Summary: I met 15-year-old serial entrepreneur--CEO of goCreative--and budding Drupalist Brandon Relph at the inaugural ThinkNation event in Canterbury, in December 2015. In this podcast, we talk about how he got to know Drupal 8 and what he thought of it. And I was surprised to learn that there is a world of professional Minecraft out there, in which Brandon runs two professional ventures and employs a couple dozen people around the world. Brandon met Drupal when he began building the ThinkNation website in Drupal 8 as part of a work-experience week with the UK Agency Miggle. From an interview with Brandon on the ThinkNation website, Putting young people at the heart of ThinkNation: “Working on the ThinkNation site seemed a daunting process at first. I had just arrived to the Miggle office for my work experience and was given the task of converting the pre-made designs of ThinkNation into HTML/CSS that afternoon!” Miggle founder, Alick Mighall talks about Brandon and ThinkNation in this post: Young Thinking. Interview video - 10 min. Guest dossier Name: Brandon Relph Work affiliation: CEO goCreative - “We create awesome Minecraft creations” Block Arts - “The new way to share all things Minecraft” Twitter: @brandonrelph 1st version of Drupal: Drupal 8! jam: Right. We – this guy and I have just spent the whole day at this thing called ThinkNation and ThinkNation – what did you think of the day? Brandon Relph: It was very well put together. It was very interesting and engaging. jam: If you had to describe it to someone else who wasn’t here, how would you describe this event? Brandon Relph: Something to almost answer those big questions that you may have. jam: Right. So the format was roughly five big questions involving human life at the deepest level. Should we invest in technology to extend it, should we invest in space flights, questions about mortality, really kind of serious stuff. And it was put together ... So there were a series of experts, speakers and artists and a poet and some dancers and everybody addressing these questions in different ways. I found it incredibly rich and I was pretty excited and the plan is to have more of these. Would you come back? Brandon Relph: For sure. jam: So please introduce yourself. Brandon Relph: My name is Brandon Relph. I’m from Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne. I did my work experience with the company Miggle, which helped design the website for this event. jam: That’s our secret Drupal connection of the day. So what did you do on your work experience? Brandon Relph: I was the first person to start the ThinkNation site. jam: Which was built in...? Brandon Relph: Drupal 8. jam: Oh, lovely! Brandon Relph: This was back in June time. So it was when - before it had even been released. Yes, I built lots of the front end and I also got to use Drupal 8, which I’ve never used before. jam: So what’s your development, IT, web sort of background? Brandon Relph: In school, I study computer science. Outside the school, I do lots of computer-related activities. I also own my own company, which ... we do stuff on the computer and everyday internet. jam: So you’re an entrepreneur. Brandon Relph: Yes, you could call me that. jam: In geek terms, Alick Mighall said, “Go make a Drupal 8 site,” and just set you loose, right? How was it to open up Drupal for the first time and...? Brandon Relph: It was a challenge. I have to say it’s very easy to install it and when we were doing – on the first day, I basically got told, “Oh yes, we use Drupal.” I got talked through what it was. I got left a bit to decide and get to know it and they were like, “Oh, here’s the site. We want you to start.” So I started. I think pretty much in the first afternoon...
