Insightful stories that revolve around technology, culture, and design

Drupal Trivandrum celebrated the 25th anniversary of both Drupal and Wikipedia on 15th January. I attended the meetup in person, and it was a good experience. Our involvement started with a simple conversation between Piyuesh and The Drop Times, which led to us being part of the event, and in turn, I got to be there as well. Destiny!

The event was held at the International Centre for Free and Open Source Solutions (ICFOSS), Trivandrum, and the turnout was impressive. There were many college students and fresh graduates attending, asking thoughtful questions, and engaging deeply with how Drupal is evolving. At a time when Free and Open Source communities are actively thinking about how to stay relevant for the next generation, seeing this level of curiosity and participation felt like a strong sign that the ecosystem is moving in the right direction.

The program opened with the Presidential Address by Sunil TT, Director of ICFOSS, followed by a session titled ‘Drupal: Past, Present, and Future’ by Sebin A. Jacob, Editor-in-Chief of The Drop Times. The session traced Drupal’s journey over the years and gave a clear picture of how the platform has grown and changed.

One of the most inspiring parts of the meetup was hearing people share their personal Drupal journeys. They spoke about how they discovered it, how they learned it, and how it ended up changing their lives.

What struck me deeply was how, in a time when the internet was not widely accessible and knowledge was not available at everyone’s fingertips, people still built communities and shared learning. They laid the foundation of an ecosystem that today creates jobs for so many of us and quite literally puts food on our plates. I spoke about the Drupal AI initiative and Drupal Canvas, which I am always happy to talk about. 

As part of the celebration of 25 years of Wikipedia, Mujeeb Rahman from Wikimedians of Kerala presented the history of Wikipedia and explained how thousands of contributors collaborate every minute to make knowledge freely available and accessible to the world. He also introduced us to a fascinating site called Listen to Wikipedia(http://listen.hatnote.com/), which plays a sound whenever a Wikipedia page is edited or updated in real time. It felt like a powerful symbol of community spirit and collaboration.

To make sure Drupal and Wikipedia continue to stay relevant for the younger generation, two thoughtful initiatives were announced during the meetup:

1. Drupal in a day, announced by Anish A from the Drupal TVM group, focused on introducing Drupal to college students in a simple, hands-on, and approachable way.

2. Wiki Loves Drupal, announced by Kala Jayan from the Drupal TVM group, focused on improving the quality, depth, and accuracy of Drupal-related content on Wikipedia.

The second initiative felt particularly timely, as Wikipedia remains one of the most trusted and widely referenced sources of information, including by many AI systems and search tools. Strengthening Drupal’s presence there makes the information more reliable, more accessible, and easier for people to discover.

Dinner followed, supported by the event sponsors, and it gave everyone a relaxed space to talk, connect, and spend time together over good food. It was a simple but nice way to wind down after a packed day.

Meetups like this leave me feeling refreshed. They create room for real conversations, new ideas, and stronger community ties, and they remind me why being part of the Drupal and the wider open-source ecosystem matters.

Thanks to QED42 (that’s where I work), which supported the event as the Title Sponsor, along with several other sponsors who helped make the gathering possible. 

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Just like people, technology grows, adapts, and figures itself out over time. And after 25 years, Drupal has done all of that and more.

On January 10, 2026, the Drupal Pune community came together to celebrate this milestone at a special Drupal Birthday Edition meetup, marking 25 years of Drupal. Hosted by QED42 at their Pune, India office, the event brought together Drupal enthusiasts, professionals, and long-time community members for a morning filled with learning, reflection, and good conversations.

The day kicked off with a relaxed meet-and-greet, setting the tone for what felt less like a formal event and more like a community reunion. That was followed by an insightful session titled “Drupal at 25: A Quarter-Century of Innovation and Community” by me.

I took everyone on a journey through Drupal’s story, one that mirrors human growth in many ways. It started back in 2001 as this simple dorm-room experiment, just people trying to solve a problem, no big master plan.  And over time, through a lot of trial, learning, and collaboration, it turned into something real and dependable.

Today, that same idea has grown into a powerful, enterprise-grade content management system trusted by governments, universities, media houses, and global brands. That evolution is kind of crazy when you think about it. I talked about the key milestones that shaped Drupal and how it wasn’t about sudden breakthroughs, but steady progress.

Consistent innovation, a strong open-source community, and a commitment to flexibility are what helped it grow without losing what made it special in the first place.

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One of the most engaging parts of the meetup was the discussion between members around Drupal’s future in the age of AI. The conversation focused on how Drupal is becoming increasingly AI-ready, thanks to its flexible architecture and API-first approach.

From content generation and personalisation to smarter workflows, participants shared how Drupal is well-positionedwell positioned to support modern, intelligent digital experiences without compromising on security or scalability.

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The meetup ended over lunch, with people breaking into small groups (that’s honestly where the deeper conversations always happen at any event).  
Conversations flowed easily, ideas were exchanged, and there was a shared sense of excitement about what lies ahead.
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More than anything, the event was a reminder that Drupal’s real strength isn’t just technology. It’s the community that continues to build, support, and evolve it together.

Here’s to the next chapter of Drupal!

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Oaisys 2025 is a two-day gathering built around one idea: progress through practice, bringing together people who design, build, and apply AI in ways that make systems more useful, open, and human.

On 29–30 November in Pune, engineers, designers, and researchers will meet for talks, sprints, and sessions shaped by real projects and shared learning It’s a space to exchange ideas, test methods, and explore how collaboration can make technology more meaningful in everyday use.

Oaisys is built on community — people who learn and create together.
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It’s a place for thoughtful discussion, practical exploration, and collective effort that turns ideas into working systems. It also reflects how open-source and AI communities in Asia are growing — sharing knowledge, building together, and shaping technology with intent and purpose.

And, why would this matter? 

AI is now part of how we build, design, and decide. The question is, how do we apply it with clarity and purpose?

Progress happens when knowledge is shared. It needs spaces where experimentation meets community — where builders learn from one another in the open.

Oaisys was created to be that space: grounded, collaborative, and shaped by practitioners who care about how things are created.

‍Keynote

Marcus Johansson and James (Jamie) Abrahams from FreelyGive will lead the Drupal AI Code Sprint and keynote sessions at Oaisys 2025.

Both have been deeply involved in Drupal’s work with AI, shaping how open systems evolve through shared experimentation. Their sessions will focus on what’s being created, how it’s coming together, and how the Drupal community can participate in this progress.

The Code Sprint is a hands-on space for contributors and developers to explore Drupal AI — setting up tools, writing code, and learning through real implementations. It’s an opportunity to collaborate, share ideas, and move forward together.

Workshops and sprints

The sessions at Oaisys are made for people who learn by building.
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Across two days, participants will join talks, sprints, and collaborative sessions centred on applied AI in practice. Each activity invites open participation — seeing how ideas are tested, refined, and translated into working systems.

From focused builds to informal discussions, every part of the event encourages practical exploration and shared thinking. It’s a place to connect with peers solving similar challenges and to gain a grounded view of how applied AI is taking shape.

Conversations and collaboration

Beyond the structured sessions, Oaisys makes room for open dialogue and exchange.

Panel discussions, show-and-tell sessions, and Birds of a Feather meetups bring together people from different disciplines to reflect on what’s real, what’s changing, and what’s next. The format is fluid — participants shape the conversations they want to have.

Whether it’s a discussion around Drupal AI, an exploration of open architectures, or an impromptu breakout, these moments often spark new ideas and collaborations that extend beyond the event.

A growing community

Oaisys marks the beginning of a broader effort to connect people working with applied AI across Asia. It’s a space to stay in touch, share what’s being learned, and keep building together long after the event ends.

The goal is simple: to strengthen a community where progress is shared and every experiment, no matter the scale, contributes to how AI evolves next.

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Are we moving towards a future where we write less code or where we write code more intelligently? 

At this year's React Nexus, held at IISc Bengaluru, felt like a bit of both. The sessions and conversations portrayed that React 19 and AI are transforming our development processes, and the way we build software is evolving fast.

By automating repetitive tasks and minimising boilerplate code, these tools allow us to concentrate on what really matters, creating performance-driven architectures, enabling inclusive user experiences, and building systems that endure over time. 

For the 700 attendees, this was more than just another tech event. With 29 brilliantly sharp speakers sharing their insights, it became a space to really pause and think about where React is going, and where our whole industry might be headed.

Personally? It was unforgettable. My first-ever tech conference, and oddly enough, it didn’t feel like a formal event at all. It felt more like a reunion.

For the past 3 years, I’ve been working remotely at QED42, bonding with my team through Slack threads, Google Meet calls, and GitHub pull requests. Getting to meet my teammates from the Pune office again was something else entirely.

Day 1: performance, architecture, and understanding the core

The first day was an incredible opportunity to understand fundamentals that scale. From exploring the React Compiler to understanding Fiber internals, each session was packed with insights you could immediately apply to real-world problems.. 

The event was run really well. Registration was quick, volunteers were on point, and everything just flowed smoothly.

The breaks for tea and lunch weren’t just a breather; they gave us a perfect chance to network with fellow developers and check out booths from companies like ImageKit, Asgardio, GoDaddy, Vonage, and Zoho Catalyst.

React 19: from boilerplate to beautiful

In her session on building better forms with React 19, Nipuni Paaris demonstrated how React 19 is transforming our approach to forms. With the introduction of new form actions and hooks, the era of tedious form boilerplate may finally be behind us. It's a relief for developers, seamlessly integrated into the framework.

Akash Hamirwasia shared what it’s like to adopt the new React Compiler. If performance tuning has ever taken over your workflow, this will feel like a breath of fresh air. The compiler now takes care of optimisations like memoisation, letting you stay focused on writing clear, expressive code.

Wadad Parker’s session on context was informative and full of personality. While prop drilling can feel like a workout, React 19’s revamped Context API streamlines state sharing, making it more efficient and reliable, with fewer unnecessary re-renders.

Scaling systems: from micro frontends to micro-architecture

Padam Jeet Singh and Shruti Bansal from GoDaddy shared practical strategies for making micro frontends work at scale. Their session focused on building shared infrastructure, setting up strong communication between teams, and putting solid governance in place. With the right structure, micro frontends become a reliable way to grow large applications without losing control.

Alok Kumar Singh from Cashfree Payments gave a clear and thoughtful breakdown of React Fiber internals. He explained how React handles rendering through incremental, interruptible updates and how lane-based prioritisation helps manage what gets rendered and when. It offered a deeper look at the mechanics behind React’s responsiveness and performance.

Performance & observability: build fast, stay fast

Harshit Budhraja from ImageKit.io delivered a session full of practical tips for improving Lighthouse scores, especially for media-heavy applications. He walked through techniques like using responsive images and AI-powered transformations through ImageKit.io. The live demo showed how these optimisations can make a real difference in both speed and quality.

Apurv Khare from Adobe explored the difference between knowing something broke and understanding why it happened. His session on frontend observability covered how to use sampling-based telemetry, real-time profiling, and structured logs to gain deeper insights. The focus was on moving from reactive fixes to proactive improvements that keep systems healthy and predictable.

Supercharging your IDE: the AI coding sidekick

I tested every cursor trick, so you don’t have to! 

