#Driesnote DrupalCon Chicago 2026 - CourtneyR.dev's 2nd Brain

#Driesnote | DrupalCon Chicago 2026 ![rw-book-cover](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EU6n7D91m_M/maxresdefault.jpg) > [!note]+ Document Notes > --- > tags: #drupal #drees #keynote #artificial-intelligence #community #open-source #cms #drupal-cms #ai-integration #web-development #chicago #drupalcon > author: Drees Buytaert > source: DrupalCon Chicago 2026 > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU6n7D91m_M > date created: 2026-03-24 09:00 > --- > # 🏷️ Title: #Driesnote | DrupalCon Chicago 2026 > ## 🧰 Action Inbox > - [H1] Explore Drupal CMS 2.1 with new site templates and marketplace features — 28:45 #drupal-cms > - [H2] Consider AI-powered prototyping workflow with Lovable + Drupal Canvas migration — 34:20 #artificial-intelligence > - [H3] Evaluate stewardship contributions to sustain Drupal's commons — 05:15 #community > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - [[#📝 Summary]] > - [[#📖 Main Content]] > - [[#🗒️ Notes]] > - [[#📚 References]] > - [[#🗣️ Paraphrase]] > - [[#📰 Newsletter]] > - [[#✅ Action Items]] > - [[#🧪 Hypotheses]] > - [[#📊 Methodology]] > - [[#❓ Questions]] > - [[#🔮 Future Research]] > - [[#💡 Implications]] > - [[#🧠 Learning Styles Assessment]] > - [[#📊 Accessibility Assessment]] > - [[#🌍 DEIB Assessment]] > - [[#✅ Logical Validity]] > - [[#🛡️ DARVO Analysis]] > - [[#🎯 Conclusion]] > ### 🔗 References > - [Drupal Marketplace](https://marketplace.drupal.org) > - [Drupal CMS](https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-cms) > ## 📝 Summary > - **What happened**: Drees Buytaert delivered the keynote at DrupalCon Chicago 2026, celebrating Drupal's 25th anniversary while addressing AI disruption challenges > - **Why it matters**: AI threatens all three pillars of Drupal's foundation (platform, agencies, community) simultaneously, requiring strategic response > - **Key stakeholders**: Drupal community, agencies, developers, site builders, content creators > - **Risks and tradeoffs**: AI can rapidly prototype but lacks production-ready content management; Drupal provides structured foundation but requires technical expertise > - **Bottom line**: Drupal's strategic response combines AI tools for rapid prototyping with Drupal's content management strengths, positioning "speed meeting substance" > ## 📖 Main Content > Drees opened by referencing Chicago's historical feat of literally lifting entire buildings in the 1850s to address flooding, drawing parallels to Drupal's ability to rebuild foundations while maintaining operations. At 25 years old, Drupal faces simultaneous AI disruption across its stable triangle: the platform, the agency ecosystem, and the open source community. > The keynote revealed Drupal CMS 2.1 with 11 site templates and an initial marketplace, moving beyond the single template shown six months prior in Vienna. However, the core challenge addressed was AI's ability to generate beautiful websites in 15 minutes (demonstrated with Lovable.dev), potentially disrupting traditional agency workflows. > Drees positioned this as opportunity rather than threat, introducing a "speed meeting substance" model where AI handles rapid prototyping while Drupal provides production-ready content management systems with workflows, permissions, scalability, and governance that AI prototypes lack. > ## 🗒️ Notes > #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=0) — [H1] Welcome and Chicago historical context > - Key idea: Chicago literally lifted entire city buildings in 1850s to fix flooding problems > - Evidence: "Workers used thousands of jack screws to raise entire buildings...business continued" > #### ⏱️ [02:45](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=165) — [H2] Drupal's 25th anniversary celebration > - Key idea: Quarter-century milestone represents graduation moment where real work begins > - Evidence: "25 years is a real milestone...it's also where the real work starts" > #### ⏱️ [05:15](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=315) — [H1] Stewardship as sustainability model > - Key idea: Common pool resources sustain through stakeholder governance, not inevitable depletion > - Evidence: "Eleanor found...resources sustained over generations...that is called stewardship" > #### ⏱️ [10:30](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=630) — [H3] Fred Rogers gratitude exercise > - Key idea: Taking 10 seconds to acknowledge people who helped you reach current position > - Evidence: "Think about all the people who helped them get to where they are today" > #### ⏱️ [12:00](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=720) — [H2] Community tensions and market challenges > - Key idea: Drupal community experiencing uncertainty, division, and tough market conditions > - Evidence: "I see uncertainty and some division...not a lot of business to go around" > #### ⏱️ [13:15](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=795) — [H1] The stable triangle under threat > - Key idea: Drupal's 25-year foundation (platform, agencies, community) faces simultaneous AI disruption > - Evidence: "What happens when AI disrupts all three legs of that triangle at the same time?" > #### ⏱️ [15:45](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=945) — [H3] Drees's early leadership crisis > - Key idea: Founder collapsed from stress trying to scale Drupal as hobby project > - Evidence: "I had passed out and I couldn't move...collapsed from stress" > #### ⏱️ [18:30](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=1110) — [H2] Seeking mentorship from open source leaders > - Key idea: Systematic approach to leadership development through learning from experienced leaders > - Evidence: "I wrote to a number of open-source leaders...Tim O'Reilly, Chris Deona...they all said yes" > #### ⏱️ [20:15](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=1215) — [H3] Linus Torvalds advice on leadership > - Key idea: Focus on interesting work and enable others to lead in their expertise areas > - Evidence: "Pick the interesting stuff you actually want to work on and let others take care of the rest" > #### ⏱️ [23:30](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=1410) — [H2] Drupal core performance improvements > - Key idea: 50% reduction in database queries for uncached pages over 18 months > - Evidence: "Every Drupal site in the world once they upgrade becomes more efficient" > #### ⏱️ [25:45](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=1545) — [H1] Drupal CMS adoption strategy > - Key idea: WordPress developers joining Drupal CMS Slack channels indicates cross-platform interest > - Evidence: "More and more WordPress developers showing up in the Drupal CMS Slack channel" > #### ⏱️ [28:45](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=1725) — [H1] Site templates and marketplace launch > - Key idea: Evolution from one template six months ago to 11 templates with functioning marketplace > - Evidence: "At Drupalcon Vienna...we had one site template...today we have 11 site templates" > #### ⏱️ [34:20](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=2060) — [H1] AI website generation demonstration > - Key idea: AI tools can create beautiful websites in 15 minutes without developers or agencies > - Evidence: "This website was not built by Drupal...All it took was 15 minutes of AI prompts" > #### ⏱️ [37:15](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=2235) — [H1] Drupal's infrastructure advantage > - Key idea: Organizations need workflows, permissions, scalability beyond AI prototypes > - Evidence: "Organizations need real workflows...permissions, scalability, integration...that is where we see the Drupal difference" > #### ⏱️ [42:30](https://youtu.be/EU6n7D91m_M?t=2550) — [H1] Speed meeting substance demonstration > - Key idea: AI prototypes in 15 minutes, migrate to production Drupal in 2-3 hours > - Evidence: "15 minutes of lovable and then...we asked AI to move that to Drupal...took about two to three hours" > ## 📚 References > - [Drupal CMS](https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-cms) > - [Drupal Marketplace](https://marketplace.drupal.org) > - [Lovable.dev AI Website Builder](https://lovable.dev) > - [Eleanor Ostrom: Governing the Commons](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/governing-the-commons/A8BB63BC4A1433A50A3FB92EDBBB97D5) > ## 🗣️ Paraphrase > - Drupal at 25 faces unprecedented challenge as AI simultaneously disrupts its platform, agency ecosystem, and community foundations > - The response strategy positions AI as prototyping tool while Drupal provides production-ready content management infrastructure > - New marketplace and site templates aim to drive adoption by offering solutions rather than just tools > ## 📰 Newsletter > **Drupal Turns 25: Embracing AI While Strengthening Foundations** > DrupalCon Chicago 2026 marked a pivotal moment as Drees Buytaert addressed how artificial intelligence is reshaping our entire ecosystem. Rather than seeing AI as a threat, the Drupal community is pioneering a "speed meeting substance" approach—using AI for rapid prototyping while leveraging Drupal's unmatched content management capabilities for production systems. > **Key Highlights:** > - Drupal CMS 2.1 launches with 11 site templates and marketplace > - AI integration demo shows 15-minute prototypes migrating to Drupal in hours > - Community stewardship model positions Drupal for next 25 years > The message is clear: AI handles the visual wow factor, but organizations still need Drupal's workflows, governance, and scalability for systems that last. > Resources: [Drupal CMS](https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-cms), [Marketplace](https://marketplace.drupal.org), [Developer Docs](https://developer.wordpress.org/) > ## ✅ Action Items > #### DevRel > - Developer advocacy: Create AI + Drupal integration workshops and demos showcasing Canvas CLI workflows > - Education: Develop curriculum around "speed meeting substance" methodology for agencies > - Developer experience: Document AI tool integration patterns and Canvas skill development > - Developer marketing: Position Drupal as production-ready foundation for AI prototypes > - Community management: Moderate AI adoption discussions and collect use case feedback > #### Community > - Maintainers: Support Canvas CLI development and AI integration modules > - Contributors: Create site templates for marketplace and contribute to AI tooling > - Sponsors: Fund AI research initiatives and Canvas development sprints > - Ecosystem: Coordinate with AI tool vendors on integration partnerships > #### WordPress > - Core AI: Establish evaluation framework for AI content tools vs external developer tools > - Community: Host cross-platform discussions on AI impact with WordPress developers > - Training: Create lesson plans for AI-assisted Drupal development workflows > - Marketing: Develop messaging around Drupal's content management advantages over AI prototypes > ## 🧪 Hypotheses > - AI prototyping tools will drive more initial interest in CMSs but conversion to production systems requires traditional CMS capabilities > - The "speed meeting substance" workflow will become standard for agencies combining rapid prototyping with robust content management > - Drupal's structured content and governance features provide sustainable competitive advantage in AI-enabled development > - Site templates and marketplace will successfully lower barriers to Drupal adoption from other platforms > ### 📊 Methodology > - A/B testing of traditional development vs AI-assisted prototyping workflows > - Conversion tracking from marketplace template installations to custom development projects > - Agency revenue analysis comparing AI-integrated vs traditional project models > ### ❓ Questions > - How will traditional Drupal agencies adapt business models to incorporate 15-minute AI prototyping? > - What governance frameworks will emerge for AI-generated content within Drupal's structured systems? > - Can the marketplace model successfully drive leads back to template creators and service providers? > ### 🔮 Future Research > - Long-term impact of AI tools on web development skill requirements and education needs > - Comparative analysis of CMS architectures for AI integration effectiveness > - Community sustainability models for open source projects in AI-accelerated development environments > ### 💡 Implications > - **Practice**: Agencies need new workflows combining AI prototyping with Drupal migration processes > - **Policy**: Community guidelines needed for AI tool integration and contribution attribution > - **Security**: AI-generated code requires review processes and quality assurance frameworks > - **Education**: Training programs must evolve to include AI-assisted development methodologies > - **Funding**: Investment needed in Canvas CLI development and AI integration tooling > ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment > Reading level estimate: 12th Grade (technical content with accessible explanations) > #### 👀 Visual learners > - Present: Live demos of AI website generation and Drupal migration, site template screenshots > - Improve: Architecture diagrams showing AI tool integration points, workflow visualizations > #### 🔊 Aural learners > - Present: Full video keynote with clear narration and audience interaction > - Improve: Podcast-style discussion of key concepts, audio summaries of technical demos > #### 🗣️ Verbal learners > - Present: Clear definitions of "speed meeting substance," stewardship analogies, Chicago historical metaphor > - Improve: Glossary of AI integration terms, comparison charts between approaches > #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners > - Present: Hands-on demos showing actual tool usage and command line interactions > - Improve: Step-by-step Canvas CLI tutorials, interactive site template customization guides > #### 🧠 Logical learners > - Present: Systematic analysis of three-pillar foundation, methodical approach to leadership development > - Improve: Decision trees for AI tool selection, quantified performance comparisons > #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners > - Present: