Investing in Education, Community with Explode and DrupalCon

Building strong communities. It takes knowledge, collaboration, and dedication -- which is why we're so supportive of opportunities that allow for all three to flourish. And it's why so many Echidnas are spending much of the next few days outside of our King and Talbot HQ!

In total, 15 Echidnas will be attending the two-day Explode Conference at Fanshawe's downtown campus, which starts today. Next week, we're sending 25 Echidnas to the Big Easy to attend DrupalCon New Orleans.

Though it can be challenging logistically with so many staffers out of the office at any one given time, we firmly believe that the long-term gain far outweighs any short-term pain.

For us, it's all about community -- being a part of a larger community, contributing to those communities, and having our staff learn and grow through their interaction with the communities.

As we've mentioned a few times over the years, we're committed to the Drupal Content Management System. We do this through time, money, and people. The strength of Drupal is its community focus and open-source development, but that is only a strength when you have a talented and dedicated group of developers contributing to it.

I'm proud of what our team has done (and continues to do) with Drupal. We played a role in the launch of Drupal 8 and we have more Grandmasters (five) than any other company in Canada -- and Echidna rivals the top shops around the globe in its Drupal expertise and presence.

Locally, we're proud to support the London development community as we're committed to the city, the revitalization of the core, and to giving talented young developers a place to thrive once their studies are completed.

We realize what we have here in The Forest City. With Western and Fanshawe, we have a steady source of talent just champing at the bit to put their skills and knowledge into action. And, along with our colleagues in the digital sector, we've been able to put London on the global technological map.

That's why we're supportive of the Explode Conference. It's an opportunity for the local community to experience something that traditionally hasn't been available in London -- you've had to travel to Toronto or further abroad to participate in a conference of this nature. But why shouldn't we have this in London? We've got the talent, we've got the people, and we have the community.

We also feel it's important not just to talk about support, but to put some skin in the game. We are a Prime-level sponsor of Explode and a Silver-level sponsor of DrupalCon New Orleans. We've also lent our talents and donated time to help out because we don't just want to take advantage of these opportunities, but rather help them come to fruition so that others can enjoy the benefits.

A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say. 'They' also say that knowledge is power. We believe events like DrupalCon and the Explode Conference are true to both those statements and that's why we're so proud to be a part of both.