Nov 30, 2009

I'm back in the office after a wonderful week-end in Vienna. DrupalCamp Vienna and the surrounding activities were great to meet new faces, catch up with friends and build new relationships.

I also had the chance to stay at the Haus18, a student house on the outskirts of the city where I had lived during my semester in Vienna during my studies. Being in this context again made me nostalgic of the many great times I've had in Vienna, and also made me realize how much the few months I've spent there have had an influence on my life. It was there that I first got into developing for the web, creating a php-driven gallery to share pictures with friends (that was before flikr or picasa got popular). It was also my first experience living in the German-speaking world and getting to know people from all over Europe. The combination of these two aspects define much of what I do as an independent Drupal developer.

The past few months have been busy with work for clients. It was interesting work, but due to the nature of the project there wasn't much that could be contributed back to the community. However, the methodology for customizing and upgrading Drupal sites (two aspects I've been heavily involved with recently) are general enough to be useful to everyone. DrupalCamp was the perfect place to share this experience, and I was very happy with the feedback I received. The occasion to co-present with fellow Munich Drupal specialist Daniel Nolde was just the cherry on the cake.

Last night, as I was leaving the city, my head was full of the various issues we had discussed during the post-camp code sprint, but I had a warm feeling of happiness in my heart. Thank you to the camp organizers, thank you to all the people I've got to interact with and thank you Haus18 for hosting me again.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45073119@N08/4140432515/