While Gregory Heller was busy trying to fix the wifi situation at the Richard Hugo House, I parachuted in to describe what Drupal was (whatever you want it to be, was my answer) and answered a few how-to questions. It was a good start, since it got me talking and seemed to established me as somewhat of an expert in the platform. My joke of the day came at introduction time, where I said that people saw me as the public face of Bryght (which is partially true, I should have said I was one of the public faces of Bryght) and that when people email the support team they start of with "Hi Richard" instead of "Hi Bryght Support" (which it turns out is correct, I handle most of the queries). As with any event involving Web 2.0 types, there are photos, some at the unwieldy drupalcampseattle2006 tag on Flickr.

(There's probably a best-practice or etiquette we can establish where if the wifi is slow or spotty we agree to upload photos at the end of the day at our various places of rest instead of all rushing to be the first to document the event. This happened at Gnomedex last year, and though a smaller event, it seemed to overwhelm the resources.)

On the 'conferences for introverts' front, having tables set up in a square or rectangle where you are forced to introduce yourselves at the beginning of the event—and where you wear clothing with the logo of the company you represent—helps break the ice. Going only on my experience, I assert that introverts have difficulty talking about themselves because, partly, they think what they do isn't really all that interesting. When you go to something where what you do is 100% relevant to that event, then it's a little easier. A lot easier? I wish I had the same confidence talking to people about hobbies—such as they are, though that's what my weblog is for—as I do about work, though working for a startup where the ideas and people with them are as fun and interesting as the crew I'm here with, work often feels like fun, something I'd do if even if they didn't pay me.

Note that I'm not complaining that I get paid to do this.