In her session, Tanisha Sabherwal talked about how the cursor isn’t just an editor; it’s your coding companion, demonstrating how to leverage context-aware prompts and other cursor features to receive AI support that truly understands your project's structure.

Give your code editor real superpowers 

In this lightning talk with Apoorv Taneja was incredibly engaging, highlighting how MCPs can transform your editor with amazing new capabilities.

After a full day of learning, we navigated the infamous Bengaluru traffic to enjoy a wonderful team dinner, energised by the ideas we had discussed throughout the day.

Day 2: The rise of the AI-native developer

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While Day 1 laid the groundwork, Day 2 propelled us into a future where AI is seamlessly integrated into development processes.

AI as co-pilot: from design to code

Chaitanya Deorukhkar from Razorpay showed how their design system, Blaze, works with an MCP server to generate React components directly from Figma. This setup brings design and development much closer, turning design files into production-ready code almost instantly.

Sanket Sahu from GeekyAnts walked us through the evolution of visual builders and introduced ShaperStudio, a new tool designed to connect design environments like Figma with developer tools like VS Code. It’s built to make collaboration between designers and developers smoother and more intuitive. We were so impressed, we caught up with him after the session and managed to get early access to try it out ourselves.

Accessibility as default, not an afterthought

Building accessible UI with copilot – Navya Agarwal
Showed how Copilot can be an accessibility partner if you ask the right way. Copilot can help us address accessibility issues. Concluding with a powerful quote: “Accessibility isn't more work, the work was incomplete.”

Input accessibility deep dive with Shrilakshmi Shastry emphasised the importance of using proper ARIA labels and understanding when and how to apply them. She warned that incorrect use of ARIA can do more harm than good, stating, “No ARIA is better than bad ARIA.”  Through clear examples, she demonstrated the proper application of these attributes.

These sessions fundamentally changed how I think about  Accessibility and our ethical responsibilities as front-end developers.

A proud moment: framework mastery in action

The highlight of Day 2, and perhaps the entire conference for my team, was a moment of immense pride watching our colleague, Archana Agivale, Tech Lead at QED42,  take the stage. Her talk, "Static Regeneration: Supercharging Next.js with Strapi Webhooks," was a masterclass in solving a real-world problem we all face.

She presented an elegant strategy for keeping static sites fresh without constant rebuilds by batching updates from Strapi via webhooks and using Next.js's Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR). 

The result? Static sites with dynamic superpowers blazingly fast, always up-to-date, and incredibly efficient. It was a brilliant showcase of practical innovation, and seeing her share that expertise with the wider community was a fantastic experience.

Panel discussion on AI was the cherry on top

It was captivating to listen to developers from Razorpay and Adobe discuss how AI is transforming our coding practices. The panel shared honest takes on both the potential and pitfalls of AI. While tools like Cursor, Copilot, and ChatGPT can enhance our productivity, they also require careful oversight and guidelines.

The day rounded out with more framework mastery from Tapas Adhikary on Next.js caching and Soumya Ranjan Mohanty on using Web Workers for smoother UIs, before Akshay Kumar U gave a demonstration of running a language model entirely on the client-side using React and WebLLM, paving the way for innovative, private AI features that operate directly on devices.

Key takeaways

As I look back on my first-ever tech conference, a few core ideas stand out:

1. The Developer's role Is Shifting to architecture. With React 19's built-in Compiler now taking care of optimisations and AI assistants generating boilerplate code, our main contribution is shifting higher up the stack. We are transitioning into architects who design scalable, high-performance systems.

2. Performance is not a Feature, it's the foundation. From React Fiber internals to image optimisation and frontend observability, the message was clear: building fast and resilient applications is an essential part of our role.

3. Accessibility is a moral imperative. The back-to-back sessions on accessibility served as a strong call to action. It's not merely a "nice-to-have" or an afterthought; it's our fundamental duty to create an inclusive web experience for everyone.

4. AI is becoming a core layer of the UI. The future isn't just about using AI to write code; it's about building intelligence directly into the user interface itself. On-device WebLLMs are just the beginning of this new frontier.

More than just a conference

As Day 2 came to a close, so did one of the most memorable experiences of my career so far.

After the final session, our team met for dinner before my colleagues returned to Pune. It was the perfect pause to reflect on everything we had learned, discussed, and experienced over the past two days. The energy, the ideas, and the people all came together in a way that felt both inspiring and grounded.

React Nexus 2025 wasn’t just a showcase of what’s possible with React 19 and AI. It was a celebration of how far we’ve come and a glimpse into where we’re heading. More importantly, it was a reminder that the community sits at the heart of everything we do. Behind every new feature or tool is a group of people asking thoughtful questions, sharing what they’ve learned, and helping each other grow.

While i had met them before, this was the first time i truly got to spend meaningful time with them. After three years of remote collaboration, sitting around the same table and sharing stories felt incredibly meaningful.

As we wrapped up and said our goodbyes, I left feeling more connected, more curious, and more excited about what we get to build next.

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After joining QED42, we kept hearing about Drupal meetups—what they were like, who showed up, and what kind of conversations happened there. And then, eventually, we walked into one.

A room full of people who care about this open-source tech at an almost unreasonable level.

Well, we were there for a few reasons. To listen. To learn. To see if Drupal, AI agents, Recipes, and Distributions are as interesting in conversation as they sound in documentation. Spoiler: they are! 

First impressions

Walking into our first Drupal Meetup, we stepped into a space filled with developers, designers, and open-source enthusiasts. 

Conversations sparked over coffee, ideas flowed, and within minutes, we weren’t just attendees anymore—we were part of the conversations, part of the momentum—loved it.

Drupal — more than a CMS

Yes, AI is a big deal right now and we love everything about it too, but what really stood out at the meetup was the people. The energy, the passion, the way everyone brought something to the table—it’s what makes Drupal and any tech community what it really is.

That’s the real hook that keeps people coming back to these meet ups. Maybe it’s also the modularity, the way Drupal CMS lets you shape content however you want. Maybe it’s the Entity System, which doesn’t just store content but structures it in ways that make scaling easy.

Or maybe it’s the fact that Drupal isn’t just for websites anymore. It powers applications, manages content across platforms, and handles workflows that most CMS platforms can’t or the fact it's always evolving, accepting changes and being relevant with what people really need today. 

So that being said, Drupal is more than a CMS. It’s a way of thinking. A way of building. A way of solving problems.

And behind that? Thousands of people. The energy they bring into the room is something you have to experience firsthand.

A focus on discussions

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1.AI agents in Drupal: What’s actually happening?

AI is everywhere. But the real question is: how is it being used in Drupal?

The discussion around AI agents wasn’t about hype—it was about real implementation. Things like:

• Chatbots that go beyond basic automation and understand user intent.
• Personalized content that adjusts dynamically based on user behavior.
• Automated moderation that filters content efficiently, reducing manual work.

AI isn’t something that might be useful in the future. It’s already here. The only question is how far teams will take it.

2.Drupal recipes and distributions: Because no one likes starting from scratch

Abishek Mazumdar (Drupal and Mautic Engineer at Dropsolid) walked us through Drupal Recipes and distributions, which, in simple terms, make building a Drupal site feel less like setting one up from scratch.

• Recipes – Prebuilt configurations that developers can drop into a project to speed things up.
• Distributions – Full pre-packaged versions of Drupal with everything set up for specific industries (publishing, community platforms, etc.).

If you’ve ever spent hours setting up Drupal from scratch, you understand why this matters.

Not to be redundant—but the people make all the difference

Drupal has been around for years, and there’s a reason it continues to thrive. It’s not just the software (while that’s great too). It’s the community.

The best part of the meetup wasn’t the talks. It was the conversations in between—people sharing real experiences, problems they’ve solved, things they’re still figuring out.

The kind of knowledge you don’t get from documentation.

Final thoughts

We left with a better understanding of Drupal’s future, AI’s role in content management, and why meetups like this are worth attending.

If you’re working with Drupal, thinking about it, or just curious—go to a meetup. It’s where ideas turn into projects, and where open-source really comes to life.

Thank you for reading!

Some moments in life make you pause and think about how it all began. Sitting on my flight home from Singapore, still buzzing from an incredible experience at DrupalCon, I found myself tracing back the steps that led me there.

It’s funny how things unfold.

In 2021, fresh out of college, I joined QED42 as an engineering intern. I had heard of Drupal but barely knew anything about it. If I’m honest, I was a little nervous—new job, new technology, new world. But curiosity has a way of keeping you going. I dived into the work, slowly unravelling the power of this open-source CMS that runs websites across the globe.

And then, I found something even better—the Drupal Pune community.

There’s something special about being surrounded by people who genuinely want to help each other grow. The meetups, the discussions, the encouragement—it all shaped my journey in ways I hadn’t imagined.

It wasn’t just about learning Drupal—it was about being part of something bigger. The support from QED42 and the encouragement from the community set everything in motion.

That journey led me to DrupalCon 2024, a major milestone. The experience, the insights, and the people I connected with made it unforgettable. But getting there wasn’t just luck—here’s how it all came together.

DrupalCon Singapore 2024

This was a surreal experience, packed with everything I love—tech, conversations, food, and the thrill of being in a new city with like-minded people.

Highlights: 

• Two days of sessions that left my brain overflowing with technical takeaways.
• A casual chat with Dries about photography—though I might have tested his patience with my enthusiasm.
• The food? Great. The desserts? Even better.
• Wandering through the streets of Singapore with fellow community members, soaking in the city's energy and making memories along the way.
• A major highlight? QED42 won the Splash Award! A moment of pride, excitement, and a sense of being part of something truly remarkable.
• And of course, we wrapped it all up with a short, loud, and unforgettable party.

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And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this—sometimes, all it takes is a bit of curiosity, a great community, and the willingness to take that first step. The rest? It finds its way. Now let me take you through the journey that made this happen. 

(Left) Holding the Splash Award won by QED42 for our work with Diabetes.org (Right) QED42 team at DrupalCon Singapore.

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Getting started with Drupal Pune

August 2021. I started my internship at QED42, and Drupal was everywhere. Projects, open-source, blogs—it wasn’t just another tech stack; it felt like this whole new culture. People spoke about it with a kind of energy that felt different. At first, I was just going through the motions, trying to keep up. But I could tell there was something more to it.

Then came DrupalCamp Pune, March 2022—my first in-person event.

Walking into that room, I knew this was where things would change. The energy was real. Conversations weren’t just technical; they were passionate. People debated modules like they were life choices, joked about content types, and shared insights like they had been waiting all year for this moment. 

One session on Drupal’s caching system hit me hard. It was practical, useful, the kind of thing that makes you rethink how you approach development. By the time it ended, I was thinking differently. That session was a turning point. 

After the sessions, I joined conversations about Drupal 10 and the future of open source. And this time, I had something to say. 

In the months that followed, I kept showing up. Meetups, discussions, late-night Slack threads. The more I engaged, the more I realized—Drupal is about building, learning, and growing with a community that actually cared.

(Left) Drupal Camp Pune group picture (Right) Presenting a session at the monthly Drupal Pune Meetup.‍

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At first, I was just another face in the crowd—listening, learning, absorbing everything I could. By 2023, I wanted to contribute, to be part of what made this community thrive.

