Leon Rainbow and I will be attending DrupalCamp NJ this Saturday at Princeton University.  I think this is the fourth iteration of the event, and I know we’ve attended at least the last three camps.  For me, it is a good chance to get out and see new perspectives on using Drupal and get an idea of where the software is going.

A key theme is the pending release of Drupal 8 (there is a code sprint happening concurrently).  Thus, there are sessions that address changes to theming and how to go about migration to the new version which is expected to be released sometime this year.  Other sessions cover basic best practices and using specific modules.  There are also several sessions about setting up development environments and managing development workflows, which sound interesting (but maybe a little too complicated for me to digest 50 minutes).

Here are the sessions I plan to attend:

Drupal for Project Managers: What you need to know to be awesome (and beat the curve) presented by Ray Saltini of Blink Reaction, based in Manalapan, NJ.  I can use all the project management instruction I can get!  I am also very interested to hear how you can align your development process and planning in a way that best matches the realities of building sites in Drupal.

Drupal + CRM: Why, What, and How presented by Aaron Bauman Aaron and Marcus Iannozzi of Message Agency, based in Philadelphia.  Being frustrated by most CRM implementations, I look forward to hearing how they are integrating CRM systems into Drupal.

Rules: Duct Tape for Drupal by Ryan Price of Blink Reaction.  I’ve used the Rules module for some specific cases in a smattering of sites and more substantially with the Commerce module. I’m looking for some new ideas on how we might use Rules.  I suspect there are applications for the module that I haven’t event thought of.

SEO Awesomeness for Drupal Sites by Dave Sawyer of Blink Reaction.  I’m excited about what looks like both a good overview of SEO/Social as well as specific Drupal configuration and contributed modules to help with better site visibility and reporting.

Build the Internet of Things today with Drupal REST web services! by Matt Korostoff of Blink Reaction.  I work with REST web services with other projects, so I am interested in how to go about setting these up with Drupal.  I enjoyed a presentation by Matt on his first install of Drupal 8 at the Princeton Meetup late last year.  He has video’s of prior presentations on his personal Drupal blog.

So, it would seem from my selections that Blink Reaction has taken over DrupalCampNJ!  Well, I guess the stuff I am most interested in anyway.  I should mention that I will be volunteering with breakfast setup and the registration table, so I look forward to the chance to say hello to friends, both new and old.