Dries Buytaert

DrupalCon Chicago ended a few days ago. I'm mostly over my post-DrupalCon blues. As I'm digging out of the back-log of work and sending follow-up e-mails, though, I'm also trying to wrap my head around what happened at DrupalCon. Here are the things which stood out for me:

• DrupalCon Chicago had about 3,000 attendees, which translates to a tremendous amount of energy.
• Having everyone stay in the same hotel which was used for the conference was great. It still blows my mind that we rented basically the entire Sheraton hotel for one week.
• There were two excellent keynote talks: one from Clay Shirky and one from the Jared Spool — both are people of whom I have admired for a long time.
• Jared Spool RTFM-ing me in his keynote.
• Kieran Lal bought a big round of drinks (and tried to expense it).
• The blue Drupal M&Ms that were provided backstage to help me get ready for my keynote were memorable.
• A Drupal couple getting married in Birds-of-a-Feather session at DrupalCon was spectacular. Congratulations to the happy couple!
• The opening party at the Field Museum was the best Drupal party to date. We danced with elephants and dinosaurs!
• We raised more than $700,000 USD from 60+ sponsors. Thanks to Palantir.net, Acquia and VPS.net for being Diamond Sponsors. Thanks to Workhabit, Trellon, Phase2 and Pantheon for being Platinum Sponsors. Without our sponsors, DrupalCon would not have happened.
• Creating the Drupal 8 development branch with many of the core developers in the room was energizing. We're ready for Drupal 8!
• Microsoft apologizing for IE6 with an advertisement in the DrupalCon program guide was incredible. They even offered a drink by way of an apology. Yes, it was a magical week.
• Drupal Watchdog, the very first Drupal print magazine, was distributed to every attendee. A year ago, I predicted that Drupal would one day have its own print magazine. I didn't expect it to happen this fast. Maybe I should predict that there will be a Drupal developer on the moon within ten years and see if it happens by next Drupal Con.

Thanks for all of the people that helped to organize DrupalCon, and thanks in particular to Tiffany Farris and George De Met. It takes a lot to coordinate an event like this and it is not something we should take for granted. You all did an amazing job. Thanks!