Team Inspire at DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026
This year’s DrupalCon Europe took place in Rotterdam from September 28 to October 1, and the Inspire team was there once again. After Vienna last year, this year’s trip took us to the Maas River, amid harbor cranes, skyscrapers, and the Beurs World Trade Center. Michael, Julian, and Christian were there on our behalf to gather new ideas from the Drupal community and discuss the latest developments.
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One was already there
When Julian and Christian arrived in Rotterdam, Michael - the Irish member of our team - had already been there for quite some time. As a longtime member of the Drupal community, he wasn’t standing in front of the counter but behind it: he was volunteering to help with registration and welcoming the arriving participants. It was a great start - and by no means his last contribution at this DrupalCon!
AI: From experiment to tool
Artificial intelligence was already everywhere in Vienna, but in Rotterdam it became even clearer what role it will play in Drupal in the future. The focus was no longer on whether AI would become part of Drupal, but rather on how it could be meaningfully integrated into everyday work.
Drupal AI initiative update. Niels Aers (Dropsolid) and Christoph Breidert from “our” agency, 1xINTERNET, took stock: Around 24,000 websites are now using the Drupal AI module, and the number is rising. We found the vote among the participating partners on what to build next particularly exciting. Topping the list: AI-powered search, closely followed by automatic content checks, AI translation, content editing via chat, and bulk updates. The entire demonstration was shown live on the “Northmoor University” demo website, with AI features integrated directly into day-to-day editorial workflows rather than in a separate testing environment.
AI in development. The “Drupal CMS Spotlights” featured a modular ecosystem for AI-powered Drupal development. This includes a one-line installer, a DDEV-based environment, shared best practices, an evaluation framework, and tools that provide AI agents with the necessary knowledge about a project. Since we also work with DDEV locally, it almost felt like a peek into our own workshop.
Migrations with AI. Also showcased: Canvas AI Migrations, which use AI to migrate existing pages into the new Page Builder.
Our impression: AI is becoming increasingly commonplace in Drupal and is gradually finding its place in everyday work, from daily editorial tasks to development.
Canvas Headless and the Driesnote
As is customary every year, the event kicked off with a keynote address by Drupal founder Dries Buytaert. His message: Europe needs digital sovereignty, and open-source software like Drupal can make an important contribution to that.
On the technical side, the focus was on Drupal Canvas, the new visual page builder. The highlight for us: Canvas Headless. Content and layouts are managed in Canvas and can then be displayed in any front end, whether for content, commerce, or other services. This is an exciting approach, especially for a platform like ours that serves many stores and channels.
Further sessions demonstrated how this works in practice. In “Drupal Canvas: advanced site building,” Acquia presented, among other things, the new translation capabilities, which are particularly important for multilingual sites like ours. Another session on Canvas code components focused on using components within the front-end framework of your choice. With “npx skills add drupal-canvas/skills,” you can also integrate the relevant Canvas knowledge directly into AI assistants.
From job seeker to job fair organizer
Our personal highlight involves Michael. When he traveled to Vienna for DrupalCon in 2025, he was looking for a job and never would have thought he’d come home with a new one. But that’s exactly what happened: We met him there, were looking for someone just like him, and he’s been part of our team ever since!
Michael wanted to share this experience in Rotterdam. In a short, self-organized talk, he told his story and encouraged everyone who’s going through a similar situation: don’t give up and strike up a conversation, because at a DrupalCon, it can lead to more than you might think!
And because talking alone isn’t enough, he immediately set up a whiteboard and organized a small job fair where job seekers and companies could connect. By the end of the conference, the whiteboard was full of entries.
For us, this story illustrates better than any presentation what makes the Drupal community so special.
Rotterdam at night (and a little pinball)
In the evening, we headed out into the city: the skyline by the water, the SS Rotterdam in the harbor, and a bowl of ramen that more than made up for a long day of conferences. During breaks, we tried to beat a few high scores on the pinball machine in the foyer.
What we're taking with us
AI is evolving from a buzzword to a tool, Drupal Canvas is coming of age, and the community is showing that a conference can be more than just a venue for presentations. We’re coming back with lots of ideas, watching the recordings of the sessions we missed, and already looking forward to next year.