Attention "dusty"!
This article is already a little outdated and may contain information that no longer corresponds to the current status of the topic.
Traditionally, most Drupalistas arrive on Friday, as the first events take place on the evening before the camp. This year, the German edition of the Splash Awards, the "Drupal Oscars", where a number of Drupal projects in various categories were nominated in advance and awarded prizes on the day. Unfortunately, as arocom, we were unable to take part in the awards this year, as we simply didn't have the time to prepare. Maybe it will work out next year, fingers crossed!
The nominations and winners can be viewed at the following link: http://www.splashawards.de/de/2019.
Saturday marked the official start of the Drupal Camp, which this time took place at the Munich Center of Community Arts, or MUCCA for short. The MUCCA is a creative hub for various artistic and social projects, but also opens its doors for events of all kinds and offers a range of differently equipped rooms for these purposes.
In addition to a large main room, where the opening and planning of the Drupal Camp took place, there were four other rooms in which the various sessions of the camp could take place.
After the actual opening on Saturday morning, during which the sponsors were thanked and the rooms were briefly introduced, a basic concept of this camp was explained: its orientation and organization as a barcamp.
In contrast to "normal" camps, the session planning and selection does not take place before the start of the actual event, but at the camp itself . One of the first items on the program on Saturday and Sunday was therefore to determine the day's sessions together with all participants.
There are no restrictions on who can hold a session: anyone can sign up and present their session in a few short sentences. A show of hands is then used to assess interest and a room (of an appropriate size) is allocated.
The interesting thing is that sessions do not have to be elaborate presentations, but can also simply present a basic topic or question as a basis for discussion. The focus of the sessions clearly shifts away from the actual speaker and towards the audience, whose participation is even more expressly desired in most sessions than usual.
Even if this concept was not favored by everyone at the beginning of the Drupal Camp, it became clear over the two days what possibilities and interesting dynamics it offered. The greater involvement of the audience often resulted in more discussion rounds than actual presentations.
As it was not known before the start of the camp which sessions would be held, many participants feared that they would not get to hear any sessions of interest to them. In fact, it was not possible to speak to anyone after the two days who saw their fears confirmed. The sessions that took place were not only diverse and dealt with appealing topics, but also provided a forum for discussion and the exchange of experiences on topics such as motivation in everyday (working) life or the life of a "digital nomad".
Other highlights of the sessions were the exchange of experience/knowledge on requirements engineering, the presentation on developing with and in the cloud and the retrospective of DrupalCon Darmstadt.
In conclusion, it can be said that this Drupal Camp was not only a great opportunity to gain insights into Drupal, but also to make new acquaintances. The community was and has always been very diverse and with its many different personalities makes for a unique experience at every event.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors and organizers once again, who put on a really great camp with a small team and manageable resources, which doesn't have to hide in comparison to events with much larger organizational teams!