Community celebration, collaborative stewardship model, mentor-mentee relationships > - Improve: Group workshops for AI integration, peer review processes for Canvas skills > #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners > - Present: Personal reflection on gratitude, individual leadership journey narrative > - Improve: Self-paced AI integration learning paths, personal project templates > #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners > - Present: Ecosystem metaphors for community sustainability, commons resource management > - Improve: Environmental impact discussions of AI tool usage, sustainable development practices > ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment > #### Screen reader semantics > - Present: Well-structured keynote with clear section headers and logical progression > - Improve: Detailed alt text for demo screenshots, transcript formatting with proper headings > #### Keyboard navigation > - Present: Standard video player controls accessible via keyboard > - Improve: Interactive demo elements should support keyboard-only navigation > #### Contrast and readability > - Present: High contrast slides with large text suitable for auditorium viewing > - Improve: Verify color contrast in demo interfaces meets WCAG standards > #### Text resizing and reflow > - Present: Scalable slide design accommodates various screen sizes > - Improve: Ensure demo interfaces remain usable at 200% zoom > #### Media and captions > - Present: Full transcript available, clear audio in large venue > - Improve: Synchronized captions for live demo portions, downloadable transcript > #### Forms and interactions > - Present: Clear call-to-action instructions for marketplace and resources > - Improve: Accessible error handling in Canvas CLI examples > ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment > #### Cultural breadth > - Present: International community acknowledgment, European and global perspectives > - Improve: Include non-Western web development approaches, multilingual site template examples > #### Inclusive language > - Present: Gender-neutral references, accessible technical explanations > - Improve: Avoid ableist metaphors in AI discussions, define technical jargon consistently > #### Neurodiversity support > - Present: Clear section breaks, consistent presentation structure > - Improve: Content warnings for rapid visual changes in demos, predictable slide timing > #### Representation > - Present: Diverse community member recognition, international conference locations > - Improve: Showcase site templates serving diverse communities and use cases > #### > --- > ## Full Transcript > [08:04] Ladies and gentlemen, the event will [08:06] begin shortly. Please find your way to [08:07] your seats. The event will begin [08:09] shortly. Thank you. [09:01] All right. [09:03] All right. Welcome. Welcome. [09:06] Welcome to Drupal Con Chicago 2026. [09:13] >> I'm Tim Doyle with the Drupal [09:15] Association and on behalf of the Drupal [09:17] Association board of directors and [09:19] staff, I'd like to welcome you to [09:20] Chicago. The Drupal Association is the [09:23] not for-p profofit that supports the [09:24] Drupal project and the global Drupal [09:27] community. Our vision is a web that is [09:30] innovative, inclusive, and open. [09:33] And whether this is your first Drupal [09:35] Con or your 50th, we want you to feel [09:38] welcomed. And if it's your 50th, we want [09:40] to talk to you about how you do math. [09:46] We are very happy that you're here. It's [09:48] important. It's always been an ethic of [09:50] the Drupal community to gather. We [09:52] gather together to to learn about [09:54] Drupal, to discuss its future, to [09:56] collaborate, to to meet new people and [09:59] reacquaint with old people. No matter [10:01] what's going on in our lives, no matter [10:03] what's going on in the world around us, [10:04] gathering is important and open source [10:06] depends on you being here. So, thank you [10:08] for being here. We want you to feel [10:11] welcome. If there's anything we can do [10:12] to make you feel welcomed here, please [10:15] ask any myself or any of the DA staff um [10:18] for help. We at the Drupal Association, [10:21] like the Drupal community, are not [10:23] afraid of being inclusive and we're not [10:25] threatened by diversity. [10:34] We want you to be able to bring your [10:36] full self here and I'm guaranteed you [10:38] will be able to find your people here. [10:39] So ask for help. We have a tradition [10:40] here where you're chatting in a group [10:42] you leave a space for someone to join. [10:43] So I task you with meeting people [10:46] introducing yourself and if you're [10:48] seeing someone reach out to them and [10:49] talk to them. So welcome. We're happy [10:51] that you're here. Our mission at the [10:53] Drupal Association is to drive [10:55] innovation and adoption of Drupal as a [10:56] high impact digital public good [10:58] handinhand with you, our open source [11:00] community. [11:02] And it's sometimes really hard to be a [11:03] digital public good, to be a public [11:05] good, keeping it going, all the work [11:07] that it requires. In fact, a year ago, [11:10] the Drupal Association board of [11:11] directors committed folks, they get [11:13] together before each Drupal Con for a [11:15] weekend. They give up a weekend. They [11:16] come together and they discuss ideas. [11:18] How can we better support the project? [11:19] How can we better support the community? [11:22] And a year ago in Atlanta, uh an article [11:24] was cir circulated by an economist [11:26] called governing the commons and it's [11:28] about how do you maintain common pool [11:30] resources? And uh the the board the [11:33] board members were asked to read it. I [11:35] have no idea if any of them read it, but [11:38] I read it and I bought the book. And [11:41] it's the it's the economic concept of [11:43] that anything that's given away for free [11:45] is going to over time be depleted [11:47] because it's going to get overused and [11:48] it's not going to be maintained because [11:50] there's not the incentives to do that. [11:51] And there's a political economist, [11:53] Eleanor Ashram, who wrote this article [11:55] and the book called Governing the [11:56] Commons. And she researched open open um [12:00] common pool resources throughout the [12:02] world over centuries and to see if the [12:04] classical economic theory, also known as [12:07] the tragedy of the commons. Was it [12:09] inevitable for anything that's given [12:11] away for free to uh to ultimately be [12:13] depleted? And you might say it doesn't [12:15] really apply to software. She did most [12:17] of her research before open source [12:19] software was a thing. Um, and I would [12:21] argue it does even though a static [12:22] version of software could be used by [12:24] many people without depleting it. But [12:26] the difference the maintenance is [12:28] security the difference between Drupal [12:30] two years ago or 25 years ago and the [12:32] Drupal today that's a finite resource [12:34] that takes you that takes maintainers [12:37] that takes security work that takes a [12:38] lot of effort and that's a finite [12:40] resource. And what Eleanor found when [12:43] she did the research, when she looked at [12:45] common pool resources, public goods [12:47] effectively across the world, across [12:49] centuries, um, farmland in Spain, [12:52] fishing off the coast of Japan, [12:54] throughout the US, throughout Europe, [12:56] over even over generations, [12:58] there were the theory that they would be [13:01] depleted did not happen in practice. In [13:03] fact, in practice, what happened was [13:06] these these uh common police were [13:08] sustained as I said over generations for [13:10] many years and are still going on today. [13:12] Some of the agreements that were made [13:14] generations ago are still inactive and [13:16] those resources are still there. That is [13:18] called stewardship. And that is and what [13:21] she found was the difference the [13:23] difference between resources that were [13:24] depleted and resources that sustained [13:26] were when the stakeholders the people [13:28] that benefit from it were given control [13:31] and actively governed the resource [13:33] actually created the rules actually [13:34] created the the ways of doing things [13:37] that that made it sustainable. It could [13:39] last for centuries. So what I invite you [13:41] today to do is to wherever you sit, [13:43] wherever you're the developer, marketer, [13:46] site builder, site owner, maybe you work [13:48] for an agency, how can you be a steward [13:50] of Drupal? How can how can you share [13:52] your talents whether it's code [13:53] contributions, non-code contributions, [13:55] volunteering, whatever it is to give [13:57] back to the community to help us sustain [13:59] because we have a vision that the next [14:01] 25 years of Drupal will be even better [14:02] than the last 25 years. [14:11] So, I would like to thank the stewards [14:13] of this event, our steering committee, [14:15] Aby and Brie, Frederick, Jasmine, Mikeo, [14:18] Nikki, Flores, Steven, and Rosie. These [14:20] are the stewards. Thank you. [14:27] Thank you for your tireless work in [14:28] putting together this event. It's it's [14:30] fantastic. We're so excited. So, [14:32] welcome. If there's anything we can do [14:33] to make you feel more welcome, please [14:35] let me know. And with that, let me turn [14:36] this over to the MC's of this morning's [14:38] show. [14:42] >> Come on up. [14:42] >> Come on up. [14:50] >> Thanks everybody. We're happy that you [14:52] are here this morning with us. [14:54] >> Morning. How we doing? Test test. [14:59] >> Uh I'm Avi. [15:00] >> I'm Frederick. [15:01] >> I'm Jasmine. [15:02] >> Nikki Flores. username Monica Dear. [15:07] >> First of all, we want to say thank you. [15:10] Thank you to the Drupal Association [15:11] staff, the volunteers, and all of you, [15:15] cuz none of this would be possible [15:16] without you. So, let's give ourselves a [15:18] hand. Give yourselves a hand. [15:19] >> Thank you very much. [15:25] >> And we want to send a special thank you [15:27] to all of our contributors to the 2026 [15:31] t-shirt contest. I'm so thrilled that we [15:33] landed on this one. I think I voted for [15:34] this one. Congratulations to Nathan Hos [15:37] who won the contest. Thank you for this [15:40] awesome design. [15:41] >> Make sure you get your t-shirt. [15:42] >> So cool. [15:44] >> Timeless Drupal tradition. Getting that [15:46] swag. [15:47] >> Yes. [15:49] >> So Drupal, as Tim had mentioned, we are [15:52] all stewards of Drupal. It is built by [15:55] the community and Drupal Con is the [15:58] place where we all come together. So [16:00] thank you for being here. I wanted to [16:02] give you some stats. We have 1310. I got [16:06] the right note from the uh organizer. We [16:09] have 1310 attendees. Over 100 speakers, [16:14] 127 sessions, 28% of you are first time [16:18] attending. [16:19] >> YEAH, WELCOME. FIRST TIME. LET'S GO. [16:24] >> And look how many camps and local [16:26] associations. [16:27] >> Yeah, camps. Let's get it. [16:30] and [16:33] >> 10% of you are beginners or new to [16:36] Drupal. So, let's hear it for all of [16:38] those folks. [16:38] >> Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. [16:40] We're happy you're here. Absolutely. [16:42] >> We hope to see you at your 50th Drupal [16:44] Con in three years. Time travel. That's [16:46] right. [16:48] >> We definitely want to shout out all the [16:50] various camps that are here. If you're [16:52] part of a camp, raise your hand. Local [16:54] group. Local groups. [16:55] >> If you're looking for a group, look, [16:57] look who's part of the local group. [16:59] What's really cool about this is that [17:01] right after the Dre note when we go take [17:03] a picture it's going to be literally [17:04] right next door. That same place where [17:07] the big Duplicon is, we're taking the [17:09] picture. The same place where the [17:10] contribution day is the local camps have [17:12] tables set up so you can meet folks at [17:15] your local camp in that space. The call [17:17] to action once you leave, find a local [17:20] camp, go to a local meetup and meet [17:22] people in your area and continue the [17:24] tradition going. [17:30] All right. And in case you haven't [17:32] heard, uh, tonight we're coming together [17:33] to celebrate the 25th anniversary of [17:35] Drupal. Let's hear it for Drupal. [17:41] >> I remember when I was 25. Go ahead. I [17:44] do, too. It's a rough time. Uh, the [17:47] dress code for tonight is Drupal. Fancy [17:49] gowns, black tie, [17:51] suits, blue jeans, Drupal te's, whatever [17:55] you want. Uh the gayla tickets are [17:57] completely sold out. If you don't have a [17:58] ticket, please don't show up. Uh if you [18:01] do have a ticket, uh please arrive as [18:03] close to 7 as possible. There'll be a [18:05] brief program starting at 8:15 and folks [18:07] will not be admitted during the program. [18:09] We're super excited. It's going to be a [18:11] fun time. Uh also we have the Drupal [18:14] recording initiative here supporting [18:16] session recording. So [18:21] uh kids have come from across the [18:24] country. Uh, if you see Kevin, Bob, [18:26] Bernardo, be sure to thank them. And [18:29] remember, everybody together, [18:30] >> push the button. [18:32] >> Big red button. [18:33] >> Push it. [18:34] >> Push it. Make sure you push it if you're [18:35] speaking. For sure. [18:37] >> All right. And we want to thank the [18:39] Drupal Con sponsors. Give yourselves a [18:42] hand. Sponsor. [18:43] >> Money is important. Come on. Let's thank [18:44] the sponsors. [18:46] >> Literally could not do this without your [18:48] sponsorship. So, thank you. Thank you. [18:51] Here are some of the sponsors. Here you [18:53] see. Okay. Made a nice heart. Okay. [18:56] >> All right. We also want to thank our [18:57] Drupal certified partners. I'm one of [19:00] those. Yeah. DCPs. Let's go. Then create [19:03] and build in the