As part of weekly office hours for DrupalEasy students and alumni, I am often asked to suggest sessions at upcoming Drupal events that I think are worthwhile. During one our our most recent DrupalEasy Office Hours, I was again asked to run down the list of my picks from all the sessions at DrupalCon Atlanta 2025, and afterward I thought that it might make a fun blog post.
Of course, I can't in good conscience suggest that my picks are the best for anyone else to attend among the ginormous volume of sessions available. I can share only sessions that interest me. My selection of sessions have been made, with the only criteria being my logical or illogical and sometimes silly reason to listen to them. It is not a list of sessions targeted at beginners, project managers, those just getting into module or theme development or that I specifically recommend for those attending their first or even their twenty-first DrupalCon. (Although many of the sessions may be interesting to all of those folks.)
It is rather a simple (but not short) list of sessions that I will either watch in-person (not likely) or watch a recording of in the coming weeks (most likely.) It doesn't include keynotes (sorry, Dries), summits, the 10-minute mini sessions held in the expo hall, or anything other than standard 50-minute sessions. I won't even mention the session I'm co-presenting 😉.
So here goes; in chronological order, the list of sessions I am attending, and why:
Tuesday sessions
4 Big Ideas in UX and Content Strategy - I am always up for any session presented by Suzanne Dergacheva - one of Drupal's clearest thinkers and best presenters.
Documentation Initiatives for Starshot and Drupal.org - I don't contribute a whole lot to documentation, but Joe Shindelar knows his stuff and always presents well. I'm sure I'll pick up a nugget or two of useful information from this session.
Meet the AI Automators that power everything in Drupal CMS - CKEditor, AI Agents, no code required! - I have no doubt that this session will have more information about AI that will fit in my brain in a single sitting. Marcus is one of the leading minds behind Drupal's AI stuff. This is definitely one to watch later, rather than see in person (I need a pause button so I can take notes for this session.)
Recipes: It's About Time! - I'm a big fan of recipes, and I'll watch anything Martin presents. No-brainer for me.
The Future of Drupal Theming: AI, Experience Builder, and Beyond - I admit that I'm mainly anticipating the sophomoric humor Mike Herchel can't help to weave into his sessions 😃, but I guarantee that I'll learn a bunch from his deeply Floridian (in only the best ways) brain.
AI is the new UI - how we are building AI into Drupal CMS - Jamie is another of the leaders of Drupal's AI efforts and is a fantastic presenter and I always learn something from his presentations.
Creating Composer aware modules with Drupal core's new Package Manager module - Ted is a good friend, so I have to include this on my list or he won't let me pet his dog anymore.
Design systems, the Drupal way - I am not a designer, nor am I familiar with the speaker, but I am interested in how design workflows will flow into Drupal in the future, so I'll be checking this session out.
Security team panel - I always watch security team presentations from DrupalCon events. Not planning on stopping now.
Drupal Association Public Board Meeting - I'm a bit of a Drupal governance nerd, I never miss one of these.
Drupal Next-Gen Navigation: Enhanced Admin UI and better UX - Cristina is a fantastic speaker (I don't know Pablo); I don't miss too many of her sessions. Plus, I think the new Drupal core Navigation module is cool and I want to see what's next.
Drupal Recipes Initiative Update - Jim Birch is among the best Drupal presenters around (nobody tell him I said that, we need to keep him humble.) Plus, it's recipes (see above.)
Drupal Workspaces: Revolutionizing Content Staging and Workflows - I don't use Workspaces, but the presenter's name is Matt Danger, so how can I not give this one a listen?
Experience Builder is coming. Are you ready? - it's about Experience Builder by one of the leaders of the project. It's not hyperbole to say that this project is one of, if not, the most important projects in the Drupal community.
Mixing the Schema.org Blueprints module into a Drupal Recipe to bake a sweet content model - Jacob is an A+ presenter and I'm a big fan of Schema.org Blueprints module.
Working with the AI Agents in Drupal CMS - Create your own agents and AI powered migration - more AI content with a solid presenter who knows his stuff.
Accessible Slideshows - Button, button, who's got the button? - I'm not sure why this is, but if I don't include this in my list, I'll have to buy AmyJune a drink.
Building A Better Authoring Experience - I'll watch anything Greg Dunlap presents. Clear, concise, knowledgeable, A+ communicator.
Wednesday sessions
Drupal CMS now and beyond - A topic I care about by two of its leaders? Easy decision.
Drupal CMS: Golden standard for privacy and data protection - Jurgen is quickly becoming another presenter that I'll watch present on almost any topic.
From Figma to Function: Bridging Design and Development with Storybook & Drupal - I am not familiar with either of the presenters, but this is a topic I'm interested in (especially any SDC angles.)
Paragraphs and Single Directory Components: A dynamic duo - again, I'm not familiar with the presenters, but SDC…and, as you may have figured out, I do spend a lot of time with presenters I know and love, so a good reason to experience some others.
The future of Drupal core in the age of Drupal CMS - it's Gábor talking about the future! I'm in.
The Neurodivergency SuperPower - How Diverse Teams Function Better - Matthew presented this (or something similar) at Florida DrupalCamp https://www.fldrupal.camp/ a couple of months ago and people were raving about it.
Driesnote Followup Discussion - Dries talking about Drupal is almost always interesting to me.
DrupalCon as a Game - Ryan Price is one of my original Drupal friends and I didn't realize he was presenting until a few days ago. Gotta check this one out.
Supply Chain Security in Drupal and Composer - this will be a deep dive by some really smart people. I'll be doing my best to follow along.
What Do Marketers Really Want? Unpacking the User Research for Drupal CMS - another session that Suzanne is involved with. Can't not watch.
Creating Opportunities: From Internships to Drupal Careers - a topic near-and-dear to my heart co-presented by an alum of our Drupal Career Online course that I teach. (I'm not crying, you're crying! ðŸ˜)
Drupal Commerce's Starshot Roadmap - I don't use Drupal Commerce all that often, but Ryan Szrama is another top-notch Drupal presenter and I tend not to miss his presentations.
End-to-end collaboration in Drupal with EditTogether - this is a fantastic project from a fantastic group of human beings, presented by fantastic presenters. Fantastic
Following Drupal core development: Is it possible to understand every added change? - the answer is "no", but I still might watch this one.
From Community Initiative to a Drupal CMS Track: the Dashboard Module - Matthew Tift is a fantastic speaker - any presentation he's involved with is going to be solid.
Planning a Takeover: A Success Story in Implementing Storybook, Drupal 10, and Layout Builder - this checks several boxes for me: design workflow and a solid speaker (Mike Miles.) I'm hoping there will be some SDC in this one as well.
Distributions are dead, long live distributions: a Drupal CMS story - two fun speakers and a topic involving the "d" word? Should be fun.
Drupal.org Engineering Panel - I never miss one of these - always good info, especially if you're a project maintainer.
The Best (and Worst) Themes, Modules, Widgets, Extensions, and AI tools for ADA Compliance - I like opinions and I hope Alyssa Panetta doesn't hold back on the "worst."
What the WordPress Conflict Means for Open Source Businesses - George DeMet is a friend and who doesn't love a little bit of schadenfreude?
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