This year day two of Florida DrupalCamp will feature Code for a Cause, a common element among DrupalCamps across North America. Code for a Cause is an opportunity for camp attendees to build a complete website while they attend the camp. A number of not for profit organizations have submitted requests to be considered for the one day, group-coding event. Drupal is a popular platform for nonprofits due to its zero cost entry and robust training environment.

Duo Consulting is among the many sponsors who are making the camp possible. The fee for attendees is a meager $5.00 for which attendees will receive the one-day multi-track instruction and the second-day Code for a Cause. Lunches and snacks are provided for both days.

A Word About DrupalCamps
Over the past few years the Drupal community is witnessing smaller Drupal camps return and occupy larger facilities. Such is the case in Orlando. At the same time cities that have never had a Camp embark upon their first. For example, Atlanta DrupalCamp 2009 was an excellent showing for an inaugural camp. Last year’s Chicago DrupalCamp saw packed rooms and some attendees missing out on their preferred session when the aisles and doors were crowded with attendees trying to catch the session (Adjustments have been made for 2010 Chicago DrupalCamp.) The Drupal community is growing and this is never more evident than at these events that draw people in from around the country. For now, we’re looking forward to the Florida DrupalCamp, which strikes me as a great place to spend a few days in February.

As interesting as San Francisco DrupalCon promises to be, it is only one, albeit the main event, among a lot of Drupal conference activity in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the regional activities in which Duo is directly involved:

Florida Drupal Camp is right around the corner, February 20 & 21 in Altamonte Springs, Florida. This second year conference features Coding for a Cause where volunteers among attendees will collaborate to develop a Drupal website for a not-for-profit organization.

Nashville Drupalers is planning their one-day Drupal Camp on March xx.

The roving big daddy of Drupal events, DrupalCon, is in San Francisco this year, April 19 – 21. We’re sending a team to participate. Both Doug Vann and Brandon Morrison have submitted proposals to do presentations. Additionally we’re an event sponsor so we’ll have an exhibit and, yeah, probably stickers!

Duo will be running its 4^th annual Web Content Conference June 7 & 8. This year’s new twist includes a pre-conference ½ day Drupal symposium. The focus of this event is not-for-profit and government organizations as well as small businesses.

The Southeast Linux Fest (SELF) takes place June 19 & 20. To the organizer’s credit (Duo is not the event organizer) the event is fully sponsored and being held for FREE.  Duo Consulting was invited to produce a Drupal Camp in concert with SELF.  We are beginning to fill the presenter roster.

CMSExpo returns to Evanston, IL May 3 – 5 and will have its Drupal track.

There’s a certain breathless aura to all the events being planned. This is fueled in part by the much anticipated release of Drupal version 7.x.  The excitement is well-placed as it reflects improved functionality that is being incorporated into progressive websites. We’re looking forward to being a part of it and we hope you are, too.

Is this Conference Legit?

My first concern was the integrity of the conference organizer.  Company produced conferences might often be viewed by internal staff as shooting fish in a barrel. With all those live one’s in a room it’s hard to resist the temptation to reel in as many as possible. While Avvo CEO Mark Britton opened and closed the conference, he served as effective conference bookends and actually had something of value to say. Although sales staff silently trolled, they mostly stayed busy helping to manage event logistics.

About the Attending Lawyers

The event was attended by  about 200 lawyers including some bar association types and a very small smattering of legal marketing consultants. Lawyers were mostly small boutique firms liberally represented by plaintiff and consumer law. Although Perkins and Coie was an event sponsor, I didn’t meet any others from BigLaw.

Attending lawyers were largely media and technology savvy. Off-topic conversations included discussions of office efficiency and personal productivity. As a group they had crossed the chasm. Few were questioning the social media proposition as much as they were working to define their strategies and tactics to leverage new media. Only the professional crowd I met at EduWeb, a conference I attended for higher education educators earlier last year, showed a higher level of media and technology savvy than this group of mostly younger lawyers.

All About the Content

The best presentations and presenters connected their message directly to the attendees. Doug Mandell, discussing LinkedIn, had taken the time to evaluate every attendee’s LinkedIn profile against 14 criteria. When the performance average proved to be 8 of the 14 (57%), Mandell assigned the crowd an “F”. That got everyone’s attention. Tim Stanley of Justia riveted the crowd, ending the first day by going 50% over his allotted time (with permission) and then still apologizing for talking so fast.

