DrupalatON

       Drupalaton has just ended, 4 amazing days at Balatonalmádi made all of us a bit more enthusiastic for Drupal. We are still in the DrupalatOFF mood: looking at each other and laughing at one of Tomi’s jokes, remembering the stories which happened to us, or just sitting at the table and discussing topics mentioned at the camp. We are really amazed by the people who came to our booth, it was soooo great to see that even the programmers could be excited in seconds by games like a bubble-blowing contest or treasure hunt. I think navigating the drone was one of the most popular games, but the darts contest next to us by Pitech+ was pretty close in beating it. :D We are thankful to all of those who stopped by and played with us, had a brief chat, said a few kind words or simply shared a smile.

Sometimes it was really hard to decide which workshop to choose; all were great and exciting, and even when the topic was more well-known to us the presenters could always say something new and share a new perspective. The motivation of Drupalaton attendees was surprisingly clear, and a tad unbelievable, to many of us - even the sprint-room was always full. According to this progress, on the next year sprinters will need a bigger one. :)

As has been in the past, the nights were crazy.  But something has changed: I hope it was not just me, who felt the overwhelming love and familiarity-for-others type of atmosphere among us. It was really good to see how people were becoming closer with each other. The cruise party has just proven that (and as the diamond sponsor of the event we are so happy for that); there was not a single person who was left out of conversation. The community displayed its power through the surprise party as well. I could even add to that that I’m somewhat thankful for the disorganization. As I see it, this intangible represented the coherence between us in the best way.

I hope we all have learnt something from this event; f.e. That lángos is the champion of all that is edible, especially when it is TEJFÖLÖS (:D) and fröccs when it is at least a VICEHÁZMESTER.

We are so amazed by the event, that we can’t even finish our retrospective without turning it into a huge storytelling session. Based on this year's experience, I'm convinced that next year's turnout will higher. So, my dear organizers and volunteers, a big thank you one more time for making this event so great.  Secondly, see how far your dreams can take you into 2017. We had some great presentations this year (ours was about Drupal 8 media). Who knows what could be achieved by next year's Drupalaton. I hope we see each other at the next Drupal event! We’ll be attending the upcoming IronCamp and hope are you too. :)

Communitism

Have you ever thought that we are living our lives in constant interaction? And I’m not talking about the web2 or life online.
Of course, there are always some exceptions but mostly we spend our lives 24/7 being part of different small communities. 



Let me indulge you for a moment. There are various types of formal and informal groups.  In sociology, formal groups are defined as having an objective, not relating to personal interest of others; whereas informal relates to smaller groups with special bonds, while sharing a common interest.  Take, for example, being a member of a family or as an employee I am a part of informal groups. As a citizen I am also in a formal domain. Now let’s tie that into who we are professionally.  We spend a third of our lives at our workplace (sorry home officers), which is also a community.  Generally, one of these three groups has the biggest impact on us; therefore, it's imperative we utilize all of our time wisely. Here at Brainsum, we strive to develop a real community of people with common interests, clear goals and aspirations to strengthen all of our relationships associated with our community.  What’s more, we fully support communities that share our common goals and interests.

I'd to connect this to another community many of us can relate to.  Let’s break down the activity of scouting into account here and how all these small, individual communities can be viewed as one large informal group . There are some scouts among us, who care a lot about their tribes. Scouting is a movement, where you have to learn how to be independent and team-worker in one. Their morals and goals, such as loyalty, fairness and integrity, are very similar to ours; therefore, when it’s called to our attention that they are in need of help we don’t hesitate -  we act.  As many of you are aware, it's a theme all too common with the Hungarian minorities abroad: many of us have roots from the ex-Hungarian territories, from Slovakia, Romania or Serbia as well. Still to this day we are trying to keep to the traditions. All in all we actively try to be as open-minded as possible, because we know that the diversity of our co-workers is a major asset to the company and in our daily lives. By supporting these diverse backgrounds our company is becoming more tolerant and overall a stronger unit.

If you have been reading the article carefully you should see that we are not talking about spending money mindlessly and making a big issue of it. Referencing a real world community example at Brainsum, for instance, at times we’ve lent our office out to others for weekend concentrations or leadership meetings. This has been way of opening up to other informal communities in supporting each other’s programs and objectives.

Collectively, we believe in the power of togetherness and team-work even though we do not necessitate it. Remember that being tolerant can be the key to gaining your co-workers trust and loyalty.

Summary of 2015

The year 2015 was stirring for us, particularly in relation to the release of Drupal 8. We didn't wait for the stable release, we launched the first Corporate D8 site in Hungary in April, the Gravity R&D.

Currently, we are working on our second D8 project ThermalCorvinus, which is also going to be the first Slovakian D8 site. Additionally, we were working on projects such as, MABIASZ, Iota, Rustique, Plast-Ex, SlovakLines, Új Szó, Slovnaft and others.

Up to now our biggest professional success has been our newest Swiss HR software launched at the end of the year. It's a cloud based SAAS solution. The trial version are still freely available! If you would like to give it a try please just let us know, we will help you onboard. :)
On top of all this we have contributed our OTP module, also freely available to anyone interested.

Together in a Community

The Hungarian Drupal Association took off last year, with a Brainsumist between the board members. The community arranges Drupal Users Group every month, the 10th held in our little home. We delegate a board member to the Slovakian Drupal Association too!

We attended more DrupalCamps and DrupalCons, we were in Kolozsvár, Bratislava and Barcelona as well.

One of the biggest programs was Drupalaton in Keszthely with our company being the premier diamond sponsor of the event. In addition, we held two presentations in accordance with D8. If you would like to receive any further information, click HERE.

In the end of the year our CTO had a presentation on the Hungarian WebKonf regarding D8’s CMIs.

Building the Team

We’ve introduced an internal motivation ritual for the projects’ milestones and launches to commemorate our successes.

We consider teamspirit as important as individual motivation, this is why we routinely organize teambuildings. In 2015, for example, we went to the Capa Center’s interactive high-tech exhibition; yet contrastingly, Brainsum’s anniversary was celebrated with a BubbleBall match.

In November, we spent a weekend in Győrújbaráthely at the impressive Villa Corvina.

At the Christmas Party we summarized our achievements and performance over the year. Also we touched on our future plans and personal challenges for 2016.