DrupalCon is a wonderful experience (even if it's in downtown LA!). We come together as a community to learn and share and have a fun time. The Hook 42 team grew a bit from last year and was fortunate to have 8 team members in LA. We had a great time and wanted to share some of our highlights with you.
Downtown LA from rooftop. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Session/BoF/Sprints
As usual, there were tons of great keynotes, sessions, BoFs, and sprints. The keynotes and sessions were recorded so check those out.
Having fun at the Dries Q&A. Photo credit: Paul Johnson.
Aimee's Favorite Session/BoF
So many… but basically all things Drupal 8. :) Schnitzel’s application of Drupal 8 in production, Matt Cheney’s review of the D8 CMI in a managed workflow was informative and thought provoking, and of course MortenDK’s Drupal 8 Theming with <3. I did love the Princess Cruises case study since it is a wonderfully complex but elegantly deployed combination of multilingual workflow, services, and content syncing. Their team did an amazing job!
Kristen's Favorite Session/BoF
The "hallway track" was strong at this 'con for me. I only went to two BoFs (one was Aimee's D8 multilingual workshop and the other one was multilingual therapy) and one session (my own multilingual D7 talk). So… I guess my favorite organized non-party thing was helping at the sprints on Friday! :)
Tom's Favorite Session/BoF
- Estimation - A science not an art
- Building Your (Drupal-based) Business: Or... What Keeps You Up At Night?
K2's Favorite Session/BoF
My favorite session was MortenDK’s Drupal 8 Theming with <3. He’s fun to watch and got me really jazzed to use twig in Drupal 8.
Darryl's Favorite Session/BoF
I really enjoyed Jeff Eaton’s Battle for the Body Field, but I cheated by watching it after I got home. I learned about Entity Embed module, for which I think I’m going to find a lot of use!
Lindsay's Favorite Session/BoF
The winner is … CI for CSS: Creating a Visual Regression Testing Workflow. Wow, that’s a mouthful of a title, but quite an informative session. Lots of great things to know that were presented clearly. Thanks for the great session by Kate Kligman.
Patrick's Favorite Session/BoF
I greatly enjoyed the “I Survived Drupalgeddon” session by Matt Korostoff. It was a fun personal story of how hackers invaded his site, what happened after they did, and how one can prevent it from happening to their site.
Genevieve's Favorite Session/BoF
My two unrelated favorites were - 1) Designing for Brains: The Psychology of User Experience & 2) How to Run a Drupal Agency.
Tshirt/Swag
There were some really fun tshirts and swag in LA. We brought two new designs of our own (California Drupalin' and It Takes a Village), thanks to the very talented artist, Joe To, along with some previous favorites including Drup Oil, Features Reaper (happy version), and Multilingual Drupal to fill out our growing number of awesome doodles. Going to camp or con and want some swag? Ping us to see if we'll be there. ;)
DrupalCon LA monkey hats from Mailchimp were a big hit. Photo credit: Paul Johnson.
Aimee's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
Four Kittens v2! Backdrop DRAGON! Pantheon’s I BUILD THE INTERNET, LA edition! Hangover helper survival kits!
Kristen's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
Monkey hat is super cute and the Backdrop dragon but I think my kids liked the backscratcher the best… makes for a good extra hand.
Mom… I can scratch your back! Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Tom's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
I BUILD THE INTERNET!
K2's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
My favorite T-Shirt was the monkey hats from Mailchimp, wa hoo! I just wish I had gotten a picture of Lindsay in it!
Darryl's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
What am I supposed to do with a hockey stick? I did get another Jet Brains PHPStorm yo-yo, which I do play with.
Lindsay's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
Definitely the Backdrop sticker. I mean, seriously, look at this dragon. So cool.
Backdrop's Dragon Drop is pretty darn cute. Image credit: Backdrop Press Kit.
Patrick's Favorite Tshirt/Swag
My favorite shirt was the Golden State Warriors Tshirt that had Pantheon’s logo on the back. Apparently they bought the Golden State Warriors Tshirt right down the street of their SF office and just added their logo to the back!
Food
Not sure if great food is what comes to mind when going to LA like it did for Portland or Austin but we still managed to get in some good eats.
Pantheon partner dinner at the Palm. Image credit: Kristen Pol.
Aimee's Favorite Food
The Original Pantry for the early-risers breakfast with Darryl and the 2 am post-party breakfast for the night owls. Yay for 24 hour comfort food!
Kristen's Favorite Food
Who needs words? This was my dessert at Local Table.
Local Table has pastry chef who makes masterpieces. Image credit: Kristen Pol.
Tom's Favorite Food
K2's Favorite Food
My favorite meal was the Hook 42 dinner at what I will refer to as “the home cooked hipster joint in Hollywood.” So much fun to just be us all together - it felt like family.
Darryl's Favorite Food
I had breakfast 3 times at The Original Pantry. It was right on the way, and I was always there a bit ahead of the crowd, so I never had to wait. I think that’s one more time than I ever ate there in the 33 years I lived in LA (well, in The Valley, so, not very convenient).
Lindsay's Favorite Food
That filet mignon at the Pantheon dinner. Like butta.
Patrick's Favorite Food
My favorite food was the Guinness vanilla ice cream float I received at the Hook 42 dinner because it was an efficient way to drink and eat at the same time.
Genevieve's Favorite Food
What K2 said. So tasty.
