Big Ben towerFor me, going to DrupalCamp London was a bit like going home. After I joined the Drupal Association, DrupalCon London was the first Con I worked on from beginning to end, and it was where I was fully introduced to the incredible Drupal spirit. I built great friendships with so many wonderful community members, who gave up their free time to help make that event a success.

As they say, time waits for no one. In the three years since I attended DrupalCon London, the London Drupal community flourished even more-- almost beyond the point of recognition! London’s 2014 DrupalCamp, which was organized by Della Deme, Tim Deeson, Leon Tong, Ben Wilding, and tons more volunteers, hosted over 600 people, and had countless interesting sessions.

At the camp, I learned about new programs to grow UK talent such as OpenDrupal, which provides local apprenticeships and training, and Code Club Manchester, which teaches kids how to code. I also found out about new camps blossoming throughout the UK, which is incredibly exciting.

When it came to sessions, there was definitely a lot of buzz around Drupal 8 with sessions on Configuration, Authentication, Twig, Multilingual and more. But the camp wasn’t just about talks -- London’s incredible Drupalers sprinted all day Sunday until the venue said we just couldn’t stay any longer.

I was honored to address the London community in a keynote on Sunday, where I talked about the evolution of the Drupal Association since 2011, our vision and mission (where we are going) and how we are going to get there. The big take-aways from that keynote, for anyone who wants the TL;DR version:

  • Our vision is to grow Drupal from 3 to 10% of the web and one major vehicle is through an improved Drupal.org.
  • This year we are investing $1.4M (or 850,000 GBP) to improve Drupal.org.

As it turns out, I could have dropped the mic after that, with how excited everyone was. People came up to me after the talk, thanking the Drupal Association for building and improving on the community’s home. Each comment provided exciting validation that we are on the right path to serving the community in a significant way.

The keynote wasn’t the only time I spoke on behalf of the Drupal Association. At the CxO, which hosted over 100 Drupal business owners, I shared Drupal Association’s 2014 imperative to Market Drupal 8 through PR, paid advertising, and other tactics. Afterwards, I had great talks with business owners and group leaders who wanted to leverage the marketing materials to promote Drupal 8 in their markets. I’m very excited for this kind of collaboration to take off.

Leaving London, I reflected on how vibrant this local community is and how much they will be able to achieve together. I very much hope I don’t have to wait three years again to reconnect with them! I look forward to returning to London-- and attending camps all over the world-- to update the community on how the Drupal Association has moved the needle to achieve that 10% of the web goal.

We’ve seen firsthand at the Drupal Association how the amazing people who care about the platform are constantly making Drupal (and the world) a better place. Thank you all for everything you do! For all of you in London and across the globe, I am thrilled to call myself your partner and friend.

Image courtesy of nicdory on Flickr.