Volunteering at DrupalCamp Pune 2023 was my first real step in that direction. I started at the registration booth, expecting a simple task—handing out badges, directing people, and helping with logistics. But it turned into something more. I found myself in conversations with first-time attendees, answering questions, and sharing my own experiences. In the same way, Drupal Pune had once welcomed me, I was now helping others find their place. That sense of connection—that feeling of belonging—was something I hadn’t expected, but it stuck with me.

Soon after, I took on something that had once felt completely out of reach: presenting at the monthly Drupal Pune meetups.

The first time was overwhelming, standing in front of a room filled with experienced developers, and sharing my own insights, I questioned whether I had anything valuable to say. 

But the moment I started speaking, I saw the same curiosity in their eyes that I had felt during my first sessions. The conversations that followed, the questions, the discussions—it made me realize something important.

It was about growing with the community, about sharing what I had learned so someone else could take their next step, just like I had.

Those sessions improved my public speaking. They made me an active part of the space that shaped me—and still does.

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Drupal Pune members planning Drupal Camp Pune 2024 at the February meetup.

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Presenting a session on Transform API at Drupal Pune’s monthly meetup.

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A dream came true – winning a ticket to DrupalCon Singapore!

By 2023, I was part of what made Drupal Pune events happen. Presenting at meetups, volunteering at DrupalCamp Pune 2023, and working on a headless Drupal project—each step deepened my connection with the community.

(Left) Drupal Pune monthly meetup at QED42 office (Right) Presenting a session on Headless Drupal at PHP Camp 2024.

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In 2024, I wanted to push further. This time at DrupalCamp Pune, I took on a new role—photographer. Capturing the energy of the event felt different, like seeing the community from a whole new perspective.

(Left) Drupal Pune group photo in March 2023 (Right) As a photographer at Drupal Camp Pune 2024. 

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Some clicks from Drupal Camp Pune.‍

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During the camp, I joined a community-led contest, thinking it would be fun. I didn’t expect to win. But when my name was announced as the recipient of a ticket to DrupalCon Singapore 2024, it felt like everything I had worked toward had led to this.

It was a celebration of the experiences, contributions, and connections that shaped my journey. And it left me even more excited for what’s ahead.

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Attending DrupalCon Singapore 2024

On December 8, 2024, a bunch of us from work hopped on a flight to Singapore.

It was my first international trip, and I could barely contain the excitement. I’d only seen Singapore in movies, and in just a few hours, I was about to experience it for real.

Attending DrupalCon Singapore felt like a dream. – sessions, contributions, and an unforgettable experience

The first two days of DrupalCon Singapore were a whirlwind of sessions, discussions, and some seriously good food.

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(Left) At Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (Right) QED42 won the Splash Award for our work with Diabetes.org in the Non-Profit category.

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Some of the sessions that stood out for me:

Server-side rendering a Drupal site with Next.js
Since I work extensively with Headless Drupal, this session felt like it was made for me. It covered both core concepts and the latest Next.js features, making it a solid learning experience.

DriesNote – The MAIN event!
Dries Buytaert himself took the stage to present the much-awaited DriesNote, focusing on the recent updates in Drupal CMS (Starshot). Watching it live, I couldn’t help but reflect on how much Drupal has evolved since I first started working with Drupal 9 during my internship. 

The CMS has transformed into a smoother, more intuitive experience, making everything feel new again.

After DriesNote, it was time for the legendary group photo—and I was in it!

Other sessions I attended:

Building the Future of Drupal: 11, 12, and Starshot

Level Up Your Impact: Building Socially-Driven Projects with Drupal as a Digital Public Good

What, Why, and When for Recipes & Distributions with Starshot

Day 3: The contribution sprint was a surreal experience. Developers, initiative track leads, and community members gathered to tackle open-source issues, strategic initiatives, and code contributions.

I contributed to the Experience Builder Initiative (XB) and had a great discussion with Lauri, the track lead. I also got to see Jess (xjm) in action as she demonstrated how contributor credits are distributed while solving an active issue.

Sitting in a room full of Drupalers working together on something bigger than themselves was a powerful moment. It reminded me why communities like Drupal Pune and events like DrupalCon matter so much. They go beyond coding—they’re about connection, growth, and collective success.

After the contribution day, we wrapped up the trip with some sightseeing in Singapore—a perfect way to celebrate an unforgettable experience.

(Left) View from the top of Marina Bay Sands (Right) Photo with Drupal community members. 
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(Left) An evening stroll at Fullerton Pavilion (Right) At Sentosa Island with QED42 folks.

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Final thoughts and stepping out of my comfort zone

Well, to sum up, a long story about an internship, a community, and a ticket to DrupalCon—every milestone, from volunteering to presenting and attending, pushed me beyond my comfort zone. I’ve always been more of an introvert, but being part of Drupal Pune changed that.

The support, encouragement, and shared passion helped me embrace new challenges and grow in ways I never expected. Looking back, joining Drupal Pune was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It opened doors I never saw coming, introduced me to incredible people, and helped me recognize my potential.

Whether you’re just starting with Drupal (or any other tech) or have years of experience, being an active part of a community can change everything. For me, it turned a growing interest into an unforgettable journey to one of the biggest Drupal events in the world.

You never know where one little step in the right direction might take you. For me, it led to growth, friendships, a ticket to DrupalCon, and so much more that words can't capture. Truly, if you're on the fence about joining a tech community, I’d say just go for it.

There I was, ready for a wild ride into the UX/UI community at the UxNow Conference on January 12th and 13th. Despite the cold Delhi mornings which can confine even the most motivated people to their beds, some odd hundreds of enthu-cutlets made their way to this convention. This shindig brought together design gurus who shared their design secrets in talks and workshops.

The conference talks were like a buffet of design wisdom. From decoding user-friendly designs to understanding the secret handshake of design tools, it was a rollercoaster of ideas. Imagine a TED Talk, but with more funky design slides and fewer formalities.

Setting the Stage in Chilly Delhi

With a warm welcome from Aakash Kumar, the design captain steering the ship (puns for their industry) at MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo, UxNow 2024 kicked off on a frosty Delhi morning (we're talking 6 degrees Celsius, folks!). The chilly weather did nothing to dampen the creative fervour as Sameer Bhiwani, Google's design luminary, took the stage.

The conference unfolded as a tapestry of insights, with Sameer Bhiwani emphasizing the importance of a clear purpose, human judgment, and enthusiasm in the creative process. Indi Young delved into fostering diverse thinking styles, highlighting the significance of deep listening to uncover individual perspectives. Akanksha Singh shared the art of emotional design, urging designers to view personas as challenges and craft 'job stories.'

A power-packed panel discussed AI's impact on design, dispelling fears and emphasizing its role as a trusty sidekick. Dharmesh Ba shed light on AI as a lifesaver for MSMEs, transforming workflows and enhancing efficiency. Niyam Bhushan meditated on privacy design, advocating for designs that empower consent. Ananya Mittal explored the multifaceted aspects of successful careers, urging designers to transcend skills.

The day concluded with a fireside chat on "Beyond the Pixels," revealing insights into negotiating design-led changes, the influence of design education, the impact of AI, and the importance of understanding intent and purpose in design.

But there were a couple of talks that stood out for me. I am describing those in a detailed view.

Juhi Chitra: Preserving the Spark While Surviving in Design

Juhi Chitra, from Studio Sense and ex-head of Design at Zomato, took us on a journey of preserving the spark in the design realm. I highly resonated with her talk as I have often faced the topics in my life which she illustrated with her talk, some of them being the imposter syndrome, creative blocks, lack of motivation, and inability to start something new.

Her experiments with illustrations, typography, and several other design experiments urged us to embrace seemingly pointless indulgences for the perfect design-life balance and newer inspirations. Try everything; you never know if a small engagement might bloom into a full-time marriage. If someone with such a breadth of creative ventures asks you to follow a certain path, you do it!

Rasagy Sharma: Riding the Data Wave

This was another talk that grabbed my interest.

As the AI wave approached, Rasagy Sharma, Capital One's design maestro, dove deep into the ocean of data. Unveiling the layers of the data pyramid, he showcased the transformation of raw data into visual wonders. He showed a variety of data visualisation examples and how a seemingly boring piece of data could be presented in creative and fun ways.

From books read in a year, TV shows binge-watched, to the different hometowns of his various students, the creativity poured into the visualisations gave a new perspective to how data can be visualised. Rasagy also iterated what design could do with data — Exhibit, Explain, Explain, and Experience, emphasising the multi-dimensional representation of data and information. Each of the visualisations that he spent merely 10 seconds explaining could be a whole case study in itself.

The Second Day

The second day unfolded a treasure trove of workshops, each a unique exploration into design facets. Rasagy Sharma explored the 'Art of Data Storytelling,' Akanksha Singh guided on 'Defining an Experience Vision and Strategy to Execution,' and Aakash Kumar, alongside Kshitiz Anand, navigated 'Careers in Design.' Other workshops delved into 'Designing Brand Identity for Startups' facilitated by Sneha Sankar, 'Generative AI and No Code Tools’ by Madhuri Maram,' 'Pixel Type by Hand’ by Pooja Saxena, and 'Improv for Designers’ by Ankur Sardana & Anshu Daga. offering participants practical slices for their design journey.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of ‘Art of Data Storytelling’ and ‘Improv for Designers’ and delved into activities I wouldn’t have imagined or attempted if not for these workshops.

Art of Data Storytelling by Rasagy Sharma

Owing to the chilly Delhi weather (no time management fault of mine, obviously!) I was a little late to the first few minutes of the workshop. Rasagy dived into how data storytelling engages the viewers with a multi-dimensional representation of information instead of mundane corporate bar graphs, pie charts, and line charts.

We also partook in activities that taught us to read and derive conclusions from creative representations that may not be so obvious at first look. For example, how by looking at the frequency of births across a year in India, you can tell a lot about the way people think and statistically approach something as beautiful and pure as their child’s birth (hint: school admissions).

As part of the activities, all the attendees engaged in drawing as many creative variations as they could to show the relations between the numbers 3 & 7. Few drew clocks, pie charts, or shapes, while someone just drew a simple line and a line to divide the line in the ratio of 3:7. This exercise helped us understand how a simple piece of data could be visualised in numerous ways. Philosophically, don’t feel like you’ve lost when you run out of options. Keep on trying and something beautiful may be just around the corner.

As part of the main exercise, the participants were divided into pairs. Each pair had to scour their phones to gather a piece of information that could tell a story through visualisations. For example, the number of apps on a phone, calls received in the past week, or screentime across apps in a given time.

My partner, a fellow UX designer, and I chose to track our expenses from UPI apps. The amount, day of the week, time of the day, and category of the payment would help us segregate our data to study our expenses. We made a table with each column representing one factor associated with the payment as described above, while each row would represent the payment made.

This exercise soon turned into a series of insights we got from the data collected. Surprisingly (not so much, though), I had spent the most amount on food delivery apps. A close second was my travel expenses. While I would have never cared about it enough, with a simple exercise of about 30 minutes, I could see that I should cut my food orders by a great margin. This exercise while being fun, also told me how great data visualisation can be as a story. I am now thrilled and excited to nail the next visualisation task that comes my way.

