Accepted Sessions, A-Z

What happens when a website is only the visible layer of a much larger proprietary system? This session explores the move from a WordPress front end and legacy black-box platform to a unified Drupal ecosystem. It combines a refreshed brand and design system with evaluations, membership and e-commerce, nonprofit voting, notifications, and communications in one maintainable, open-source platform. Full session description

A live tour of the Matrix integration being built for the Groups Initiative -- content and conversation sync both ways, identity linked through Drupal login, rooms and permissions managed automatically. Built for Drupal Groups first, but useful for many other sites -- maybe even yours? Plus the open questions this raises once chat and CMS actually agree with each other. Full session description

There is a lot of talk these days about semantic search this and RAG that and GEO/AIO the other thing, but all of this discussion misses the point - nothing determines the success of your AI initiatives as much as the quality of your content.

In this talk I'll discuss how AI actually ingests and uses your site's content, and what levers you can use to improve the answers it gives. Full session description

This session offers practical strategies for building neuro inclusive organizations by applying the principles of Universal Design to workplace systems, culture, and leadership. Participants will learn how to identify hidden barriers and implement changes that foster clarity, flexibility, and psychological safety for all minds. Full session description

Some sites are 80% bot traffic. Use tools like Varnish, Anubis, OpenClaw and advanced firewall rules and more to stem the tide of search engine crawlers, bots and AI agents. Full session description

This session explores how AI is transforming the web from static navigation, search, and forms into intelligent digital experiences that actively guide users, personalize interactions, and help people accomplish goals in real time.

Using the University of Waterloo’s AI-powered admissions advisor as a real-world example, it examines how organizations can build trusted, governed, AI-native experiences that improve content discovery, reduce friction, and extend the value of owned websites, with Drupal positioned as a foundation for enterprise-ready AI experiences.
Full session description

The University of Chicago's Harris School is one of the best public policy institutions in the country. Their programs feature topics to suit anyone in the policy space and offer flexibility to those who need it. In this session, I'll talk through a case study where we worked with the Harris School of Public Policy on a short quiz that points prospective students to the degree program that might be right for them. From discovery to creative to development, we'll walk through each step of this project to showcase how we built this tool within their existing Drupal application. Full session description

What if the biggest barrier to AI adoption, product-market fit, or team performance is the assumption that
every brain works the same way? In this interactive session, Josh Penzell — diagnosed with autism and
ADD at 39 — uses live cognitive experiments and real-time AI analysis to make invisible thinking
differences visible. Participants discover things about their own minds they did not know, and leave with
a practical framework for designing products, processes, and systems that work for all minds Full session description

Search is an under-delivered feature in core Drupal, this presentation will review how to up level the delivery of search and improve user experience. Full session description

What do wwu.edu, wp.wwu.edu/toxicology and https://iws.wwu.edu/ all share in common? A flexible, accessible, design system powering the user experience. Hear how Western Washington University developed a design system, ashlar.wwu.edu, that powers Drupal, WordPress, and custom HTML websites using web components, web elements, and an optimistic approach to user experience to keep over 170 sites fairly consistent. This isn't full single directory components in Drupal nor is it a decoupled approach, it is Drupal first but developed to be used by other template systems and stand-alone code. Full session description

Many accessibility issues stem from common website components that overlook the needs of keyboard and screen reader users. In this session, we'll examine frequently used patterns and explore practical, accessible alternatives. Through real-world examples and implementation techniques, you'll learn how to identify common accessibility pitfalls, improve usability for all users, and apply proven solutions to your Drupal projects immediately. Full session description

Push. CI fails. Fix. Push. Repeat.

Drupal.org's GitLab CI runs PHPCS, PHPStan, ESLint, Stylelint, and CSpell on your merge request. You can run all five in DDEV first; the reason nobody does is five config files. So I built ddev-drupal-code-quality: one ddev add-on get, all five configured.

We'll walk an example project through the loop: run the checks, autofix what's autofixable, baseline the errors you inherited, and wire it into your editor so problems appear while you type. No prior experience needed. Full session description

A session from our Platinum Sponsor, Acquia. Full session description

Almost everyone building modern Drupal sites has had some hands-on experience with Twig files, but most people have barely scratched the surface of all the things Twig can do. In this session we are going to discuss the aspects that make Twig amazing, tips and best practices for building modern Drupal sites, and some capabilities of Twig that you’ve never seen before. Full session description

Running an agency is tough. Running one in the midst of an industry-shifting hype bubble is brutal. Let's get together and share what has worked to really leverage AI to make agencies run better. Full session description