One of the fun fantasy site projects we'll be showcasing at Do It With Drupal this year is a clone of Meetup.com in Drupal. Karen Stevenson created the fantasy site, called "Groupal", and it's an exercise in creating groups using the shiny new Organic Groups module for D7.

There were challenges a-plenty to get this all working in a mashup that incorporates Organic Groups with events, locations, rsvps, photo galleries, and activity streams, all stitched together with Panels and Views. For example, one challenge was finding a way for each group to take over the site title and site navigation so a click on 'Home' takes you to the group home page rather than the site home page, and generally making sure the group context is maintained as the user moves around the group 'site'. Karen figured it all out, and will be sharing her knowledge with you -- so you can learn from her pain!

In the process of building this out, Karen had to analyze which of several alternative modules to use for location, signup, activity stream, photo gallery and other functionality. She will discuss why she picked the modules she did, and will note others that might work as well or better in other situations. She'll also point you to issues and patches that may be needed (many of the modules we use are still on the bleeding edge of Drupal 7) so you can help fix and polish the component modules to ensure they are production-ready.

To hear more and see the fantasy site in action, join us in the Meetup.com Fantasy Site session at Do It With Drupal.

If you're not yet registered for Do it with Drupal 2011, register now while seats are still available!