Improv for Designers by Ankur Sardana and Anshu Daga

I was pretty lethargic after lunch and didn’t know what to expect from the Improv workshop. However, little did I know how much more my already full stomach could still take. As soon as we entered the Improv workshop, we knew that the next few hours were going to be full of energy and experiments. The kind we’d never done before.

Ankur and Anshu illustrated for us a brief history of Improv and what we could expect. They also demonstrated a brief act which was witty and hilarious.

The workshop comprised many activities which would pull us into interacting with our fellow designers and escaping our comfort zones. I’ll try to describe the few activities I remember and thoroughly enjoyed —

ABCD

Each sentence should start with a letter and the next sentence should with the next letter, and the show goes on to produce hilarious conversations. This exercise forced us to be in the moment, be creative and work with our fellow actors. For example,

Person 1: Are you a magician? Because whenever I look at you, everyone else disappears.

Person 2: Because they're running away from your cheesy pickup lines?

Person 1: C'mon, I thought you'd fall for my charm like a well-cooked spaghetti.

Person 2: Don't flatter yourself; even spaghetti can be too saucy for its own good.

Emotional Roller

A pair starts conversing on a random topic. They have to improvise and keep the conversation engaging. However, the audience can change the theme of the conversation anytime they want. It produces hilarious stories and challenges the actor to adapt to the ever-changing mood. Pretty important for designers, wouldn’t you say? For example,

Scene: Romance

Person 1: You mean everything to me. I want to be with you, always!

Person 2: Aww! I like you too.

The scene changes to Horror

Person 1: Wherever you look, I’ll be there. Looking at you.

Sentences

Random chits are given with the most absurd and funny lines. And actors have to enact a scene that the audience decides on. Every once in a while, they pick a chit and say the line they’ve got. The absurdity of the exercise leaves both the actors and the audience in a laughter riot.

For example, a conversation between 2 ghosts set in a graveyard.

Ghost 1: Boo! You scared?

Ghost 2: Nah, I've seen scarier things than you. Like living people trying to assemble IKEA furniture.

Ghost 1: Well, they say, "For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever."

Ghost 2: Forever, huh? “My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”

Ghost 1: True, true. Especially when you're dead and haunting a graveyard.

There were many more activities, some 6-8 of them packed into the 4-hour workshop that left us speaking our minds and acting our hearts out. An activity that I was dreading due to sheer lack of energy had turned into something beautiful that I wouldn’t have ever experienced. The engaging hours also made me a lot of new friends in the UX community. I will cherish this day for a long time to come.

Networking

Networking was like speed dating for designers. Imagine a room full of design-Tinder profiles, but instead of swiping left or right, you exchanged LinkedIn profiles. I connected with UX designers, UX researchers, product designers, team leads, and people who lead whole companies. I don’t believe I have ever added as many LinkedIn connections in a whole month as much as I did that one evening.

Ready to Paint the Design Town Red

As we conclude our exhilarating journey through UxNow 2024, let me share a personal anecdote that mirrors the essence of our design adventure. Picture this – a young designer, armed with enthusiasm and a touch of imposter syndrome, navigating the bustling UxNow conference. Amidst the sea of talks and workshops, a revelation struck: design is not just about crafting visually appealing interfaces; it’s a journey of understanding human stories.

One session, in particular, resonated deeply, echoing my struggles with creative blocks and the constant battle against the infamous imposter syndrome. Juhi Chitra’s narrative about preserving the spark amid the challenges of design felt like a guiding beacon. The encouragement to embrace seemingly pointless indulgences for the sake of balance and inspiration struck a chord – a reminder that sometimes, it’s the seemingly inconsequential pursuits that lead to groundbreaking creativity.

Fast forward to the workshops, where I found myself immersed in the ‘Art of Data Storytelling.’ Struggling to interpret the patterns in my own expense, it dawned on me – design is not just about pixels but about deciphering the intricate tales hidden in data. The journey was more than just a series of lectures; it was a transformative experience, a reminder that every designer’s path is unique, filled with unexpected twists and turns. As we step out of the conference halls, let’s carry the torch of innovation, fueled not just by pixels and codes but by the narratives we unravel and the human stories we understand.

So, fellow designers, let’s innovate with purpose, speculate with curiosity, introspect with humility, and design not just for today but for a better, more inclusive, and user-friendly tomorrow. The power to transform digital experiences lies in our hands – let’s wield it responsibly and weave stories that resonate with the human soul. Happy designing!

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A few months back, QED42 gave some of us the opportunity to attend the DrupalCon in Lille, France. A DrupalCon is a big deal and a highly-anticipated event in the Drupal community. At Lille, we got to meet other developers, learn about the latest in Drupal, and hear from experts in the field.

The day before the event, on October 16, we got to Lille. We checked in and headed straight to see the venue, the impressive Lille Grand Palais.

One of my colleagues was presenting at the convention about data privacy and our work with UNICEF. He wanted to attend a speaker training event hosted by Drupal Belgium, and I decided to go along. It turned out to be quite different from what I expected. Instead of experienced speakers sharing their session experiences, there was a voice coach who gave an excellent talk on using your voice effectively to engage the audience.

After that, I joined the volunteer briefing. They showed us around the place and talked about our duties, like manning the registration desk, overseeing sessions, and helping with contributions. We then regrouped to put up the QED42 booth and took a walk through the exhibition area.

Later, I saw Michaela putting up signs in the ladies restroom, indicating it was open to women and trans individuals. It's a simple thing, but the first time I'd seen it in real life, and it made me happy to see the community being inclusive. I wrapped up my day with dinner alongside my community sister Surabhi and her friends. We explored the charming Lille city center, all lit up and beautiful.

Day 1

On the first day at the registration desk, I noticed these wristbands that let you choose your social level. It reminded me of a question someone asked during a session I presented at Drupal Developer Days (DDD) 2023 Vienna about making events more introvert-friendly. I didn't have an answer then, but these bands at DrupalCon seemed like a great solution. Later at DrupalCon, I also saw the social battery indicator badge from Calibirate. It was nice to see products like these that show your willingness to be social without making things awkward.

This year's Dries note was truly special, with captivating illustrations, storytelling, and the rich history of Drupal that captured everyone's attention. It was also great to learn about the achievements and contributions of this year's winners of the FFW Women in Drupal Awards, which recognizes women who make valuable contributions to the community.

Next up was the Drupal Coffee Exchange BoF. At first, I thought it was just a place for people to grab coffee and chat about Drupal. Then I heard about Talking Drupal's episode on the coffee exchange, where you exchange coffee beans – you bring a bag and take a bag. I found the idea intriguing, a way for coffee enthusiasts to connect over their shared passion. So, I brought a bag of coffee beans to see what it was all about.

We began with a bit of BoF history, and Amy June shared the tale of the "brick of shame." We went around the table, talking about the coffee we brought and why we enjoyed it, and then we picked one we liked. I met Fabian Bircher, who chose my coffee beans, and later, we crossed paths again in the contribution sprint to work on some issues.

After volunteering at Kerstin Polte's session at DrupalCon Europe 2021 (online), I got to know her. We connected on social media, and we've been supporting each other's content since. Meeting her in person for the first time was fantastic; it's always special to see someone you've only interacted with online!

Day 1 concluded with the opening reception, and later I had dinner with friends, including the Duke of Drupalville; Gabor. We talked about Drupal, the community, and our challenges in finding vegetarian/vegan food outside.

Day 2

Day 2 was packed with sessions, BoFs, and various activities. I attended a BoF hosted by Niklas Franke, a familiar face from the DDD. He talked about his experience with Drupal contribution sprints and how to engage non-technical folks. We also discussed Drupal's challenges, like marketing and documentation. Lynne Capozzi from Acquia was also there and hinted at a possible marketing initiative with a strong non-technical focus.

I had a go at building some Lego pieces at the System Seed booth and met Joachim. While working on the Legos, we discussed the challenges of assembling a team of active contributors. He even showed me an issue on his laptop that needed UX assistance and shared it with me right there.

I hung out at our booth, chatting with folks about what QED42 is all about and hearing about their work. People liked our Hindi Drupal tee. One person was so impressed that he asked me to write his name in "Hindi" for him.

At the volunteer dinner that wrapped up the second day, we got to know each other better. It was a great opportunity to share our experiences and discuss ways to improve Drupal contributions. The dinner not only helped with networking and building connections within the Drupal community but also made us feel more united.

Our last stop was the 1XInternet party, where we had a blast dancing and celebrating the event. It was a joyful evening, full of laughter, as we volunteers unwound and relaxed after days of hard work. The party was a great opportunity to socialize and create lasting memories and friendships within the Drupal community.

Day 3

On the third day, we had the final sessions, BoFs, and exhibitions. It was also the last day to collect points on the events app. I liked the idea of gamifying the con; it encouraged people to meet and try new things, even if it was just for points. I made sure to visit all the booths in the exhibition area, had conversations with many folks about our work and other topics, and even walked away with two bags full of goodies!

I went to the mentored contribution booth to see what it was all about. AmyJune and Leslie Glynn suggested I sign up for mentoring at the contribution sprint. They said, "Even if you know very little, you can still help someone out," and I agreed.

I volunteered as a session monitor for a few sessions, one of which was by Wim Leers on config validation. I found it interesting and had a chat with him about contribution opportunities. The day concluded with the closing ceremony. The organizers expressed gratitude to everyone who made the con happen and shared plans for future events.

Day 4

Day 4 was a contribution sprint day! I've been to contribution sprints before, but this was my first time at a DrupalCon contribution sprint. It was surreal to see everyone, usually in issue queues and Drupal Slack, gathered in one room. You could work on something and walk up to the project maintainer or initiative lead for help.

For instance, I was looking for a good novice issue and found one related to SDC. I started working on it, but Joachim pointed out it might not be ready, calling it a "bike shed problem." He went to find someone working on SDC, and we discovered a core team member in the same room!

I mentored at the sprint, which made it even more special. I helped a few first-time contributors understand how Drupal issues work and even tackled one issue together. We used Drupalpod for testing, which was new to me, but we figured it out together. As AmyJune said, "It's okay if you don't know something; it's about figuring things out together.”

The general contribution area had many tables dedicated to various initiatives and projects. I spoke with several of them, including Lauri for the Page Builder initiative, Wim Leers, and Fabian Bircher for the Distribution and Recipes initiative. I even took on an issue from there and worked on it with the assistance of Elliot Ward.

When I presented at Dev Days, someone asked about my future goals, like becoming a core maintainer or other ambitions. I hadn't thought about being a core maintainer, but I'm interested in getting more people, especially young graduates, involved in Drupal. That's why I got excited about the New Blood initiative.

I spoke with Carlos Ospina, who proposed this initiative to incentivize organizations to hire and train newcomers. We discussed the challenges of hosting internships and finding a job as a new developer, and I was thrilled to see this initiative addressing these issues. Check out the IXP Fellowship

The last day was tough, filled with goodbyes to the friends I've made in the community. I hoped to see them again soon. After the contribution sprint, I headed back to my hotel, feeling a bit emotional and already missing the energy of the people.

Then, Surabhi called, and we had a meal together. It was a wonderful way to see everyone one last time before saying our final goodbyes, with promises to stay in touch. In the small world of Drupal, we'll definitely meet again!

