It's that time once again boys and girls and the office is all a buzz in anticipation; no, I'm not talking about Christmas, my kids are a buzz about that, I'm talking about DrupalCon Chicago Session Voting!

Today on Speak Easy Drupal, we're doing our DrupalCon San Francisco preview show. DrupalCon is coming up soon, and we wanted to make sure to prep everyone who might be heading to the Bay Area for this unique experience.

Everyone at LevelTen is extremely excited about attending DrupalCon San Francisco. Last year only two members of the team were able to attend DrupalCon in Washington, DC, but this year we’re sending out a pretty diverse group. Two of us have previously lived in the Bay Area (Brent in Oakland and myself in San Francisco), while others have never had the pleasure to step foot in California. It will be a great experience for all of us.

I can't express how excited I am to be able to attend this years DrupalCon SF 2010; yes it's like a mini vacation and I know my wife hates that she doesn't get to tag along, but the sessions have been released and there are so many good topics that I'm upset I won't be able to attend them all.

2010 is already shaping up to be a banner year for Drupal. While Drupal 6 flourishes and continues to build on its devoted base of followers, the release of Drupal 7 is imminent. Drupal 7 is currently in alpha and many are speculating an official release sometime in the Spring, perhaps at DrupalCon San Francisco in April. I put together a list of things to look forward to in 2010.

Drupal 7 Release
The latest release of Drupal will have major usability improvements. The Drupal 7 User Experience Project had four main goals for the release of Drupal 7:

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Crystal Williams of Workhabit and talk Project Management. We discuss the pros and cons of different types of Project Management, why it saves your project money, and simple steps you can take to improve your project management skills.

About Crystal:

Photo Credit: n-re-k

The Drupal Association recently announced DrupalCon will be in Paris from September 1st to September 5th, 2009. Oui oui! DrupalCon Paris 2009 will be at Maison Internationale de Paris. Speakers, sessions, and ticket information have not yet been released, but follow DrupalCon Paris on Twitter and visit their website to find up-to-the-minute information.

In this week's podcast, Tom and Dustin recap and analyze their recent trip to Drupalcon 2009 in Washington D.C. Lee Raney, CEO of christian.com and Randall Knutson join this week's podcast as guests.

What the Drupal Community Means to Me Now

I just finished watching James Walker's "Why I Hate Drupal" presentation on the flight back from DrupalCon DC. The presentation was a perfect exclamation point to the clarity I received about Drupal this week.