in the Drupal [19:05] ecosystem. So, of course, we made a [19:07] little little drop little Drupal drop. [19:10] Okay. [19:11] >> And then lastly, we want to thank or not [19:13] lastly, next we want to thank our [19:15] organization members. Okay. Organization [19:18] members, give yourselves a hand. [19:21] >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, [19:24] lastly, we want to thank you [19:27] >> everybody. Thank you. Give yourselves a [19:29] hand. That's right. You got to keep [19:30] clapping. We're giving a lot of energy [19:31] this morning. Come on. Let's go. Let's [19:33] go. [19:33] >> Come on. Thank you guys. [19:35] >> We got a full day of sessions. We got to [19:36] pick this energy up. Let's go. [19:38] >> Thank you. [19:42] >> The Duplicon code of conduct is here on [19:45] the QR code. If you need any help at [19:47] all, please do find any Drupal [19:49] Association member or go to the [19:50] registration desk if you need to report [19:52] a concern. Thanks to all of you who have [19:54] gotten certified for um Drupalcon code [19:57] of conduct. [19:59] And just a reminder, if somebody's [20:01] wearing an orange lanyard, just refrain [20:03] from taking their photo. The rest of the [20:05] photo policy is as listed. [20:09] >> Okay. And of course, like uh uh [20:12] Frederick mentioned, you are all invited [20:15] next door to take the Drupalcon group [20:17] photo. The legend this what we do every [20:20] single Drupal Con. Get together as a [20:22] group and get really close together like [20:25] we all love each other and take the [20:27] photo and we're going to do that right [20:29] next door at the international ballroom [20:31] after the Dreote. [20:35] >> We also um there will be a public board [20:37] meeting directly in this room later [20:39] today. So that will be a meeting for all [20:42] the Drupal association for the board of [20:44] directors. But if you're a part of [20:45] Drupal community, which you are because [20:46] you're in this room and you hear my [20:48] voice, you are invited. So the board of [20:50] directors meeting is open to the public. [20:55] >> Also a word on contribution. So we have [20:57] contribution all week in the [21:00] contribution room. Please do consider [21:02] contributing, mentoring somebody else in [21:05] their first contribution or supporting [21:09] all week. And if you are putting in a [21:12] contribution, please use the issue tag [21:14] Chicago 2026. This helps us track the [21:18] success of contributions. Get credit for [21:20] your [21:20] >> credits. [21:24] All right. So, one of the things that [21:25] you probably have heard, especially if [21:26] you're if you're a firsttime person, [21:27] you've heard this concept called BAF, [21:29] birds of a feather. Birds of a Feather [21:31] is a awesome Drupal tradition. It's kind [21:33] of a little bit above the hallway track. [21:36] So, it's a great way to meet other [21:37] people. If you go online, you can see [21:39] and use this QR code. You can see where [21:41] other people have put ideas to talk [21:43] about different things. I was talking to [21:44] someone earlier and he was mentioning [21:45] about a buff around HTMX and people [21:48] showed up and he was really excited. I [21:49] think it was Father Sean from New Jersey [21:51] New York camp. So, if you have ideas and [21:53] things you want to talk about, add it to [21:55] the BOF calendar. If you're curious what [21:56] the ideas are, check out the birds. [22:00] Okay. And after contribution on Thursday [22:02] night, we have trivia night. Who's [22:04] excited for trivia? [22:05] >> Me. [22:08] So, we have a very special professional [22:11] DJ or professional trivia MC who's going [22:14] to be MCing the night. It's going to be [22:15] awesome. We're going to have snacks. [22:17] We've got drink tickets. Uh it's going [22:19] to be a great time. It's just a 15-inute [22:21] walk south of the venue. So, uh be sure [22:24] to put that on your calendar. Uh the [22:26] original time was 6:30. Uh, we pushed it [22:28] back a little bit early because [22:29] basketball is happening later. You can [22:31] go to trivia and stick around for the [22:34] basketball game if you want. [22:38] All right. One of the really cool things [22:40] we also have, as you probably know, is [22:42] keynotes. So, right after we get off the [22:44] stage and some other people do some [22:46] announcements, we're going to have our [22:47] first keynote by our awesome and [22:48] fearless leader, Drupal founder, Dre. [22:51] That's today. And then tomorrow, [22:55] advance the slide. Thank you, Obby. Uh [22:57] we'll have another keynote by Alexandra [22:59] Bell, the security implications of AI. [23:02] She's the president and CEO of Bulletin [23:03] of Atomic Scientists. That is going to [23:05] be amazing. So make sure you come back [23:07] tomorrow for that. And then there's [23:10] another keynote on Wednesday and this is [23:13] actually a group keynote. So the Drupal [23:15] CMS leadership team is going to be doing [23:18] a keynote um to talk about all the [23:20] different advances and all the different [23:22] innovations that have been pulled into [23:23] Drupal CMS. So make sure you check that [23:24] out as well. [23:27] So, uh, other events that are coming up, [23:29] the Drupal AI Summit is coming up in [23:31] Paris. You can get all the details from [23:33] that QR code. Uh, it's going to be in [23:35] Paris. It's going to be a fun time. [23:38] There's also the Drupal AI Summit in New [23:40] York City. Uh, that's May 14th, 2026. [23:43] Uh, show up, do AI. More info at [23:46] drupal.orgai. [23:50] >> All right. Now, the moment you've all [23:52] been waiting for. Where is the next [23:54] Drupal Con going to be? [23:57] >> But first, [23:58] >> but first [23:59] >> we're gonna take a trip down memory lane [24:02] and just show you some of the places [24:03] where uh Drupal Con Europe, Drupalcon [24:06] Asia, Drupal Con North America have [24:08] taken place since 2005. They've [24:11] >> been around for a while. [24:12] >> I'm not even going to say what I was [24:14] doing in 2005. Okay. [24:16] >> Um should have been investing in real [24:17] estate, I think. Um, but yes, so last [24:20] year you all were in my town, Atlanta [24:23] for North America. Uh, now we're in [24:26] Chicago. We had Vienna. We had Nara, [24:28] which I'm really sad I missed out on. [24:30] >> Yes. [24:30] >> All right. So, where is the next Drupal [24:33] Con this year going to be? [24:36] >> Rder. That's right. You damn right. In [24:39] the Netherlands. Let's go. [24:41] >> Yeah. And that's going to take place [24:43] September 28th through October 1st. So, [24:46] here are some of the things that you can [24:48] do to help us get ready for Drupal Con [24:50] Roderdam. Um, registration is going to [24:52] launch just next week on Monday, I [24:54] think. [24:54] >> A few more days. [24:55] >> Yeah, a few more days. So, these are [24:56] some of the things that you can do to to [24:58] help get involved with Roderdam. Uh, [25:00] follow that QR code there. [25:03] >> Now, where will the Drupal North America [25:06] be next? But first, [25:10] we want to tell you about [25:11] >> the conference. Let's go. We're the [25:13] Canadians IN THE HOUSE. [25:15] YEAH. YES. [25:16] >> DRUPAL CAN CONFERENCE. Let's go. [25:18] >> Drupal can conference. This is a brand [25:21] new conference we're bringing to you [25:22] next summer 2027. And we don't know [25:26] where in Canada. [25:28] >> From what I know, Canada's huge. So, [25:30] it's going to be somewhere in Canada. [25:32] And we will let you know very soon. [25:34] Follow the QR code for more details. [25:36] >> I'm voting for Train Con. [25:38] >> Yeah, there we go. [25:39] >> Okay. Just all of Canada. [25:41] >> Snow Piercer style all the way. all of [25:43] Canada. A tour, if you will. All right. [25:46] >> Are we ready? [25:47] >> Now, the moment you've all been waiting [25:49] for [25:50] >> because we're special. You're the United [25:51] States, so we have to have a special way [25:53] of doing this. [25:53] >> Where is the next North America Drupal [25:56] Con going to be? [26:09] Heat [26:20] up [26:27] here. [26:50] I think it's fair to say we've been [26:51] waiting 20 years to say this. [26:55] Orlando. [27:00] >> Hey, Mike. I have these numbers. [27:03] I have 2371 [27:07] 3180. Can you help me out? [27:09] >> Lay it on me. [27:11] >> Two. [27:12] >> Two. Triple con Orlando will take place [27:15] less than two miles from Walt Disney [27:18] World. [27:20] >> Three. [27:21] >> Three. Orlando is the third most diverse [27:25] large city in the United States and the [27:28] number one diverse city in Florida. [27:31] All right, seven and one. [27:35] >> And I had my numbers wrong because I [27:38] wasn't reading. So, we're going to go [27:40] back and let's pretend that was three. [27:42] >> All right, three. [27:45] >> Orlando's the third fastest growing tech [27:48] hub in the United States. [27:50] >> Seven and one. [27:51] >> What I said? [27:55] >> 31. [27:56] >> Oh, this is one of my favorites. This [27:58] was the temperature when I woke up this [28:00] morning here in Chicago. That's a big [28:03] zero in Celsius. [28:05] >> What about 80? [28:06] >> You know where I'm going with this. [28:08] That's the average high temperature in [28:10] late March in Orlando. [28:15] >> You got one more bit. [28:17] >> You got one more number? [28:18] >> No. No more numbers. [28:21] The entire Florida Drupal community [28:24] invites you down to the Hyatt Regency [28:29] Grand Cypress Resort March 22nd through [28:33] 25th in 2007 [28:37] 27. [28:39] It's not time travel. [28:41] >> What's that math issue that we all have? [28:44] >> Fantastic. We will see you next year in [28:46] Orlando. [28:47] >> It's going to be the best. [28:49] Thank you everyone. [28:55] >> One last thing before we get to the Dre [28:57] note. I'd like to introduce Amy Jun [28:59] Heinline and Mark Casillas for the Aaron [29:02] Windborn Award. [29:07] >> Hang on. I'm going to set this up. [29:17] >> Hi everyone. [29:19] We are here to announce the 2026 Aaron [29:21] Winboard Award winner. Mark setting [29:24] things up. He's gonna drive. [29:27] >> Hi. Oh, am I gonna drive? Yes. Thank [29:29] you. [29:29] >> Um, you're doing the first slide though, [29:32] so [29:32] >> that's right. Okay. So, we are the part [29:34] of the Drupal community working group, [29:36] specifically the conflict resolution [29:38] team. He's Mark Casillas. I'm Amy June [29:40] Heinline. Donna Bungard and David Newton [29:43] could not not be with us today, but [29:45] we're all part of the committee who [29:46] helps organize and run and do the Aaron [29:51] Windborn Award. We do lots of other [29:53] parts um for the community. We also are [29:55] involved in the community working group [29:57] and we invite everyone to come to our [29:59] office hours tomorrow to find out what [30:02] exactly we do and that's in the Buff [30:04] Room at 11 a.m. [30:06] >> Yes. So, the Aaron Windward Award is an [30:09] annual award that honors Aaron Windbard, [30:12] longtime Drupal contributor who passed [30:14] away from ALS in early 2015. It [30:17] recognizes an individual who embodies [30:19] Aaron spirit, somebody who demonstrates [30:21] exceptional integrity, kindness, and [30:23] above and beyond commitment to the [30:25] Drupal community. [30:27] >> So, the nomin nomination process is [30:30] pretty straightforward. We open up [30:31] nominations to the community. People [30:33] vote. They say kind words about people. [30:36] And then it comes back um to not only [30:39] the community working group conflict [30:41] resolution team, but also past winners [30:44] of the award. Even though I'm a past [30:46] winner and on the CRT, I only get one [30:48] vote, which I don't think is fair, but [30:50] that's okay. Um and then we we we work [30:53] to we work together. Well, we work away [30:55] from each other, then we work together, [30:56] and we pick a winner. It's pretty [30:57] straightforward. [30:59] >> And as you see here, the award is always [31:02] created uh by the community, somebody in [31:04] the community. This one came all the way [31:06] from the Czech Republic. There's going [31:08] to be a video online when we launched [31:10] the post. Um, and it was created. Thank [31:13] you to Anertchech and CSGOV for uh [31:15] shipping that out to us. [31:16] >> Wait, don't change the slide yet. Why is [31:19] there a random logo on [31:21] >> Oh, so the uh reason there's a random uh [31:24] logo is because uh when you ship [31:27] something from Czech Republic, you get a [31:29] charge maybe something called a tariff [31:31] that I had to pay for. So, I put my [31:33] band's logo on there. So, [31:36] so the Aaron Winborn Award is brought to [31:38] you from Anertchech and the Randomics. [31:41] >> The Randomics. Thank you very much. So, [31:44] we got a couple of things to say about [31:45] the winner of this year's award. Um, go [31:48] ahead. [31:48] >> This is one nomination. Um, such a great [31:52] person and cares so much about the [31:55] community. An organizer of the second [31:57] best Drupal camp in the world. I believe [32:00] that the camp would not exist without [32:02] their hard work. Another nomination. Uh, [32:05] this person deserves the Aaron Windboard [32:07] award because they consistently show up [32:09] for Drupal the community with care, [32:11] integrity, and a deep sense of [32:13] responsibility for the people uh, in it. [32:16] U, their work often goes unnoticed, not [32:18] because it's not important, but because [32:20] it's rooted in discretion and kindness. [32:23] And it is our pleasure to give the award [32:26] to [32:28] >> April. [32:51] There's a lot of people out here, [32:53] >> but it's great. Um, so there are so many [32:56] amazing people doing so many amazing [32:59] things in this community. To be [33:01] nominated and also chosen for this award [33:03] is truly an honor. There's something [33:06] special about the Drupal community. [33:08] There's this overwhelming culture of [33:11] helping and caring about people