Until the next Drupal meetup!

Even though DrupalCon Lille is now over, the excitement and warm vibes still linger! It was an amazing experience being among numerous passionate Drupal enthusiasts from around the globe. The community's energy was infectious, and the learning opportunities were boundless.

With approx 1,300 attendees at the conference, we were fully immersed in captivating keynotes, engaging workshops, and informative sessions designed for everyone. Whether it was reuniting with old friends, making new connections, or just having a blast with enjoyable activities, DrupalCon Lille left us truly inspired.

Let's dive into some of the key highlights from our perspective!

BoF session on accelerated Drupal deliveries

One of the main highlights at Lille was our BoF on Drupal Deliveries Acceleration — A Chat among Practitioners. We hosted a lively discussion within the Drupal community, diving into valuable recipes, processes, and best practices for speeding up Drupal projects. Our focus was on practical insights and knowledge-sharing, making it an enriching experience for everyone involved.

At the heart of our conversation was SPACE DXP, our open-source digital experience platform that can be customized to fit business needs. We delved into how SPACE DXP provides the right tools and community backing to expand Drupal projects swiftly. The BoF session was genuinely eye-opening, and the ideas and suggestions from our enthusiastic community have the potential to add more meaning and speed to projects.

Drupal's vision for the future

During his keynote at DrupalCon Lille 2023, Dries Buytaert talked about Drupal's history and the challenges it's facing. He shared a vision for Drupal's future, likening it to a charming village named Drupal, where anyone, regardless of their skills, could easily create their websites or web applications. In Drupal, inclusivity and having a voice for all was at the heart of the vision.

But when concerns arose about the closed-off nature of the web, the Drupal community united to craft the 'Open Web Manifesto.' It's a declaration of an unwavering dedication to an open and accessible web for everyone. This document embodies Drupal's commitment to principles like Freedom, Inclusion, Decentralization, Participation, and Empowerment.

Dries then talked about people who could help clear these challenges and brought in three members of the marketing committee. They discussed the importance of having a marketing committee to promote Drupal and shared their strategy's timeline. Dries emphasized Drupal's dedication to an open web and its efforts to enhance the builder experience. He also touched upon Drupal's investments in marketing to increase its visibility worldwide.

Privacy in digital product design

Tarkesh Deva, a Senior UI/UX Designer at QED42, hosted a session titled 'Designing for Privacy: Balancing User Needs & Data Security.' In his talk, Tarkesh delved into the challenges of finding the right balance between user needs and data security in the design of digital products. He started by highlighting the importance of data privacy as a basic human right and how users anticipate digital products to respect their privacy.

He explained that users expect digital products to be user-friendly, reliable, fast, efficient, accessible, personal, and context-aware. However, achieving these features often involves collecting and using personal data. Tarkesh then shared practical tips on designing experiences that meet both user needs and data privacy concerns. This involves gathering only necessary data, granting users control over their information, and using data in a transparent and responsible manner.

He shared a project undertaken by QED42, involving the design of a user form for Laaha, a UNICEF initiative aimed at combating gender-based violence in emergencies. Laaha provides a virtual safe space for girls and women to access information and services related to sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence. It does so in a manner that's safe, culturally sensitive, and easily accessible.

The primary challenge revolved around ensuring the platform's ability to provide essential support while safeguarding the data privacy of vulnerable individuals. This success story testifies to the fact that it's indeed possible to create digital products that prioritize data privacy.

A commitment to accessibility and inclusion

Drupal's dedication to being accessible and inclusive was clear throughout the event. Dries reaffirmed this commitment in his keynote speech, and numerous sessions during the conference focused on these crucial subjects. For instance, Daniel Angelov tackled prevalent misconceptions about accessibility and emphasized its significance as a fundamental ethical duty.

AmyJune Hineline provided valuable insights into crafting presentations that are accessible, with a focus on making content understandable, easy to perceive, and robust. Jason Greenspan stressed the importance of digital inclusion, and Mathieu De Meue, a Drupal developer with Tourettes, shared his unique perspective and experiences, encouraging open communication and understanding in the workplace.

AI revolutionizing user experiences

Artificial intelligence (AI) took center stage in discussions at Lille, with attendees exploring how it could transform content creation, user experience, and search results. One of the most exciting AI applications in Drupal is its role in content creation. AI-powered tools have the potential to help produce high-quality content more quickly and efficiently. We can harness AI to generate blog posts, product descriptions, and social media content.

AI can enhance the user experience of Drupal websites in various ways. For example, AI-driven chatbots can offer personalized assistance to users, making it simpler and faster for them to find the information they're looking for. AI can also contribute to delivering more relevant and engaging search results, a feature we previously discussed in our blog series on Semantic Search.

Overall, the potential for AI in Drupal is vast. As AI technology continues to develop, we can expect to see even more exciting applications of AI in Drupal in the years to come.

New and next

Drupal's commitment to improving the builder experience and investing in marketing for greater visibility are the new and next chapters in Drupal's journey. An enhanced experience opens new doors for a broader audience, making Drupal more accessible than ever.

Drupal's marketing efforts are set to increase its visibility on a global scale. By investing in marketing, Drupal aims to become more visible, attracting fresh faces as users and contributors. This move is exciting and will contribute to building a larger, more vibrant community.

DrupalCon Lille highlighted how meetups and camps are essential for users and developers of all levels to come together, learn, connect, and contribute to the Drupal community. Local groups are making efforts to make Drupal more accessible to people around the world, resulting in broader global participation and better use of resources, which was truly heartwarming.

As we conclude our Lille experience, we are left with renewed enthusiasm and a stronger connection with the principles that make Drupal so remarkable. We cherish the insights, discussions, and connections we've made.

Looking ahead, we can't wait to see Drupal’s progress and continue this wonderful journey at future DrupalCons. The community's warmth and dedication inspire us to keep exploring, learning, and sharing. Together, we have the power to shape the digital world for the better, and we're excited about the adventures that lie ahead in the world of Drupal.

The Drupal Developer Days 2023 event brought together over 350 passionate individuals from around the world who love, learn, and discuss the open-source CMS, Drupal. Held in Vienna from 19 to 22 July, this year's gathering was a distinct success.

Organized by the Drupal community, this annual event provides a platform for developers to collaborate, contribute, share, and meet like-minded Drupal enthusiasts, uniting minds for open-source progress.

This year's event centered around developer-specific initiatives, featuring dedicated contribution events for GitLab and Mautic. Contributors hosted enlightening sessions covering a diverse array of topics.

There were sessions from renowned Drupal contributors like XJM, providing valuable tips on peer reviews, Gabor discussing the present and future of Drupal initiatives, and Lauri unveiling the exciting innovations in Drupal 10+.

One of the standout sessions was Drupal and Godot, which explored using Drupal as a backend for games with a creative workshop leveraging Legos as an interactive activity.

I had the opportunity to present my session – "An Introvert's Guide to Open Source Communities," which was very well received and opened up doors for some interesting questions from the audience.

The session also led to the opportunity to connect with fellow Drupal contributors and plan some noteworthy future collaborations.

The full session recording is available on YouTube, and it did receive an overwhelming response, making it the most-watched among all the other sessions.

In summary, DDD 2023 offered an uplifting experience for all attendees, making it a highly recommended event for open-source enthusiasts.

The key highlights included networking and collaboration opportunities with prominent figures in the Drupal community, engaging sessions and workshops on the latest Drupal developments, fostering knowledge sharing and active participation, empowering attendees to shape Drupal's future with renewed passion, and strengthening the sense of community among Drupal enthusiasts.

During the event, everyone had the chance to learn about new developments in Drupal and actively contribute to its progress while networking and sharing experiences with other developers. There is no doubt about the event's success when everyone gets to walk away not only with valuable insights and opportunities for future collaborations but also with revered memories of a lifetime.

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It’s time for the 2022 Acquia Engage Awards. Every year Acquia showcases and celebrates its partners and customers who have gone beyond to deliver the world’s most ambitious digital experiences.

QED42 together with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories have made it into the finalist list for the Regional Excellence – APAC award under the Dreamers category. We, at QED42, have enjoyed a long partnership with Acquia, and are thrilled to earn this recognition at the 2022 Acquia Engage Awards.

The Engage Awards celebrate impressive digital achievements using Acquia’s products. This year’s awards drew more than 120 submissions across a variety of regions and industries under three categories: Doers, Builders, and Dreamers. Check out the full list of finalists under all categories here. 

Dreamers

The Dreamers category is for leaders who do not take no for an answer and seek opportunities to do better each day, every day. As per Acquia, the motto of the Dreamers category is “Always learning, always creating, and always searching for what’s next.”

The judges for the 2022 Engage Awards are a panel of distinguished leaders with expertise in Digital Experience Platforms and Digital Marketing. After a careful review of our submission, they have evaluated QED42’s work with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories based on performance, functionality, integration, and user experience to confirm us as finalists for the Regional Excellence award for the Asia Pacific region. 

Our work with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is the 4th largest multinational pharmaceutical company in India. Our partnership with Dr. Reddy’s was to help it achieve its mission of delivering good health all around the world. We built an HCP engagement portal for Dr. Reddy’s to connect more meaningfully with healthcare professionals and give them access to high-value medical information.

Our work with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories involved a custom design system, Drupal 9 architecture, and Acquia Cloud Site Factory to build a multisite portal for two interfaces: MedEnrich (text-based platform) and Docreel (video-based platform). Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is now fully equipped to deliver unified digital experiences to HCPs.

We aim to build a better tomorrow with Acquia technologies and design a new path forward that makes a difference in the world. This recognition by Acquia is an incredible accomplishment of our innovation and hard work. We look forward to the winner’s announcement and awards ceremony at Acquia Engage in Miami on 25-26th October 2022.

Explore more on how QED42 is Taking Digital Forward with an Imagination. 

Bringing together the greatest Drupal minds from all over the world on one stage, DrupalCon Europe is back again bringing much excitement to the community. Having something in store for all business verticals, the highlight of this year’s DrupalCon are the Drupal Camps which are being organized in 7 cities throughout Europe. 

Scheduled to happen from October 4 till October 7, 2021, DrupalCon Europe 2021 is being hosted as a virtual event open for anyone to attend after registration. There are a total of 90 sessions scheduled to take place over the course of four days under five different tracks.    

Keynote sessions of DrupalCon Europe 2021

There are a total of four keynote sessions happening on each of the four days of DrupalCon. The most eminent personalities from the tech community are the Keynote speakers of this year’s event. 

Here is a list of Keynote events that you should look out for: 

• Sound Ideas: Unlocking Creativity - LJ Rich, a world-renowned musician and presenter of BBC’s international technology show called BBC Click will be presenting her session on October 4, 2021. Her session will revolve around the interaction of music and technology in the AI space.  

• Build vs Buy - Pfizer and Open Source - This session by Pfizer’s Richard Jones, Dick Olsson, and Jess Romeo is scheduled for October 5 2021. This session will revolve around Pfizer’s opensource journey and will throw light on how Pfizer has used Drupal to its advantage. 

• Driesnote -  The most awaited keynote session in DrupalCon, Driesnote is the session by the founder of Drupal itself, Dries Buytaert. In his keynote session, Dries will update the audience on the Drupal project and will also talk about the development of Drupal. His session is scheduled for October 6, 2021.

