DrupalCon Prague 2022 was the return of in-person DrupalCon to Europe after almost three years and I was eager to be back at one of these events and reunite with old and new members of the Drupal community. For me it was also a great opportunity to be able to visit the beautiful city of Prague for the first time.
The organization of the event was very good. On Tuesday, the first day of the event, it took me no time to get accredited and receive a kit with face masks, a COVID self test, and even a free pass for the public transport in Prague for the full duration of the convention. Food was also good and plentiful during all four days.
The convention started on Tuesday with the Initiative Leads keynote. On this keynote each of the leads of the top Drupal initiatives shared the goals and current status of their work. It was good to see how much progress has been made to Project Browser and Automatic Updates, and that both are ready for the greater community to begin testing. It was also nice to hear that the move to GitLab is on track and issues will be migrated soon. The most intriguing new Drupal feature for me was Recipes, a new way to create bundles of functionality and an attempt to remove the maintenance complexity of installation profiles and distributions.
The day continued with sessions and the Opening Reception where we were able to have a drink and a relaxed conversation with other attendees.
Wednesday, the second day of DrupalCon, started with the traditional DriesNote where Dries focused on the Open Web and how Drupal is a key player in the preservation of it. He also talked about how the collaboration with GitLab is making it easier to contribute to Drupal and to innovate but without lowering the high standards that Drupal is known for. Dries also give an overview of the status of Drupal 10 and how it will be the easiest major upgrade yet.
After the DriesNote the rest of Wednesday and all Thursday were packed with interesting and varied sessions making it very difficult to choose which ones to attend.
My best picks were:
For Tuesday
For Wednesday
For Thursday
On Thursday evening I attended Trivia Night. This was my third DrupalCon but it was my first time going to a Trivia Night and I have to say it was very fun. Friday was Contribution Day, and I was able to help a little bit with short descriptions and cleaning up categories for some projects to get them ready for the new Project Browser.
DrupalCon Prague 2022 marked for me the return to international travel and it was an overall great experience. I learned a lot of interesting things, met new people and reconnected with old acquaintances. It’s good to see that the Drupal community is still strong and I hope this type of event continues to grow.