who just [33:14] happen to work and use uh work and use a [33:18] particular open-source software. [33:21] It is in this community that I found a [33:24] sense of belonging and gained the [33:27] confidence and support to grow both [33:29] professionally and personally. I do what [33:32] I do to pay it forward for others. [33:35] Whether it's organizing Drupal Camp [33:36] Asheville, which is the second best, [33:40] it's always everyone's always second to [33:42] Florida, just happens of it. [33:45] um or the accessibility talks meetup, [33:47] helping with the community health team [33:49] or supporting events with the Midwest [33:51] Open source alliance or MOSA. All of [33:54] these opportunities were made possible [33:56] by other people starting something and [33:58] then inviting me to join the team. [34:02] In this community, the cool kids [34:05] give back and the greatest reward is [34:07] being a part of something that's bigger [34:09] than ourselves. I want to thank all the [34:11] cool kids I get to collaborate with in [34:14] the Drupal community. You know who you [34:16] are and I appreciate you immensely. [34:19] I want to thank Red Hat and my former [34:21] employers, Media Current and Lullabing [34:24] and encouraging open-source contribution [34:26] in all its forms. [34:28] I want to thank my parents who taught me [34:30] the value of always showing up for [34:32] family, friends, and community. And last [34:35] but not least, I want to thank my wife [34:36] Tammy for accepting how much time and [34:39] energy I give to the Drupal community [34:42] and for supporting me through both the [34:44] highs and the lows of the journey. My [34:46] volunteer work is more meaningful when I [34:48] get to celebrate the wins with you. [34:50] Thank you. [35:00] Who wants a picture? [35:12] I'll I'll grab the box. [35:15] Awesome. So, next up, without further [35:18] ado, it is an honor for me to introduce [35:20] Drees. [35:33] Hello, Chicago. [35:43] That was a lot of energy. [35:46] I'm a little ex exhausted from all the [35:48] energy. [35:50] Um, but welcome to Chicago. I'm very [35:52] excited to be here. And I actually [35:54] wanted to start with a fun fact because [35:57] uh Chicago didn't always looked the way [35:59] that it looks today. You know, cities [36:02] change over time. Buildings come and go, [36:04] but in Chicago, something way more [36:07] unusual happened. [36:10] Back in the 1850s, Chicago had a lot of [36:13] flooding, and that was because Chicago [36:15] was built on like swampy land. Um, and [36:19] there was a lot a lot of floods. And so [36:21] engineers came up with a brilliant way [36:23] to fix that. They basically lifted the [36:26] city as you can see here. And so workers [36:29] they used thousands of these you know [36:32] jack screws to basically raise entire [36:35] buildings which is kind of remarkable. [36:37] Uh that building is literally several [36:39] feet in the air. And yes it's cringe to [36:42] see these bosses stand on the building [36:44] while the workers are you know raising [36:46] it. Um, [36:50] but basically Chicago rebuilt its [36:52] foundations, which I think is is pretty [36:54] remarkable. Um, and despite all of that [36:58] disruption, you know, while you're [36:59] lifting a building, business continued. [37:02] And there was actually wooden buildings [37:03] as well. And a rumor has it that these [37:06] buildings were put on rollers and rolled [37:09] to the edge of the city. And while these [37:11] buildings were being rolled, business [37:14] continued. Like, that's insane. Um, and [37:17] I think that tells you something about [37:19] Chicago and I think it tells you [37:21] something about engineers. [37:23] But hey, Drupal turns 25 this year, [37:27] which I think is worth celebrating. So, [37:29] let's give it a moment. Happy birthday, [37:32] Drupal. [37:40] Thank you. A quick show of hands. Who's [37:42] been in the Drupal community for more [37:44] than 20 years? [37:46] All right, quite a few hands. Nice. [37:48] Thank you. Thanks for being um a member [37:50] of the community for that long. And and [37:52] how many are actually younger than [37:54] Drupal? Was 25 years or less. [37:59] A few people. Yeah. Nice. [38:02] And I'm actually thinking about this [38:03] like you might remember the Drupal [38:05] Convienna keynote and I showed a video [38:07] made by Witza and after I walked off [38:09] stage I'm like wow he's actually less [38:12] than 25. Like he wasn't even born when I [38:14] started Drupal. So I love that we have [38:16] experience and we have new energy in our [38:19] community. So thank you for uh [38:21] attending. Now 25 years is a real real [38:25] milestone and in those 25 years we too [38:28] have rebuilt our foundations actually [38:31] more than once and we too have continued [38:34] while sort of everything underneath us [38:37] has shifted and that's why we are here [38:40] today. That's why we've been able to [38:42] thrive for 25 years. [38:45] And I have to admit I do feel like a [38:47] private parent sometimes. So um but I [38:51] think 25 years is a little bit like our [38:53] graduation moment. And as you know about [38:56] graduations, it's also where the real [38:58] work starts. You know, you leave [39:00] university and the real work begins. And [39:04] as is also a tradition with graduations [39:07] is that it's a moment to say thank you. [39:10] And I actually wanted to start with [39:11] that. And I wanted to borrow something [39:13] from Fred Rogers. And when he received a [39:16] lifetime achievement award at the Emmys, [39:19] he basically stopped the show. He [39:21] stopped everything and he asked the room [39:24] for 10 seconds, just 10 seconds, to [39:26] think about all the people um who helped [39:30] them get to where they are today. So it [39:32] could be anyone in your life that helped [39:34] you get to where you are today. So let's [39:36] do that. So we're going to take 10 [39:38] seconds. You think about some people in [39:40] your life and you say a silent thank you [39:43] and I'll keep time. All right, 10 [39:45] seconds. [40:01] Awesome. [40:02] Feels good, right? [40:05] It does to me. [40:07] All right, I'm emotional about it. [40:09] Sorry, [40:11] I need a moment. [40:14] Well, Drupalon is a celebration and we [40:18] have a lot to be thankful for. I think I [40:20] do. And we're going to celebrate [40:22] tonight. We're going to have a gala [40:23] which will be pretty special. Um, but [40:26] but it's also going to be a little bit [40:28] of a tougher dream note than I had [40:30] planned because my initial plan was make [40:33] it all about celebration. Uh, but I [40:35] actually had a few sleepless nights [40:37] about what to say and what to do. And [40:41] that's because when I look at our [40:42] community today, I see a lot of [40:44] progress. I see a lot of momentum. I see [40:46] a lot of incredible innovation actually [40:48] more than ever, which is like super [40:50] excited. On the other hand, I also see [40:53] uncertainty and some division. Like it's [40:56] a tough market out there. There's not a [40:58] lot of business to go around. [41:01] And it's not just in Drupal. for the [41:03] whole CMS industry to be clear. But I [41:05] also see AI threatening the agency [41:08] business model. I see developers [41:11] wondering what this means for their [41:13] craft. I see people criticizing from the [41:16] sidelines and people I deeply respect [41:20] disagreeing sharply about where AI fits [41:22] in, [41:24] not to mention all the worries and the [41:26] uncertainty in the world. And it makes [41:27] for a difficult time. And so for more [41:29] than 20 years um Drupal was built on [41:33] this I call it a stable triangle. These [41:35] are the foundations of Drupal. So at the [41:37] top you have Drupal the platform or the [41:39] software and second you have the [41:42] agencies or the wider ecosystem the [41:45] organizations the businesses that bring [41:47] Drupal to the world. And then last but [41:49] not least you have the open source [41:51] community. All of you who create Drupal [41:54] contribute to Drupal. [41:56] And what's interesting about this [41:57] triangle is that it has held up for 25 [42:00] years. You know, it's gone through waves [42:02] of technologies, constant change, and [42:05] it's been very very robust. But what [42:08] happens when AI disrupts all three legs [42:11] of that triangle at the same time? And [42:15] that's what I've been losing sleep um [42:17] about. [42:18] So, we're going to talk about that. But [42:21] first, this was me um in the early days. [42:25] Um, Drupal was about one years old at [42:27] the time. And by the way, I don't think [42:29] a single line of code that I wrote for [42:32] Drupal 1.0 still exists today, but it [42:35] would be fun to check, right? Um, this [42:38] was the engine room of Drupal. I just [42:40] had I moved out of my dorm. You've all [42:42] seen the dorm picture, but this was my [42:45] first apartment after I moved out. Check [42:47] out these monitors. It's kind of wild. [42:50] And my Matrix poster, of course. [42:55] And this is me six years later. Still [42:58] had a bad hairstyle or questionable [43:00] hairstyle. [43:01] Um, but by this point, Drupal was seven [43:05] years old and this photo was actually [43:08] taken minutes after I defended my PhD. [43:12] And uh, I had a lot going on leading up [43:14] to this moment. And actually before I [43:16] finished my PhD, I'd already helped [43:18] create the Drupal Association. I'd [43:21] already founded Aquia as well. And oh by [43:23] the way, I was about to become a dad. So [43:26] a lot going on in my life. And so from [43:29] the outside, I think this photo could [43:31] look like a moment of success. I mean, [43:33] look at how happy I am. You know, I'm [43:37] smiling and I was sort of peace out [43:39] leaving the university and I was ready [43:41] to start working on Drupal full-time for [43:44] the first time because I was doing it at [43:46] night on the weekends. [43:48] But the Drupal that we know today almost [43:51] didn't happen because six months before [43:52] that happy photo, my life was at a [43:55] crossroads. [43:56] Well, it wasn't quite a crossroads. It [43:59] was actually an ordinary street in [44:00] Belgium and I was laying across the [44:02] road, but I basically had passed out and [44:07] I couldn't move. and I taken our dog for [44:09] a walk at night and um I'd love to tell [44:12] you he ran off to get help but he was [44:14] sitting there [44:17] and was sitting there waiting for me to [44:19] get up and eventually I got up of course [44:20] and I walked myself back home but I'm [44:22] sure you're wondering what happened what [44:24] happened and had basically collapsed [44:27] from stress you know the pressure had [44:29] slowly built up and until it like hit a [44:33] breaking point for me and if I'm honest [44:36] that pressure came from obviously trying [44:38] to finish my PhD but also mostly from [44:42] trying to scale Drupal like I was doing [44:45] Drupal as a hobby project. Larger and [44:47] larger organizations were starting to [44:49] use it. People were starting to build [44:51] Drupal businesses. Meanwhile, I was [44:54] doing this at night on the weekends. I [44:55] was trying to hold everything together. [44:58] And in many ways, I felt like I became [45:00] an accidental leader, like completely [45:03] grew out of control, if you will. And as [45:06] I said, I was about to get a PhD. But my [45:08] PhD doesn't teach anything about how to [45:11] lead. It doesn't tell you how to grow an [45:14] open source community. It didn't tell me [45:16] how to lead an organization. It didn't [45:18] tell me how to manage people. It didn't [45:20] tell me how to manage fundraising, as an [45:23] example. And so all of a sudden was just [45:25] too much, you know. And I remember my [45:28] mom even asking me, "Are you sure Drupal [45:31] is the right thing for you?" you know, [45:33] and so for a moment I even considered [45:36] getting a safe job at a Belgian bank. [45:40] And imagine what that would have looked [45:41] like. [45:51] Some engineer twice my age would [45:52] probably have taught me cobalt, you [45:54] know, and I would have a job for life. [45:56] And maybe they would even let me bring [45:58] my Matrix poster into my cubicle. Um, [46:02] and while I thought about it, it just [46:05] didn't feel right, you know. So instead, [46:07] I actually took a month off from Drupal [46:09] to try and figure this out. And so I [46:11] approached a problem the way engineers [46:14] approach problems systematically. [46:17] And my first step was pretty clear. I [46:19] needed to ask for help. And so I wrote [46:21] to a number of open-source leaders and I [46:25] asked if I could visit them in [46:26] California. people like Tim O'Reilly, [46:29] Chris Deona who at the time was at [46:31] Google, Lori Austin, he had taken VA [46:34] Linux public, Martin Mikos, who at the [46:37] time was the CEO of my SQL and they all [46:40] said yes. They said come on over and so [46:42] I planned this road trip to San [46:45] Francisco and I was very excited because [46:48] I felt like all of them were sort of [46:50] ahead of me. They had already crossed [46:53] sort of the figurative bridge before me [46:55] if that makes sense. And I even sent an [46:57] email to Leno Store and he wrote back [47:00] this super long reply and I couldn't [47:03] believe it at first. You know, it gave [47:04] me a massive, massive boost. Look at [47:07] some of the things that he told me. [47:10] He said things like worrying about [47:13] making it big was a big waste of time. [47:16] And in the same vein, he said, "Pick the [47:18] interesting stuff you actually want to [47:20] work on and let others take care of the [47:23] rest." And I thought it was great [47:24] advice. And you know when I started [47:27] Aquia for example I wasn't the CEO like [47:31] I wasn't and I felt good about that [47:32] because it's good to enable people to [47:34] lead in areas where they have more [47:36] expertise. [47:38] Now I didn't follow