Get Ready for DrupalCon

The title of this post is in no way meant to be a rallying cry, or some cheesy pep-talk. When I wrote "get ready," I quite literally meant it. As in, be prepared.

The Drupal community's biannual conference, held April 19-21, 2010, at San Francisco's Moscone Center will be by far the largest DrupalCon held to date. With 2430 attendees currently registered, and a little more than two more weeks to go, the event is likely to hit 3000 attendees. Truth be told, I'm a little overwhelmed.

As many of you know, LinuxJournal.com is a Drupal site, and I am a bit of a Drupal fangirl. I started playing around with Drupal sometime in late 2006 and haven't looked back, but for various reasons, my first DrupalCon was this past fall in Paris. At 800 attendees, the Paris event was cozy and fairly intimate as conferences go, and I had a fantastic time. Although I expect to enjoy it equally, DrupalCon San Francisco will be a very different event.

I recently spoke with John Faber of AF83 and SFDUG, who is heading marketing efforts for this spring's DrupalCon, and he pointed out to me that there were more sessions submitted to this event than there were attendees for the first two DrupalCons. The smallest of the conference rooms will hold 300 people. Incredible. But what does this mean for the Drupal community?

The current upsurge in interest is likely due to high profile Drupal sites such as whitehouse.gov and grammy.com, and the work of top-notch companies like Lullabot, Acquia, Palantir, and frankly too many others I admire to name them all. Phenomenal work is being done with Drupal-- who doesn't want to be a part of that? And with this growth comes a massive conference that will require actual planning to get the most value as an attendee. So this is my advice to you: get ready.

Study the schedule before you arrive, bring some good shoes and your hangover kit (I heard Morten is coming), and I look forward to seeing you there!