Mountain Camp 2027 - End of the 1^st retreat day / checkout¶

Date March 2026 Status: End of the 1^st retreat day / checkout

Attendees¶

Action Items¶

• Dan to launch new website by end of tomorrow lunch
• Team to confirm timeline in next meeting
• Sinduri to complete testimonials template and gather photos/names
• Team to add authentication to documentation repository
• Josef to document vision work in repository
• Team to decide on speaker gift (alternatives to dinner)
• Team to test personal invitation approach early to validate strategy
• Team to explore partnerships with government, Symfony AI, and Apertus communities

Vision & Strategic Direction¶

• Core vision: Create an environment that sparks transformative conversations — attendees come to change something about themselves rather than just gather information
• Target audience: People who value contribution, collaboration, and community — described as "makers" and "builders" though team recognizes need for broader terminology
• Mountain metaphor: Leveraging mountain climbing imagery (difficulty, projects, collaboration, tools, maps, guides, mentors) to communicate the event's essence
• Community-driven focus: Emphasizing tangible, real projects driven by community rather than products or services
• Personal invitation model: Inspired by "The Art of Gathering" — treating event like inviting people to dinner with one-to-one communication alongside automated one-to-many outreach
• Quality over quantity: Goal is interesting attendees rather than large numbers; maintaining intimate community feeling rather than scaling to 300+ people

Branding Discussion¶

• Removing "Drupal" from logo: Team discussed dropping "Drupal" from visual branding while keeping DrupalMountainCamp.ch URL
• Rationale: Make event more welcoming to front-end developers, Symfony community, and other non-Drupal audiences who might be interested in topics
• Marketing approach: Use hashtag #MountainCamp instead of #DrupalMountainCamp; similar to how Florida Camp and other US camps dropped "Drupal" from marketing
• Sponsor clarity concern: Team acknowledged risk that removing "Drupal" label could reduce clarity for sponsors about what they're supporting
• Important clarification: Not removing Drupal from Mountain Camp entirely — it's a marketing/positioning shift to reduce barriers while maintaining Drupal community foundation

Timeline & Milestones¶

• Event date: March 2-4, 2027
• CFP timeline: Opens before DrupalCon Rotterdam, closes ~10 days after DrupalCon
• Schedule announcement: Early November 2026 (four months before event, improvement from last year's month-and-a-half notice)
• Pretix setup: Ticketing system configured and linked in Drupal core Slack channel
• Next meeting focus: Confirm timeline with full team

Technical Infrastructure Progress¶

• Documentation repository: Private repo created with all planning files, protected by Cloudflare Access Policies, hosted and built via Cloudflare Pages (mkdocs).
• Slack automation: Setting up Google Calendar integration for meeting reminders to free Slack workspace
• AI-assisted working: Team experimenting with AI tools for drafting ideas and finding good structures, though noting it's "a bit messy"

Speaker Appreciation Strategy¶

• Shift from dinner to gift: Decided not to do traditional speaker dinner; instead give speakers a memorable takeaway gift

• Gift ideas discussed:

• Swiss Army knife with Drupal hashtag/username engraved (would cost half of dinner)

• Personalized chocolate
• Branded hat
• Fondue stick with branding
• Considerations: Gift should be personal, worth keeping, and fit with thematic approach of personal invitations

Partnership & Community Outreach¶

• Symfony AI collaboration: Potential keynote with Chris Hertel (Symfony AI Core Lead), Jamie Abrahams, or Marcus discussing Drupal AI's evolution to Symfony AI
• Government/sovereignty track: Exploring dedicated summit day focused on data sovereignty, potentially partnering with CH Open
• Could invite Hannes Gassert (Open CH, Liip), government representatives, EU policy experts
• Timing could align with Apertus or other flagship initiative announcements
• Opportunity to fill gap in Swiss government open source momentum
• Apertus community: Two people from Apertus showed interest in supporting more accessible event
• Press engagement: Could invite tech journalists (Republic newspaper, others) if significant announcements planned
• Strategic approach: Bring one person from each community rather than trying to bring 100 people from any single community

Event Scope & Strategy¶

• Track structure: Preference for two tracks per day to encourage conversation and collaboration; venue could support six tracks but not planned for 2027
• Venue pricing: Current Davos location noted as significantly cheaper than alternatives while offering skiing/mountain experience as attendee draw
• Workshop/training day: Discussed potential summit for content editors and system end-users, possibly with AI workshops and free API keys
• Confirmed attendance: Dries (Buytaert) 95% confirmed to attend
• Personal targeting over mass marketing: Early timeline designed to attract specific people who will then attract similar attendees, using wishlist and persona approach

Team Accomplishments¶

• Reconnected as team with outdoor walk, food, and beers
• Created foundation for collaborative work including repository structure and initial vision documents
• Made progress on testimonials, timeline, speaker wishlist, and technical infrastructure
• Generated multiple partnership and growth opportunities for discussion