all of Lenus's [47:41] advice. [47:42] He also said sometimes it's better to be [47:45] just an engineer [47:47] and I remember thinking no that's not [47:51] enough. [47:53] I remember thinking Drupal needed more [47:55] from me. You know, I do love coding. [47:58] It's very much my happy place, if you [48:01] will. Uh but I felt like Drupal needed [48:03] more from me. And I realized that I had [48:05] to go all in on Drupal. You know, being [48:08] an accidental leader wasn't enough. I [48:09] had to become a deliberate leader. [48:14] And so looking back, I'm still amazed by [48:18] the generosity of all of those leaders. [48:21] And I've always been very grateful for [48:23] them because they showed me something [48:25] about leadership. They showed me that as [48:28] a leader, you need to help people come [48:30] up behind you. And so if somebody [48:32] approaches you here at Drupal Con, I [48:34] would encourage you to help them. I [48:36] would encourage you to be as generous as [48:39] Lenus and these others were to me. You [48:41] never know the impact that you'll have. [48:44] Now, that road trip also made me time [48:47] made me realize, sorry, that it was time [48:49] to be serious. Um, I was going to go all [48:52] in on Drupal and today everything feels [48:55] more serious than it used to be. Even [48:57] this Dre note is more serious because I [49:00] remember the early Dre notes. [49:04] Um, you know, I could party till 5:00 [49:06] a.m. in the morning and still show up to [49:10] deliver a keynote at 9:00 a.m. [49:14] I can tell you these days are long, long [49:16] gone. [49:18] I can't handle 5 a.m. anymore. Um, and [49:21] honestly, nobody invites me to these [49:23] parties anyway, [49:26] which is fine. Which is fine. I've come [49:27] to accept it. And actually, who was out [49:29] last night? [49:31] All right. Quite a few people. And you [49:33] didn't invite me. [49:37] I rest my case. Um, nowadays, I wake up [49:41] in the morning and actually ask myself [49:42] two questions. One, what big problem can [49:45] I help solve? and two, who can I ask for [49:48] help? It's actually a great way to start [49:50] your day uh with these two questions. [49:52] And so, for the past nine months, I've [49:54] been waking up thinking about this [49:56] triangle, you know, what are we going to [49:59] do when our stable foundation comes [50:02] under pressure, all three legs at the [50:04] same time? And so, that question leads [50:07] into the product updates of these [50:09] keynotes. So, I've spent the last nine [50:12] months uh talking to agency owners, [50:14] developers, community members. I've been [50:17] blogging about everything that I've [50:18] learned. And I can tell you that almost [50:21] every conversation starts kind of the [50:23] same way. Like, Greece, the market is [50:26] rough right now. Or, Greece, AI is [50:28] basically disrupting what I'm doing. [50:31] What should we do? What are we doing [50:33] about it? And if I'm honest, I don't [50:36] have a simple answer, but I do have [50:38] something that's maybe better. And I [50:40] want to show you what we've been [50:42] building, what we've been doing, what [50:44] we've been learning, what we've been [50:45] seeing. And hopefully you will feel [50:47] encouraged by it just like me. All [50:50] right. So, we're going to start with the [50:54] top of the triangle, which is the [50:56] product. And I'm going to show you how [50:58] we're responding and what our answer is. [51:04] So, first let's actually talk about [51:06] Drupal CMS because today we're [51:08] announcing the release of Drupal CMS 2.1 [51:12] and yeah, very exciting. [51:19] And uh in a minute I'm going to show you [51:21] its new features. But first, I want to [51:23] remind you that Drupal CMS is actually [51:25] built on top of Drupal core and we [51:28] recently released 11.3 [51:31] and the core committers continue to do [51:33] an amazing job improving and innovating [51:36] in core. As an example, over the last 18 [51:40] months, we've seen a reduction of 50% uh [51:44] in terms of database queries for [51:45] uncashed pages. And that obviously [51:53] That obviously benefits Drupal CMS as [51:55] well, but think about that for a moment [51:57] because it means that every Drupal site [51:59] in the world once they upgrade um you [52:02] know becomes more efficient and that's [52:04] actually a pretty big deal and that's [52:06] just one of many examples of what the [52:09] core um committer team or the core [52:11] leadership team has been doing. So give [52:13] it up one more time for them. [52:26] Very nice. Um, all right. So, as you [52:28] might might recall, the goal of Drupal [52:31] CMS is very, very simple. It's to drive [52:33] adoption. And, uh, actually, here's a [52:35] funny anecdote. So, I think it was Pam [52:37] or someone that told me um like a week [52:40] ago that there's more and more WordPress [52:43] developers showing up in the Drupal CMS [52:46] uh Slack channel asking for help. So, [52:48] that's pretty cool. Is there any [52:49] WordPress people in the room? Don't be [52:52] shy. Yeah, there's there's some. [52:56] We're um we're very friendly [53:02] and uh we're glad you're here. So, [53:03] welcome to the Drupal community. bring [53:05] your friends. Um, [53:08] all right. Now, on the adoption, driving [53:11] adoption, I will tell you it's still [53:12] early days. You know, I'm not going to [53:13] pretend we've seen the growth that we [53:16] want yet, but that's also not what we [53:18] were expecting because, uh, we've made [53:21] some really, really, really good [53:22] progress on our strategic initiatives, [53:25] but they're, you know, still in [53:26] progress. So, um, you know, we have to [53:30] be patient. Now I do think the next [53:32] initiative can really really help. uh [53:35] about a year ago at Drupal Con um [53:38] Atlanta uh you might remember the Lego [53:40] Dre notes um and it's where I introduced [53:43] the idea of site templates was just an [53:46] idea and I also introduced the idea of [53:49] the marketplace right and then at [53:51] Drupalcon Vienna maybe six months ago we [53:54] had one site template [53:56] right well I'm excited to announce that [53:58] today we have 11 site templates and a [54:01] marketplace [54:07] Yeah, it's an basic or initial [54:10] marketplace, but it's a great start for [54:12] making real progress. So, I'll let the [54:14] demo show you more. [54:18] You have a vision, but getting it off [54:20] the ground feels daunting. [54:23] In Drupal CMS 2, new purpose-built [54:26] templates package powerful features with [54:28] a polished look that's ready to [54:30] customize. [54:32] Nonprofits, we've got your cause [54:34] covered. Show off your projects in the [54:36] best possible light. [54:39] Educators, your campus is ready for [54:41] admissions. Stand out in a crowded [54:44] market with clear information and a [54:46] seamless enrollment process. [54:49] Event organizers get the word out and [54:52] ensure your message lands. [54:55] Health providers build trust. [54:57] Communicate with patients clearly and [54:59] reliably. [55:02] government. Help citizens navigate [55:04] taxes, find resources, and complete key [55:07] tasks instantly. [55:10] SAS companies present your services [55:12] professionally and accelerate your [55:14] sales. [55:16] Browse site templates on [55:17] marketplace.rupal.org. [55:20] Choose from free or premium options, all [55:22] of which connect you directly with the [55:24] makers if you need expert support. [55:28] Install a site template, including the [55:30] first premium option, Meridian, directly [55:32] from Drupal CMS. While premium ones [55:35] offer more visual flexibility and [55:37] product support, all templates are built [55:39] on Drupal's open-source foundation. [55:45] But easy doesn't mean limited. Other [55:47] tools hit the ceiling fast. Drupal CMS 2 [55:50] is different. [55:53] Harness the full power of Drupal. [55:55] Structured content, advanced workflows, [55:58] and total accountability. [56:01] Create and customize pages at lightning [56:03] speed with Drupal Canvas. Rely on [56:06] rockolid security to protect your brand. [56:09] Use expertpicked Drupal add-ons included [56:11] for an easy start. [56:14] Extend [56:17] with use case specific suggested add-ons [56:19] or install any of more than 10,000 [56:22] extensions directly from the UI. [56:25] An open-source infinitely extensible [56:27] foundation for your vision. [56:29] Drupal CMS 2. Easier than ever to start. [56:33] Impossible to outgrow. [56:44] very very exciting. I think the [56:46] marketplace and the site templates will [56:47] help bring a lot of new people to [56:49] Drupal. People are looking for solutions [56:51] and the marketplace will have solutions [56:53] with beautiful themes. Um, big thank you [56:56] to all of the partners. You see their [56:57] logos on the screen for building these [56:59] uh initial site templates in the Drupal [57:02] Association uh as well. Now, if you're a [57:05] digital agency, a Drupal agency, and [57:07] you're thinking about building one of [57:08] those, I want you to know that um our [57:11] goal is to really use the site templates [57:13] also to drive leads to you. Like people [57:16] can start with a site template if they [57:18] want to customize it, which most people [57:19] want to customize their sites. We hope [57:21] to drive business back to the creators [57:24] and the makers of the site templates. [57:26] Now, I want to show you something that [57:27] is not Drupal, okay? Okay. And it might [57:30] might make you feel two things at once, [57:33] impressed and uncomfortable. All right. [57:36] It does both for me in full [57:37] transparency. Uh because this website [57:40] was not built by Drupal. Was not an [57:43] agency involved. Was not a developer [57:45] involved. There was not a designer [57:47] involved. There was no discovery [57:48] process. All it took was 15 minutes of [57:51] AI prompts. Right? In this case, it was [57:55] uh lovable. Um, [57:58] and that's kind of the reality or [58:00] becoming the reality is that making [58:02] beautiful front ends is now easy. With [58:05] AI, you can build a prototype and get it [58:08] on the road in minutes. And if you're [58:10] excited about that, great. If you're [58:13] uncomfortable about that, also great. [58:15] Um, and I hope you hold both feelings [58:18] actually. Um, now I do think this is [58:22] actually a massive opportunity for [58:24] Drupal because the opportunity is about [58:27] what can be under the hood because [58:29] what's under the hood is actually [58:30] everything because organizations need [58:33] real workflows. They need permissions, [58:36] scalability, integration, top-notch [58:38] authoring, security, compliance, all of [58:40] the things that you see on the slide. [58:42] And that is where we see the Drupal [58:44] difference. Um, and in fact, I was in a [58:47] board meeting last week and one of the [58:50] investors made an interesting [58:51] observation. He said that many of the [58:54] startups that he invests in, they're [58:55] actually starting with these AI tools, [58:57] but once they hit 1 million in annual [59:00] revenue or ARR, they're all moving off, [59:03] which is interesting because I actually [59:06] think that is a massive opportunity. [59:08] It's a big change in our industry. um [59:10] changing how we do our work. But I also [59:12] believe it's a change that could be in [59:15] our favor because I think the new agency [59:17] pitch basically becomes we use AI to [59:20] prototype fast and then we use Drupal to [59:24] build systems that last. And so let's [59:27] take a look at what the future looks [59:29] like. AI can generate a beautiful [59:32] website in minutes, but prototypes are [59:34] not production systems. The real [59:36] challenge is turning that speed into [59:38] something a team can actually run. On [59:41] screen, you're looking at the Lovable [59:42] UI. We're using it to create Vision 25, [59:46] an imaginary event site about the future [59:48] of Drupal. With a single prompt, Lovable [59:51] gives us a premium micro site that feels [59:53] cinematic, editorial, and ambitious, but [59:56] also bright, clean, and readable on a [59:58] giant projected screen. In seconds, we [60:01] have the visual mood, the homepage, the [60:03] agenda, the track views, and the labs. [60:06] That speed is impressive, but look [60:08] closely. In this prototype, a lot of the [60:11] content is still embedded directly in [60:13] the generated site. That's fine for a [60:15] first pass, but it is not yet a mature [60:18] editorial system. And to be fair, [60:20] lovable can do much more than static [60:22] pages. It can generate app behavior, [60:24] connect to databases, and create [60:26] back-end structure, too. But once you [60:28] start solving for structured content, [60:30] workflows, permissions, governance, [60:32] accessibility, multilingual support, and [60:34] reusable editorial components, you are [60:36] effectively building your own CMS. [60:39] Drupal starts with those foundations [60:40] already figured out. So now we move into [60:43] Drupal CMS. Starting from a blank site, [60:46] we use the Canvas CLI and the Drupal [60:49] canvas skills and OpenAI codeex rebuilds [60:52] the experience the Drupal way with [60:54] canvas reusable components and [60:56] structured content underneath. The goal [60:58] is visual parody with a real editorial [61:01] foundation and all the power of Drupal. [61:04] Now we have the same design intent [61:06] inside Drupal but backed by a real [61:08] system for teams. This is where the [61:10] Drupal difference shows up. Remember the [61:12] prototype we started with? In Leo [61:14] lovable, much of that content lived [61:16] inside the generated site. Here it [61:18] becomes structured, reusable, and [61:20] editable. Editors can open the page in [61:23] canvas, see the component tree, work [61:25] with reusable components, and create new [61:27] pages from the same foundation. And the [61:30] content is real content. Sessions, labs, [61:33] and