DrupalSouth 2019 day 1 digest - 28 November

9am sessions

Highly processed migrations

Eric Goodwin from PreviousNext

Jim’s key takeaway: I can talk process plug-ins now and entity_lookup and entity_generate are part of my vocab! The right level of tech for me.

The pursuit of automatic Drupal updates

Blaize Kaye and Thom Toogood from Amazee Labs

Greg’s key takeaway: Excited to see this long-requested feature come to Drupal core. It will decrease the cost of keeping sites secure and up-to-date for small and mid-size businesses and organisations. Enterprise and larger organisations that use version-controlled workflows for making changes to their sites will still need to figure out a different way to automate updates.

10.15am sessions

Deploying Drupal on Kubernetes

Nick Schuch from PreviousNext

Sonny’s key takeaway:Very high level of Kubernetes, extremely useful as the speaker summarised most of the core concepts of the API. Steep learning curve, but worth it!

The New Zealand Govt Design System and Sector Drupal 8

Heike Theis and Daniel Veza from Sparks Interactive

Phillipa’s key takeaway: Great to hear about how NZ implemented their design system, including researching what other governments are doing.

It takes two to tango

Julie Erben (Salsa) and Nathan Wall (GovCMS)

Paul’s key takeaway: Salsa and GovCMS have a great working relationship and Julie and Nathan have a great relationship and they’re definitely interrelated - one fosters the other. Very interesting session about working in partnership. Nathan as the client has a real respect for the vendor and treats the vendor as part of his team, and he understands the value of having such a close bond.

11.15 sessions

Build your own design system

Jack Taranto from Previous Next

Jim’s key takeaway: A few takeaways, including the idea of using vanilla javascript/HTML for components vs creating using Vue, React, etc. You can build the simpler components that way but build more complex comments in Vue/React.

1pm keynote

DevOps and Collaboration. How Devs and non-Devs can work together

Michelle Mannering - Developer Community Manager, GitHub

Alfred’s key takeaway: Why open source? To learn, to contribute, to join a community and to ultimately build a better world.

Phillipa’s key takeaway: Collaboration and diversity within a team across several areas will help to create better products, services and platforms.

Greg’s key takeaway: Open source is about making the world a better place. Don't have to do what's popular; just do what you love.

2pm sessions

Design systems for agencies: The benefits of creating a shared language

Richard Sison from PreviousNext

Phillipa’s key takeaway: There are lots of benefits from design systems, including the ability to save time and effort so you can innovate in other areas.

Streamlining Drupal Delivery and Support: Our Journey at Deloitte Digital

Aaron Nichol and Christopher Hopper, Deloitte Digital

Jim’s key takeaway: Interesting how Deloitte create and manage component packages in code that they can use across different projects for different clients. This allows them to upgrade and manage sites more efficiently, create sites using common components and create a profile that’s common to many of their projects.

3pm sessions

Not all maps lead to treasure - but a good process map can lead to a successful project

Akhil Bhandari, Salsa

Julie’s key takeaway: Process maps are really helpful tools to guide the team, align the team and inform stakeholders at any stage of the process where the project’s at. However, you do need to get agreement from the whole project team to build the vision. Great insights!

4.15pm sessions

Jumping into conversational AI - Alexa

Suchi Garg from Accenture

Phillipa’s key takeaway: Great introduction to how conversational AI works with some deep dive, technical insights into working with the Alexa developer console and Drupal coding for Alexa Skills.

Paul’s key takeaway: Voice is an emerging technology - Alexa and Drupal can play together. There’s more to do in this space. Innovation will happen through efforts from people like Suchi trying to pioneer the way and events like this will help propagate that innovation because it spreads the word and shares the knowledge.

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