In a couple hours I will be attending the 2nd Indiana Drupal Hackfest. MAP IT HERE [yep its another blog post about Drupal again...] :-)
A few months ago one of our Indy Drupal Users Group members, Seth Dudenhofer, proposed a meeting where we get together and work on each others projects; a meeting where we hang out, update our sites, teach one another what we know. Thus was the birth of the Indy Drupal HackFest. [Not a place to HACK Drupal Core -- We NEVER do that! :-) ]
So far 16 people have signed up to attend. Why are they coming? What are they expecting? I have no idea. The Hackfest is an open house where you just show up and ask your Drupal questions and hopefully, get the answers you need.
I have a pretty good idea what is going to happen. A couple people will spin off to talk about CCK and VIEWS. Some will group up to discuss Drupal Theming. And I have strong suspicion that CVS, SVN, and server administration will get in there some how.
I'm really excited about the Indy Drupal Users Group. We're in our 13month since I started it and it been a HUGE benefit to the local web development community. Some people have gone from no Drupal knowledge to building very nice sites. Some have taken their basic knowledge and grown it tremendously. Either way you go... It's been a group that has forged profitable alliances in web development. It has served as a place where people find their next job. It has been a place where we know knowledge is earning power and we share the knowledge like crazy.
In closing I need to thank the organizations who have made 13 months of Indy Drupal Meetups possible:
http://www.ProBlogService.com for the HackFest meetup Location and the pizza!
http://www.promethiusconsulting.com for our bi-weekly Meetup location.
http://www.brauerranch.com for Sponsoring our aggressive Drupal Book Giveaway.
http://www.Oreilly.com for giving generous discounts to us because we're a geeky meetup group!
http://www.indybang.org for giving us an excellent booth space at the Nov 22nd Indybang event were Aaron Dudenhofer and I set up a Drupal Booth and made some excellent contacts.