The second day began with an optional 1 hour of CLE credit on the subject of Ethics in Marketing. Although not an attorney, I “audited” the session and found the information compelling. The downside of social media and the ethical issues dominate most lawyers’ thinking on this marketing strategy. Yet keynote speaker Bob Ambrogi @BobAmbrogi observed, “”As far as I know there has never been a disciplinary action against an attorney for answering questions online.”

Susan Lyon @SusanLyon from Perkins and Coie presented the perspective of a large firm practicing attorney who also maintains a broad public persona on Facebook and Twitter in addition to the more business-oriented LinkedIn. Susan confronted common concerns by lawyers about establishing the right balance between privacy and social networking.

Random Acts of Meanness

The event was not without some mild excitement. Midway through the first day, event organizers were confronted with some non-attending jackass Twitter flame throwers. Although there may have been a message in their sarcastic comments, it was obscured by their rude and disruptive behavior. Conference organizers didn’t blink at this menace and the dialogue flowed around the scofflaws and at a higher level.

Always Finish with Beer

We closed the conference properly with  Beer for Bloggers at Kell’s Irish Pub with local resident and legal blogging maven Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog picking up the tab. Thanks, Kev.  All told it was a bold an successful move by Avvo. And we had some great beer, too.

P.S.

Yes,  I went bird watching on the Kitsap Peninsula after the conference with a friend who works at Amazon. We found 43 bird species and I added 8 life birds to my list.

Like many well-organized conferences our broadband-enabled conference room included an active Twitter community of attendees. Non-attendees were also chiming in at #avvo. As a best practice, the Twitter stream was also displayed in a Twitterfall on the podium. That is, the Twitter-enabled backchannel of commentary and opinion was brought forward to complement each presentation. I find this kind of total immersion Presenter – Twitter environment works well to stimulate my active engagement with others based on the presenter’s material. Except this time I experienced a new twist.

In the midst of the topic-relevant Tweets, non-attendee @ScottGreenfield scolds, “This #avvo used car salesman conference is deeply disturbing.” @btannenbaum @btannebaum added, “Remember something you avvocating maniacs, if you’re not a good lawyer, people will find out, despite your blogs and online garbage #avvo.” @ScottGreenfield continues, “We’re twitting about the #avvo conf in Seattle. We are living it via twitter. It’s very ugly.”

Ironically, the essence of what these two harassers were saying was not incorrect. In fact, they had some great points about abuse of social media, thoughtless blogging and even the alleged “social media gurus” (SMG) who industrialize the process of building real human networks.  However, as one who was present, what was clear was there was a mis-match between their sterotype of the interests of the attendees and the reality of what people were focused on learning and being taught. The flamers were flinging mud but they had the wrong target.

In the end, the rogue Tweeters were not effective but simply annoying, prompting @kaitlinjanusz to respond, “no one wants to hire attorneys who are malicious to other attorneys via social media. The avvocating conference is wonderful.” I, too, elected to offer my two cents, observing with some tongue in cheek, “Most diminished brand of the day: @ScottGreenfield. Forget it. I’m not referring any of my criminal friends for you to defend. #avvo.”  After a few more insults directed at the conference organizers, the attendees and me, the squabblers went away – hopefully to do some legal business and not editorialize by remote.

Without being too doting, I credit the Avvo conference organizers to unflinchingly maintain their commitment to the public Twitter feed and stoically ignore the Twitter flames. Reality is an adventure and Avvo seemed to be up for the experience in this, their first social media conference. Howsoever it was structured, an engaging conversation emerged among attendees as well as several not present. In the end, the conference was a richer experience for everyone. And the flamers were simply noted for being jackass.

WHEN: Sunday June 13th
WHERE: Spartanburg Marriott at the Renaissance
Spartanburg SC
TRAVEL: The hotel is 10 min away from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) which serves most air lines.
REGISTRATION: Registration is now open here

We could have as many as three tracks during this one day event. The response I get from potential presenters and attendees will aid in determining how many tracks we will have.

This is a group effort. Chime in and be a part of the 1st DrupalCamp in SC! You can monitor our activity and participate in the conversation here http://groups.drupal.org/drupalcamp-sc.

