DrupalCon Barcelona Is Almost Here

Monday morning you’ll be waking up to the city of Las Ramblas boulevard and Antoni Gaudí. There are lots of reasons to be excited about DrupalCon Barcelona. If you thought LA was as good as it could get, be ready for a surprise. We’re in for a DrupalCon like no other, and that’s thanks to top-notch contributors from across the globe. You’ve read it and have heard it said 1,000 times: there’s something for everybody. It’s true, and we know what’s making this possible. The growing community has a culture of giving that drives every DrupalCon to be more successful than the last. The Spanish Association of Drupal (AED) sums it up best:

<em>"No te preguntes qué puede hacer Drupal por ti. Pregúntate qué puedes hacer tú por Drupal.</em>

Do not ask what Drupal can do for you. Ask yourself what you can do for Drupal."

What’s Making DrupalCon Barcelona Different?

What happened in Amsterdam was the largest European Drupal event ever, and keep in mind Barcelona hosted back in 2007 (around 450 attendees showed up). But the anticipation of another update, new session tracks, and thousands of expected attendees are making this DrupalCon different.

There Are Gr8 Expectations

The probable release of Drupal 8 has captured the undivided attention of the community. But only one thing is for certain, we won’t be going home disappointed. That’s because every session contains anticipated answers to the community’s pressing questions—some update related and some not.

New Session Tracks

For the first time, two new tracks (Content Strategy and Project Management) have appeared on the list. These were added in a direct response to your requests.

Content Strategy

The content is king discussion has been going on for years, but not like this. The explosion of web content has prompted us to re-evaluate the way we talk about the success of our web projects. Days before this event we’re still getting awesome updates that tie into this track. Yoast, the best WordPress SEO plugin, is crossing over to Drupal; there’s a launch party in Barcelona on the 23rd, and you’re invited.

Project Management

Our projects go nowhere fast unless we’re following progress step-by-step, and we’re nurturing them effectively. For the first time, we’ll come together to discuss how we can better coordinate and lead PM initiatives. We’re all working with tasks and accountability of some kind, and many of us handle keeping track of both.

What’s Axelerant Bringing?

Our technical architect Hussain Abbas will be addressing questions centered on PHP, the first of three special tracks deliberately asked for by the Drupal community. We’ll be bringing this programming to Barcelona with his presentation:

<strong><a href="https://events.drupal.org/barcelona2015/sessions/what-php-fig-means-drupal">What PHP-FIG Means To Drupal</a></strong>

Time: 09/23/2015 - 17:00-18:00

Room: 116: Pantheon

Developers looking at Drupal 8 after working on Drupal 7 and earlier are often confused by the entirely new structure. These changes appear difficult to learn but in fact, are very simple and straightforward, and have enabled Drupal to interface with the bigger PHP world. This has been made possible by the PHP-FIG. During this session, we’ll talk about various topics like:

• The world before PHP-FIG: problems with reusability, consistency, and interoperability.
• Why was PHP-FIG formed, who are in it and what are the various PSRs?
• Has Drupal 8 improved or just got complicated by adopting PSRs?
• How does that help you as a developer in writing more testable and reliable code?
• How does it make maintaining your PHP application a much simpler task?
• Has the general health of the PHP ecosystem improved since the formation of FIG and it’s doses of PSRs? AKA: Has interoperability between different PHP components improved since we started adopting these PSRs?

Also, our grant and scholarship recipient Aliya Khan will be available as a mentor at several sessions, and is contributing to Sprinting on D8 core. She’ll be present to assist during the following sessions:

<strong>Component Driven Design and Development</strong> by <a href="https://events.drupal.org/u/ckrina">Cristina Chumillas</a>

Time: 09/22/2015 - 11:00-09/22/2015 - 12:00

Room: 118-119: Platform.sh

Intro to Singularity Grid System by Taylor Smith

Time: 09/24/2015 - 14:15-09/24/2015 - 15:15

Room: 122-123: Interoute

Drupal-Generated Markup Is Not Your Friend—Use a Style Guide!

by <a href="https://events.drupal.org/u/rcaracaus">Robert Caracaus</a> Time: 09/22/2015 - 14:15-09/22/2015 - 15:15

Room: 112: Exove

Three other members of our active team will be there, facilitating discussions and driving conversation around drupal’s most important topics. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them directly just to say hello:

Piyush (<a href="https://twitter.com/piyushpoddar">@piyushpoddar</a>), <strong>Director Of Professional Services</strong>

Abhishek (<a href="https://twitter.com/resolution4web">@resolution4web</a>), <strong>PHP/Drupal Developer</strong>

Mohit (@mohit_rocks), PHP/Drupal Developer

Major Highlights We’re Excited About.

“I can’t wait to take advantage of ample training opportunities, to learn new ways of teaching Drupal, and to meet Drupalers from around the globe. I’m looking forward to initiating conversation about DrupalCon Asia 2016, and I’m really excited to be part of important discussions about women in the Drupal community.” -Aliya, Front-end Developer (@Aliya_Khan)

“Major announcements about the release of Drupal 8. It’ll be interesting to see what the next Acquisition or Merger in the ecosystem will be. Meeting the Drupal Asia team and Global Chairs in person, and announcing Drupal Asia on the stage. And of course experiencing the festivities with La Merce being held parallel during the event. ” -Piyush, Director Of Professional Services (@piyushpoddar)

“I’ll be meeting amazing fellow drupalers and lots of module authors whose modules are extensively. Attending interesting BoF activities is going to be great.” -Mohit, PHP/Drupal Developer (@mohit_rocks)

¿Qué Pasa, Drupalers? What’re You Looking Forward To The Most?