The considerably more hirsute than previously Rob Purdie put together yet another great Drupal for NGOs meet-up yesterday in London. Bryan and I hared over from Oxfordshire, getting there only fifteen minutes late, but people were still making their way through the beer and nibbles very thoughtfully provided by our hosts.
Comic Relief's offices weren't quite what you'd expect---a smart floor in a posh block, right by a certain security service's s3krit headquarters---but definitely very Comic Relief, as you can see from the distinctly nose-coloured cast in the photos of the event. Rob managed to keep breaking the ice all evening, with such ruses as encouraging a group photo of everyone with angry faces.
The two main talks were as informative as ever, although there was definitely a different feel to them. Whereas previous "big-hitter" NGO projects showed Drupal in an "enterprise" environment (make of the words in quotes what you will), the slightly more close-ended projects, presented by the majority of the development team involved in them, warmed the group as a whole up more: there was more discussion in the round and sharing of---or at least hinting at---solutions to common problems. Oliver MacColl, Brett and Ben Dodd presented the inmyname.com / White Band Action, and Francesco Moretto discussed the implementation of CiviCRM and Drupal that lay behind the recent online relaunch of UNIMI's alumnus society, ALGIUSMI.
You can't get the likes of Amnesty International or Greenpeace to talk at every meeting, so it was nice to see the event's structure capable of embracing projects that were no less impressive by not having a big name behind them. It bodes well for the future, too, as smaller-scale Drupalers should feel emboldened to come forwards and share their experiences with everyone else.
If you weren't there, there's now an IRC channel devoted to the UK Drupal scene, where a fair few of the D4NGOs crowd hang out: do pop in and say hi.