timeline items are structured data, [61:36] not hard-coded layout. So when we update [61:38] the timeline and add Drupal Con Chicago [61:40] to 2026, that is a normal editorial [61:43] change inside Drupal. No reprompting, no [61:47] code surgery. Under the surface, this is [61:50] a governed system, components, [61:52] relationships, and content models that [61:54] teams can actually scale. And once the [61:57] site has been shaped into a reusable [61:59] foundation, site export can package the [62:02] site's components, configuration, and [62:04] sample content into a reusable starting [62:06] point for the next event. AI gets us to [62:09] visual ambition faster. Drupal makes [62:12] that ambition durable, editable, [62:13] reusable, and real. [62:17] Yeah. There we go. [62:22] Yeah. [62:24] Yeah. I really do think there is a new [62:27] model here because you can use AI to [62:28] prototype these things, take maybe your [62:31] prototypes into sales meetings and then [62:33] eventually migrate you know everything [62:35] to Drupal. And in many ways um I think [62:38] these AI developer tools and Drupal are [62:40] a great match. Um because what we're [62:43] looking here at what we're looking at [62:45] here sorry is speed meeting substance. [62:48] you can spend 15 minutes in this case [62:50] the example that was 15 minutes of [62:51] lovable and then crucially we asked AI [62:55] to move that to Drupal and in our [62:56] example that took about two to three [62:58] hours actually and of course it's [63:00] important that there is an engineer [63:02] involved to review the output of AI um [63:05] and to fine-tune it and all of these [63:07] things but it was easy so exciting yes [63:11] scary also yes um but for those of you [63:15] that are excited you might be wondering [63:17] can try this at home and the answer is [63:19] yes. All this took was Drupal CMS which [63:23] ships with Drupal Canvas. And in Drupal [63:26] Canvas, you have a CLI, so command line [63:28] tools along with a few skill files. [63:31] That's all it took. And the reason that [63:34] this was all it took is because this was [63:36] actually the real magic I would say is [63:38] the foundations. You know, it's the [63:40] foundations that we've had in Drupal for [63:42] 25 years. The APIs, the building blocks, [63:44] the architecture, all of these things. [63:47] And previously I've called this the [63:50] accidental AI advantage in Drupal. You [63:52] might remember that term. And um I [63:55] really do believe that Drupal is the [63:57] best CMS for these kinds of AI [63:59] applications. And I also believe that [64:02] puts us in a pretty strong position as a [64:04] community. [64:06] Now that demo probably raises an obvious [64:09] question like what AI belongs in Drupal [64:11] and what AI does not belong in Drupal. [64:13] And I think the answer is um that the [64:17] tools outside of Drupal, all of the [64:18] tools for developers like Claude and um [64:21] you know those kinds of things are [64:23] moving so fast. That's not a race that [64:25] we're going to win. So we should use [64:27] these external tools um for building [64:30] modules, building themes, all of these [64:31] things. But what belongs in Drupal is [64:34] all of the AI tools for content [64:36] creators, not for developers. things [64:38] like alt text, translating content, [64:40] categorizing content and so on and so [64:43] on. So um why you might wonder because [64:47] no one handles content like Drupal. You [64:50] know we have structured data workflow [64:52] governance and we've helped many many [64:54] organizations get content out in the [64:56] world and we're exceptionally good at [64:58] content management. So I would say in [65:01] today's cont in today's world creating [65:04] content is easy like thanks to AI that's [65:07] also shifting. So the problem isn't [65:09] creating more content the problem is [65:10] actually creating better content. You [65:13] know content that is quality content [65:16] content that works for your [65:17] organization. And um the way [65:20] organizations do great content is [65:22] usually because of a team of people, you [65:26] know, and that matters. Um that's the [65:28] case in like a Fortune 500 company or in [65:31] a small startup that's trying to punch [65:33] above its weight. They have usually [65:35] multiple people that are involved. Like [65:36] you need somebody who actually [65:38] understands a topic, someone that can [65:41] translate content into clear language. [65:44] You need somebody that is um that [65:46] actually knows the audience, someone [65:48] that does the actual building of the [65:50] page, someone that can create good [65:52] media, images, that kind of stuff, and [65:54] someone that can help optimize your [65:56] content so that it's discoverable, [65:59] right? And by the way, all these people [66:01] need to turn up at the right time and [66:02] collaborate. And that's not always easy. [66:04] And that's exactly a problem that we can [66:06] solve. All right? So I'm going to make [66:09] this concrete but first I want to remind [66:12] you of finrop and finrop is a f [66:15] fictitious example that I used at [66:17] Drupalcon Vienna and uh we're going to [66:19] bring that back so you can see our [66:20] progress. So let me quickly refresh your [66:23] memory on finrop. Jordan is a marketing [66:25] manager at Findrop a midsized financial [66:28] services company. Findrop already has [66:31] product pages live for the virtual [66:33] credit cards and expense management [66:35] platforms. Now, the company is launching [66:37] a new service, travel expense [66:39] management, and the conference is in six [66:42] weeks. The website needs to be updated [66:44] yesterday. Jordan needs a page that [66:46] introduces the new service, drives white [66:48] paper downloads, and performs as well as [66:50] their existing product pages in [66:52] analytics. There's a lot of money behind [66:54] this launch. [66:56] Jordan knows what a great page requires. [66:59] The full team we just talked about, but [67:01] there's no time. Corners get cut. Brand [67:03] review gets skipped. SEO is an [67:06] afterthought. [67:07] The page goes live on deadline. It's [67:10] fine. Not great, just fine. [67:15] All right. So, that's kind of the [67:17] situation, I guess. So, question now is [67:20] what would happen if a whole team showed [67:22] up instantly um every time the team is [67:25] needed? And that's exactly what Drupal [67:27] AI gives you and what I'm going to show [67:29] you. But first, uh there is a catch [67:32] because AI is um only as good as its [67:35] context. You know, without context, AI [67:37] gives you the average of the internet, [67:39] if you will. And at Drupal Con Vienna, I [67:42] actually introduced the context control [67:44] center. You might remember it. At the [67:46] time, it was a very rough prototype. [67:48] Since then, we've added a lot of [67:50] features and uh today. Uh it's almost [67:53] ready for production. Kristen actually [67:55] told me she tagged a beta uh last night. [67:57] Um yeah. [68:02] So actually let's take a look at the [68:03] context control center. [68:08] >> Each row is a piece of organizational [68:10] knowledge. Brand guidelines with sub [68:12] items for abbreviations and formatting [68:14] rules. Writing tone and voice and [68:16] visuals and imagery. Content strategies [68:19] broken out by page type. One for [68:21] articles with subcontext for press [68:23] releases and product announcements. And [68:25] a separate strategy for product pages. [68:27] key value propositions with the latest [68:29] sales pitch deck attached as a source [68:32] personas and ideal customer profiles [68:34] with subcontexts for each buyer type [68:37] controllers and finance managers IT and [68:40] ops teams staff accountants and AP teams [68:43] and metrics and analytics KPIs pulling [68:45] in live data from G4. [68:48] Soon the context control center will be [68:50] able to do more than just store static [68:51] documents. It will connect to external [68:53] data sources, analytics platforms, CRM [68:55] systems, other tools in your martekch [68:57] stack. So the AI is working with up [69:00] totheminute information, not last [69:02] quarter's numbers. Even today, the [69:04] system is smart about which context to [69:06] load. When Jordan builds a product page, [69:08] the AI loads the product page content [69:10] structure and brand guidelines. It [69:12] doesn't pull in the article or press [69:14] release content structure. The right [69:16] knowledge at the right time for the [69:18] right job. [69:19] >> All right, very exciting. It's a quick [69:22] update on the context control center. [69:23] I'm sure there's going to be sessions [69:25] about this, but I really do believe that [69:27] the context control center will be a [69:29] differentiator for Drupal because it [69:31] essentially lets you create knowledge [69:33] once and then uh scale quality uh [69:35] forever. So, it allows you to build [69:37] institutional knowledge inside of [69:39] Drupal. So, if you're an agency, that [69:41] could be your knowledge as an agency, [69:42] but it could also be your customer's [69:45] knowledge obviously. And then every [69:47] person or every AI tool that touches [69:50] your website, they can benefit from it. [69:51] And then it helps them uh generate [69:53] better content. And that's essentially [69:56] how you can scale from from creating 10 [69:58] high quality pages to hopefully [70:00] thousands of high quality pages. Um so [70:03] pretty exciting. Uh so let's see this in [70:05] action. So Jordan needs to create a new [70:07] page and the team didn't send like a [70:10] pixel perfect design. Instead, they sent [70:13] like a document, a word document or a [70:15] Google document with a bunch of copy [70:17] because that's how it works in the real [70:18] world. And so, let's see how Drupal AI [70:21] turns a document into an actual [70:24] production ready page. [70:27] Most marketers don't start with a [70:28] design, they start with content, a brief [70:31] copy deck, notes from the product team. [70:34] Jordan takes the copy deck from the [70:35] product team and feeds it into Canvas [70:37] AI. [70:43] The AI recognized this as a product page [70:46] and loaded the relevant guidelines from [70:48] the context control center, but it needs [70:50] two things from Jordan before it builds. [71:00] Notice what just happened. The AI read [71:03] the unstructured text copy document and [71:05] mapped it into the site's UI components. [71:08] It pulled brand voice, typography, and [71:10] imagery guidelines from the context [71:11] control center. [71:18] Jordan likes the illustrations, but [71:20] wants people shots for hero and footer. [71:43] Now Jordan starts refining. [72:07] The AI converted the existing section [72:09] into an interactive set of FAQ [72:12] accordians and moved it to the bottom of [72:13] the layout. [72:16] Jordan cleans up some empty markup left [72:18] behind. [72:33] Jordan notices the benefit cards [72:35] reference Finrop's other products, [72:36] virtual credit cards and expense [72:38] management. There should be links to [72:40] those pages. [72:49] The AI used semantic search, not just [72:52] keyword matching, to find relevant [72:53] content across the site and add cross [72:55] links automatically. [73:17] Jordan wants this page to show up in AI [73:19] search tools, Google's AI summaries, [73:21] chat GPT, that kind of thing. That [73:24] requires structured data. [73:30] All [73:46] right, that was a progress update. Yeah. [73:55] Yeah, there was a lot going on at the de [73:57] demo, but obviously AI consulted the [73:59] context control center. It followed the [74:02] brand guidelines and design rules. It [74:04] asked Jordan clarifying questions. It [74:06] did cross-linking. It created structured [74:08] data. You know, all of these things. And [74:10] I think it's a big step forward from [74:11] what we showed in Vienna. Um, which I [74:14] think is pretty exciting. Now, most [74:17] content actually fails quietly after [74:20] it's been published. you know, pages go [74:22] live, people move on, nobody tends to [74:24] notice until maybe somebody complains. [74:26] And that is another area where uh Drupal [74:29] AI can help because what if your site [74:32] could watch itself? You know, in the [74:34] near future, the context control center [74:36] will have something that we call dynamic [74:38] context. You saw that maybe in the first [74:40] video. So, what do I what do we mean by [74:42] that? Well, an example could be um the [74:45] context control center connecting with [74:47] Google Analytics and pulling in real [74:50] time data, dynamic context from [74:52] something like Google Analytics. And [74:54] then it can use that real-time data um [74:56] to make pages better as well. And uh [74:58] this is also something that we've been [75:00] working on. So let's see how that works. [75:04] Jordan launched the Finrop travel page a [75:07] couple of weeks ago. Life moved on, [75:09] other projects, other deadlines. But [75:11] Jordan did something smart after launch. [75:13] Using the agent interface, Jordan marked [75:15] the travel page as important and set [75:18] performance thresholds, bounce rate, [75:20] engaged sessions, and white paper [75:22] downloads. [75:27] Two weeks later, a background agent [75:29] flags a problem, not from Google [75:30] Analytics, from Drupal. The system [75:33] already did the analysis. [75:44] The agent hasn't just flagged the [75:46] problem, it's analyzed the page against [75:48] the current CCC and prepared a short [75:50] list of recommended changes. [75:59] The AI cross referenced the performance [76:01] data with the CCC and found something. [76:03] Since Jordan built this page, the sales [76:06] team had updated the sales pitch deck [76:08] with new competitive positioning. That [76:10] context didn't exist when the page went [76:12] live. It does now. [76:20] Jordan also heard from the sales team [76:22] that Finrop travel is much faster to set [76:24] up and