After taking a whole 24 hours away from anything DrupalCamp NW related I now feel relaxed and chilled enough to write this.
Over the past few months a team of 4 people have spent every waking second organising DrupalCamp NW - Steph Hosny, Philip Norton and Paul Johnson. Our aim was to create an event that the Drupal community would enjoy and learn from. I feel we’ve succeeded 110% in this.
I’d like to thank everyone that volunteered and helped organise the weekend, without these people it would not have been possible, your hard work and dedication to the Drupal community makes me proud to be part of something so great.
On the Friday we saw Drupal Means Business, a full day event aimed at bringing businesses in the NW together to network and knowledge share, this was a huge success.
The fun really started on the Saturday when the main day of the camp started, the keynote from Morten was excellent, behind all the swearing and passion is a very intelligent man who knows exactly what we as a community need to do to achieve our goals. The calibre of sessions on the Saturday was fantastic, it was very difficult picking them, I honestly believe our sessions rivalled those at Drupalcons. The end keynote by Josh Koenig was fantastic, I have a lot of respect for Josh and it was a pleasure having him speak at our camp.
The Saturday evening took everyone to Missoula in Manchester, there’s nothing like seeing 100+ Drupalers drinking free beer. I’m always amazed at how friendly people are, I’ve met Dave Long (@longwave) twice over the past couple of years but every time I see him he’s always so nice and it feels like I’ve known him way longer. Unfortunately I currently have an ear infection so didn’t stay too late on the Saturday night but by the sounds of it everyone had a fantastic time.
The Sunday was the Twig sprint and general unconf. My apologies for the unconf organisation, I’m new to all this and it could have been organised a lot better, this is a lesson I’ve learnt and will take on board for any future events.
The sponsors we had this year were great, the sweet stand from Code Enigma was a great idea! I’d like to personally thank Pulsant for being our platinum sponsor. Their session at the business day was excellent and it’s no nonsense ask the hard questions attitude was refreshing and something that everyone should take on board.
If your looking for more Drupal goodness in the North West then please come along to NWDUG the first Wednesdays of the month at Madlab 6pm onwards organised by me and Phil Norton. www.nwdug.org.uk
I’m currently looking into starting up Drupal Sprint Manchester in partnership with Drupal Sprint London so if your interested please get in touch and we can chat.
Paul Johnson summed it up perfectly for me on twitter - DrupalCamps are a great excuse to see 147 of your friends again.
Again thank you so much for coming to DrupalCamp NW and being a part of something amazing.
Mike Bell