Building a website in 1.5 hours

"Does your name tag say Nice Lobster?" asked Robert Douglas from across the table at Stetsons, the first night of Drupalcon DC. I doubled over laughing, having never made the connection that those letters so closely resembled my name, Nica Lorber.

The next day I bought the domain and holed away in a conference room with my co-hort, John Skulski, intent on building the site, Nicelobster.com. The task was complete in just 1.5 hours. John did an excellent job building the back end while I focused on the art, creating a designer/developer synergy that was both fun and inspiring. Add your lobster here.

Turning this inside joke into a website was just one example of the tangible inspiration prevalent at DrupalCon DC–birthing creative collaborations that ignited between countless others, stacked away in conference rooms, spaghettied between power chords, laptops, candy wrappers and abandoned coffee cups.

The conference, if that word can even contain the event, was more than a success. It was an experience of international proportion, uniting creatives, engineers, producers, business people and the like under one united vision of open source love and camaraderie. The underlying values creating a bond, thick with value and meaning, of a shared faith in giving back, being transparent, and pushing the envelope on all fronts.

Being a designer, and only semi-technical compared to the elevated level of nerd prowess that dominates any Drupal event, I was unsure of my place in the community upon arrival. But 5 late nights, a few games of laser-tag, and 40+ new friends later, I feel not only inspired, but excited about the notion of bringing exactly what I have to offer into the growing fold of the blossoming drupal tribe. A tribe rich with developers but scantly populated with designers. I recognize the gap that needs to be filled with more creatives and am ready to jump in with both feet to give back to this growing organism which will undoubtably do great things to change the world on both a small and large scale. In fact, it already has.

Raise your lobster claws and raise the roof.