GVS Sponsors Drupalcamps in Central America, South America - The Road to Drupalcon South America

This past spring there was Drupalcon DC, a truly amazing event by all counts. As we debated sponsoring Drupalcon we decided to go a different route: sponsoring the many camps that we hoped would happen in Central and South America this year. It was clear from the DrupalCon South America BOF held in DC that there was a lot of interest from South America to organize Camps as well.

So, given a need and a desire to help grow the community, we've made some great initial contributions towards 4 camps. If there are any other camps in the area that people are trying to plan this year please let us know so we can support your camp.

Drupalcamp Brazil, Drupalcamp Centroamerica

For the Drupalcamp Centroamerica Felix Delattre (xamanu) decided to use the money to provide scholarships to cover transportation and attendance costs for people from around Central America. We are happy that the money will help 2 people attend the camp who otherwise would not be able to: Eduardo Garcia and Isaak Ordoñez. Felix did something right: in it's first year the camp is over 100 attendees.

DrupalCamp Centroamerica in Nicaragua claims the first camp in Central America, while DrupalCamp Campinas in Brazil (g.d.o post EN main site PT) will be the first DrupalCamp in South America. The camp is largely organized by Fabiano and Jose from Chuva. Once again, in an amazing testament to the draw of Drupal or Chuva's marketing skills, the camp has 117 attendees signed up.

Between the two events, over 200 people will be spending this weekend teaching and learning about Drupal.

Drupalcamp Argentina (Buenos Aires), Drupalcamp Peru

There are also camps in the planning stages in Peru and Argentina. The Argentina group is hosting their camp June 24th in Buenos Aires and has posted a call for sessions (charlas) on Groups.Drupal.org. It will be interesting to see what happens when DrupalCamp is a mate infused event. As might be expected, Victor Kane and "Rosamunda" are leading the charge to organize this event.

Fernando García (develcuy) is a great person I was lucky to meet in Washington this year. He is the organizing force bethind a lot of activity in Peru including a major 400 person conference in Cuzco last year. He is doing a great job of promoting the concept of Factocracia (Do-ocracy) as the Peruvian community rolls towards their camp.

DrupalCon South America and Beyond

This is all a prelude towards a DrupalCon and towards greater adoption of Drupal among organizations in Central and South America. We all know that Drupal will save the world - but so far it is not fully embraced around the whole world it is supposed to save... Training and informational events like Drupalcamps are an amazing grass roots tool to help inform people about the possibilities of Drupal.

By hosting these amazing camp events, we also gain organizational strength in regions that are potential hosts for DrupalCons of the future. If you are interested, please help organize DrupalCon South America.