• Drupal Core Initiative Leads - One of the most informative sessions in DrupalCon, this assembly will entail everything that’s happening in and around the Drupal community. This is the third instalment of this keynote and will also have samples of Drupal community leaders and what they’re currently working on. This session is scheduled for October 7, 2021.

Let's hear it for Drupal Camps

Bringing the local Drupal Camps into the ambit of DrupalCon, this year’s convention will witness the forces of this regional and global community joining hands together to make DrupalCon a success. 

The camps will benefit from increased visibility of the audience attending DrupalCon, so the participants can cherry-pick which Drupal Camps they want to travel to, next year when DrupalCon won't be virtual anymore. Furthermore, this year, DrupalJam has been made a part of DrupalCon, so the best minds of the industry will share their insights right in DrupalCon itself. 

Here is a list of all the Drupal Camps:

• Drupaljam, The Netherlands 
• Drupal Mountain Camp, Switzerland 
• Drupal Germany
• DrupalCamp Kyiv 
• DrupalCamp Finland 
• DrupalCamp Belgium - Ghent 2021 
• Drupal Wrocław 

We’ll be there as well

Not to forget, we too will be presenting sessions at DrupalCon Europe 2021. Here is a full list of our sessions: 

• How Drupal internship can help the Drupal project and your organization: Selected as a featured session, this seminar by Jay Kandhari will shed light on QED42’s journey of contributing to the Drupal talent pool. He will also discuss how training the interns with the right approach can be beneficial to your organization, not just the community. 

• A Sustainable Approach Drupal Contributions: This session by Mohit Aghera and Piyuesh Kumar will focus on what has helped us plan long-term commitments to the Drupal Projects and helped build an effective contribution culture.

• Always fresh, cacheable content using Cache Tags, Purge and Akamai: This presentation by Hemant Gupta ̣and Graham Arrowsmith will focus on practices to have content that is ‘always cacheable’ using cache variations. 

• A better experience for everyone - Accessibility: Bringing you an inside view of Accessibility, Nikita Aswani in her session will take us through what it really means to be accessible. Nikita in her session will also highlight the importance of empath in being accessible and how the two are interlinked to each other. 

• How to empower your marketing team with a DIY Layout Builder using Paragraphs: This session by Ruchika Mohite and Abhai Sasidharan will share insights around how we enhanced the Paragraph’s module of Drupal to create a drag and drop user interface to create flexible web pages. 

• Introduction to the Bug Smash Initiative: If giving back to the Drupal community is something that is on your task list, then this session is for you. A deep dive into the Bug Smash initiative, this session by Mohit and Frank will take you through the introduction, initiative, and how you can be a part of the initiative. 

• Things a professional services firm should do to thrive: In this session, Abhay Kumar will take us through what makes or breaks a service firm. He will also apprise the audience of the strategies that multinationals have deployed to increase brand value, enhance delivery & sales etc. 

Why you should attend DrupalCon Europe 2021

If, even after reading through this blog you’re still thinking if you should attend or not, here is one more reason for you. Being a silver sponsor of DrupalCon Europe 2021, we are thrilled to highlight that we will soon be announcing some cool live booth talks, panel discussions and exciting giveaways in our endeavour of making DrupalCon a huge success. Watch this space for more information.  

DrupalCon North America 2021 has been the highlight of 2021 for the open-source community and we promise to bring you a recap of the largest Drupal event of the year. But before we do that, here's a recap of the Driesnote! 

DrupalCon North America saw over 2300+ attendees, out of which 30% were newcomers! Beyond celebrating the success of Drupal 9, the keynote focused on the five strategic initiatives undertaken by the Drupal community, addressing the issue of how difficult it is to contribute, and more.

The focus areas of the Driesnote were as follows: 

1. An update on Drupal 9 and the plan for Drupal 10
2. Falling in love with Drupal
3. Getting off the island

How is Drupal 9 fairing so far? 

Dries kicked off by showcasing how rapidly the world has adopted Drupal. For instance, all but one of the major COVID-19 vaccine-producing companies use Drupal and big brands like WWF, Budweiser, IBM have already moved to Drupal 9! 

It’s barely been 10 months since the launch of Drupal 9 and there are thousands of ambitious digital experiences running on Drupal 9 already.

We also looked back at Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 vs Drupal 9 now; here are the statistics that Dries presented:

Comparing Drupal 9 vs the previous versions of Drupal, it took Drupal 9 merely 1 month to reach 60,000 websites making Drupal faster than ever.

One of the major factors contributing to making the Drupal 9 upgrade faster than ever was the readiness of the contributed modules. Back in 2017, 17 months after the Drupal 8 launch, only 20% of the modules were ready whereas currently, 90% of the top 50 Drupal 8 contributed modules are ready and stable. Making it easy to start upgrading! 

One of the reasons why these contributed modules are now stable and ready is because of some key changes made w.r.t how Drupal is developed and released. There are no longer drastic breaks in between major versions anymore, instead, there is an upgrade path and backward compatibility.

The target release date for Drupal 10 is Summer 2022!

Dries covered the  major strategic initiatives that the Drupal community is currently working on:

1. Decoupled Menus Initiative

Drupal's move to become RESTful in the core has laid down a path for Decoupled Drupal and with this initiative, Drupal is looking at a way to decouple the menu from its core's rendering.

A few highlights of this initiative are:

• JavaScript projects are now on Drupal.org
• Drupal is branching out into the world of JavaScript, as it continues to solidify Drupal as a leader in the Headless CMS arena
• This initiative aims at making Decoupled Drupal easier compared to other Headless CMS's

2. Easy Out of the Box Initiative 

Here's a quick update around Claro, Media Library, and the Layout builder:

• Claro (admin theme) added as a beta now
• There has been limited progress around Media and Layout builder

3. Automated Updates Initiative

This initiative looked rather very green for the following reasons:

• Automated updates are now available for Drupal 7 & Drupal 8
• The community is taking these learnings and applying them to Drupal 9

4. Drupal 10 Readiness 

To sum it up in one sentence, the Drupal 10 Readiness Initiative is a ginormous initiative and needs a lot of support from the Drupal community!  

5. New Frontend Theme Initiative

This initiative is closer to the finish line with Olivero now in the Drupal core as beta.

Looking at the progress these initiatives have made so far, we do agree with Dries when he said that "Drupal 10 is closer than it appears".

Key milestones 

Important dates for Drupal 7 & Drupal 8

Dries also addressed the question as to why Drupal 7 is supported longer than Drupal 8? Drupal 7 end of life is scheduled for November 2022, whereas Drupal 8's end of life is November 2021 because the upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 is very difficult. 

Falling in love with Drupal

Dries acknowledged the fact that contributing to Drupal has been tough and tricky for a lot of contributors. And that we need to give every user and contributor a reason as to why they should adopt Drupal.

Looking back at Drupal’s roots; Drupal was all about empowering site builders by being able to:

• build ambitious websites 
• with low code

Unfortunately, the site builder is now the forgotten user. Drupal has completely ignored this persona while focussing on developers and content authors. Drupal’s efforts (OOP, Symphony, Composer) towards modernization have in turn added a lot of complexities for the site builder. These modernizations have helped Drupal, but have also made Drupal complex.

How do we focus on improving the site builder experience?

Dries addressed the challenges that site builders face, for instance; how difficult it is to find the right module and install it. And to top that up, Composer makes it even more difficult to install a module.

Dries proposed two ideas to make Drupal the go-to tech for site builder experience:

1. Introduce a project browser
2. Improve UX for configuration management, paragraphs, views, entities+fields, etc.

Getting off the island

Drupal has one of the most scalable, robust and mature development communities. With 10,000 people collaborating, Drupal had to put in place powerful collaboration tools and processes. 

When Dries started the Drupal Project, tools like GitLab/Github didn't exist. They used to share patches over emails and used CVS.

It is time for Drupal to adopt more modern tools and ways of contributing. One of the steps in this direction was to merge request workflow and move to GitLab. 

We then dived into the contributor experience with Matthew Grasmick who showed us how people expect to contribute vs how their contribution experience is.

Since contributing to Drupal is much tougher than contributing on GitLab, the Drupal Association is expanding the engineering team to get off the island quicker - by fully utilizing the GitLab features to improve the contribution experience! 

Check out the DrupalCon North America 2021 Driesnote recording: 

‍

If you’d like to contribute toward making Drupal easier and faster, visit - https://www.drupal.org/community/contributor-guide/contribution-areas

It’s time for another virtual DrupalCon! 

DrupalCon North America 2021 is right around the corner, and QED42 is excited once again to be a part of the largest Drupal conference of the year. This is the third virtual Drupal conference since the pandemic and will be hosted on Hopin, a leading platform for hosting interactive and personalized virtual events. Check here, for detailed information on how to access Hopin for DrupalCon NA.

About DrupalCon

DrupalCon is a mission-centric program of the Drupal Association designed to bring people together to share thought leadership around open source and ambitious digital experiences, provide professional development opportunities, and invigorate Drupal project momentum.

Wondering why attend DrupalCon NA? 

This year DrupalCon North America offers you exclusive access to insights from open source with 100+ sessions from tech industry leaders and Drupalers, 5 summits, initiative days, networking opportunities with more than 3000 attendees and more! 

So whether you’re new to Drupal or a long-time enthusiast, you’ll find valuable information, skills, and connections at DrupalCon NA

DrupalCon NA introduces Initiative Days! 

This year, DrupalCon NA is introducing a special focus for each day - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Each of these days will have a special focus on Drupal Project’s Strategic Initiatives and will begin with an Initiative Keynote. Be a part of these initiative days and hear from the key members for each of these initiatives, about the goals of each initiative and how it will empower you to build better products for the future of digital experiences. Click on each initiative below for more information on what to expect each day:

Decoupled Menus Day
Keynote - April 13 | 11:00 AM UTC

The Decoupled Menus Initiative will talk about the progress the initiative has made so far, as well as its next steps and how you can be a part of this initiative. The key highlight of this initiative is the hackathon where you can build your custom menu with your preferred JS framework! 

Easy Out of the Box Day
Keynote - April 14 | 11:00 AM UTC

The Easy Out of the Box Initiative is a new strategic initiative of the Drupal project. 

Here is what Emilie Nouveau had to say about the initiative – 

“The easy out of the box initiative is about making the editorial experience clear and empowering from the moment Drupal is installed by enabling Media, Layout Builder, and Claro (that are stable but need more work to be enabled by default) finished up for the standard profile.”

Automated Updates Day
Keynote - April 15, 11:00 AM UTC

The Automated Updates Initiative is a strategic initiative to lower the cost of ownership of Drupal, increase security, and help Drupal users stay on the leading edge of new features.

Drupal 10 Readiness Day
Keynote - April 16 | 11:00 AM UTC

Drupal 10 is planned to be released in June 2022, Drupal 10 readiness day dedicated to the Drupal 10 Readiness Initiative. Where you can learn about how the preparation is going so far, contribute to Drupal 9 and 10 readiness of contributed projects, documentation and early marketing material, and more. 

Also, catch Ashish, Technical Architect - Backend, as he shares QED42’s Drupal 9 upgrade story in Gabor’s keynote! 