addresses a major frustration of [76:26] their largest competitor, SAQ Concur. [76:29] They decide to update the CTA, then run [76:32] one final check. [76:46] The AI pulled in intelligence the sales [76:48] team added after launch, proposed a fix, [76:50] and caught a brand violation before it [76:53] went live. Not after a legal battle, [76:55] before publish. [76:57] Awesome. [77:14] What do you think of that? Yeah, [77:22] I think it's exciting because it [77:23] basically means that Drupal lets you [77:25] scale uh expertise in your organization [77:27] with a lot less friction. And this was [77:30] just the start. We showed it with one [77:31] integration, Google Analytics, but [77:33] obviously in the future we hope to have [77:36] many more uh integrations like that. So [77:38] imagine, you know, we could have a [77:40] trueic system that basically pulls in [77:42] data and collaborates with like 10 [77:45] different tools. Um, and that's [77:47] essentially where we're headed with [77:48] this. You know, AI will help you [77:49] orchestrate across all of these [77:51] different platforms and tools. And [77:53] that's how organizations will be able to [77:55] execute execute more complex uh tasks. [77:59] So that's a little bit about the AI [78:02] demo. This slide shows you all of the [78:04] things that have shown up until now and [78:06] their current state. Uh there's a lot [78:08] going on, but it essentially shows you [78:10] um that things have moved from [78:12] prototypes in Vienna to alphas and betas [78:15] today. Uh and hopefully we'll have a [78:18] number of stable releases by Drupalcon [78:20] Roderdan this fall later this year. And [78:23] so as an example, the context control [78:25] center I mentioned it's uh in beta right [78:27] now. Um but it should get stable [78:30] actually before Drupal come Roderdam and [78:33] if it does we'll make a new version of [78:35] uh Drupal CMS that includes uh the [78:37] stable um context control center. Um so [78:42] this is just some of the things that are [78:44] happening. I can tell you there's many [78:46] many many many more things happening [78:47] both in Drupal CMS in the AI initiative [78:50] in Drupal core. Unfortunately I don't [78:52] have the time uh to cover all of these [78:55] um you know these improvements. I mean, [78:57] I haven't even talked about Drupal [78:59] Canvas and what's happening there, and I [79:01] don't have the time for it here in this [79:02] keynote, but there's sessions about all [79:04] of these things. Uh, but all in all, I [79:06] feel like Drupal is really ready for um [79:10] what is next. You know, our CMS [79:12] foundations are a really good fit for [79:15] AI. Uh we are working on the most [79:18] important initiatives. We have many [79:19] people involved in all of these [79:21] initiatives. We are the most coordinated [79:24] than we've ever been. I'm not sure if [79:26] you see that or feel that, but there's a [79:27] lot of coordination and I believe we're [79:30] really focused on what end users need [79:32] and driving adoption of Drupal. And [79:34] we're doing that for both the enterprise [79:37] and the midm market, which is important. [79:39] So, the product is really moving along, [79:42] you know, very fast and it's moving [79:44] along great. We have to be a little bit [79:46] more patient because, as I mentioned, a [79:48] lot of the things are still in progress. [79:50] Um, but I do think things are pretty [79:53] pretty exciting. Now, I've said this [79:55] before and I'll say it again. Um, having [79:58] a great product isn't enough. We also [80:00] need to tell a great story. [80:03] And, um, I think we need to get ready to [80:07] tell the world because as you saw in [80:09] that timeline, we might be approaching [80:11] an important readiness milestone by [80:14] Drupalcon Roderdam this fall. It's not [80:17] too far away. And a couple of years ago, [80:20] the Drupal Association already started [80:22] to invest more in marketing. I've talked [80:24] about that in previous Dre notes. And [80:27] today, the Drupal Association is [80:28] actually doing more marketing than ever [80:30] before, which is really great obviously, [80:33] but now the Drupal Association is ready [80:35] to take it to the next level, you know, [80:37] in preparation of um of Rotterdam. And [80:41] so, um, the Drupal Association wants to [80:43] work with partners, um, you know, [80:46] hopefully people in the room to [80:48] basically create a more powerful [80:50] marketing engine to scale all of the [80:52] marketing work and to show the progress [80:53] that we're making outside of the Drupal [80:56] community. And we're thinking about it [80:58] in these three categories. [81:00] Um, I won't, you know, read them off. [81:02] You can see them on the screen, but if [81:04] you're interested in helping, please, [81:06] uh, talk to Ryan from the Drupal [81:08] Association. It looks like that [81:10] somewhere in the room all the way from [81:12] Australia. All right. All right. Now, [81:15] before I move on to the rest of my [81:16] presentation, I want to say thank you [81:19] for everybody that was directly involved [81:21] with all of these demos. [81:32] And and by the way, these are just the [81:34] people that I've had a lot of meetings [81:36] with. But behind those people is even [81:38] more people. All right? And I think it's [81:40] really important they all have sessions [81:41] here. So if anything is of interest, you [81:44] can go learn more about these sessions. [81:45] Now, behind all of these people are also [81:48] the companies that sponsor them. So I [81:51] also want to give a quick round of [81:52] applause for all of the partners [81:54] involved with this. [82:02] All right, I want to come back to [82:04] something because everything that I just [82:05] showed you is real. It may not be [82:07] stable, but it's real. So, you can go [82:09] home and you can repeat at home what you [82:13] just saw. All right. Um, but here's the [82:16] thing. Uh, here's the thing. One of the [82:18] things that I've learned after 25 years [82:20] is that, uh, technology is actually [82:23] never the hard part. You know, the hard [82:25] part is people. you know, agency owners [82:28] deciding whether to go allin or play it [82:30] safe. Uh developers deciding whether AI [82:34] is a tool they want to embrace or a tool [82:36] that they fear. And I can tell you that [82:39] those decisions are happening right now. [82:41] They're happening in your offices. [82:43] They're happening in your themes. Uh [82:45] they're happening on Drupal at for sure. [82:48] And they're probably happening in your [82:50] head right now as you see these demos. [82:53] Um, and so I want to tell you about two [82:57] people who faced exactly those [82:59] decisions. And I want to tell you what [83:01] happens when they ask the same two [83:02] questions that I ask myself every [83:05] morning. What big problem can I help [83:07] solve? And who can I ask for help? Okay, [83:10] I want to start with uh Aiden Foster. [83:14] Um, Aiden has been running an an agency, [83:17] a Drupal agency, Foster Interactive, for [83:20] 17 years. [83:22] And like many agency leaders, he's been [83:24] watching the rapid progress of AI. And [83:27] you know, AI made him question the [83:29] foundations of the agency that he built [83:31] over these 17 years. And obviously, [83:33] that's pretty scary. But instead of [83:36] being scared and worried, Aiden decided [83:38] to do something about it. And he got [83:40] deeply involved with the Drupal AI [83:42] initiative. Really deeply involved. And [83:44] I'll let Aiden tell you the rest. [83:51] Hi, I'm Aiden Foster, UX manager on the [83:54] Drupal AI project and strategy lead at [83:56] Foster Interactive. [83:58] By about mid2024, [84:00] AI had built a sense of dread in my [84:03] stomach. Our whole agency was optimized [84:06] to take big projects, slice them into [84:08] bite-sized chunks, and give them to [84:10] specialists to build. The problem is [84:13] that AI had converted making things into [84:16] a commodity. That shook the foundations. [84:18] I had spent 17 years building in my [84:21] agency. I started to question things [84:23] that had worked for years and genuinely [84:26] try to rethink how we do our work. What [84:29] I've learned is that the bottleneck in [84:31] getting stuff done isn't production [84:33] anymore. It's creativity, strategy, and [84:37] judgment. All of which are innately [84:40] human. A great example of this is the [84:43] demos we just saw. The value doesn't [84:46] come from the AI. It comes from the [84:49] human work behind it. We need to think [84:51] about how to define ourselves as an [84:53] organization. Who are we? Who are our [84:56] audiences? What makes us distinct? If we [84:59] use AI without asking these difficult [85:01] questions, you get the boring average. [85:05] If you're a marketer or content leader, [85:08] this is quality at scale, not quality or [85:11] scale. [85:13] Your expertise isn't being replaced, [85:16] it's being amplified. [85:18] And this is why I'm here. This kind of [85:20] collaboration, 25 plus agencies building [85:23] this together, isn't happening anywhere [85:25] else. The Drupal community itself is [85:28] rethinking how we work together. The [85:31] value chain is moving from building [85:34] things to encoding knowledge and [85:36] defining strategy. And marketing is just [85:39] the beginning. Sales enablement, [85:41] training, operations, all of these [85:44] benefit from a knowledgebased approach. [85:48] Most organizations want AI, but they're [85:50] not ready for it. There's a readiness [85:53] gap. Closing that gap is valuable [85:56] recurring strategic work. So, start [85:59] extracting your or your client's [86:01] organizational knowledge. Get it out of [86:04] people's heads and into the system and [86:06] keep it current. The organizations that [86:09] get this right will out compete the ones [86:11] who just delegate everything to AI and [86:15] the ones that don't use AI at all. If [86:18] this is exciting to you, you're in the [86:20] right place. Let's go make it real. [86:27] Yeah, [86:30] I don't know where Aiden is is here, but [86:32] u I'm sure he wants to talk to you if [86:34] you have questions. But I love that in [86:35] the video you could actually see Aiden [86:37] move from dread to excitement as well. I [86:39] could see in his body language and I [86:41] completely agree with Aiden obviously [86:43] that um you know AI is commoditizing [86:46] production and that value is moving to [86:48] judgment, creativity, expertise like you [86:50] said so well and I also think that's [86:52] actually an opportunity for the agencies [86:54] um in the room and it's also where [86:56] Drupal comes in because Drupal yes is [86:59] great for building pages but as you [87:00] hopefully saw Drupal is also becoming a [87:03] system to capture expertise and judgment [87:06] through the context control center but [87:07] also through our content modeling our [87:09] work workflows, our site templates which [87:12] basically can capture best practices. [87:15] And so in that sense, Drupal can help [87:17] you, you know, apply, scale, and [87:19] operationalize your customer's expertise [87:22] or your own expertise as an agency. And [87:24] I think that's uh a pretty interesting [87:27] uh opportunity. Now, I want to flag [87:30] something uh specifically for agency [87:32] leaders. Uh we recently ran a Drupal [87:35] pivot event in Belgium. I wasn't there [87:37] myself. uh but had lots of honest [87:40] practical conversations between about 60 [87:43] agency leaders in Europe, primarily [87:45] Europe, and they talked very openly [87:47] about all the things that worried them, [87:49] which was a real success. And so we've [87:51] decided to bring it to North America. [87:53] It's going to be in Cambridge just [87:55] outside of Boston uh in a couple of [87:57] months. Um and you know, we'd like to [88:00] invite all of the agency leaders to [88:01] attend and share. Now if you can't wait [88:04] there's also a leadership management and [88:06] business track here at Drupalon Chicago [88:08] where you know you can talk about these [88:10] things but my point is you don't have to [88:13] figure this out alone. All right so that [88:16] was the agency leg. Uh still want to [88:18] talk a little bit about the community [88:20] leg because the community you know faces [88:23] the same pressures. Uh but what's at [88:25] stake is a little bit different. Of [88:27] course, for agencies, AI threatens their [88:29] business model, and that's very serious. [88:32] But for the community and for open [88:33] source, AI, the AI threat actually, I [88:36] think, goes a bit deeper even. It it [88:38] threatens the culture that made Drupal, [88:41] you know, it changes how people produce [88:43] things, when people get involved, all of [88:46] these things. And I want to show you [88:48] what I mean by that. And so, let me [88:50] introduce you to Jurgen H. Um, Jurgen [88:53] has been contributing to Drupal for many [88:56] years. Um, many of you know Jurgen, I'm [88:59] sure. Yeah, he's sitting there. [89:03] And, um, I would say Urugan, you're [89:06] exactly the kind of person this [89:07] community is built on. Uh, somebody that [89:10] understands Drupal very, very deeply. [89:12] Uh, someone that has contributed a lot [89:14] like the ECA module that ships with [89:16] Drupal CMS by the way. And then when AI [89:19] arrived, you know, instead of feeling [89:21] threatened, Jurgen did something [89:23] remarkable. He asked, "What big problem [89:26] can I help solve?" and decided to jump [89:28] in with the help of AI. And in this [89:31] case, he decided to help make the Drupal [89:34] ECA module radically easier to use. So, [89:37] let's take a look at that. [89:40] ECA is Drupal's most powerful automation [89:44] engine. 