ops BoF).
- No RFPs! Why Requests for Proposals are Bad for Business (and How We Can Stop Them)
- Tapping Into the Power of User Narratives
- Tools, Tips, & Techniques - Project Management Using Hybrid Agile Development
Business Development/General Interest
At AB we work with a lot of Non-Profit, Government, Academic, Research, and Social/Environmental Change groups. We've been thinking a lot about how to service them better by harnessing the power of Drupal Distributions, so these should be some thought provoking sessions.
- Building Drupal Apps for Distributions
- How Drupal is Transforming Government: 7 Case Studies
- Drupal Non-Profit and eAdvocacy Roundtable
Technical
There are always far more fantastic looking technical sessions than a (sane) person can try and attend! I've picked some sessions that are geared towards the kinds of technologies that we've been focusing on learning and working with lately at AB such as Node.js, Backbone.js, and mapping tools. Also looking forward to brushing up on some old friends: OG and Operations/Monitoring.
- OG7 - Pride and Prejudice
- Node.js, Javascript and the Future
- Node.js and Drupal
- Designing Fast and Beautiful Maps
- Fast and beautiful maps in Drupal - site building strategies with MapBox maps
- Real World Performance Analysis: How to Identify Performance Problems in Your Own Sites
- Keeping The Lights On - Operations and Monitoring Best Practices
- Backbone.js: the Future of Web Application Development with Drupal?
If it's your first DrupalCon...
I highly recommend a glance at my tried and true guide to your first DrupalCon: DrupalCon Abridged. Also, I hear that the combination of altitude and ridiculous dryness in Denver is a recipe for dehydration and sluggishness, so don't forget to pack a reusable water bottle, some kind of electrolyte replacement powder/goop, and a bunch of lotion/lip balm!
Hope to see you there!