When you look up our company’s core values in the freistil IT Runbook, you’ll find that “community” is one of them. That’s not only because we’d like to think our team is held together by more than just employment contracts. It’s also because with Open Source Software, we’re working in a space that teaches us the power of community every day.

Recognising the people who contribute to this community in an exemplary way and showing appreciation for their work is important. While there are more people who get payed to work on projects such as Drupal or WordPress than 10 years ago, the huge majority of Open Source contributors still invests their personal time and money in an altruistic fashion. And although a myriad of businesses use Open Source Software, only a few of them actually engage in the community that’s building it.

That’s why we at freistil IT think that the Splash Awards are a great idea. Let’s shine a light on people and businesses who help both the Drupal project and the Drupal community grow and improve! The Splash Awards started as a yearly event in the Netherlands and will be coming to Germany this week. At a great venue in Hamburg, the Drupal community will honour companies and individuals doing outstanding work in the following categories:

• Social
• Publishing/Media
• Engagement
• Architecture
• Government
• Education
• Tools/Apps
• Commerce

And on top of the awards in these categories, a deserving Drupal hero is going to be named “Drupalista of the Year”.

We’re more than happy to support the Splash Awards as a Gold Sponsor and I’m looking forward to presenting one of the awards myself!

And if you’d like to join the party, simply give us a shout — we have a few free tickets to give away!