What are Drupal Mini Camps?
Remember when we have made a complete tour around the world to look at the Drupal Camps? If you don't, you can refresh your memories and find out which continent has the most Drupal camp activities. Besides that, we also highlighted the importance of attending such events. Drupal camps bring you many positive things. Lately, we came across a new term – Drupal Mini Camps. Let's see what they are.
Almost a month ago we saw that Atlanta is organizing a Drupal event. Nothing special at first. Drupal Camp Atlanta has been there for the Drupal Community a long time. But with further reading, something caught our eye. It was a word »mini«. We wanted to know more about it, so we dug in it.
Paying for virtual things
Drupal mini camps are camps that are organized online. They are very similar to virtual Drupal camps, which we have already presented, with an exception that if you want to listen to Drupal (8) sessions on a Mini Camp, you have to pay. Like paying for a ticket, but an online one. So the shared knowledge by the speakers is, unlike virtual Drupal Camps, not for free. Moreover, it's a single-track event, so no sessions run parallel.
Most of the sessions from any Drupal Camps are, after the conference, available on the web. So, roughly speaking, the money you pay for a ticket to enter a Drupal Camp is only for socializing and making new business partners and friends. Shared knowledge is, in this way, free for everyone. But with the admission (online ticket), Drupal Mini Camps bring a new dimension to it. Drupal developers, site builders, Drupal themers, experts, beginners ... are confronted with the fact that if they want to learn something new, they have to pay for it. The real question is, is the knowledge they’ll get worth spending their money?
Busy schedule
Mini Drupal Camps last only one day, some hours to be precise, in contrast to Drupal Camps, which are usually two or three-day events with workshops and so on. Drupal MiniCamp Atlanta, for example, lasted for seven hours with only ten-minute breaks between the sessions, so the concentration had to be very high. Since it lasted between business hours and you also have to invest the money in it, you probably have to take a day off at work. That's also one fact to look at.
Mini meaning just something smaller
The MiniCamp in Atlanta was not the first such event. There were some in the past as well. Like WNYDUG Inaugural mini-camp, which was the first event of such kind back in 2013. A year later PHP Mini-Camp within DrupalCamp LA and Drupal Mini Camp Bangalore took place. But above examples are named mini just because they represent the smaller version of the event. Not because of something else. Therefore, in our eyes, it was Drupal MiniCamp Atlanta that set-up the criteria for the (new) term.