16,000 production sites depend [89:47] on it. However, users need to understand [89:50] events, conditions, and actions to be [89:53] able to automate their sites. So, who [89:57] are they? [89:58] Mostly technical users because they love [90:01] automations. [90:03] But how can we help all the others also [90:06] benefit from this? And that's where we [90:09] learned to address this differently. [90:13] Let's use Drupal's most famous [90:15] customization, altering forms. [90:19] Imagine you are on a form like this that [90:21] Drupal brings out of the box. You like [90:24] it except for small things like field [90:27] labels, default values or validation [90:30] rules. Drupal allows us to make such [90:33] changes that requires PHP code or the [90:37] ECA workflow UI that is yet not useful [90:40] for many. [90:42] What if every user could just customize [90:45] Drupal size with the power of ECA but [90:48] right in place? Just focus the field. [90:52] See that lightning bolt? Click it. These [90:56] are ECA templates. Pre-built [90:59] automations. Pick one or more and [91:02] configure them. Click save and then [91:05] refresh the page. And it's done. It just [91:09] works right here on the page you are [91:12] already looking at. In place [91:14] customization is currently implemented [91:17] for forms only simply because that's the [91:20] most obvious use case. But work is [91:23] underway to bring that to everything in [91:25] Drupal. Logins, redirects, rendering, [91:29] you name it. In context customization [91:32] for every Drupal user. Now for the power [91:36] users in the room, [91:38] this is the new workflow modeler built [91:41] from scratch in React Flow, not BPMN. [91:45] And here is what ECI users have been [91:48] waiting for the most. Testing and [91:50] debugging. Select an event in your [91:54] model. Click on test and the model [91:56] awaits until the selected event is [91:58] triggered and got executed by ECA in a [92:01] separate window. [92:04] Play it back step by step right on the [92:07] canvas and you see all the available [92:09] token data for each step. From there, [92:12] you can drag tokens into config fields. [92:17] And because of the abstraction layer [92:19] with the modeler API, ECA didn't change [92:22] at all to make this possible. [92:25] Even all of your existing models are [92:28] fully compatible with all of this. [92:32] There is so much more I would like to [92:34] show, but in short, this is what we have [92:37] now. Nontechnical users get in context [92:41] automation. Lightning bolt. Pick a [92:44] template. Done. Power users get a [92:47] professional visual editor with testing [92:49] and debugging built-in. Two completely [92:52] different experiences in one unified [92:55] system. Wow, this is so amazing. How did [93:00] all that come about? Let me tell you. [93:03] Remember Pittsburgh? That was Drupalcon [93:06] with an innovation contest. And these [93:09] ideas have been submitted back then [93:12] three years ago. Three years of knowing [93:14] what Drupal needed. Three years of [93:16] knowing how to build it and never have [93:18] the time for it until now. [93:23] I built all of this in six weeks. And [93:26] it's not a small project. 90,000 lines [93:29] of codes, over 300 commits, full test [93:32] coverage, and accessibility included. [93:36] And I'm just one developer. The answer [93:39] is AI, but not in the way people usually [93:43] talk about it. AI didn't replace what I [93:46] know about Drupal. It didn't design the [93:48] architecture. It didn't decide how [93:50] workflows should work, and it didn't [93:52] understand the problems our users face. [93:55] That part still comes from my experience [93:58] and UX feedback. What AI did was remove [94:02] friction. It helped write scaffolding, [94:05] generate tests, refactor code, explode [94:08] ideas faster than I could ever done [94:11] before. And suddenly the things that [94:14] used to take months started taking days. [94:19] So this project sat on my to-do list for [94:23] three years. and finally happened. And I [94:26] keep thinking about what that means. If [94:29] this is what one Drupal expert can build [94:32] in six weeks, imagine what all of us [94:35] together can build next. [94:39] >> All right. Yeah. [94:46] Thank you. [94:48] So, here's the thing with AI. It can [94:50] really amplify expertise. you know it [94:53] does not replace expertise it amplifies [94:55] expertise. what Jurgen did in a few [94:57] months used to take a team of people a [95:00] whole week or a whole year sorry um [95:05] a whole year um and and that is really [95:08] the superpower you know AI not AI on its [95:11] own but AI combined with expertise and u [95:15] you know I've been in a lot of meetings [95:16] with Jurgen and I've been in meetings [95:17] where Jurgen shows this to people and [95:19] literally people's jaw would drop on the [95:21] floor it was hard to capture that in a [95:23] short video but I recommend you go to a [95:25] session later today. Uh, but every time [95:28] we showed it, people were so impressed [95:29] and I kept thinking to myself, what if [95:31] we had a hundred more Jurgens? You know, [95:33] imagine all the things we could do. Um, [95:36] but here's I think the honest truth of [95:39] what stands between that idea, 100 more [95:42] jurgens, and um, you know, actually [95:45] making that happen, which is we have to [95:47] say no to AI slop. You know, AI [95:57] I mean AI is lowering the barrier to [96:00] contribute and on paper that sounds like [96:02] exactly what we need, right? Like more [96:04] contributors, more patches, more [96:06] momentum. Uh but obviously it can also [96:08] be a huge challenge. The volume goes up, [96:11] the quality goes down and more patches [96:13] are landing on a small group of [96:15] maintainers and that can be frustrating. [96:19] you know, maintainers are starting to, [96:20] you know, get fed up to be honest with [96:22] AI slop. Um, yeah, [96:30] thank you. And and they're getting [96:31] frustrated because it's essentially not [96:33] respecting their time. And as you know, [96:35] not respecting somebody's time, that's [96:37] not okay. And so my ask to everyone in [96:40] this room that uses AI to contribute, [96:42] please don't submit code that you do not [96:45] understand. You know, it's a simple [96:46] rule. [96:48] I'm trying to coin this phrase actually [96:50] contribute is not the same as contribute [96:54] you know so but let me explain it [96:57] because basically with AI everyone [96:59] anyone can contribute but it doesn't [97:02] mean you should um because we have a [97:05] quality standard in Drupal and we we [97:08] need to protect that quality standard [97:10] because actually that quality standard [97:11] is what makes Drupal being uh worth [97:14] being a part of to be honest. So use AI [97:17] but um only submit what you truly [97:20] understand. Don't waste maintainers and [97:22] reviewers time. Okay. Now I think what's [97:26] clear from Aiden and Jurgens's uh story [97:29] is that they actually embraced the [97:31] notion that their craft is evolving. Our [97:33] crafts are always evolving and they're [97:35] they've been real change agents in our [97:37] community. They they stood actually at a [97:39] crossroads and chose what I think is the [97:42] best path forward. Um, and I and I told [97:45] you about my personal crossroads story [97:47] in Belgium. Uh, not because I wanted [97:50] your sympathy. I could have told it 15 [97:52] years ago. Um, um, and and also not [97:55] because um, I think my story is unique. [97:59] Um, I actually um told you my my story [98:01] for a reason, you know, because I [98:03] believe that Drupal is at a crossroads, [98:06] you know, and that many of you are [98:08] actually living a version of it right [98:10] now. Like how many of you are wondering [98:12] like is a thing that I built my life [98:14] around still uh still worth it? You [98:17] know, is my agency that I spent 17 years [98:19] building still viable? Is my craft as a [98:22] developer that I've honed for 20 years, [98:24] let's say, still valued? And is Drupal [98:27] still relevant after all these years? [98:29] And I think that pressure is real, and I [98:31] feel it, too. Um, but here's what I [98:35] know. [98:39] I've been at this crossroads before. [98:41] Almost 20 years ago, I had a choice. [98:43] Play it safe, dig the job at the Belgian [98:46] bank, learn Cobalt, put my Matrix poster [98:49] uh up in my cubicle, and imagine what I [98:52] would have looked like today. But I [98:54] didn't, right? I asked for help. I [98:57] decided to become a deliberate leader, [98:59] and I basically went all in on Drupal. [99:01] And I've never regretted it once. But [99:04] now we're at a new crossroads. Uh what's [99:07] different this time is not me alone. [99:09] It's all of us together. And I think we [99:12] all need to decide am I out or am I in [99:15] right? And I want to tell you what I've [99:17] come to believe to to wrap it up. I [99:20] think AI is the storm and I think AI is [99:22] the way through the storm. And AI is [99:25] truly disrupting everything that we've [99:27] built. You know, I'm not going to [99:28] pretend it's not. It's a it's a threat [99:31] to the agency model. It's a threat to [99:33] the open source collaboration culture. [99:36] uh and that is real the platform [99:38] pressure on Drupal is real and uh in [99:41] Vienna I showed this slide right in [99:42] Vienna I said AI is a storm and it's the [99:45] way through the storm but now six months [99:47] later after Vienna actually believed [99:49] this more than ever not as a slogan but [99:52] as something that I've actually watched [99:54] happen I mean I watched Aiden go from [99:57] dread to having a plan I watched Jurgen [100:00] move at the speed of a team uh and I [100:03] watched agency find a new business model [100:05] leveraging AI to prototype. Um, and so [100:08] the storm is real, but so is the way [100:11] through the storm. And I actually think [100:14] AI can do two things at the same time. [100:17] It can destabilize our foundations, and [100:20] it can simultaneously rebuild them [100:22] stronger than before. And that's not a [100:25] contradiction. That's more like a [100:26] puzzle, a puzzle that we have to solve [100:28] together. It's not an easy puzzle, but [100:30] we can solve it together. And I think we [100:34] just have to accept that average is [100:36] cheap now. You know, the world is being [100:38] flooded with average AI generated [100:40] average, average websites, average [100:42] content, average code, and anyone can [100:45] generate average in 15 minutes as I've [100:47] showed you. Uh but expertise is [100:50] priceless. You know, expertise is the [100:52] only thing that still matters. It [100:53] matters to your customers. It matters to [100:56] your organization. It matters to the [100:58] open web. Deep authentic expertise. [101:01] And you've all spent years building [101:03] that. You know, it's in Drupal embedded [101:04] in the software itself, but it's also in [101:06] your heads. You know, you know Drupal's [101:09] architecture. [101:10] You know things that no prompt can [101:12] replicate. You know what your clients [101:15] need even when they don't, you know, and [101:18] I would say if you're early in your [101:20] career, hone your craft, develop good [101:22] judgment, build relationships, know when [101:25] to ask for help because expertise is not [101:28] a small thing. It is the human thing. [101:30] then that's exactly what the world needs [101:32] right now and AI won't provide it. [101:36] So [101:38] also remember that you didn't build that [101:40] expertise alone. You know many of you [101:43] built it here in this community with [101:46] these people 25 years of knowledge [101:48] sharing trust built patch by patch [101:51] people who show up not because they have [101:54] to but because they care [101:56] you know and that's not something you [101:58] can recreate from scratch either that's [102:00] not something that AI can do. And so in [102:04] a world that's flooded with AI generated [102:06] average, the people who care, the people [102:08] who go deep, who hold each other [102:10] accountable, the people in this room, [102:12] and the people in our community, that's [102:14] the difference. [102:17] So here's my challenge to you. Are you [102:19] out or are you in? Now, you all made a [102:22] bet on Drupal at some point, and I like [102:24] to think it paid off. [102:26] And so now I'm going to ask you to make [102:28] that bet again. Not out of nostalgia, [102:32] not because it's safe, but because the [102:35] open web and Drupal meet people who care [102:38] enough to do this, right? So if you're [102:40] an agency leader, come to Cambridge in [102:43] May. You don't have to figure this out [102:44] alone. If you're a developer, go [102:47] experiment with AI. Be like Jurgen, a [102:50] person who truly understands what [102:52] they've built. And if you're a [102:53] contributor, show up between now and [102:56] Rotterdam. that road map, that timeline [102:58] that I showed you, it's not going to [102:59] build itself. Uh, we need doers, not [103:02] talkers. We need people to get involved. [103:04] We need a hundred more Jurgens. We need [103:06] a hundred more agents. We need all of [103:08] you. Okay. So, are you out or are you [103:11] in? I can tell you [103:15] Chicago built an incredible city on its [103:18] new foundations. And meanwhile, [103:20] businesses stayed open. Engineers solved [103:23] what seemed unsolvable. Chicago didn't [103:26] wait for the floods to stop, right? They [103:28] lifted the whole thing up uh and built [103:31] underneath it. And um I think that's [103:34] what we're doing right now in Drupal. [103:35] We're rebuilding our foundations and [103:37] it's going pretty well. Um AI is [103:40] attacking these foundations and [103:42] rebuilding them at the same time. I [103:45] think that's very scary but also super [103:48] exciting because what we're building is [103:51] exactly what the world needs. So, thank [103:53] you Chicago and see you at the rest of [103:56] the conference. Unfortunately, Youtube does not provide subtitles for this video, #Driesnote | DrupalCon Chicago 2026, YouTube, 01kmjr4c3v4w9py7txx9am9w4k.