You can also visit http://dougvann.com/contact-doug-vann and leave me a message

First, the conference focus is the nexus of two of my professional interests, online marketing and the legal industry. Looking forward to a snapshot view of where online marketing is specifically impacting a specific targeted vertical market.  And since the legal industry is, generally, so incredibly retarded in the uptake of these strategic online marketing opportunities, I already feel a certain amount of dynamic tension revolving about this conference. Will it be fear and loathing? Resignation? Or general embracement of new strategies? It will be interesting to see where the attendees line up on this stuff.

Second, the presenters represent a cross section of what is happening in both legal marketing and online marketing. Bob Ambrogi and Tim Stanley founder of Justia have deep roots and genuine street cred in the legal industry. In media, social and otherwise, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Microsoft and Twitter will all have representatives pressing their case. And event sponsors Steve Willey of Savitt Bruce & Willey and Susan Lyon from Perkins Coie will probably introduce more legal vertical reality into the conversation. There’s more, but you get the idea. Reps from the major players in the online marketing drama will be putting the best face on online business development opportunities for lawyers. Will the conference attendees be sympathetic? Will they get it? Or will it be the more commonly heard fears of downside risk prevail? I’m eager to find out.

And third, I’m looking forward to some winter birding in the Seattle area. I guess it’s pretty rainy now. But, in the approximate words of Thoreau, “if you want to observe wildlife, go in wild weather.” Following the conference I’ll probably remove myself to the Kitsap Peninsula for the following weekend to digest the event’s proceedings and pick up a few life birds.

This trip should be revealing on all fronts.

Duo Consulting's Doug Vann presentation at the Do it with Drupal Conference in New Orleans

This last week was a whirlwind of Drupal craziness. It started at the 2nd annual Do it With Drupal seminar in New Orleans. The Lullabots pulled off another high quality, highly educational, highly fun event! Duo’s CEO, Michael Silverman was there to enjoy it with me! Many of the top Drupal module authors and maintainers and Drupal Core contributors where there to deliver Drupal training straight from the source. I was extremely honored to be invited to deliver a Drupal Introductory session. It was well attended and I took them over the major hurdles of wrapping their minds around Drupal. Each session was assigned a moderator and I was fortunate to have Angie “Webchick” Byron as my moderator. I invited her to actively join me and together we worked the room. It was a blast! Oh yeah, I found out that I LOVE a local New Orleans dish of Shrimp and Grits!

From New Orleans I flew back to Chicago for the 2nd Drupal Camp Chicago. At last year’s camp I presented 4 sessions and 2 Birds of a Feather, or BoFs. This year saw a much larger variety of presenters so I only presented on an Introduction to Content Construction Kit (CCK) & Views. We had a sold-out crowd of 350+ people at the Hotel Orrington in Evanston IL. Emma Jane Hogbin, Earl Miles & his family and I made the trip from New Orleans to Chicago so that we could present at both events. Duo Consulting was one of four sponsors of the Camp. We attracted a lot of attention at our exhibit. We were looking for new hires and many attendees were looking for new jobs. That worked out quite well.

350 Drupal enthusiasts sold out this weekend's Drupal Camp Chicago

Here’s the bottom line. The Drupal community is growing at a phenomenal rate. At any given moment there is a large quantity of people desiring Drupal training; wanting to know what it is and how to use it. At the same time there is another large set of people who know the basics but they want to transform that knowledge into marketable skill sets. In my experience many of the Drupal events, from the DrupalCons to the Drupal Camps to Do it With Drupal, are all taking a much more dedicated approach to reaching out to the uninitiated and the intermediate base. For as much as I love teaching on the Drupal API and hook_nodeapi or db_query etc, I just find it intensely rewarding to see the “AHA!” in the faces of attendees who show up hoping that some one can make sense of all this crazy, complicated Drupal stuff.

In 2009 Duo Consulting has really plugged into the Drupal community. Involvements include becoming partners with Acquia,  sponsoring Drupal Camp Chicago, sending me to speak at the Ohio Linux Fest and Drupal Camps in LA, Chicago, and Atlanta. We also provided a half day Duo Drupal Training session that was open to the community. We’re doing it again on Tuesday, January 12! And, of course, don’t miss the Chicago Drupal Meet Up Group also on January 12. We know that Drupal is growing and we’re committed to helping it along as we grow with it.

