Hard to believe. I have been going to DrupalCON since the Vancouver summit in 2006. Back then, I was doing fact-finding research for a large company, where I was the only Drupal convert.

Quite a bit has changed in the Drupal universe since then. The site I was showing off in Vancouver (toting a prototype on my laptop and cornering Boris Mann for advice) was built in Drupal 4.6. I remember going to a small session (there may have been 16 people there), where Earl Miles was explaining the first Views release. In one work session, I did a card-sorting exercise with Dries, Earl and Nedjo Rogers, which resulted in the clustered administration menus we have now (the 'User management' group is my fault).

But enough of the past. Next week, we all gather again in Washington D.C. (where I was born), in a group 10 times larger than the one in Vancouver. And for the first time, I will be attending the North American DrupalCON as a member of Palantir. As a result, I get to take a little break this time, after presenting at the last 4 DrupalCONs, I will be spending my time collaborating with and learning from my colleagues at Palantir and in the entire Drupal community.

To that end, here are the Palantir events that I am looking forward to:

• Last week, Larry Garfield (nick: Crell) was re-elected and Tiffany Farriss (farriss) was elected to Drupal Association board. Both will be participating in the State of the DA session. Thursday at 9am.
• Tiffany will also be doing the intro to the Mark Boulton session on the Drupal.org redesign. Friday at 1:45pm
• Larry, busy as ever, is presenting two solo sessions Drupal Databases: The Next Generation Wednesday at 3pm and Objectifying Drupal : An Introduction to OOP. Thursday at 1:45pm.
• John Wilkins (JohnAlbin) has been organizing a design BOF track that will focus on tactical solutions for theming in Drupal 6. Colleen Carroll (caroltron) will be talking about sustainable theming. John will talk about bending Zen to your every whim in Vivisecting Zen. Times for the BOF sessions TBD.
• John will also be doing a forward-looking theming session called How to Kill Blue Marine: new core themes for D7. 6pm Wednesday
• Greg Dunlap (heyrocker) has organized a session on Staging and Deployment and will be sharing insights gained from our work with the Council on Foreign Relations on the forthcoming Foreign Affairs site. Thursday at 5:15pm
• George DeMet (gdemet), Colleen and Larry will present a the Mystery Showcase - insights and new tools built from our work with the Sam Fox School of Art and Architecture. Thursday at 6pm.

If you have any questions for us, be sure to drop by the booth. (Or just come by for the free stuff.) What? I forgot to tell you that we will be handing out free reference cards to your favorite Drupal APIs, such as:

• FormsAPI
• Drupal's core hooks
• Zen guide to Drupal theming

So come by the exhibition hall Wednesday - Friday and pick up your copy.