DrupalCon Prague: Expectations of a First-Time Attendee

Among the multitude of Drupal events, DrupalCon is the one that makes the hearts of thousands of Drupalers beat with special excitement. This September, DrupalCon Europe will take place in the magical city of Prague. It will gather Drupal developers, project managers, content strategists, marketers — and the list goes on for the job titles of folks who attend the event for insights, networking, skill-sharing, and inspiration.

Among them, there are seasoned attendees who can’t wait to see the familiar faces of their fellow Drupalers again. Equally, there are many first-timers who have never been to the biggest Drupal meetup before and are marking September 20-23 in their calendars as a long-expected miracle.

I, the author of this article, am a happy representative of the latter group. I’ve always been dreaming of attending DrupalCon, and now the ImageX web development team has given me this opportunity. So let me share with you what I’m looking forward to the most as my suitcase is almost packed for the DrupalCon journey with my colleagues.

Finally in-person, finally offline!

Definitely, Prague will be the place for some exciting “devirtualization.” The last in-person “Europe edition” of DrupalCon took place in Amsterdam in 2019. For the next two years, the event went virtual due to Covid restrictions, with all activities being broadcasted to the PC screens.

It’s wonderful to know that DrupalCon Prague will be the first in-person DrupalCon Europe in almost 3 years! The Covid precautions, of course, will still be in place, but this fact can hardly diminish the joy of attending the event live.

DrupalCon’s “devirtualization” has a special meaning for a first-time visitor. Finally getting emersed in the vibrant Drupal world with famous faces previously only seen from a computer screen, should create a wow effect!

Amazing speakers

There are multifaceted people who are able to bring the most ambitious Drupal ideas to life, and that’s what they excel in. They coordinate initiatives, build the Drupal core or cool contributed projects, pave the way for new Drupal releases, and do so many things that shape Drupal’s future. 

There are so many of these names in the DrupalCon Prague program! Previously, I’ve only seen them in the recordings of speeches, webinars, tutorials, or podcasts, read their insights in blog posts, or exchanged comments with some of them on Twitter. 

Meeting all of these folks in person at DrupalCon must feel so much different that it’s almost like a movie! Indeed, they are like movie stars everyone wants to take a selfie with. And many have already done it at DrupalCons — but for a first-time visitor, everything is just beginning!

Driesnote live

If the brilliant idea to create Drupal hadn’t come 21 years ago to Dries Buytaert, we would have absolutely no reason to gather for DrupalCon. Dries founded Drupal and guided it to become an enterprise-level CMS that is now on the verge of its 10th major release. 

No wonder the keynote by Drupal’s creator and project lead is the speech everyone is looking forward to with special interest. Driesnote is a concentration of the facts you need to know about where Drupal is moving. Dries reviews the key Drupal initiatives with the freshest comments from their leads, announces important release dates, and marks milestones. 

It’s after Driesnote that the Drupal world is buzzing with hot news and interesting facts. However, listening to him gives you more than the knowledge of facts and technical data — it helps you feel and understand the intrinsic values of the community.

That being said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Driesnote attracts the most significant number of attendees and, deservedly, causes the loudest applause. Indeed, joining this applause in real life will be epic! 

Brilliant insights

Do you ever regret not having the superpower to be in multiple places at the same time? You may when you look through the DrupalCon Prague 2022’s program! Choosing between so many cool sessions looks like a pretty tough task.

Website accessibility explored from every angle, CKEditor 5 in Drupal 10 as a major third-party upgrade, Project Browser Initiative as one of the newest projects for the Drupal core, the ins and outs of getting ready for Drupal 10, the secrets of decoupled Drupal, multisite, and multilingual setup — the list of unmissable topics could go on! 

Five official tracks such as Agency & Business, Clients & Industry Experiences, Makers & Builders, Open Web & Community, and Users & Editors just prove DrupalCon has something exciting for everyone. 

In addition, the variety of formats including sessions, keynotes from the initiative leads, workshops, summits, training sessions, and BOFs makes DrupalCon Prague especially dynamic and suitable for attendees of all skill levels, interests, and professions.

100% socialization and fun

It’s Drupal folks from across the globe that make our Drupal planet go round. Meeting them in person is a priceless experience! The O2 Universum center in Prague will be humming like a big beehive, offering everyone a chance to make more connections, collaborate, and exchange ideas. 

There are also special social activities like the Opening Reception, Women in Drupal, and, of course, Drupal Trivia Night where folks team up to check their Drupal knowledge in a fun way but with the passion of a big and exciting competition.

Giving back to Drupal

The spirit of the open-source CMS is all about contributing to its development. Drupal Contribution Day code sprints that are regularly held worldwide offer a great chance to get involved with making Drupal even better.  

The contribution opportunities at DrupalCon are outstanding. There are first-time contributor workshops and general Contribution Days every single day of the DrupalCon Prague 2022, as well as the special mentored Contribution Day on Friday. You can learn from a star mentor and grow professionally at an especially fast pace.

Historic moments

Have you heard about the fact that a casual conversation in a lobby led to the creation of the gorgeous-looking and super accessible Olivero theme? What about the moment at DrupalCon Portland’s Drupal Trivia night when Olivero became the default front-end theme via a live commit? 

The Drupal community has seen many such examples. When the greatest minds gather in the same place, they make history. And DrupalCon Prague is a unique chance to be in the midst of all this happening and see history being created in front of your eyes!

The fascinating city of Prague

Of course, every DrupalCon city adds its own charm to the event. This time, the Charles Bridge on DrupalCon Europe’s logo gives us a glimpse of the beautiful Prague. 

“The city of a hundred spires,” “the golden city,” the capital city of the Czech Republic, or even the temporary capital of Drupal — whatever you call it, it’s hard to stop counting minutes until the rendez-vous with Prague.

To sum up

DrupalCon Prague seems like a long-awaited dream coming true. But as I’m looking at the headline on the event’s official page — “Where the art of the possible comes to life” — I know for sure that nothing is impossible with Drupal and the ImageX team. Best regards, your happy first-time attendee who hopes to meet you all at DrupalCon Prague!

	Nadiia Nykolaichuk Copywriter and Site Builder, ImageX Nadiia is an active member of the Drupal community. She contributes to Drupal.org with module documentation guides and loves to attend Drupal events, especially ones organized by ImageX.