We did a little preview of the event on this blog back in June, but for those that didn't catch it here's a quick overview of what's on offer this week:

• 5 day event taking place at Fairfield halls, Croydon, London
• Around 40 separate sessions each and every day, organised by skill level (beginner/intermediate/advanced) and type (core/code/ecosystem/build/design/business)
• The chance to meet hundreds of other Drupal professionals and experts
• An excellent Sponsor fair, as well as plenty of fun parties and entertainment

While it's too late to register through the pre-event booking system, you can still find spare tickets on the Drupalcon forum where people who have them, but are unable to attend, are trying to find latecomers wishing to go.

The whole thing is of course well covered on Twitter, with @drupalcon being the official profile and plenty of activity around #Drupalcon now that the event is truly in full swing. As proud sponsors of the Drupalcon, Etondigital are also there in full attendance to enjoy this fantastic event and you can follow us with @etondigital for our thoughts and experiences (or even come and say hi in person).

Finally, for those unable to attend this year's event, there is the opportunity to see all of the keynote speeches from each day on the drupalcon website, either as a live stream or a recorded clip later on, so you can get involved in all the interesting post-lecture online chatter even if you can't be there in person.

Enjoy the conference, we will hopefully see you there!

Well, that's why etonDIGITAL is delighted to unveil Designmoves - a job finding website, built on Drupal CMS and operating exclusively within the UK creative sector. As the tagline on the homepage says - 'it's like a job listings site, only it looks nice and is easy to use'. Indeed, the site's search is appealingly straightforward, updating as you type and enter your preferences into the smooth and attractive interface.

We'd like to thank all those that worked so hard to produce this lovely and functional design, both at ED and our clients. Have a look over at designmoves.co.uk to check out the design, and good luck for all the prospective job-hunters currently searching the database!

We're pleased to announce the completion of a number of great new projects, all going live in the past week or so, starting with the fantastic new AnaIvanovic.com - homepage of top tennis star Ana Ivanovic. The Drupal construction features massive social networking potential, with user profiles, facebook invite compatibility and fan groups, as well as interviews and updates from Ana and all the latest news on her career activities.

In addition to that, we've also recently unveiled RestaurantSupplier.co.uk - a directory aiming to connect restaurants and suppliers more closely, with free registration offered granting access to the full range of business tools aimed at helping businesses find the partners they're looking for.

Thirdly, freight software company BoxTop technologies has a new website at Boxtop.net with complete WordPress design, offering info on their full range of services, partners, company news, and case studies.

Last but not least is Atrium marketing consultancy - which has a brand new Drupal website at atriumgroup.com, once again, with full company info and service options for this prestigious firm (which counts Bupa, Cisco, and HM Revenue and Customs among its clients).

As always, well done to all our hard-working staff for delivering these projects to spec - and our clients who made it happen in the first place.

Dejan Levi

Currently Drupal Gardens is in invite-only beta testing mode, with general availability expected within the next few months (sign up at the DG homepage). Whatsmore all of these services will be free for the remainder of the year so don't miss out on the chance to sample these handy tools for free (before the pricing structure is applied following full launch).

For more info check out Drupal creator, Dries Buytaert's, blog post on the topic - or Techcrunch's excellent scoop.

(N.B. You can of course expect more coverage on this here as the Beta testing develops leading up to full launch - as well as incorporation of Drupal Gardens into EtonDigital's portfolio of tools and services).

Dejan levi

Below we share a list of the top five Drupal designs by Eton Digital:

• Document Boss B2B ECM website
• Concep Global
• EEZEER: NOW reviews on airlines, aircraft photos & airline tweets
• Vansdirect - UK's leading supplier of new vans and commercial vehicles.
• Pod3.tv podcast webTV

Feel free to add your own websites or any suggestions of your own via the comment section.

To receive a quote, please return the brief questionnaire to get the process started.

A selection of more best Drupal websites by Eton Digital

Read our blog entry "10 reasons to use Drupal".

(N.B. For those new the software, Drupal is a free-to-download, open source content management system and modular framework. It is written in PHP and allows users to create and organise content, as well as manage a range of processes such as financial transactions. More info available at Drupal.org/about).

Anyway so here it is, why EtonDigital loves Drupal development...

1. Drupal's growing community of support and developers. Here are some stats:

• Community of registered users totalling 350,000
• Downloaded over 1.4 million times in the past year
• Over 2,000 registered developers
• Over 2,300 modules currently available - with new ones being added on an almost daily basis (compare this with an alternative such as OpenCMS for example which offers only a few hundred).

