Submitted by dougvann on Sat, 2014-08-23 14:09
I am sitting here at DrupalCamp Asheville2014. I took a break and hung out in the BoF room and decided to compose this list of ideas on how Drupal Event attendees can engage the event.
I'd love to hear your comments below!
- Know The Session
- What is this session about? Is it a show-n-tell of a module? Is it a case study of a website? If you are consciously aware of what to expect, then you are prepared to take what you hear and frame it within the context of the session topic. This is important for the attendee because not every element of the presentation will relate directly to the session topic. If the speaker needs to lay down some groundwork for a few minutes, it is important for you to remember what the overall topic is so that you don’t get lost in the weeds.
- Know The Session Speaker
- Check out their Drupal.org Profile or their profile on the Event website. Get a sense of their background and perspective. This is also helpful if you ask questions at their session. You can ask questions that you know relate to elements of their background.
- Ask Questions At The Sessions
- The number of questions at any given session will vary. But when there are none it can be a tad awkward. Then after the session, you might still see ppl walk up and ask questions.
- I encourage you to fill in that silence with some immediate questions that come to mind. The speakers really really appreciate the questions.
- Engage Social Media
- Tweet about the event. Maybe tweet about each session you attend and provide a link to the session description and invoke the speaker’s twitter name as well.
- Take pictures and post them wherever you post your pics.
- Use the Hashtag if the event has one.
- Do you blog? Blog about the event and what you liked.
- The event organizers and spekers REALLY appreciate the media exposure.
- Don’t forget that many Drupal events publish their videos online so you can catch the ones you missed or revisit the one you liked.
- Hang Out
- Don’t feel like you have to attend a session in every timeslot. Feel free to hang out near the coffee tables or registration tables or in Birds of a Feather rooms. Wherever you see people hanging out, join them!
- Join A Stranger For Lunch
- In general, the Drupal Community is a VERY social bunch. When it’s time to sit down and eat, it is also a good time to make some new friends. To the extent that you are comfortable with it, you can learn a lot by asking ppl how the event is going and what they do with Drupal.
- Get Swag
- Walk around the sponsor’s booths and look for swag. These sponsors often DO NOT want to take that stuff back to the office. Sometimes you find some pretty useful things like shirts, pens, thumb drives, fold-up cloth flying disks, hackysacks, yo-yos, puzzles, keychains, etc.
- Talk To The Sponsors
- I’ve never seen a sponsor bite or hard-sell a passerby at their booth! :-)
- You may be amazed at what you will learn by reading the signs, looking at any literature on their table, and actually talking to the representative.
- Fill Out Any Feedback Forms
- Not ever event has feedback forms, but more and more are using them.
- Forms may be available per-class, and for the event in general.
- The organizers REALLY appreciate ALL comments.
- As you might expect, the negative ones get more attention, so don’t hold back about the audio/video comments, or the need for more beginner topics, or how difficult it was to get to the venue from the airport, etc.
- They really want to hear this!
- THANK The Organizers!
- If you know their faces, be sure to thank them personally for their hard work organizing the speakers, the facilities, the meals, the WiFi, etc.
- Be sure to tweet and post about it as well when you leave.