drupalcampwi

DrupalCampWILast weekend, I joined a couple hundred other Drupal users at Drupal Camp Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This well-organized two-day event was fantastic. I met many new people (and can now connect a face with an IRC handle for many more). And the crack team of conference organizers have already put together videos of many conference sessions.

For me, the conference highlights included a handful of sessions on Drupal in education, a pair of sessions on GIS and mapping, and a BOF that I attended on web services, portlets, and the future of distributed web applications. A perennial strong point for Drupal Camps is the coverage of Drupal basics. DrupalCampWI had around half a dozen sessions for beginners. If you are just learning Drupal, a camp like this can really help you find your footing.

The camp's commons area was fantastic, providing ample space for both small and large BOFs as well as impromptu brainstorming sessions. Many conferees stayed at the same hotel, making after-hours ad hoc get togethers easy. And Wisconsin food? I ate my first (and probably last) "bacon bratwurst pretzel burger with cheese."

I gave two sessions. The first was on JavaScript and jQuery in Drupal. The second was on Web Services, mashups and QueryPath in Drupal (a preview version of what I hope to show in Paris this September). Most of the conference sessions are now available in video form.

Update: Added link to QueryPath video