For those of us living at the speed of Drupal each and every day, Austin seems light years away already. We’ve begun planning in earnest for Drupalcon Amsterdam and even Drupalcon Bogota and Drupalcon LA in 2015.

We are still in the midst of our Austin follow-up of course, having met so many wonderful people and being introduced to so many great opportunities. Consequently I’ve moved on to reflection.

I know I’m not alone when I say there was something special about Drupalcon Austin. Here’s what it was for me; everything about Drupalcon Austin was friendly. I mean really nice, fun and supportive friendly. Now if you’ve been to a few Drupalcon’s before you might be thinking, 'what’s different about that?' Drupalcon’s are always friendly, I will grant you that. But there were three big differences between Austin and previous Drupalcons that made it especially friendly.

Austin - The Friendly City

Did you know that before Austin was known for its live music or ‘keeping it weird’ it was known as ‘The Friendly City?’ Seriously. Look it up. From the airport to taxi rides and pedi-cabs and restaurants, Austin was the friendliest host yet. Thank you Austin!

Our Friendly Drupal Association Staff

Beginning with Jacob Redding, IMHO the Drupal Association staff has always been awesome. What was so great about Austin is that it has become evident that there is finally a critical mass of staff to truly accelerate a pro-community agenda. This helps all Drupal users, especially because each and every member of the DA staff is so accessible and - you guessed it - so friendly. Are you a member yet?

Drupal 8 - The Friendly Platform

 

With so much wonderful Drupal 8 content in Austin as evidence, Drupal 8 will be the friendliest Drupal of them all. In fact I’ve already started to think about it as ’Drupal 8 - The Friendly Platform’.

I can’t think of a single group or market segment for which Drupal 8 won’t be more friendly. Ignoring FUD* chatter and notwithstanding any and all reasonable concerns expressed by other respected members of the community, Drupal 8 will be more friendly to everyone. Drupal 8 will be easier and more accessible to designers, themers, developers, site builders, content managers, content creators, dev ops, project managers, product owners, marketing and sales units, NGOs, public agencies, SMBEs, enterprise organizations, digital agencies, system integrators and, well just everyone.

With the release of Drupal 8 within reach, Drupal will turn a corner and become known not just as the most powerful CMS available, not just as an optimal solution platform for so many challenges, but especially as the friendly platform from which you can continue to realize your goals and dreams. In fact, I always did think the Druplicon looked like a smiley face.

There were many more than just three special things about Drupalcon Austin. Because I think they’re worth noting I’ve listed some brief highlights. Please add yours and tell us why Austin, and Drupal 8 are special for you.

• our Symfony2 Introduction/Getting ready for Drupal 8 was awesome! We sold out all 60 seats and helped make 60 new Drupal 8 developers. We’re offering it remotely since it was so successful.
• we were so proud to kick off the Drupal Career Trailhead. Our CEO Nancy Stango opened with her presentation on the Drupal Career Landscapge and got rave reviews. We think the folks over at Drupal Easy are great. Read this first installment in their career series.
• we met so many great developers and we’ve already begun the process of matchmaking and hiring. If we missed you, we're sorry but it's not too late! Email John.
• in case you didn’t know it, Drupal and the Enterprise are perfect together. Miss Matt Schelessman’s presentation? Send him an email and maybe he’ll send you some Reese’s.
• more people than ever are asking about Drupal and Symfony training. Are you one of them? We can help!
• we launched our Brilliance Velocity campaign to raise money for the Drupal Association. It's not too late to contribute, visit http://www.blinkreaction.com/whatsyourbrilliancevelocity

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*Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt