After a one year hiatus the Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit returned this year over the weekend of February 25-26. The summit rotates between Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. The reboot occurred in Vancouver and it was a great event. Held once again at the beautiful Simon Fraser Harbour Center the view from the main foyer was beautiful showcasing the snow capped mountains behind the busy harbour.

The two days had some great sessions, all of which are available for review on the session page, the mix of sessions was interesting. Certainly, there was a heavy focus on Drupal 8 but other sessions gave any developer decent breadth, such as Do you really need a CDN? and The Web of Tomorrow. Non-developer topics were also plentiful such as Creating a Culture of Learning and Community, Why it is good for business. Anyone involved in web/software development had ample opportunity to take home a few nuggets of wisdom or at a minimum, a new idea to mull.

It was interesting to see topics continue to appear as they are discussed at nearly every summit; automated testing, performance optimization, and decoupling Drupal. It just goes to show how much things change in the web development profession that these topics always carry weight.

Thanks to sponsors The Jibe and Affinity Bridge for hosting a great party at Commodore Lanes which was a relaxed environment to debrief the day and to make new friends. The six pin bowling was new to me and the establishment had pre-canned bowler names from the Star Wars universe which was  a lot of fun. Luke Skywalker, if he bowled, put up a decent score.

If you were on the fence about attending this year, mark it on your calendar for next year in Portland, OR. For the low registration cost I think it is hard to find a better value for a two-day conference. As the Drupal 8 adoption rate begins to climb the return on your time this conference delivers will be very hard to beat.

See you next year in Oregon!