Pitch-Burgh Competition, DrupalCon 2023
DrupalCon 2023: The audience votes were being counted after having heard from all the candidates for the Pitch-Burgh funding competition at this year’s DrupalCon. The seven finalists selected by the panel of Drupal Association representatives were competing for a shared prize pool of $75,000, meaning not all of the finalists were going to get funded.
Our team at Daggerhart Lab as well as the whole group of attendees for the Keynote (DriesNote) watched the compelling descriptions of each project made by our community members. This included hot topics like AI, Decoupling, Gutenberg, and then Mentoring and community organization.
Votes were in, results were being read. The Gutenberg, Layout Builder, JSON, and API Client were all in with just a slim margin of the budget left. AmyJune’s pitch for working to create materials and train Drupal Mentors for contributions was the fifth-highest-voted project, yet it was still short of being fully funded.
Sponsoring Pitch-Burgh
Some back-story. I (Justin Rhodes) met AmyJune around 2015-16 working with a Bay Area-based Drupal Agency. I could tell immediately that she had a passion for organizing people with the core of her beliefs centered around edification and support for Drupal. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to continue observing and participating in AmyJune’s community contributions at BADCamp and Drupal Camp Asheville.
Outside of AmyJune’s character, our team was struck by how concisely and cost-effectively AmyJune’s proposal was. I hope I’m not oversimplifying this but “let’s help the people that are helping people” seems like a pretty great idea when it comes to ushering new users into Drupal.
If you’ve been a part of the Drupal Community and had a chance to participate in code sprints or contributions, you understand that it can be a little overwhelming for first-time contributors. By decreasing friction through better presentations, documentation, and mentor training, it’s our shared hope with AmyJune that the whole community can benefit by having new contributors at each camp.
We Support Eachother in the Drupal Community
So, let’s get back to the stage at the Driesnote. *This is exactly what happened, you can totally believe every single word…
The panel does the math on the budget and AmyJune’s project can only be partially funded… but before anything else was said I notice Jonathan Daggerhart (yeah, that Daggerhart) rises from his seat as he simultaneously catches the eye of Lee Walker. Without much conversation, they were raising their hands to volunteer the remaining budget requested by AmyJune. Fireworks, Trumpets, Applause… Victory.
Grateful to be a part of DrupalCon 2023
Overall, Pitch-Burgh was a fun event. It’s awesome to have some group participation around how (even in small ways) the community as a whole can move forward together. It brought awareness to the attendees about the initiatives that not only the panelists but also the submitters believe are worth talking about. We were excited to be able to participate and even more excited that our support can further AmyJune’s mission of “Mentoring the Mentors.”
If you’d like to hear AmyJune’s pitch as well as the other submissions for Pitch-Burgh you can find the link here.
*Events may not have happened exactly as described. OK fine. There weren’t any trumpets or fireworks.
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