Last weekend I got to keynote Drupalcamp Helsinki with my friend and often-collaborator, scaragucc - and what a great camp it was! Organizer Lauri Eskola deserves tremendous credit for taking this camp to the next level. They doubled their attendance from last year, attracted positive attention from some great notables in the global Drupal world, and got their local community energized to engage more. At all the various after parties there were frequent toasts of “one of the best Drupalcamps in the world!”
Lauri and I met at the last Drupal Dev Days event, in Szeged. That was also hailed as an example of a hugely successful Drupal event, and he took the lessons from their in-depth report to heart. To be fair, the local volunteers and sponsors also clearly busted their humps getting people registered, and finding good session speakers to work with.
The result was a really positive Drupal event for all of us. Their attendance shot past the 200 mark for the first time, their code sprint had more involvement than ever before, and their social activities were a huge success. We left Finland full of positive feeling for the local association there, the city of Helsinki, and of course the sauna culture! This was a great example of what a Drupal community event can be. I’m looking forward to next year already.