Takeaways From Do It With Drupal

In December 2009 I attended Do It With Drupal in New Orleans http://www.doitwithdrupal.com . It was a mixed blessing as I was pleased to find that my Drupal skills are pretty awesome. Most of the sessions were below my current level of development (which while I was unhappy about it, I was also happy my skill level grown so fast so quickly). Some of the highlights for me included:

Ryan Szrama, what a pleasure it was to listen to him present. I was able to talk with him briefly over a brownie and meet his wilfe and new baby daughter. http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/speakers/ryan-szrama

Earl Miles... even with a cold... amazing. This man's drive and desire to see things 'as they are' and not let anything stand in his of passion to improve drupal is nothing less than inspiring. O-Yeah and I LOVE PANELS ;) http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/speakers/earl-miles

There's something about Nate. I attended a Lullabot Training in Portland last year and got to spend some time with Nate Huag and he is just fun to talk with... and I always appreciate his purposeful approach to trainings and conferences. I noticed that he intentionally sits in different spots, positions himself to talk with different people, and spread the drupal love and his excitement about drupal. Very cool. http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/speakers/nathan-haug

One of the take aways for me was Ben Finklea's session on SEO. http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/speakers/ben-finklea I spend so much time in drupal and trust so many of it's features to be SEO friendly. Some of the notes included... Clearly communicate what the site is/does to google; Optimize for 1-2 Keywords per page; Rule of upper left hand corner; description shows in results; If you can't see it, neither can google; Track Everything; Content is King; Fix standard robots.txt file; Breadcrumbs just got really important; Speed has a ranking factor; Video is the New Text

I also enjoyed talking with Eric Gundersen from Developmentseed. http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/speakers/eric-gundersen the Open Atrium progress is very cool and looks like a great tool for the future.

Additionally, I meet several very cool people that I hope to stay in touch with... thanks Do It With Drupal.