A Raincity Studios contingent consisting of Francis, Erik and I are southern-bound for BAD Camp in Berkeley. Alas, the event is hardly as provocative as the name - Bay Area Drupal Camp is a meeting of open source coding and community building types - scant little nefarious behavior expected.

Raincity is one of the BAD sponsors (doing what we can) and based on the proximity to Silicon Valley, there are some other companies stepping up to make the event happen.

Also, Raincity's effervescent actual Frenchman Hubert Florin crafted a BAD logo that oozes well, ... badness.

What is the event? Well it's a community-built conference - so its not too costly (free!), first come first served signup style, and not filled with pay-to-talk pros but rather voted-upon presentations presented by peers to audiences which range from newbs to vets.

Here's what they say:

"BADCamp will take place at the UC Berkeley campus on Saturday and Sunday, Nov 3rd and 4th. BADCamp is an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in Drupal for a couple of days and have a blast doing it."

Along with our new and old colleagues and collaborators, we'll be sequestered on the Univ. of California campus (amidst the outside chaos of a football game which might explain why hotel rooms were so hard to come by).

A heap of BAD Camp Sessions are already on the list. [Update: the schedule is set and includes some Drupal 6 de-bugging fests].

I hope to meet more contributors to the project and cross-pollinate some ideas about how to translate Drupal's solid technology into a business case which "the suits" can understand.

Additionally, I'll seek to increase my humble slice of the knowledge pie with some seminars on the business side as well as some more on themeing and architecture.

Suffice to say, with the colourful cultural history of this California-enclave, good times and groovy code are sure to roll out of the door on Sunday night from the mix of international Drupal enthusiasts - albeit a bit bleary eyed.

For the record ... Erik is our local Production Director and Francis is the Lead Drupalist 'round here - both are wise and friendly so say "hello."

I'll be brewing up Raincity Radio podcasts - likely about modules and projects folks are working on, or big ideas they are planting seeds about.

Have something to say? Look for a guy with a mic, headphones about a beverage and we'll have a chat.