As the product manager for Acquia, I spend a lot of my time listening to Drupal users and potential customers.

When I ask business users what the biggest benefit from using Drupal is, there is one popular answer that stands out. The biggest benefit is "the two-way conversation with the Drupal community". Experienced business users value this because they can't have this conversation with their proprietary software vendors, or they can not have this conversation at a reasonable price. Many early adopters of open source software have started with systems technology like operating systems, firewalls, back-up systems, etc. They understand the value of this software, and use it, but it's hard to have a good conversation if you are not an expert.

What makes Drupal different for many people, is that it is the web business application platform. As one Drupal user put it to me recently "with web 2.0, everyone in the organization now has a business development idea. Drupal allows me to quickly execute those business ideas." This user is not just talking about finding the magic business model module, or the instant computer science re-use nirvana module. They are talking about the ability to combine both their business idea and business application how-to with open source. The ability of business users being able to implement their ideas through a graphical user interface is a powerful notion. But the critical differentiator for Drupal is the accompanying conversation that takes place on Drupal.org, through the blogs, and through email lists.

Many Drupal users are currently only taking part in one half of that conversation; they are just consuming. They don't feel like business experts and they don't feel like programming experts so they don't feel they have a lot to contribute. The Drupal community has an effective way to convert them to being part of the two way conversation.

It's called Drupalcon. The conference is happening in Boston, from March 3rd-6th. We've added three new events to the the conference program to help ensure people become part of this two way conversation. We've added a job fair, so businesses that are looking to hire or grow can easily find Drupal talent in one place. We've also added a series of industry networking events for non-profits, education, news, media, and intranets at nearby restaurants and bars. These two events are happening on Monday, or what we call, bring your boss/customer day. We are having a conference wide social at Felt, an upscale billards and nightclub, and we expect everyone to find a floor that best meets their social needs. We also have a Drupal sprint on the fifth day, to help make a lot of progress on Drupal 7.

We know that Drupal's success comes from an extraordinary amount of collaboration. In 2007, over 9000 unique individuals filed issues and received an average of four responses. The quality of that collaboration comes from how much we like working with each other. Drupalcon is the best opportunity Drupal users have to make friends, find business partners, and share your ideas.

Please join the Drupalconversation.

Drupalcon Boston, March 3rd-6th, 2008