This great customizable depth is what makes Drupal so powerful (and pretty much unrivalled by any other CMS), and is also why it is the logical CMS of choice for larger and more complex projects.

2. Drupal is Increasingly user-friendly

In the past Drupal was guilty of having a steeper learning curve than other systems (due to its extensive capabilities) and hence suffered slightly in terms of attracting new users. However with a now much improved online help service, as well as a growing range of online forums and several dedicated IRC channels it is now easier than ever to learn how to harness Drupal effectively.

Basic website installation and admin can now be done with no programming whatsoever, making it both quick and straightforward to get started with Drupal on your site. A range of instruction books is also available aimed at varying levels of experience and familiarity with Drupal - click here to view some of the best.

3. Multi-lingual support

Drupal now supports 44 languages (likely to increase yet again in the next version). Even 'right-to-left' languages such as Hebrew and Arabic were added in version 6, meaning that companies/organisations with employees all over the world can harness Drupal with no linguistic barriers.

Similarly sites can be translated more easily for international versions giving you greater net reach and a higher degree of effective localization.

4. Flexible platforms

As well as Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Drupal can run on a FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris 10 or OpenSolaris platform. Again this lends flexibility to larger organisations with a variety of departments, as well as enabling futureproof security - switching platforms if required causes minimal disruption and hassle.

5. Drupal Ideal for larger projects

Drupal is a powerful tool which can handle everything from a simple blog site to a vast new social network. Because it can facilitate blogging, discussion forums, picture galleries, e-commerce, podcasting and much more it can be used to build complex services with multiple functions.

6. Drupal themes

Drupal themes allow you to create a cohesive aesthetic look and 'feel' for a site using Drupal's pre-loaded tools. This means that when building smaller projects (built on smaller budgets) web developers can offer a high professional standard where previously delivering on aesthetics would have sometimes been sacrificed in favour of delivering functionality and on schedule.

Now Drupal enables the creation of great looking, quick-turnaround projects to the same visual standards as bigger jobs; great for both clients and developers all round.

7. User Profiles

Just one of the many ways Drupal allows you to create sites with a range of web 2.0 features. Develop user profiles, offer comment boards, forums, authenticated comments and more, ensuring that sites retain high levels of traffic and interactivity rather than falling away in rankings after initial launch.

8. Run multiple websites from one installation

Great for active developers and designers with multiple projects.

9. Performance orientated

Drupal is specially designed for impressive performance stats, even through heavy traffic (a special throttle feature helps maintain high performance when a site is busy) and outperforms rivals such as Joomla on this front. If you're planning a high-profile project then Drupal represents the most serious kit for handling the job.

10. The name Drupal is derived from a typo

Drupal is adapted from the Dutch word for 'drop' (druppel) - as in for a drop of water. Originally however the name was meant to be taken from the Dutch word for village or community - 'dorp'. When registering the domain, its Dutch creator typed 'drop' instead, which morphed to 'Drupal' in Dutch - a nice down-to-earth antidote to modern multi-million dollar branding strategies of most big companies out there if ever you heard one...

There you have it - a few particular reasons why we're so keen on Drupal. If it all sounds good to you and you want to find out more or start using Drupal yourself visit drupal.org

Eton Digital Drupal Websites

Dejan Levi

The firm was founded in 2002, and now has offices in London, Sydney and New York, having enjoyed tremendous success with average annual revenue growth of approximately 100%.

They now have over 230 clients internationally, including nearly one-third of the top 100 global law firms, financial services and numerous professional and property service companies.

Concep makes business communications a one-to-one experience. They develop and implement pinpoint digital marketing strategies that work, and required a professional, Drupal driven website to demonstrate the range of their services and provide an effective point of contact with potential clients.

After being let down by another London agency on the same project, Concep approached EtonDigital asking us to help with the integration of their pixel perfect design into Drupal CMS.

We started with the basics and listened closely, allowing us to demonstrate the caliber of EtonDigital’s Drupal development skills. A key requirement was that the site complied with W3C WAI guidelines which EtonDigital was happy to deliver.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the whole EtonDigital team and Concep Global for their hard work on this successful job.

Eton Digital work

Our CSS-driven design features a Drupal content management system, and fully integrated Google maps function. Client Gerry O'Neill praised the site as a 'superb effort', delighted with the web 2.0 design and sleek visuals. The current list of properties features everything from stunning converted farmhouses to cosy rustic cottages, specialising in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne region of southern France. Click onto www.premierfrenchproperty.com to browse the great properties for yourself!

Dejan Levi