DrupalCon North America Summits

DrupalCon NA will also have Industry Summits that will focus on the digital issues faced by each industry. These summits are scheduled throughout April and not just the DrupalCon week, enabling attendees to manage the time efficiently while networking with their peers on one on one basis during the summits. Know more about each summit by clicking on the links in the schedule below.

Community Summit - April 6, 2021

Higher Education Summit - April 20, 2021

Healthcare Summit - April 22, 2021

Nonprofit Summit - April 22, 2021

Government Summit - April 29, 2021

Keynote Sessions we are looking forward to

Every year, DrupalCon brings together industry leaders who share their insights on various topics. This year we are excited about having these main stage speakers at DrupalCon NA: 

The Driesnote

Drupal project Founder, Dries Buytaert will take the main stage on 14th April for the Driesnote, where he will celebrate recent successes and detail the vision for where Drupal is going next.

Allyship - the key to unlocking the power of diversity 

UK's Top Most Influential Women in Tech, Sheree Atcheson will talk about how to create inclusive environments and inclusive technology at the main stage on 12th April.

Accessibility for Deaf Beyond Video Captions & Sign Language

Did you know that over 1 billion people cannot use your product at all if it is not accessible? This DrupalCon NA learn how accessibility goes beyond captioning, sign language or interpreting with Svetlana Kouznetsova on 15 April.

Check out all the main stage speakers here 

QED42 at DrupalCon North America 2021!

This DrupalCon, join us as we share our latest Higher Ed & Nonprofit implementations, along with our Drupal Migration and Decoupled Drupal expertise. Attend live talks, workshops and panel discussions, win exciting giveaways, and stand a chance to win an Apple Watch with us! 

Things you shouldn’t miss at our virtual booth – 

How ILAO leveraged Design Systems

A chance to interact with Gwen Daniels - Director of Product Development at ILAO (Illinois Legal Aid Organization) at our DrupalCon NA booth on 12th April, 7 PM UTC and learn more about how - Migrating to Drupal 8 and Design System has expedited their content management. 

QED42’s Lightning Talk 
Where: Hopin - Room 5 on 13th April at 17:35 UTC.

Join Piyuesh Kumar, our Drupal Practice lead, share how we migrated the world’s top business schools website to Drupal 8 and how we standardized their Design. Immediately post the lightning talk, hop into our virtual booth to get in-depth insights on our Higher Ed success story.

QED42 DrupalCon NA Giveaways! 

DrupalCon NA Quiz

DrupalCons are not just about tech and networking, come play our DrupalCon NA Quiz and stand a chance to win QED42’s designed t-shirts or an Apple Watch. 

Personalized Audits

We are also offering free personalized audits for your website! Our experts will design a completely personalized action plan for you based on your audit requirements. This DrupalCon we are offering:

• Drupal 9 Readiness Audit
• User Experience Audit
• SEO & Performance Audit

Watch out for our Intermission Programme! 

As a part of the intermission programme, we are bringing you DrupalCon North America themed mixology! Make your favourite DrupalCon NA themed drink and share a picture with us (tag @qed42). 

Don’t be a stranger! 

We would love for you to come by our virtual booth for a chat! If you’d like to book a slot with our team click here.

After a very successful DrupalCon last week, we are now gearing up for the Decoupled Days 2020 | July 22nd - 23rd. Initially, to be held in New York City, Decoupled Days will now be conducted online. We at QED42 are not only excited for the tech content Decoupled Days will feature but also that 2 of our team members will be speaking at the conference.

Decoupled Days is a premier conference that revolves around the future of content management systems and their architectures. In its fourth chapter, Decoupled Days lines up excellent content for Architects, Developers, and business decision-makers looking to build Decoupled CMS Platforms.

Decoupled architectures have been stirring the digital experiences by segregating the frontend and backend of an application. With a CMS as a content service for other non-CMS applications, whether they are in native desktop or mobile, universal JavaScript, set-top boxes, IoT devices, conversational interfaces, or other technologies.

Here are the amazing tracks lined up this year at Decoupled Days:

• Traditional CMS - will cover the use of Drupal and WordPress as a content service and the range of architectures in decoupled Drupal and headless WordPress.
• Headless CMS - will cover decoupled and headless CMS including web services (e.g. GraphQL), proprietary headless CMS (Contentful, Prismic, GraphCMS), and other decoupled or headless CMS. architectures.technologies.
• JavaScript and JAMstack - will cover modern JavaScript and its use in decoupled CMS architectures.
• People and Community - will cover the personal and community dimensions of decoupled CMS, including issues of inclusion, accessibility, and mental health.
• Business and CXO - will cover decoupled CMS in the business, consultancy, and client landscape.  

QED42 Sessions at Decoupled Days

Check out these sessions from Anand Toshniwal and Abhay Kumar: 

https://decoupleddays.com/session/powering-multi-vendor-e-commerce-platform-gatsby

Traditionally Drupal commerce has been an exceptional CMS for serving e-commerce websites. However, it falls short at matching the modern commerce sites when it comes to performance and User Experience. Gatsby can be leveraged to solve both these problems by rendering blazing fast static data, yet support commerce functions via direct API calls. In this session, we will share our experience around building a marketplace e-commerce site powered by Drupal commerce at its back-end and Gatsby as the front-end.

https://decoupleddays.com/session/graphql-nodejs-mongodb-blazing-fast-apis

We will have a glimpse of how GraphQL along with NodeJs and MongoDB enables us to reduce the response time of the REST APIs. I will explain the basics of GraphQL and NodeJs and why is GraphQL so relevant in the REST world. The attendees must have at least a basic understanding of REST API development and NodeJs. From this talk, the attendees will learn how to leverage GraphQL with NodeJS for developing performant APIs.

Looking for more content around Decoupled architectures? Here are some articles:

• Decoupling Drupal Commerce with Gatsby
• Implementing User Authentication for Gatsby and Drupal Decoupled site.
• Authenticated User Cart with Gatsby and Drupal commerce
• Integrating Headless Drupal with Gatsby (JSON:API)
• Progressive Decoupled Drupal Setup
• Gatsby incremental build for self-hosted Drupal environments
• Querying Static vs Dynamic Data in Gatsby
• Dynamic Routing in Gatsby
• GatsbyJS Plugin Alert - Simplify data navigation

Register for Decoupled Days 2020 now - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decoupled-days-2020-registration-88407670723

What divides us pales in comparison to what unites us.

     - Ted Kennedy

This especially rings true in the time we're living in now.

Because of a much needed country-wide lockdown here in India to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disease, everyone has been locked-out in their homes and have socially distanced themselves form their communities. This, of course, includes the Drupal India community as well. And what better way to bring this community together than an online pan-India contribution weekend organized by Drupal India Association.

First-ever fully-remote pan-India contribution event

Today, on 18th April 2020, Drupal India Association (DIA) conducted it's first online 'Contribution Weekend'. It's the first event of its kind in that it was completely remote and saw participation from Drupalers across India.

We had 116 RSVPs, 22 Mentors, 96 Issues on Contribkanban board.

Thank you, organizers!

Before I talk more about the event, I would like to give a huge shout-out to everyone who was involved in the planning of this amazing event and a special shout-out to Rakhi Mandhania, Surabhi Gokte & Sharmila Kumaran (#WomenInDrupal FTW) for managing this so well. The planning team worked super hard to make this a success. They took time out of their personal and professional lives to have various meetings for issue triaging, communication and marketing for the event, arranging for speakers and much more. Thank you, everyone, who contributed to planning this.

The introductory hour for new/first-time contributors

We started the event at 8:45 in the morning,(Yes, That's 8:45 in the morning!) with a special session for new and first-time contributors. A big shout-out to all the newcomers and especially the mentors who took time out this early in the morning to volunteer for mentoring them. And boy did we have a lot of mentors! We had a mentor-to-mentee ratio of 5:1! Don't you feel special now mentees!

Main event

The main event started at 10:00 AM with more than 40 people joining in. And more people kept pouring in as the event went by. At a time we had around 70 people in the call!

Drupal India Association

Rakhi, our host, got us started and handed over the call to Mukesh Agarwal. Mukesh is CEO of Innoraft, one of the member organizations of DIA, and introduced us to DIA, its goals and purposes and the role it is going to play in representing the Indian Drupal community to the world. Major goals of DIA can be summarised as:

1. Becoming an exemplary community leadership organization to the rest of the Drupal world
2. Developing thought leaders in Drupal who will enhance India’s image in the Drupal world
3. Becoming a major influencer and enabler in the adoption of Drupal in the Gulf & ASEAN region
4. Making India an innovation hub for Drupal
5. Making Impactful Contribution to community & the extended stakeholders of Drupal

Drupal Association needs our help!

Mukesh's introduction was followed by Tanisha Kalia, a representative from the Drupal Association, and she talked about DA and the financial effects of COVID-19 on DA and the larger Drupal community. DA is a very important entity for the whole Drupal community. Among the numerous things they do for the community, a few are:

• Managing, hosting and conducting DrupalCons
• Managing the infrastructure of drupal.org

Tanisha mentioned that the majority of DA's funding comes from the revenues of DrupalCon events and the almost inevitable possibility of cancellation/postponement of DrupalCon NA has put DA in a big financial hole. DA needs the community's support. 
Tanisha encouraged community members to either donate to DA directly via #DrupalCares initiative or support DA by purchasing/subscribing to be a member of DA, the cost of which starts from just 15 USD.

As of this moment, DA has reached 25% of its USD 500,000 goal:

As an individual member or an organization, you can help DA sustain the COVID-19 Impact and help reach its goal. Read more here: https://bit.ly/2VyKbmM

Tanisha also talked about the initiative taken by prominent members in the community to encourage donations and financial contributions. Some of these are:

• From now until April 30, Vanessa and Dries are offering a dollar-for-dollar match for new, individual contributions to the Drupal Association - up to a total match of $100K! More details: https://bit.ly/2KefaPJ
• Gábor Hojtsy, Acquia, will be donating 9EUR for every module ported to Drupal 9 for a total of up to 900EUR. More details: https://bit.ly/2wS5uaE
• Jeff Geerling, @geerlingguy, will be donating 2$ for every like on his recent Youtube video for a total of up to 1000USD. Video link: https://youtu.be/fdk7zUwDQdM

A big thanks to all of you! 

Thanks to an amazing community, we had 6 new individual memberships registered before the introduction call finished.

Code-of-Conduct and Tips for the day

Next up Rakhi communicated the Code-of-Conduct to all the contributors and shared the various channels for communication that people could use throughout the day.
We were using channels on DIA slack. There were various channels set up for clear and effective communication:

1. #new-contributors: For first-timers and newcomers.
2. #regular-contributors: For experienced contributors.
3. #issue-reviews-contribution day: For issues ready for review.

This setup was really efficient and was instrumental in keeping people engaged and active throughout the day.

