Who is Doug Vann

INTERRUPTION

In 1987 I joined the StageCrew at my high school's theatre, the Warren Performing Arts Center -- a $6 Million theatre that was only 4 yrs old at the time. I operated the lighting console, soundboard, and various a/v equipment and loved  every minute of it! It fed my inner-nerd just fine. In 1988 I was chosen to stage-manage the high school childrens production of Wind in the Willows It was a success and only increased my desire to keep doing it. Months later I was picked to manage our high school musical production of WestSide Story. That was the absolute biggest thrill of my entire highscool experience! I enjoyed all apsects of theatre; Opera, Ballet, touring musicals, kids productions, recitals, choirs, orchestras, ALL of it! I thought it would make an excellenyt career. 

ENTER THE UNION

IN 1997 I joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Motion Picture Operators and Allied Crafts, Local #30. {IATSE} Now I'm a journeyman member. While I'm a nerdy-techy type, it actually takes many hours of lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying, assembly, etc. to get the set, costumes, lighting etc out of the truck and assebled on stage. While I don't imagine I would enjoy building houses or offices, I rather enjoyed being a part of puttig it all together. Once the show is built by dozens, or often hundreds, of people, it's time for a select few to to remain on the crew to operate spotlights or other staging equipment that makes the show a success. The rest of the crew repeats this process at another local venue for a sporting event or play or what ever else is going on in town.
Post 9/11, work slowed down as some Muscial tours reduced their runtime from over a month per venue to 2 or 3 weeks while some decided to skip smaller towns altogether. Everything from conventions to concerts to conferences was efected. Things got way better over the years then the 2008 recession hit hard as well.
The whole thing had me looking elsewhere which lead me back to software and eventually Drupal!

ENTER "DRUPAL!"

In 2007 I was working for the largest tanning bed manufacturer in the world. I answered tech support calls from private owners, salon owners, and servicers from across the nation. I complained about our intranet and website and was granted permission to buildout some fun and usefull projects in PHP and MySQL.
When the company got purchased many were shown the door. I recieved my happy news 2yrs ago from the day that this page was originally created!
I was looking for a job and I saw a puzzeling ad on CraigsList for an OpenSource Developer for a local startup created by a retired IndyCar driver. I took the job and turned an ASP project into a JOOMLA project, but when JOOMLA proved inadequate I accepted a bid from a DRUPAL development firm.
Also at this time the financier of the project was sending me to Lullabot DRUPAL training sessions in Portland Oregon, LosAngeles California, Minneapolis MN, and Toronto Canada. I quickly learned how to use DRUPAL myself. When the large project we were on ended I moved on to develop websites in Drupal full time.

Working at Duo Consulting My first real gig with a Drupal shop!

On Friday July 24th 2009 I received a call from the CEO of www.DuoConsulting.com He saw some posts a few months earlier where I was asking for work and wanted to know if I was looking for PT, FT, Contract, or what.
LONG STORY SHORT....
After speaking with him, his CTO, and driving out the next day to their 15th floor office over looking Lake Michigan... I took the job.
I was developing and training in Drupal full time and loving it!
The increasing demand for my skills allowed me to move into full time freelance Drupal work a year later.

Doug Vann the DRUPAL TRAINER

Within weeks of discovering Drupal I started the local Indiana Drupal Users Group. Somewhere along the way I became a goto guy for Drupal training. Honestly, I just love doing it. I guess it shows. My first time ever delivering a Drupal presentation in front of a group was at a Lullabot workshop in Minneapolis MN. The next month I did it again at another Lullabot workshop in Toronto Canada. Three months later I was asked to present at Chicago DrupalCamp 2008. I wound up presenting 6 sessions and LOVED it!. In 2009 I was invited to the CMS Expo. Followed by Drupal Camps in Wisconsin, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and a fun filled weekend at the Ohio Linux Fest. Later, in December, I spoke at Lullabot's Do It With Drupal event in 2009 followed by my 2nd Chicago Drupal Camp.

Doug Vann the Traveling DRUPAL TRAINER

Here are just a few notable training/consulting gigs over the years:

• 2011 I got a call from NASA at Langley Air Force Base. They wanted me to come out and deliver Drupal Training! That wound up being 3 visits in all.
• 2011 1wk Drupal training for Blue Cross Blue Shield in Rhode Island
• 2012 2 days at NY Attorney General's Office
• 2013 2wks at UC San Bernardino U.
• 2013 - 2014 2 separate 4wk onsite engagements at Penn State U.
• 2013 - 2016 Numerous engagements with Butler U.
• 2014/2015 Delivered Drupal Training workshops at the famous SxSw Interactive conferences in Austin TX.
• 2015 2 separate 2wk engagements with Temple U. in Philly.
• 2016 3weeks in India delivering Drupal training to a large India based tech firm.
• 2017 United Nations Women offices in NYC.
• Many more...

To learn more roam around my blog and see where in the world Drupal has taken me lately.
Thanks for reading!

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