Person
DrupalCon is all about the people! We love seeing our old friends and meeting new ones. We <3 the community. :)
DrupalCon LA mentors. Photo credit: amber_is_i.
Aimee's Favorite Person
ALL THE PEOPLE! It is wonderful to see the extended family of community members. Schnitzel, Ryan Weal, YesCT, and more! Patrick Storey and Lindsay Gaudinier were two shining examples of a successful second DrupalCon. Patrick was heavily engaged with mentoring and volunteering and Lindsay dove in deeply to the front end technical sessions. Austin + community + practice + LA is a great springboard for success.
Patrick mentoring the new recruits. Last DrupalCon he was a recruit! Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Kristen's Favorite Person
Tough one! Was nice to finally meet Damien McKenna in person and see his rabbit ears.
Gotta love them ears! Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Tom's Favorite Person
Were there people there?!?
K2's Favorite Person
I didn’t have a standout favorite, but I can note that I feel like this time I really knew a lot more people and felt like part of the Drupal community. Wave to all!
Darryl's Favorite Person
I had a great time playing “Germanic Ping Pong” with the Amazee Labs folks at their party! (Yes, I know they’re Swiss, but I learned this game in Germany…)
Amazee Labs ping pong party including Germanic ping pong. Video credit: Kristen Pol.
Lindsay's Favorite Person
Ryan Weal. Him, K2 and I hung out in the coders lounge and it was tons of fun.
Patrick's Favorite Person
I’ll say Amy Vaillancourt-Sals. First off, great name! She came to the Mentor Core Sprint where I was mentoring and I showed her how to re-roll a patch. Then a couple hours later I saw her pushing the “return” button on Dries’ computer for the Live Commit! And I was able to think to myself “I knew her before she was famous”.
Genevieve's Favorite Person
It was my first DrupalCon - so everyone was new and interesting!
Social Event
The social event calendar was extra packed for LA. We couldn't get to everything but did what we could. Too many fun things, too little time! ;)
Pantheon Party. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Aimee's Favorite Social Event
The Pantheon party. Hands down. Thank you, Pantheon!
Kristen's Favorite Social Event
Ok, this one was tough. You know bubble wrap? Addicting, right? Well… try one of these ping pong ball collectors when you have a room of crazy Drupalers hitting (or dumping!) balls to the floor at an amazing rate. OCD heaven! On a more relaxing note, I had a wonderful soak in a hot tub with K2 instead of going to trivia night (first one I've missed!)... that was a relaxing type of heaven (with lightning to boot).
Kristen Pol on duty at the Amazee Labs ping pong party. Photo credit: Amazee Labs.
Tom's Favorite Social Event
Meh
K2's Favorite Social Event
Without a doubt the big outdoor party that Pantheon threw - amazing!
Darryl's Favorite Social Event
The Pantheon party and the Amazee Labs parties were both great!
Lindsay's Favorite Social Event
The outdoor Pantheon party. There was dancing and the nicest porta potties ever.
Patrick's Favorite Social Event
Definitely the L.A. Live Pantheon party. Shut down a street in one of the biggest cities in the world? Sure, why not!
Genevieve's Favorite Social Event
You can never forget Ping Pong!
K2, Patrick & Genevieve at the Amazee Labs ping pong party. Photo credit: Amazee Labs.
Weird/Strange LA Thing
No matter where you go, there's gotta be something weird. Here's some interesting things we came across in Los Angeles.
Not sure really what this is but it was in Kristen & Kristin's airbnb. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Aimee's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
On Google Maps, the “Urban Core” was called Skid Row. Every time I searched for directions, the late ‘80s metal music played in my head.
Kristen's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
Our Airbnb was pretty eclectic. There were steampunky things adorning the surfaces and artsy things on the walls and even super heroes hanging from the bathroom ceiling.
This punk was protecting us from a good vantage point in our Airbnb. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Tom's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
How could the LA downtown “Urban Core” have fewer cars than San Francisco? It’s LA. Car town.
K2's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
Fruit on the street with chili and salt on it. Yum! Also the crazy amount of shutdown theaters in the area we stayed. Who knew LA had such beautiful architecture downtown.
Darryl's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
The coded magnetic door lock keys to our AirBnB apartment were kind of weird. Insert the key into the lock, wait until the lock mechanism activates, then turn. And you had to turn it to the right to unlock the door.
Lindsay's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
All of the dogs out for walks in the morning! I wanted to pet every single one! [Cue Oprah] You get a dog, and you get a dog, everyone gets a dog!
Patrick's Favorite Weird/Strange LA Thing
Apparently between 9-11pm it’s dog walk o’clock. You will not see any dogs all day, and all of a sudden everyone is walking dogs everywhere downtown.
That’s a wrap!
Thanks to the Drupal Association and all the volunteers for making DC LA a huge success. Please leave a comment with some of your favorite things! And… see you in L.A. again… this time as in Louisiana. :)
Epilogue
In case you didn't see enough photos…
Mentor dinner at Local Table. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Darryl hanging out with Schnitzel. Photo credit: Amazee Labs.
Aten+Kalamuna+Four Kitchens bowling party. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Pantheon pinball party. Photo credit: Kristen Pol.
Still smarting from pantheon party last night @getpantheon #DrupalConLA #hook42 @hook42inc pic.twitter.com/oUGT3zI61Z
— K2 (@K2Hook42) May 14, 2015