DrupalCon Los Angeles - Day 1: Dawn of the Drupalistas

Yesterday, just shortly after the sun sprung up and sparked southern California’s beautiful coastal lines, the doors of LA’s Convention Center opened. Welcoming with it, a first wave of eager Drupalistas and surrounding them by its air conditioned walls. And for the subsequent days that are surely to follow, it will continue to receive and house those, transforming it, to the home of DrupalCon 2015.

To some of us, this day began just like two previous iterations in the past, with the Drupal 8 Training for Drupalistas. And like the preceding ones before, the turn out was again, lovely. A fresh batch of new ambitious students took their seats and embarked on a cinematic journey, led by our resident training director, Diana Montalion.

From lively exchanges of know-how, to focused, almost silent moments, the classroom experienced a day of captivating performances. And in-between those, pupils were given hourly breaks to take a breath and pick from a variety of delicious beverages (there were cookies!) and the oh so essential, mandatory coffee.

After a wholesome feast around noon-ish, the reins were passed on to Jason, who expertly guided the keen students through the inner workings of Drupal 8’s translation system. Shortly thereafter, Kathryn took over to introduce them to the beautiful side of Drupal 8 (theming!) before finally ending again within Diana’s experienced hands.

Meanwhile, the lower floor saw a much more handy development: the exhibition hall of large, empty at first, but slowly building up to a small but respectable miniature city of brands. Replacing muffled sounds of classroom keyboards with the repeating cracks of rising booths, only to be broken apart by the occasional clash of shouty staff members.

Thus the day drew to an end, and our students were being led on their way, charged with knowledge and filled with cookies. The building emptied its walls again to prepare for tomorrow, when at dawn, the drupalistas will rise again.