I really wanted my dear friends with me when it was awarded, without it necessarily being pre-announced, and there was one dear friend who has always supported me in the Drupal community who had to leave early so I just had to tell her in advance. The ceremony was fun but, damn, I struggled to keep a dry eye!Of course, after the Edinburgh announcement and the Women in Drupal ceremony, everything else became a little bit of a blur. There were many hugs and many, many great conversations but one thing did stick in my mind; Dries’ callout around advocacy of Drupal.
Then there was the other secret. The one that came in an email completely out of the blue. I learned that I would be one of the three “Women of Drupal” for 2006, alongside the fabulous Antonella Severo and Nikita Aswani. Honestly, I know anything like this is always an honour but this really knocked me for six, I was completely taken aback by it. At a time when my country questions my very existence, it becomes even more of a big deal to be recognised by such an award. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those that nominated me – it means the world.Of course, when I told Justine, I kind of knew she would just sit there and fizz until she told other friends, so I got the word out where it needed to be 😉
Knowing now that Justine would ensure my friends and colleagues would be there, I also managed to ensure that two other friends I’ve had the joy of knowing virtually my whole time in this project, Karen and Tom, would come as a group into the ceremony. I even managed to get the wonderful Hilmar to come in, too. “Oh look, there’s spaces near the front, why don’t we sit there?” So, last week was quite a big week, really. Both for me personally, more of that in a moment, and for the Drupal project as a whole, I think. But I should jump back a little, to before DrupalCon Rotterdam even began, before we took the Eurostar under the English Channel…But, finally, going back to DrupalCon for a moment, it really does bring love in every drop. Much of that comes from the love that is put into it by the team at Kuoni. They really do get it and I hope we get to bring love to more people in years to come.I had received two little secrets that meant a huge amount to me. The first of those was that we would be holding the next DrupalCon Europe in Edinburgh and I would have the honour of being part of the group to introduce this news. We worked on scripts, sourced Scottish treats to bring along, and generally had a great time bringing joy to all.
These days, I find myself helping to coordinate the key activity that brings new people into active participation in the project: Core Contribution Mentoring. Honestly, Thursday was one of the best we’ve had with a great ratio of capable mentors helping first time contributors to drive issues forward. We made a difference. Dries is absolutely right, the Drupal Drupal people know is quite different to what the rest of the world thinks it knows, prompted by old history. We have a really, really great product that has come together precisely because of the love every drop – every one of us – has put into it. We need to be proud of that and shout it from the rooftops. A FOSDEM rooftop will make a good start…DrupalCon Europe has always held a very special place in my heart as it has been that place where I get to meet, at least once a year, so many people who are very important to me. From my very first large tech conference, DrupalCon London, held in Croydon only a couple of weeks after the riots there in 2011, through to its most recent iteration, DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026, I’ve been along for the ride as an active participant.
I first began to volunteer at DrupalCon London, which mainly seemed to be directing people towards the right room for talks and counting how many people were in each room.
