2019 Drupal Global Training Day
The International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous institution under Government of Kerala, India mandated with propagation, promotion and development of Free and Open Source Software has organised the Drupal Global Training Day (GTD) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India on December 21, 2019, from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. Zyxware Technologies provided the technical support for the GTD. The event set the momentum to form the Drupal Community in Kerala.
The GTD witnessed some eminent personalities addressing the participants and sharing their experiences with them. Mr. Sampath Kumar, Technical Consultant, ICFOSS welcomed the participants. Mr. Sasi Pilacheri Meethal, Director, ICFOSS & CEO, IT Parks Kerala, gave the presidential address. Introduction to Drupal, Drupal Community, and Global Training Day was given by Mr. Thomas P. Thomas, CEO, Zyxware Technologies. The event was inaugurated by Mr. M. Sivasankar IAS, Secretary, E&IT Department, Government of Kerala. In the inaugural address, he stressed on the need to have more people to be trained in Free Software like Drupal to support the government IT initiatives. Dr. Rajeev R. R., Program Head, ICFOSS gave the vote of thanks.
Following the inauguration, an informative section on Why Drupal? And What is the best way to learn Drupal? was presented by Mr. Vimal Joseph, Senior Manager, Technology, Zyxware Technologies. The session was followed by a Question & Answer round. A case study on 'Drupal - as a tool for Citizen Engagement' was presented by Mr. Lipin P., Technical Lead, Zyxware Technologies. A brief introduction to DrupalTVM - groups.drupal.org/tvm was shared by Drupal Evangelists - Mr. Anto Jose, Mr. Binny K. Thomas, and Mr. Vimal Joseph. The participants could interact directly with the speakers and clear their doubts.
After the presentations, it was time to get some real hands-on experience in Drupal. A Drupal workshop led by Mr. Sarath Kumar, Software Engineer, and Mr. Abhinand Gokhala, Technical Lead took the participants to the world of Drupal. The session started with Introduction to Drupal, installing the same and a practical session on how to build a simple Drupal 8 application. Mr. Jijo Joseph and Mr. Adharsh M., Software Engineers, supported the lead trainers. A team of Drupal developers provided individual attention to the participants. Mr. Sudheesh, Mr. Ashish Sajeev, Mr. Akhil Chandran, Ms. Simi from Zyxware Technologies volunteered at the event.
About 50 participants representing diverse sections, including the government officials, software professionals, and student community from various Engineering colleges, attended the GTD. During the concluding session, the participants shared their feedback. To the majority, it was a new experience to learn the widely accepted technology of Drupal in detail. The participants were awarded Certificates of Participation.
