Duran Goodyear on DrupalCon and Pantheon Heroes

Dwayne McDaniel, Developer Advocate March 20, 2019 Reading estimate: 2 minutes

As Spring rolls forward, it is that time of year again for DrupalCon, which is in Seattle, WA this year. I got the chance to sit down with the longtime Pantheon Hero, Duran Goodyear, founder of Alphex Information Solutions. He shared his thoughts about the event, the community, and Pantheon. Watch the full video and read highlights below.

What he’s looking forward to at DrupalCon

Very simply: the people and the energy. Drupal is about so much more than the code. The community of Drupal, everyone working on the same thing, a great product, creates a very great conversation with a really great group of people. Drupal itself is the reflection of the ideals of the community, which makes it a very inclusive community. People of all skill levels are always welcome to join the conversation.

What advice he has for people new to DrupalCon

Don’t miss the Driesnote. Dries Buytaert does a great job of not just cheerleading Drupal, but the future of the open internet as a whole. He gives a lot of valuable industry insights that can really help give direction to business owners of any size. Also, never miss the parties, like Pantheon's Official(ish) DrupalCon Party. This is a very welcoming community and no one is turned away because they are new to Drupal.

Also, don’t just go to the sessions about what you already do. If you are a designer, hit up Dev sessions. If you are a dev, think about attending a different track. Drupalcon gives you the chance to learn what it takes to launch a large scale website from the perspective of the rest of the ecosystem.

What sessions he’s looking forward to attending

With the changes in Drupal 8 around dependency management, Duran is planning to attend several of the sessions on Composer to help him improve those skills. Also, the Builder Track to expand his knowledge with strict design patterns and teams.

One session in particular he is looking forward to is Introduction to Decoupled Drupal with Gatsby and React. Drupal 8 was made for decoupled architectures since it was designed as an API endpoint. Drupal is ready for it. As more clients ask about React and other JavaScript front end solutions, Duran wants more exposure to best practices. DrupalCon is an amazing chance to discuss how someone else did it and learn from their experience. As he said, “it is like group therapy.”

Why be a Pantheon Hero

One reason he has been a long time fan of Pantheon is because of how open the team is to ideas from the community. And not just about advancing the business, but about growing the skills within the community itself. Duran really shares our passion for seeking out ways we can we grow together to make a better world.

Being a Hero and Pantheon Power User gives him a “faster pipeline” to interface with the Pantheon team, not for support, but the future of the product. There is also a network of other professionals discussing the same overall goals, of all skill levels, with a common grounding. Asking for advice in this ecosystem is better than the shotgun approach of stack exchange that gets him better answers, faster.