Global Sprint Weekend January 25 and 26 2014

You can make your own locations if no location is near you! Currently people have announced locations in Sevilla Spain; Berlin, Mannheim and Schwerin Germany; Ghent Belgium; Budapest Hungary (hosted at Cheppers and led by Gábor Hojtsy); Manchester UK; Vancouver, London (Ontario) and Montréal Canada; Oak Park, Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Minneapolis and Austin USA.

I'll be in the USA at the Oak Park (location needed still) and Chicago (at Promet) sprints. :)

Map

Drupical shows a map of locations that have created a groups.drupal.org sprint event. (Be sure to create a sprint event so a location you are going to has a pin on the map.)

Info

The Drupal Global Sprint Weekend wiki page lists more information and is editable by anyone with a groups.drupal.org account.

Start by checking there for a location near you. It is the most up-to-date list of locations.

Find a group of folks near you by searching for Drupal on meetup.com or looking for geographical group on groups.drupal.org. Talk to people in the group about planning a sprint in your location.

Small sprints are easy to plan and host

1. Find a location with good wifi (maybe a local web shop, library or cafe), pick which day (or both Saturday and Sunday), and edit the wiki signing up.
2. Make a sprint event on groups.drupal.org (so it shows up on the g.d.o calendar, in your local group, and on drupical.com).
3. (optional) Tweet about the sprint with the hash tag #SprintWeekend.
4. (optional) Blog about it! Announce it at meetups! In general, tell everyone. :)
5. (optional) Ask early to find a sponsor for lunch
6. (optional, but really nice) Planning: pick a few issues, or tasks within issues, that are easily doable in a very short time. Think of 30 minutes or less. It is really nice to start out the day by doing a small task, and having a small success, and then later in the day tackling harder things. People have trouble picking out tasks for themselves. If there is a short list of doable tasks picked in a couple days in advance, this is really helpful.
7. Planning: tables. Verify there will be big round or rectangular tables with chairs. It is nice when people sit in groups and work in pairs.
8. Planning/on the day: power strips. Verify there will be lots of outlets, grab a couple power strips of your own, or ask someone to bring some. (Label them so you know whose is whose.)
9. On the day: lunch. Order in lunch. You can bill your sponsor later, or everyone can pay their own off and order off a take-out menu. (Eating in is good. When people leave, the momentum and time is lost.)
10. On the day: signs. On a big paper taped to the wall, or on a whiteboard, write things down like: wifi network and password, a link to a google doc for the task list, write down participant d.o names and real names, links to helpful docs or answers to common questions people ask.

Working together

You will not be alone. During planning or during the sprint, tweet out with #SprintWeekend or at me @YesCT with any questions. Join #drupal or #drupal-contribute in irc.freenode.net and ping me YesCT or ask the room in general any questions you have. Really. People are nice. Ask any question, wait a bit, and someone might give an answer. :) Follow @drupalmentoring to see resources announced that might be helpful for people mentoring.

"See" you there. :) - YesCT

Resources

• Sprint Weekend 2014 wiki page (*the* source of information)
• Drupical (for a visual way to see the locations)
• November 13, 2013 Modules Unraveled Podcast 084: Global Sprint Weekend 2014
• November 2013 NYC Camp Podcast (about minute 36)
• September 2013 Drupal Easy Sprint Podcast
• May 2013 Portland DrupalCon session on Sprints with xjm, ZenDoodles, add1sun

January Events

• Lots of trainings and user groups meeting up
• January 8 2014 drupal reddit YesCT AMA (Ask Me Anything)
• January 15 2014 #DrupalWorkParty, on Drupal's 13th birthday, work on a Drupal 8 issue from home or from work for a couple hours
• January 15 2014 drupal reddit Dries AMA (Ask Me Anything)
• January 20-24 2014 Drupal Picchu in Peru
• January 23-25 2014 SANDcamp in San Diego, California
• January 25 and 26 2014 Global Sprint Weekend