The Drupal Mumbai Story - Growing from 5 to 700 members community

Drupal Mumbai community is one of the largest and most successful Drupal community. Mumbai recently hosted the the first DrupalCon Asia which was a resounding success. But if we look back, It took years of effort to build this great Drupal community in Mumbai. I along with few other Drupal enthusiasts started Drupal Mumbai community in Sep 2012. Our first meetup was attended by five members - this picture http://goo.gl/vko6Bt is a file pic of our very first meetup. It took us 4 years to grow this community to 700+ members. This pic is from DrupalCamp Mumbai 2015 - https://goo.gl/sJaTAO which was attended by 650 Drupalers. Taking Drupal Mumbai to this height was a tuff but an incredible journey. There were challenges at every step. I spent almost all my weekends organizing, Planning, strategising on events, hunting for speakers, venues, finding the right team. Today when i see this community, it gives me a sense of fullfilment , A sense of purpose and A sense of responsibility. This session is all about sharing my learnings, Experiences, Key challenges , success stories and most importantly how Drupal empowers its community members to take leadership and bring a large impact to the project.

In this session i will be unveiling the success mantra that i have learned over years of running Drupal comunity. I will also be talking about building the Drupal community, the phases it goes through, key challenges and how to overcome them.

Session will focus on - 

• The Drupal Mumbai story - A brief timeline explaining different phases of community building 
• What it mean to evangelize Drupal 
• Having the right team and right vision 
• Being innovative and inclusive 
• Key challenges in building a Drupal community and how to overcome them , with examples from Drupal Mumbai.
• The core values Drupal Community teaches and how to incorporate them in your community 
• How can you contribute and benefit from your local community 

Intended Audience - This session is designed for community members who take active role in building and growing Drupal Community as well as those who are new to community and exploring ways to contribute.