Why I Go Camping with Drupal

In just a few short hours, I, along with a number of my colleagues at Digital Echidna, will be hitting the road to DrupalCamp Ohio on the Ohio State University campus. So before we pack up the vehicles and hit the road, I'd like to share a little bit about why I go 'camping.'

(And if you're not familiar with the differences between DrupalCamp, DrupalCon, and MidCamp, please check out Scott's blog from April.)

Community Spirit

As you may know, Drupal is an open-source platform. While there's always going to be competition among the people contributing to be better, the overall goal is to improve the product and make it the best system possible.

Everyone at DrupalCamp is there for Drupal and they want to share their experience and knowledge with you. In fact, some of the best conversations start in the most unexpected of places: the line for lunch can an unusually good place to solve that problem you've been having with the Organic Groups module or to get a new module recommendation from a stranger that solves a problem that you thought you'd need to custom code to fix.

Learning Opportunities

As much as we all try to expand our skills and learn during our day-to-day jobs, sometimes it's tough to balance that with the everyday needs of getting the job done. Camps are a great way to step out of our routine or comfort zones and experience something new.

The smaller number of sessions makes it easy to branch out a bit and explore new topics. I've always found that some of the most useful sessions are the ones where you aren't already familiar with the topic.

Shared Successes; Shared Pain

Again, the community at DrupalCamp is a great way to get validation -- both for the good things you're doing and to know that a challenge you're facing isn't unique. There are plenty of opportunities to talk about best practices and get confirmation that you're on the right path. Conversely, it's nice to know that other people share your challenges or problems with certain development items.

Talks don't have to teach you something new. Sometimes it's just nice to have someone else confirm that your approach is the right one.

Inspiration

It's always amazing to see the number of people committed to Drupal's growth. In London, we have a fairly tight-knit community and we see some of those people at LonDUG events.

But to travel a few hundred kilometres away and meet up with others from around the continent (and even around the world), listen to people share their ideas and successes (including a couple of Echidnas who will be presenting -- Dave Hetesi and Mike Gossman), and be exposed to all the possibilities that Drupal offers? It's inspiring.

Team Building

It goes without saying that it's not all work and no play. There are a lot of laughs, a lot of memories (fuzzy and otherwise), and a lot of opportunities to get to know your teammates outside of the normal office confines.

If getting stranded in Dayton, OH for an extra night (because dying on a blizzard-covered highway is an option that no one wants to risk) doesn't bring you closer together, nothing will!

I invite you to learn more about DrupalCamp, I encourage you to visit the site. And if you're interested in Drupal at all, contact us at Digital Echidna and we'd be happy to share our experiences with you.