10 Great reasons why you should attend your local Drupal meet-up

Drupal Groups: Where Drupal community members organise, plan and work on projects.

At groups.drupal.org you can find groups based on geography, or join online groups allocated to planning upcoming events, and working groups designated to a particular aspect of drupal and drupal distributions.

Drupal.org has over 850 groups currently.

While online technologies facilitate communication and collaboration regardless of physical location, I have found that the best way to really get to grips with Drupal is to attend the local “real world” user group meet-ups.

Many cities have user groups that will meet up on a regular basis and talk drupal. These meet-ups can be casual get togethers or more organised speaker-led formats. There are currently over 400 user groups on drupal.org

What's happening in Ireland

Ireland has a monthly meet-up in Dublin city. It is attended by many of the best and also the up-and-coming Drupal developers in Dublin and organised by Annertech's Lisa Corcoran. There are occasional meet-ups in Galway (organised by Annertech's Alan Burke and Mark Conroy), Cork and Belfast.

On top of that, the Drupal Ireland community organises weekend events in the form of DrupalCamps and Drupal Open Days, which happen a few times a year, in different parts of the country.

These typically involve a day of scheduled talks, on topics ranging from adopting Drupal in 3rd level and government institutions, to more technical themes like dev ops, automated testing, UX, and agile workflows.

Workshops, open spaces or BOFs are often scheduled for the second day, where attendees are encouraged to get together to discuss Drupal topics of mutual interest.

The chance to sit down with a bunch of knowledgeable people and share Drupal experiences should not be passed up. And, in my personal experience, is irreplaceable.

Here's just 10 Great Reasons to attend your local Drupal user group

1. Insight into the local/national economy
   For businesses or individuals working with Drupal, meeting the local Drupal community is a good way to get an idea of the local Drupal workforce. You can also discover news about the Drupal project that could affect your business decisions going forward. If you are looking for a Drupal developer in Dublin, you'll have a pick of them at the Drupal Dublin meet-up.
2. Networking and promotional opportunities
   Being active in the Drupal community is a good way to meet others, and sponsoring local Drupal events is a great way to foster the local community, as well as align your brand and expertise with the global Drupal project.
3. Employment opportunities
   Companies looking to hire Drupal experts are always impressed when they see potential candidates giving back to the community and investing in their own education. If you’re on the hunt for a job in Drupal, participating in your local meet-ups is a great foot-in-the-door.
4. Collaboration opportunities
   Being surrounded by people with similar interests can lead to interesting collaborations, whether it’s help on a specific project, or developing long-term, working relationships with other enthusiasts.
5. Get specific about your problems
   You can bet that the people who attend the local meet-ups are there to collaborate and help. There’s no need to skip over the details. Bring your code examples, pages of notes, or head full of questions. Provided you’ve put in the initial effort, the mutual goal is to solve people’s Drupal problems and/or provide direction. At the Drupal Dublin meet-up, we have solved some very complex issues on many occasions - it often just takes that pair of fresh eyes.
6. Hands-on, show and tell learning
   Sitting quietly and listening to others demo their projects or outline their issues can lead to major "a-ha" moments down the line. Witnessing someone explain their approach or techniques is very valuable, even if some (or most) of it goes over your head initially. Basically, don't be afraid to show your work - it'll certainly be at least as good at the end of the evening as it was at the beginning, if not better.
7. Ready-made audience
   Presenting something you’ve worked on and/or struggled with is a good way to make sense of it yourself, and having an audience to provide feedback and reinforcement is enlightening. Learning by teaching is a great way to acquire deep knowledge.
8. Peer encouragement and inspiration
   The likelihood is that most people at the meet-ups have been where you are at one time or another. If something is driving you up the wall, you’ll find sympathy, workarounds, and solutions. You’ll also be amazed at what other people are doing with Drupal and no doubt leave the meet-ups inspired to keep at it and try something new.
9. Encourages new people to get involved
   The casual nature of the meet-ups are a good way to get new people on board and spread the word about upcoming DrupalCamps. Drupal Ireland uses Drupal groups, facebook and meetup.com to announce local user group meet-ups and DrupalCamps.
10. Module recommendations
    Find out what has been tried and tested, and adopted or ditched. If you have a specification that you aren’t quite sure how to fulfill, others can offer suggestions as to which modules to use and which modules to avoid. They might even show you a demonstration.

Despite the multitude of tools we use to communicate and collaborate without being in the same physical location, I’ve found that hashing out the niggly details with others in person has enabled me to get the most out of Drupal, and contribute back to the community by helping others.

Join us for the Dublin Drupal user group meet-up on the last Wednesday of each month.