DrupalCon Global: Wrap-Up
We can’t believe DrupalCon Global was a month ago. As we’re looking ahead to future DrupalCons in 2020 and 2021, we wanted to begin by looking back at DrupalCon Global 2020.
DrupalCon Global was a major success because of you--2,395 registrants in all, and countless supporters who donated, volunteered, shared expertise and jokes, and gave us virtual high fives and hugs as we rallied during these unprecedented times--#DrupalThanks.
The overall number of attendees is close to what we were expecting for DrupalCon Minneapolis and is downright impressive when we remember that the DA staff and community pivoted nearly a year’s worth of planning to create a brand new event over a few short months. Participants came from 68 countries across six continents, which makes Global among the most geographically diverse DrupalCons on record. Most attendees came from the US, followed by Canada, UK, India, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium.
The high number of US registrants was expected as the North American conferences are largely made up of US attendees and many DrupalCon Minneapolis transferred their tickets to DrupalCon Global. With more planning time we would hope to see even more regional diversity. In addition to global diversity, approximately 40% of all registrants self identified with an underrepresented community.
The virtual conference allowed us to experiment with and expand our scholarship program. We granted 162 scholarships--the highest number of recipients served to date--with the support of 29 Drupal local associations around the world, as well as Drupal Diversity & Inclusion, TechUpWomen, SheCodeAfrica, WomenTech Network, Semicolon, Pehia, Proga{m}aria, WoMakersCode, WitU, FOSSASIA, AfriLabs, OSCAfrica, and Black Women in STEM 2.0. The new scholarship mentorship program which paired recipients with seasoned Drupal community members received positive feedback. We will continue to build on these wins for future events.
DrupalCon Global delivered an ambitious 36 hours of educational and social offerings over 72 hours. The program included nearly 200 educational sessions and about 40 social events and community-led Birds of a Feather networking and discussion gatherings. When rating session satisfaction, the average evaluation was 4.57 out of 5, an increase from 4.4 during DrupalCon Seattle.
Most of Global’s educational sessions came via the DrupalCon Minneapolis open call for proposals and peer review process. The Minneapolis program committee completed their duties shortly before the pandemic began in earnest here in the US. More than 90 volunteers contributed to the session selection project and truly paved the way for the best DrupalCon program yet. In addition to the painstaking review of approximately 750 session proposals, the program committee helped build the foundation for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational experience for all. Read more about their work in the post DrupalCon Minneapolis Program Committee is 🔥.
DrupalCon Global was proudly supported by 46 sponsoring organizations. Sponsors received virtual “booths” in the Expo Hall where attendees viewed lightning talks, demos and had group or individual interactions.
More than 150 volunteers contributed to the session selection project, summit coordination, and training selection. Trainings were planned for DrupalCon Minneapolis, however canceled during the pivot to DrupalCon Global. This is perhaps the highest number of community members involved in program coordination to date. We will continue to build upon the volunteer program as we plan next events.
With approximately 24 hours of online contribution activities following the main conference, this year’s Contribution Day produced 130 issues tagged “Global2020.” This compares well with the 177 tagged issues from last year’s DrupalCon Seattle.
In closing, the first-ever online DrupalCon was a huge success. Thanks to all who participated and helped make it happen.
