DrupalCon Barcelona 2024: Top Session Picks from Our Team
Authored by Nadiia Nykolaichuk.
DrupalCon 2024 is returning to one of the world’s most enchanting cities — Barcelona! As the event draws near, Drupal enthusiasts from around the globe are tapping out the rhythm of Spanish flamenco with their feet in anticipation. Now is the perfect time to explore the conference’s program and select the sessions that will inspire and invigorate you.
The DrupalCon sessions are as diverse and captivating as the intricate mosaics of Barcelona’s legendary architect, Antoni Gaudí. Whether you’re building Drupal websites, managing projects, using Drupal as a customer, or engaged in any other aspect of this powerful CMS, you’ll find plenty of valuable content.
Just a few months after DrupalCon Portland, our team is eagerly looking forward to reconnecting with the community in Barcelona and exploring some of the sessions together. It wasn’t easy, but we’ve cherry-picked a few that we’re looking forward to the most.
The diversity of DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 sessions
Evidently, we will all want to attend Driesnote in the main auditorium — a central keynote by the creator and project lead of Drupal about where Drupal is headed. Aside from this, there are keynotes by initiative leads and other experts, BoF (birds of a feather) sessions, contribution workshops, and much more.
The sessions are grouped into six official tracks, making it easier and at the same time harder to choose the ones you don’t want to miss:
- Agency & Business
- Clients & Industry Experiences
- Makers & Builders
- Open Web & Community
- Users & Editors
- Drupal Starshot
Our Top Sessions Picks from DrupalCon Barcelona 2024
“Building the future of Drupal: 11, 12 and Starshot” — by Gábor Hojtsy and Tim Plunkett
You don’t need a time machine to catch a glimpse of Drupal’s future. At DrupalCon Barcelona 2024, you can get an insightful preview by attending the session by prominent Drupal core contributors — Gábor Hojtsy and Tim Plunkett.
Drupal’s future is brimming with promise and innovation. At DrupalCon Portland 2024, Dries unveiled the Drupal Starshot Initiative aimed at creating a new version of Drupal with exceptional out-of-the-box experiences, and officially announced recently that it will be called “Drupal CMS.” Meanwhile, Drupal 11 core, released in early August, showcases brilliant improvements, and Drupal 12 is already on the horizon, with an anticipated release in 2026.
Join Gábor and Tim to learn how the Starshot builds on Drupal core and its role in shaping the future of Drupal core and contributed modules. They will delve into the benefits of Drupal Starshot for both new and existing websites, and share plenty of other valuable insights about it.
“Drupal Recipes Initiative Update” — by Martin Anderson-Clutz and Mark Casias
What if creating the most “delicious” Drupal website functionalities could be as effortless as following a user-friendly cookbook? With Drupal Recipes, this is becoming a reality! Recipes — pre-packaged functionality kits — can be easily applied to new or existing websites, offering unparalleled flexibility and reducing maintenance costs. You’ll find “a virtual cooking show of applying various recipes” at the session by Martin Anderson-Clutz and Mark Casias.
Recipes are the latest buzz in Drupal development. New APIs for them are one of the gems of the newly released Drupal 11. Recipes are also essential building blocks of the above-mentioned Drupal Starshot.
The session will also provide an update on the progress of Recipes and the ways to get involved. Our team is especially excited about our Software Architecture Director, Bryan Sharpe, contributing to the Recipes Initiative.
“Unleash all Drupal features: how ambitious site builders take it to the next level with ECA and BPMN” — by Jürgen Haas
The ECA (Event-Condition-Action) module is taking the spotlight with its outstanding features. It enables you to trigger automated actions on your website in response to specific events, with or without certain conditions being met.
But what is particularly impressive is how ECA empowers non-developers. There’s no need to write code to harness its exceptional power. In tandem with the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) graphical user interface, it makes ECA workflows, AKA models, visually understandable to anyone.
That being said, it’s particularly exciting for us to attend the ECA session hosted by the creator of the module — Jürgen Haas. He will present two use cases from Drupal customers who received amazing results with ECA. The session promises to be packed with practical insights on how the module can enhance your website.
“AI with Drupal - Using LLM technology is easy, but how do you actually build useful applications?” — by Christoph Breidert and Loredan Szocs
AI is deeply integrated with Drupal through modules like OpenAI, Augmentor AI, AI Interpolator, and more. But is AI truly a land of endless opportunities? Christoph Breidert and Loredan Szocs will explore both the possibilities and challenges of using Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in custom applications.
Their session at DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 looks rich and insightful. It will cover how LLMs work, what AI providers exist, when customization is needed, how to optimize the AI integration costs, how to bring out the real value of AI tailoring to customers’ business goals, and more.
Attendees will see an engaging demo of an AI tool recommending DrupalCon sessions using live data. The session will be wrapped up with an ideation process aimed at inspiring innovative AI applications. No prior knowledge is needed, so the session is accessible to everyone.
“Gin Admin Theme - Road to stable” — by Sascha Eggenberger
The realm of admin themes has a new gem that dazzles even in the dark. The Gin admin theme now offers a dark mode, among its many intriguing features. Furthermore, it boasts sticky action buttons, customizable focus and accent colors, brand-new navigation, and more. The bold and sleek design of Gin has already garnered many supporters.
The creator of Gin, Sascha Eggenberger, is ready to share the latest updates on the theme’s development at DrupalCon Barcelona 2024. Sascha is one of the lead designers of Drupal’s default admin theme Claro and Drupal Design System. Visit Sascha’s session to discover the important changes, new additions, Gin’s influence on Drupal core, future plans, and more.
“Everything you need to know about cookies but are afraid to ask!” - by Will Huggins
Cookies play a crucial role in the world of marketers. They are vital for personalizing web content and tracking user behavior. However, due to privacy concerns, cookie regulations often change. For example, Google plans to phase out 3rd party cookies entirely for Chrome by the end of the year 2024, which should have big implications for websites.
Join Will Huggins' session to explore cookies—what they are, why they're being phased out, and their impact on users and website editors. Of course, it will also explore the evolving privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, how famous browsers like Safari and Firefox responded to them, what kind of solution Google’s Privacy Sandbox is, and more.
Attendees will learn how to adapt strategies to comply with regulations and personalize user experiences while protecting privacy. No technical knowledge is required.
Final thoughts
We’re excited to see the diverse range of sessions awaiting us all — from groundbreaking insights to practical demos. After sharing our top session picks for DrupalCon Barcelona 2024, we’d leave you with a “¡Hasta pronto!” (which is the Spanish for “See you soon!”). We look forward to seeing you at the event and engaging with our brilliant community.
