DrupalCampWI A Success!
DrupalCampWisconsin was a smashing success. Held in the Milwaukee School of Engineering multipurpose room, DrupalCampWI was an all-day event on January 19th, 2008. The event was an unconference centered around the popular, open-source content management system Drupal.
Being sick all week, I wasn't sure how the event would go from my perspective, but I got on antibiotics at just the right time. I was feeling better and better as the event went on, albeit quite tired.
Anyway, my point in this post isn't to tell you everything that went on at the event, because Pete has that covered in a great write-up. My aim is to tout the continued emergence of the web technology community in Milwaukee.
A couple of years ago the notion of a BarCamp, a weekend conference where the attendees would present and share their passion for technology, seemed like a pie in the sky concept that would never happen in Milwaukee. Then came the incredibly dedicated work of a few people, and the building of a critical mass of individuals and BarCampMilwaukee actually happened.
That snow balled into increased attendance at a monthly meetup group and Web414 was born. A monthly gathering of those "who build the web", it kept getting bigger and bigger especially as BarCampMilwaukee2 got closer and closer. After an extremely successful BarCampMilwaukee2, plans were made for DrupalCampWI. DrupalCampWI came to pass, and as the title of this post exclaims, it also was very successful.
Sure the events have had their hitches, but it's getting easier and easier to throw bigger and bigger events.
While this community hasn't created any super successful technology startups yet, it's headed there. The amount of knowledge exchanged and creativity channeled by the community is astounding.
There still is a number of untapped groups and individuals in Milwaukee, who have yet to be exposed to an unconference or Web414 meeting. It's simply a matter of time before they're drawn in.
We pull-in a few new individuals at every event we as members of the community throw.
If you had told me there would be a technology scene like this in Milwaukee when I moved here three years ago, I would have laughed. But through the determination of a handful of individuals and the participation of a large number of people it's emerged. The future is written by those who show up and put in a small amount of work. This theory has been proven true in Milwaukee.
posted by Jeramey @ 1/22/2008 12:45:00 PM
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