Our experience at DrupalCon Vienna: insights & highlights

What a week. Part of the Dropsolid team was in Vienna for DrupalCon. This year we were there as a Diamond Sponsor. It was a week full of great conversations, strong sessions and a whole lot of waffles. In this article, you’ll read how our week at DrupalCon was: what happened at our booth, summaries of our colleagues’ sessions (with short takeaways), how our Bites & Insights event went, and the moments from the keynotes and the conference that stuck with us the most.

The Dropsolid booth: unique stickers and waffles

Our booth quickly became a meeting point. We handed out limited-edition DrupalCon Vienna stickers and baked fresh Belgian waffles, an instant crowd favorite. Fun fact: on day one alone we baked and served 500 waffles. In between bites, we had plenty of great conversations about our DEEP, Drupal + AI, and digital sovereignty.

Key takeaways from our sessions

Part of the Dropsolid team took the stage in Vienna. Below, you’ll find what they spoke about and the key takeaways from their talks.

Workshop - Start with Drupal and AI. Up and running with the AI ecosystem in Drupal in no time

In this hands-on workshop Frederik and Christoph (1xINTERNET) showed step by step how to get started with Drupal AI: from installing and configuring the module to building your first working AI application.

Key takeaways:

You can start building today, no AI background required. With the Drupal AI module, you can set up working features in a single session (content generation, PDF summarization, smart search)
Control is crucial. Use guardrails: context, output checks and fallbacks
Context drives quality. Strong content and metadata make RAG and agents truly effective

From starters to solid Drupal team members

Strategies for finding and growing new talent in the Drupal community

Jessica and Eline show how to attract new Drupal talent, select for potential and help them grow into valuable team members within 12 week, by being visible to schools and career-switchers, using a selection approach that prioritises soft skills (including a LEGO challenge) and running a tight onboarding track with mentorship.

Key takeaways:

Hire for potential, not CV: focus on learning ability, collaboration and motivation (e.g., via the LEGO challenge)

Make the path clear: a 12-week onboarding with concrete milestones, real project work and a mentor-tandem

Make growth visible: use a simple skills matrix, regular feedback and celebrate small wins

Drupal AI - strategy and application

This session showed why Drupal is currently the most advanced open-source AI orchestration platform. With the Drupal AI module, you can automate content flows, add advanced search (RAG), build digital assistants and personalise experiences.

Key takeaways:

Drupal AI is production-ready today. You can already automate content, deploy RAG search, build assistants and personalise with existing modules

Start with real use cases, not tools. Pick one scenario with clear impact, ship something working fast, then scale, so roles and processes can evolve in a controlled way

Open orchestration is an advantage. Drupal’s open ecosystem helps you avoid lock-in and actively shape the roadmap

Fueling the Future

How Drupal and Open Source Propel the Airline Industry Towards Carbon Neutrality

This session shows how EASA used Drupal to build a data-driven platform that collects refuelling data, calculates sustainability labels and makes that information public via a portal, website, and app, bringing EU goals within closer reach.

Key takeaways:

Transparency and auditability win. With Drupal, the chain from data intake → label → publication is traceable and reproducible

Change management is decisive. Onboarding airlines (roles, processes, training) determines adoption and data quality

Open DXP amplifies impact. Drupal + Mautic take the project beyond compliance: multilingual, discoverable and targeted communication to the public

ECA, AI and MCP

Connecting Context, Intelligence and Action

This session showed how to embed AI actions (chat, TTS, LLM tasks) into Drupal’s ECA for smart, context-driven automation. With an AI agent, you can manage ECA models faster and via MCP, LLM tools will soon be able to securely trigger ECA flows.

Key takeaways:

Context first. Build a lightweight context layer (events, profiles, content graph) that connects Drupal, analytics and your CDP, the foundation for RAG, policies and smarter decisions

Secure orchestration. Use MCP/webhooks/queues to trigger actions with clear permissions, proper logging and human-in-the-loop where needed

Measurable value. Start with a single journey, measure what matters and iterate (conversion/CSAT up, cycle time down

Bites & Insights: an evening with a view

On Tuesday, we hosted a Bites & Insights evening at The View in Vienna: an intimate leaders’ event with bites, drinks, meaningful conversations and a panorama over the Danube river. No keynotes, no slide, just genuine connections and discussions. The feedback was unanimously positive. We’re hungry for more.

From keynote introduction to open stage session

Dropsolid Co-founder Dominique De Cooman opened the “The Web in 2035” keynote with a short DEEP demo showing how our open DEEP (Digital Experience Enablement Platform) on Drupal AI runs securely, transparently and without lock-in. Dominique also took the Open Stage with “How to Thrive in AI Times as a Drupal Business Organisation.” The core message: choose open ecosystems, get the fundamentals right (data, governance, MLOps) and tie everything to clear customer value. With a practical 12-month roadmap, he showed how Drupal teams can already accelerate with AI today.

The most interesting moments of DrupalCon

Keynotes

There were some powerful keynotes. In his Driesnote, Dries Buytaert said that “AI is the storm and also the path through it”, outlining a clear roadmap (including Canvas, templates, orchestration and Drupal CMS 2.0). In the keynote on neurodiversity, Vera highlighted how different thinking styles are a superpower, with practical tips to make teams more inclusive. There was also the panel keynote “The Web in 2035”, a forward-looking session with concrete questions for our industry.

Drupal AI

The Drupal AI initiative keeps growing: more contributors, serious investment and fresh real-world cases taking off. For organisations, that means faster adoption, better tooling and a clear governance framework to use AI safely and effectively.

The community

Equally valuable: connecting with the Drupal community. We shared ideas, plans and lessons learned: the best fuel to move forward together and faster after Vienna.

Want to keep the conversation going?