Here we go again! Drupalcon Munich is just around the corner - August 20 - 24th. That may seem like a long time, but for a veteran of organizing one of these events, I can tell you that the work is ramping up rapidly. All my best to our friends and colleagues over the pond who are, undoubtably, working like crazy. I'm looking forward to enjoying the next convention not being behind the scenes.

Agile Gymnastics and Timebox Tumbling - A Hybrid Approach

Over the last few months I've presented on Agile Scrum twice. Once, as one of the Drupalcamp Austin Keynotes and a second time at Drupalcon Denver with my good friend Stacey Harrison. The presentation evolved from one of the events to the next. I've continued to wear my presenter hat and am ready to do Mark III on the topic of Hybrid Agile Project Management.

Learn from the experiences of Examiner.com's team. We've done it all - cowboy, waterfall, extreme, and agile scrum.

Learn why...

• Waterfall doesn't always work
• Agile has a place, but isn't the holy grail
• Cowboy can kill the relationships you have with your stakeholders
• How "Fixed Scope" is a lie
• That a combination of approaches is the answer
• The Examiner team has carefully honed, updated, improved, and iterated its process for over two years. It continues to evolve, improve, and make development more consistent and predictable.

Examiner.com is a very proud sponsor of Drupalcon Denver. Part of the sponsorship includes ads on the Drupalcon site. The team at Examiner.com decided to have some fun with them. Five members of the team were chosen to be "subjects" of each ad. I am the fifth subject in a series of five stories chronicling different community member's alternate time-lines. Or am I? Sometimes life is a stranger the Fiction. I bet you can weed through what is and isn't real.

Introduction
Saunders sat at his little Macbook Air. He tapped away with the force of a small pony. He was writing short stories about people he knew, people he cared about, people who he respected. Square orange pictures were the starting point for each of the Drupal stories.

Saunders was a Drupal Cuckoo - he started as an outsider. To be honest, you could classify a lot of members of the Drupal community in the same way - but he really did come far afield. Years before, he had been heavily involved in the arts community and theatre communities. His degrees were not in Computer Science or in Information Technology. Saunders was an artist. He found technology by accident while working for an Experimental Dance Company in Ottawa called Le Groupe de La Place Royale. He was deeply saddened in 2009 when the company that started his obsession with technology closed.

What started him down the path was a wild and crazy live video project in a festival called "The Edge" - it changed everything and started a chain of events that brought him to Drupal in 2006 at think-tank style meeting.

Examiner.com is a very proud sponsor of Drupalcon Denver. Part of the sponsorship includes ads on the Drupalcon site. The team at Examiner.com decided to have some fun with them. Five members of the team were chosen to be "subjects" of each ad. Kevin Bridges is the third in a series of five stories.

Kévin DuPont was the gatekeeper and blacksmith in the Town of Master's Branch. Not only did he create the things that held the town together - nails, hammers, picks, and saws, but he also watched carefully to ensure the evil and dark mole creatures could not, would not ever enter the town.

He was named DuPont because his father had build the one and only bridge that crossed the mystical lake to the island. The island became a walled city - safe for all those inside, built stone by stone by the band of protectors. The bridge served as the one and only entrance to the magical town and was known as the Terminus.

The water surrounding the walls was filled with magic that repelled all those that didn't know the special key - the sorcerer's name and the sorcerer's secret words. This Halt Terminus Access spell was designed to only allow those who knew the special words a way in. Those who were granted access would experience such wonders! The city was full of flowers, fine tapestries (made from the fur of chipmunks, river otters, and voles), and libraries full of books. All of these wonders were discoverable by the Indices of Mongo the Great.

Mongo was one of the greatest magicians the creator had ever brought forth. His speed was beyond compare. He had an older brother - a brother who had been relegated to the basest of functions in the town. He would wake the town up if the town ever slept. He was responsible for each of the doors in the town. He kept the town census. My Sevinus Quirrel was often known simply by his initials - he quietly kept things running in the background.

Examiner.com is a very proud sponsor of Drupalcon Denver. Part of the sponsorship includes ads on the Drupalcon site. The team at Examiner.com decided to have some fun with them. Five members of the team were chosen to be "subjects" of each ad. After they were done, it seemed it would be fun to include a back story for each.

Rok Zlender makes an audacious claim. He tells us he has been attending Drupalcons since 2006. To debunk this claim, we have to travel back to rural United States in 1898. We need to travel to Damascus Virginia.

Part I - Chipmunks and River Otters
Rok's ancestors aren't from Slovenia as he claims. In fact, his grandfather, Roger Slender, attended the first school in Damascus. It was built just south of the railroad trestle across Beaver Creek. Roger loved "The Little Red School House" with its three rooms. Mr. Jones Baker was his teacher and he learned spelling, geography, and grammar. For three years he revelled in his studies and learned quickly. Roger was a bright student with a bright future ahead of him.

Then disaster struck.

The Little Red School House burned down in 1901. School resumed in the Lutheran Church and Roger's fate changed - and in a strange way would intertwine with Garrison Keillor's - the man that has made Lutherans funny. But that is another story that won't begin until 1942 and has little to do with the man we now know as Rok. Roger came to despise the tiny town - even today it has fewer than 1000 people - that stole his beloved Red School House. He refused to speak and was desperate to get away. Much to his parents dismay, he ran away from home and joined a travelling band of Appalachian Trail hikers who earned a living by selling woven coverlets that were made from the wool of river otters and chipmunks.

From Corporate Land:

Why on earth would you need or want to go to this Drupalcon thing? It sounds an awful lot like your just going on a trip on the company's dime! Can't you just learn this stuff from a book?

If you want to go, you need to pay for it yourself and take vacation time.

From Agency Land:

We can't really afford to send all of you, how about we give you a fixed stipend to offset the cost. But we do really NEED all of you to go. Who knows who might be there who is looking for a job that you might be able to recruit. So, you all need to go.

From Independent Contractor Land:

Dear Husband/Wife - Drupalcon just seems like an excuse for you to spend our travel money. Why should you get to go to [insert city here]? And twice a year? We simply can't afford for you to do this!

So, what is the return on investment by going to Drupalcon? How will your experience change over several Drupalcons? What are the best reasons you can give your employer and/or significant other why you should go?