In November, we all got to see just a little bit more. The White House New Media team spoke briefly at the DC Drupal Meet-Up, and their comments were captured on video. Kent Bye has written a blow-by-blow blog about it on the Lullabot site (including an embedded version of the video itself), which is pretty comprehensive in capturing the meat of the meet.

(As a service to others, I’ll add my own highlights from the video. At about the 4 minute mark, the designer steps in and basically re-hashes the tug-of-war between designers and developers in the CMS / open source world. I found it refreshing to see that the same difficulties get encountered at all levels. At about the 10 minute mark, the floor is opened to a few questions, and the team speaks extemporaneously about various interesting topics. The middle bits are fine as far as they go, but not that interesting.)

There were a few things that I found intriguing about this little peek into what happens behind the scenes. In the first place, the team says that most of the functionality for the site is out-of-the-box (although it’s acknowledged that of course there is no box for Drupal). I would have expected that they would have needed more customized work done, but apparently not — or at least, not for this first pass. The site isn’t a simple configuration, however — multiple instances behind a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

Secondly, the team claims that their biggest time sink on the project was simply dealing with cultural and government issues. They apparently had lots of meetings about the implications of using open source technologies, how to use them, etc. Again, I find this a bit comforting, since many of our clients and prospects have had similar concerns about the possibility of using Drupal. The use of technology, and particularly open source technology, cannot be separated from the cultural environment in which it’s used — it’s very much an active dialogue. That said, it’s clearly a conversation that more and more people (White House included) think is worth consciously having.

The problem however, is not the marketing. People want to be engaged with the products they use, feel satisfied that they are accomplishing what they set out to do, and get the most out of the time spent. Reminding customers of your value proposition is an important job for marketing, and reinforces the visitor’s confidence in your brand’s ability to deliver on its promise. In the right context, people want to be exposed to related product suggestions, appealing photos, and rich interactions. It’s when designers and marketers become too clever, or emphasize the brand without regard for audience context, that usability is compromised. The result is long flash intros, splash pages, internally-focused marketing jargon, and mystery-meat navigation.

The opposite approach is not any better. Focusing solely on usability can result in sites that lack enticement and emotional appeal. The elimination of style and personality can be a detriment to your perceived value as much as having a site that is difficult to use. This is why beautiful things work better.

An optimal user experience exists at the intersection of three factors:

Listed in this diagram are the positive and negative aspects of each concept. Focusing solely on any one has the potential for confusion, apathy, or frustration among your visitors. The ideal experience is one that embodies a balance of all three factors.

The self-acknowledged un-cool General Motor’s Buick division challenged the crowd to help build a marketing program to bring the average age of their buyers down by about 20 years. No longer selling Electras and LeSabres, Buick’s  newest models were arguably cool enough for their target 35 – 55 market and they were looking for new ways to get the word out. Southwest Airlines, already in possession of the cool factor, desired to share their “bags fly free” differentiation with less frequent travelers. And for truly “cool” in the literal sense, the Chicago Special Olympics sought to grow participation in its Lake Michigan Polar Plunge annual winter fund raiser, now celebrating its 10^th year and having grown to over 1200 chilly plungers.

Teams had 90 minutes to consider the objectives, develop a plan and assemble a presentation. I joined one of the three Polar Plunge teams. Ten of us, having never met and with no appreciation for each other’s skills or background sat in a circle and stared at each other, perfunctory name introductions already forgotten. Go.

Amidst the cacophony of nine teams hammering out their solutions, our group’s leader, Daniel Honigman, filtered the input. Simple, he dictated and we responded by eliminating multiple affinity groups and market segments and focused on one. With that focus, ideas flowed and Daniel contemporaneously captured, structured and edited our draft into a rough PowerPoint. Stop.

Nine 5-minute presentations later we’d heard songs, monologues, skits, taglines and positioning statements. The business case sponsors voted and winners were announced. But actually, we all won as each of us refined and sharpened the skills we need in our day jobs including working quickly, effectively prioritizing, collaborating synergistically and presenting convincingly. It was a hard day’s night, but I had a ball.