DrupalCon Portland was action-packed and exhausting for me. I contributed to fifteen architectural discussions with core developers, presented at three core conversations and participated in four others, and helped organize the biggest sprint in DrupalCon history (with something over 600 attendees, as well as fifty or so mentors in our bright green shirts). The part I'm most proud of, though, is our session early in the week on how to run a sprint. I think it's the most scalable thing I've done.

Running coaches wanted! Contribution sprints and trainings

Our repo, who art in origin.
hallowed be thy name.
thy reflog come, thy branching be done
in local as it is in origin.
Give us this day our daily rebase
and forgive us our merge conflicts
even as we forgive those who conflict against us.
Lead us not into merge bubbles
but deliver us from mis-staged files,
forever and ever, amen.

Come for the code, stay for the community

Two years ago, I hesitated at the door of a meeting room at DrupalCon Chicago: Drupal 7 Module Upgrade Sprint. I had a module that needed upgrading, but only a vague idea what a sprint even was.

I sat down near two people who introduced themselves as Peter and David. They asked me what I was working on and helped me feel less out of place. We talked about Drupal 7 and their jobs at Acquia, and through their acquaintance I got to have lunch with Drupal 6 maintainer Gábor Hojtsy as well.

The encouragement I received at that sprint changed my life.