DrupalSouth 2015: New journeys, new possibilities
DrupalSouth 2015, the largest Drupal event of the year in Australia, has set a powerful wave in motion – a wave of hopes, dreams, and infinite possibilties for Drupal lovers. There was excitement in the air, as the event, spread over three days, featured numerous inspiring and informative sessions on delivering Drupal projects.
The action-packed event, held from 5-7 March 2015 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC) in Melbourne, Australia, kicked off with a keynote address by Angela Byron, Director of Community Development at Acquia & the co-maintainer of Drupal 8. During the session, she introduced Drupal 8, its advantages, differences from the previous versions, and the general direction of Drupal 8. The first two days of the event hosted more than 45 sessions, followed by a sprint day on March 7. This year's event also included speakers drawn from outside the Drupal community and sessions focusing on a fascinating array of topics relevant to, but not essentially about Drupal. Besides delegates from all the prominent Drupal companies in Australia, the event had a fairly good attendance from the general developer community as well.
The sessions were organized into three major tracks:
Drupal Futures: Talks centered around the evolution of technologies for the Internet / web and how Drupal fits into the ecosystem.
Building with Drupal: Sessions on featured practices, techniques, or approaches which helps in building better Drupal websites.
Planning for Drupal: Sessions focusing on the lessons learned, practical aspects of Drupal project management and non-technical talks on aspects outside of site building.
The Birds Of a Feather (BoF) sessions added an element of fun and vibrancy to the event, as it facilitiated stronger interaction between the attendees and acted as a platform to meet other members of the community with similar interests. The final day of the conference featured a full day sprint session led by Brian Gilbert,Director,RealityLoop, wherein attendees were mentored into the process of contributing towards Drupal core.
Making a mark: Zyxware at DrupalSouth 2015
Mr. Anoop John, Managing Director & Chief Technical Officer, Zyxware Technologies (India), Mr. Babilo Augustine, Managing Director, Zyxware Technologies (Australia & New Zealand), and Bruce Jenkins, General Manager, Zyxware Technologies (Australia & New Zealand) represented the company at the event. Mr. Anoop John also presented a session on "Compete to Collaborate - Exploring wider collaboration mechanisms in the Drupal space," which basically focused on exploring different collaboration models between Drupal companies to effectively take on larger players in the industry, why companies which are passionate about Drupal should contribute, and how they should do it. The session also triggered some interesting conversations with other Drupal companies who were exploring similar options.
DrupalSouth 2015 saw yet another milestone, with the announcement of the GovCMS project by Acquia, which is expected to be the platform of choice for all federal government agencies in Australia. This is a major shift as Drupal companies across Australia are gearing up for the GovCMS wave. For Zyxware Australia, this invariably translates to a host of opportunities as we would be able to help government agencies in Australia make the move and also support Drupal companies in the country meet the increased demand for Drupal support.
About DrupalSouth:
DrupalSouth is a non-profit conference organized by a team of volunteers from the Drupal community with monetary and legal support provided by Linux Australia Inc. Surplus funds generated by the event are returned to Linux Australia to invest in the country's open source community. It is a significant event for Drupal enthusiasts, web professionals, business owners, and for anyone who wants to learn Drupal.
