Seventeen NodeOne Drupalistas were frustrated, low-spirited and honestly pissed at that Icelandic volcano. A volcano which, to make matters even worse goes by the unpronounceable name Eyjafjallajökull, seemed to choose to erupt at such a bad time. The timing was just too perfect. We could only speculate that Eyjafjallajökull didn’t want us to get to San Francisco and the sixth DrupalCon conference.

A lot of work, thinking and planning had gone into our attendance and sponsoring of the conference. Rustan, exploring and developing an idea Ken Rickard came up with at the second DrupalCamp in Stockholm, had together with Matts designed and created a card game to be distributed as a giveaway. As part of it, Matts, Dick, Johan, Bahador and Rustan worked late to record a promotional video featuring four Drupal celebrities playing the card game. Kitten Killers t-shirts were printed and shirts with the card game logo were made as well. Drupal the Card Game trophy and signs were designed and manufactured. We weren’t sure how we were to get it all there but we hoped 17 suitcases would be enough if we all brought a piece each.

Ironically the printing and the shipping of the game went according to plan despite many indications to the opposite. A company in India printed and had the decks of cards shipped to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. A customs union strike nearly threw a spanner in the works, but just barely. Thanks to the efforts of Jen Lampton (Chapter Three), Neil Kent (Groundswell Marketing), Diana Connolly (Groundswell Marketing) and Cathe Dawson (GES) the decks made it to the venue.

So there we were, stuck in Sweden and over 2,000 decks, of what we hoped would be the coolest Drupal giveaway ever, almost half a world away. The cards needed to get out there, in the hands of Drupal fans attending the conference, to be played. We’d envisioned all 17 of us wearing the blue card game t-shirts we’d made while handing out decks. It was an idea we’d have to shelve for a later event. A Plan B had to be devised in short order.

In a recent interview with website CMS Critic, Drupal-founder Dries Buytaert was asked “What do you feel are the core strengths of Drupal and why?”. His answer: ” The core strength of Drupal is definitely the open source community that is behind the project…”. Dries has consistently argued that it is people that make Drupal what it is. While others would have answered “a CMS”, “open source”, “the hook system”, “thousands of modules” – neither answer can reasonably explain its exponential growth and success.

Over the course of the years we’ve been working with Drupal we’d have the privilege to meet a lot of wonderful people. From the first DrupalCon attended in Barcelona in September 2007 to the second DrupalCamp in Stockholm last year, the lasting impression has been of the shared experience. Participation in Drupal in various ways and different projects, has quite literally shown what a force people can be. And not just a force that paves the way for open source in the world of web content management, but a formidable group of people. A loosely held together group of enthusiastic, open and generous individuals.

When we planned the DrupalCamp conferences in Stockholm we wanted the attendees to see that Drupal isn’t just cutting edge technology, it’s about people. Addison Berry’s contribution to those conferences, and the social gatherings that happened in conjunction with the camps, brought that to many. People later commented on how they’d changed their view of Drupal and open source after having been part of that, if only for a few hours. It is an attractive quality of Drupal and one they hadn’t expected.

But gathering people isn’t all that’s been done, more importantly, we’ve made friends. Thanks to those friends we now stood a chance to get those decks out there. Volcanoes, oceans and blocked airspaces couldn’t stop the sheer force of people. Soon the decks made it to the showroom floor, and out among the conference attendees. I’ve heard that the cards were gone by the end of day one! That’s seriously effective distribution and it’s all thanks to:

• MortenDK – seriously man, what would Drupal be without you?
• Rob Douglass – the multi-faceted man known to some as Mr. Solr Search is someone you can truly count on, danke schön!
• Four Kitchens – thank you Todd, David, Aaron and everyone else who lent a hand
• Lullabot – Addison, and every other bot, you rock!
• Palantir.net – Greg, George, Ken and everyone else who helped us - thank you!
• Chapter 3 – Josh and Jen have done more than we could ever have asked for, you along with everyone at Chapter Three, are awesome!