Drupal Camp Draws a Crowd

The eighth annual Stanford Drupal Camp, held last weekend, boasted nearly 300 attendees from all over the Bay Area. They gathered to discuss the many facets of web design and development, and learn more about Drupal — an open-source content management system that powers thousands of websites at Stanford, and millions of websites beyond.

In the spirit of open-source dialogue and learning, enthusiastic campers from on and off-campus enjoyed the opportunity to connect and share knowledge with each other.

“It’s this open source attitude that fuels the entire community,” one camper explained. “I want to take any opportunity I have to give back to that community in a meaningful way.”

Camp highlights

This year’s Drupal Camp, a two-day event held at the Stanford Law School, included tracks for beginners and more advanced users alike. It also provided a platform for attendees to share case studies about Drupal projects they are working on.

Each session fell into one or more of the following tracks:

• Content Strategy
• Dev /DevOps
• Project Management / Business
• Research / Academia
• Site Building
• UX / Design

Dr. Roland Vogl gives keynote address for Drupal Camp 2017.

The keynote session featuring Dr. Roland Vogl, executive director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology (LST) and lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, focused on how technology is impacting legal practice and the law more broadly.

“Clearly someone who understands both the technical side and the people side, our presenter left us thinking about how technology is only going to keep evolving, and that we must all give thought to how we choose to encourage its evolution,” wrote attendee and presenter Dwayne McDaniel of Pantheon, in his blog post on the event.

The keynote set the tone for the rest of the camp, which featured sessions such as “Testing for Accessibility,” “Integrating User Experience and Design in Your Team,” “Building an Intranet in Drupal,” and more. For a complete list of sessions and accompanying slides, visit the Schedule page on the 2017 Drupal Camp website.

“I come every year to extend my knowledge about what is out there and to learn from other experts in the field,” said Dishna Welihinda of GE Digital.

That’s a wrap

Campers end the day at The Treehouse for Happy Hour.

Following Friday and Saturday’s sessions, attendees gathered at The Treehouse to enjoy unseasonably warm temperatures, food, drinks, and fun in the company of their fellow Drupallers.

“This year’s camp was a great success, and really highlighted the community’s core principles of sharing, collaborating, and innovating,”Joe Knox of Stanford Web Services commented. “I’m looking forward to doing this again in 12 months.”

More about Drupal Camp

Drupal Camp began when a handful of leaders from Stanford’s Drupal community saw a need and opportunity to highlight interesting and inspiring things related to the web, as well as to provide learning opportunities at the intersection of Drupal and higher education. Their drive and enthusiasm led to the launch of the first ever camp in 2010.

The planning and coordination of Drupal Camp is led by Stanford Web Services team members who work with numerous sponsors, volunteers, and presenters to host the event.

To learn more, visit the Drupal Camp website.