Hussain kicking off the day 

Rakhi then handed over to Hussain Abbas from Axelerant who joined us as guest speaker for the sprint. He started by talking about the power of open source and how open source has in past sustained and in fact grown in face of financial crises. Truly, Open Source is here to stay!
Hussain then proceeded with talking about the path for Drupal core and contributes projects to Drupal 9 and how we can make sure that projects we frequently use and maintain can be made ready for Drupal 9. The Drupal community has created various tools to help us with these:

1. drupal-check: A PHP CLI tool to get a report of any deprecated code used. This can be integrated into build processes and continuous integration systems.
2. drupal-rector: A tool for automated deprecation fixes for some common cases.
3. Upgrade status module: A wrapper module around drupal-check internals that generates a full site report of contributed and custom modules used in the site. This report can be used to assess the overall Drupal 9 compatibility of the modules.
4. Upgrade rector: A user interface on top of drupal-rector, which also integrated with Upgrade Status.

Read more about these tools in the official Drupal documentation: https://bit.ly/3apZhAA

After Hussain finished his session and just before we were about to wrap up the call, we realized that Rachel Lawson, Community Liason - Drupal Association, has joined us in the call. The presence of the Community Liason from DA also inspired & motivated us to give our best to this contribution weekend.

Let's code!

After all the sessions, it was time for the code contribution now. From the start, one could tell that it was going to be a productive day. Just under an hour we made significant progress and moved a lot of issues to RTBC or Fixed.

Start of the day:

An hour into contribution:

Come for the code, Stay for the community!

Highlights of the day were the appreciation that the mentors received from the newcomers and first-time contributors for their help and support. We had a first-time contributor who had been contributing back to the WordPress community in the past as well as trying their hands-on Drupal contribution for the first time. They really loved the experience and appreciated the welcome and support they received from the community. In their own words: "You all (Drupal community) are awesome and doing great work!"

With our spirits high we continued the rest of the day with the contribution. And to have the feeling of togetherness in this endeavour, we had the zoom bridge open throughout the day so that people could freely reach out to each other. We even had regular check-ins every couple of hours so that everyone feels connected.

We ended the even at 3:30 pm with a call where everyone shared their experience and appreciation for the community. It turned out to be a very fruitful day of contribution. By the end of it, we were able to move around 50 issues from needs work/active to RTBC/Fixed.Thanks to all amazing mentors for their support to make this happen: 

@azeets, @JayKandari, @piyuesh23, 

@yogeshmpawar, @AshishVDalvi, @joshua1234511, 

@ankushgautam76, @meenakshig489, @sonvir249, 

@abhisekmajumdar, @forhemant, @dipakmdhrm, 

@malavya88, @nitesh624, @durgesh29, @subson, 

@iampratik_dk, @vaibhavjain_in, @heykarthikwithu. 

In the end, this would never have been possible without all you contributors who supported the event with writing patches, reviewing/testing them,  showing up to the event motivating all organizers. We hope for your continued participation over the coming Sprints.

My experience

Overall, it was a very productive day! I really enjoyed this new experience of contributing from the comfort of my home and it was also a much-welcomed distraction from the grim time we all have been having because of the current pandemic. I appreciate the opportunity to work with everyone from the community and would love to do it again soon.

Oh yes! That reminds me of something! Guess what? We already have another contribution weekend planned for next month! It's planned for May 16th and I would love to see and work with the community again. Read more about the event here: https://groups.drupal.org/node/535887.

See you all again on 16th next month.

Until then, stay safe!

After a successful DrupalCamp Pune 2019 last September, the Pune Drupal community did not hold any meetups. Global Contribution Weekend was scheduled in January 2020, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for the Drupal Pune community to have a meetup as well. 

Core members of the Pune community had a meeting, where we decided the event format and location. QED42 which always volunteers and encourages people to participate in the opensource events decided to host the Drupal Global Contribution Weekend.

Drupal communities began uniting in India

Drupal Delhi community had already planned for GCW on the 25th January. Jaideep, Senior Engineer at QED42, who is one of the active members of the Drupal Community in India connected with us and shared the idea of collaborating with the Pune community. We had an initial meeting about the type of issues that should be targeted in the GCW 2020. Later it came to our knowledge that other communities are also planning to have the GCW 2020 event. We contacted other communities and proposed the idea of carrying out the GCW 2020  unitedly all over India.

The following Indian Local Drupal communities were planning to host the Global Contribution Weekend: 

1. Pune
2. Delhi 
3. Bangalore
4. Kolkata 
5. Chennai 
6. Kochi 
7. Mumbai 

Sprint Planning

We decided to focus on the Drupal 9 readiness, Olivero theme and contrib modules issue queue. Olivero, one of the Drupal core initiatives, seeks to create a new default front-end theme for Drupal with a modern look and feel. The Community started triaging the issues. Hardik Patel shared a large number of issues which he had prepared for the Global Contribution Weekend and needed to be review. Sonal Sangale triaged several frontend issues from the Drupal issue queue. Similarly, the other communities were triaging the issue queue.

Event Day 

The code sprint in India started at 10 AM. Prasad Shirgaonkar presented a session about Drupal India Association and its vision. This was the first time we saw different local communities from India collaborating at a global event. Approximately 150+ people from different Indian Drupal communities were connected via video conferencing. 

Following Prasad’s session, VijayaChandran Mani delivered a session on the State of Drupal 9 from London. He spoke about various tools which can be used to check  Drupal 9 compatibility. Vijaya presented tools like drupal-cheker, drupalstan, etc. which make upgrading the existing Drupal 8 modules to Drupal 9 a super easy task. This fueled our determination on contributing to the forthcoming Drupal 9. VijayaChandran Mani incorporated Gabor Hojtsy slides on State of Drupal 9 in his session.

We then had a lightning session presented by Rangaswini Khandare on ‘Automatic Updates in Drupal core’. This is a recent Drupal initiative which is gaining traction and was featured in DrupalCon Amsterdam as well. Rangaswini introduced us to the goals & objectives of Automatic Updates and explained the amount of work done in Phase 1 and the progress of phase 2. She also encouraged people to join this initiative and contribute to the core.

Code Sprint

After Rangaswini’s session, the Global Contribution Weekend participants at QED42’s Pune office geared up to begin the code sprint! Find the list of issues we worked on here - https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/search?projects=&project_issue_followers=&issue_tags_op=%3D&issue_tags=GCWIndia2020

Here are a few glimpses of Drupalers contributing toward making Drupal better.

QED42 also sponsored a scrumptious lunch for the contributors in Pune.

Pune Drupal Community Contribution Highlight

Total 38 issues were picked for the contribution.

Statistics for GCW 2020 all over India

Total 67 issues were picked for the contribution.

After 5+ hours of code sprint, we concluded the Drupal Global contribution weekend with a group photo and contentment in our hearts.

Major League Hacking’s Local Hack Day - Build is a global day-long hack day, which brings ideas to life with a worldwide community.

The Local Hack Day Build was scheduled from the 1st-7th December 2019 in different cities across the globe. A 12 hours hackathon known as BUILD was carried at more than 200+ locations during this period. Facebook and MLH were the event sponsors! 

QED42’s Pune office hosted approximately 65+ bright and curious minds for the Local Hack Day - Build on the 7th December 2019! This included a considerable amount of college graduates.

I had the opportunity to engage with Facebook Developer Circle Pune. To my surprise, students possessed knowledge about technologies like Docker, Git, and presented innovative ideas. Within a span of 12 hours, groups had created both desktop and mobile applications, which was commendable.

Let me walk you through the Local Hack Day at QED42. 

Introduction

We kickstarted the event started with the MLH Local Hack Day introduction by Sangeeta Gupta (Facebook Developer Circle Pune Lead). Post this, Sayak Sarkar conducted a brief session on Git and Github. 

Some groups came up with innovative ideas, while others received ideas from the organizers. And finally, the event began! 

Event Kick-Off

Groups of curious and innovative minds started working on their prototypes. In the middle of the prototype creation process, the organizers had arranged scrumptious lunch for everybody. Post lunch the groups resumed work on their respective prototypes.

Interaction with FDC, Hyderabad

We also had the opportunity to interact with our sister community Facebook Developer Circle from Hyderabad. They were also hosting the MLH Hack Day!  Sharing updates and stories with them was an absolute pleasure. We played a fun game between Pune and Hyderabad folks, where each team has to mention a programming language name until other team runs out of known language names.

Among several innovative ideas and demos, here are a few of my favourites:

1. An application that enables children with down syndrome identify wet and dry waste by looking at the images. The app guides and communicates via text to speech functionality, whether or not the choice made by the individual is right. This helps improve the performance of special children. Team Members:        

1. Amar Nagargoje                                
2. Atharva Barve                
3. Tejas Bhadane                
4. Nirav Madariya
       

2. An Online Judge System which also is one of the world's first Self Learning Ladder - based judge system, along with developing their own indigenous IDE. To make this project more of a Capstone Project, the team developed a Web interface and an Android App interface too. Link: https://github.com/pratikdaigavane/Son-Of-Anton. Team Members:        

1. Ayush Shah                                
2. Kunal Raut                
3. Prathamesh Shiralkar
4. Pratik Daigavane
5. Saarth Deshpande
6. Tejas Joshi
7. Utkarsh Atre                    

3. Built an internet bot to buy and sell digital gold on Paytm Gold at the best possible buying and selling prices. Enabling users to earn money without doing anything. Link: https://github.com/PranshuTople/GoldDigger. Team Members:         

1. Pranshu Tople                                
2. Pallavi Saha                
3. Shubham Nandi                
4. Rishabh Agarwal                       

4. Women Safety App where the map will be segregated on the basis of the danger zones in the city based on the threat level. The areas will be colour-coded as grey, yellow, and red. The mobile will be connected with the GPS for live tracking if a person goes into the threat zone a prompt will be sent to the emergency contacts. If the person stays too long in the danger zone without any activity, the alert will be sent to the police department. Areas are segregated by the threat level determined by crowdsourcing the information about any particular area. Link: https://github.com/Knightfire1998/DotDashDot3.git. Team Members:        

1. Reshikesh Umakant Dhanrale                                
2. Akshit Abhay Keoliya                
3. Shweta Singh                
 

5. Learning to use Azure Cloud Cognitive services and GitHub integration. Mood Detector - Captures your face and detects the mood like Happy or Sad. Link: https://github.com/AJV009/mooddetector/Hacker name: Alphons Jaimon        

6. Millions of saplings are planted every year, and millions die too. Because they are not taken care of. This is a humble attempt to track all such saplings around a volunteer's vicinity keeping the external factors like weather into account. Link: https://github.com/Devendrabhat/angry-buddha. Team Members:        

1. Aniruddha Kibey                                
2. Devendra Bhat                
3. Shagun Kaushik                
4. Shreyas Kalmegh                    

You may also read about the other projects here: https://github.com/devcpune/solid-doodle/

Here are a few more highlights from the Local Hack day: 

       
1.        FDC Pune members launched the official Facebook Developer Circle: Pune organisation on GitHub and made the first solid-doodle repo. Currently, it has 102 commits and 23 contributors in the repo. Link: https://github.com/devcpune/solid-doodle/        
       
2.        We discussed the DevC Training courses and how they can prove to be extremely beneficial for the community.        

At the end of the local hack day, we collected the participant’s feedback in a rather innovative way! Participants drew emoji’s on colourful sticky notes to express their feedback about the event. 

We had a wonderful time collaborating with participants from different domains. Hacking, brainstorming, and innovating collectively at the Local Hack Day - Build!