DrupalCon Chicago 2026: Takeaways from Driesnote

DrupalCon Chicago 2026 is finally here! Alongside DrupalCon Europe, this is the biggest Drupal event that happens yearly in a different city in North America. And this long-awaited edition is even more special because it marks the 25th anniversary of Drupal, hence the Drupal 25th Anniversary Gala event will happen to celebrate this milestone. Between sessions, presentations and discussions, DrupalCon is an opportunity for Drupal community members to get together, share experiences, collaborate, and create meaningful connections that would most likely not happen otherwise. As someone who has attended the event before, I know how important this event is to keep the Drupal community strong and integrated, and I'm really sorry that I can't make it this year.

It's (almost) everything about AI

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Drupal AI logo, Drupal.org events

As one could expect, the hot topic of this year's edition is AI, and how it can be integrated and used within the Drupal ecosystem to enhance marketers' and content creators' experience. Between all the great summits that happened on the first day of the event, I'd definitely expect the one on AI to be the busiest. Also, if you check the detailed schedule, you'll notice that AI is the most popular topic among sessions. And as expected, it was also the main topic during Driesnote. But I'll get there in a minute.

Some numbers and announcements first

During the Drupal Association presentation, that preceded Driesnotes, some very important information was shared. I took a screenshot of the slide below, which I think represents well what I said before about sharing experiences and creating connections within the community.

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Slide containing numbers and data of DrupalCon Chicago 2026

Attendees from five continents, being 28% of them first time attendees, and 10% beginners clearly show that, despite the concerns and anxiety about AI and how CMS's as a whole (not just Drupal) have been expecting usage decline, Drupal is still thriving and engaging new people within the community.

In terms of upcoming event, it was announced that DrupalCon Europe 2026 will take place in Rotterdam (Netherlands) between September 28th and October 1st. Also, and this is even more exciting for folks in Canada, the new DrupalCan Conference will be happening for the first time in the Summer of 2027. The location and dates are still to be announced, although the event site says the tentative is July 29-31, 2027. If, like myself, you're interested in this event, sign up to the DrupalCamp Ottawa newsletter.

The other highly anticipated announcement is always where DrupalCon North America is going next, and the 2027 edition will happen in Orlando, in March 22-25, 2027. I really hope to see you all there next year!

Last but definitely not the least, it was announced the winner of the 2026 Aaron Winborn Award. This award is presented annually to an individual who demonstrates personal integrity, kindness, and above-and-beyond commitment to the Drupal community. The well-deserved winner was April Sides (weekbeforenext), organizer of DrupalCamp Asheville, and a consistent community member, who does "the kind of work that often goes unnoticed, not because it isn't important, but because it's rooted in trust, discretion, and kindness." Congratulations, April!

Driesnotes and the rebuilding of Chicago

During his keynote, Dries used an interesting analogy of how Chicago was rebuilt during early 1800 due to innumerous floods with how we, as a community, need to look into rebuilding Drupal's foundation in the new AI era. "Despite disruption, business continues" is the idea brought by him, making it clear that, even that we acknowledge AI is imperfect and brings many risks, this is here to stay, and we need to embrace the change. The three pillars (or legs) of Drupal (Platform, Agencies, and Community) seem in jeopardy now due to AI, but Dries said that he believes using AI is the way to make them strong and thrive.

Dries shared a personal experience where, back in 2008, during a highly stressful moment of his life, he almost abandoned Drupal as a project. Other paths seemed simpler and safer, and he was truly considering if keeping the work in Drupal was worth it. After a sabbatical period, in which Dries met and communicated with many leaders in the technology industry (including an incredible email from the one and only Linus Torvalds), he decided to stay and go all in with Drupal. This is the kind of dilemma we all experience in certain moments of our lives, and that changes everything that comes after. The important takeaway here is: know when to ask for help. You're not alone, especially in the Drupal community, and someone out there will definitely be willing to support you.

Back to the keynote, Dries presented the Drupal CMS Marketplace, where multiple themes are available (most of them for free) and ready to use to speed up Drupal CMS experience. He also announced the launch of the Drupal CMS 2.1, a new version with lots of features and enhancements implemented in Drupal Core 11.3.

Then, Dries presented something scary and exciting at the same time: how Drupal Canvas AI is already prepared to help content managers to create outstanding pages and content in a few minutes, with a few prompts and adjustments. He presented the Context Control Center (or AI Context) module, and how it can leverage the use of AI in a Drupal site, by adding context and enriching the "knowledge" that the AI should have of your business when generating content for you, achieving a considerably better output.

Two great testimonials of how AI can be embraced to rebuild the way we use Drupal were showed during the presentation. Aidan Foster (afoster) explained how creativity, strategy, and judgement are the real bottlenecks when building solutions, and why he, as a Drupal agency leader, decided to get heavily involved in the Drupal AI initiative. Then, Jürgen Haas (jurgenhaas) demonstrated how he managed to make the great ECA module radically easier to use, especially for non-technical users, a task that took him a few weeks to build using AI, which would likely take months otherwise.

The final message of Driesnotes is that AI amplifies expertise, which developers, marketers, content creators, and all members of Drupal community have. AI alone creates average content, and nowadays, average is cheap. But expertise is priceless, more than ever. Particularly for developers, the message is clear: don't submit code you don't understand. Even though you can contribute more using AI, the code quality is still paramount in Drupal, and we can't accept AI slop.

Dries finishes his keynote with a message to all community members: in this era of uncertainty and fear surrounding AI, "are you out or are you in to be part of the Drupal rebuilding?"

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Dries' final message to Drupal community members: Are you out or are you in?

You can watch here the Driesnotes from DrupalCon Chicago 2026. There are still a couple more days of DrupalCon, and I'm quite excited to see what comes from that, and I can't wait for the sessions to be available on Youtube. This is the type of event that shapes not just the next releases of the CMS, but also guides the path the whole Drupal community will follow and experience in the foreseeable future.