DrupalCamp Berlin 2024 Unites the Global Drupal Community in the Heart of Berlin

A decade after Berlin hosted DrupalCity, DrupalCamp is returning to the heart of the German capital as part of Drupal Week. The excitement for DrupalCamp Berlin 2024 is unbound, and so are the opportunities.

"The excitement basically grew for 10 years. DrupalCity 2014 for some people counts as a legendary event. Back then Drupal 8 was on the rise, lots of famous German Drupalistas were taking part and still up until today some of the swag from DrupalCity 2014 is floating through some offices, especially the coffee mugs."

"That’s why the organizers also took care of having somebody sponsor new coffee mugs this time," added Norman Kämper-Leymann, organizer of the event.

DrupalCamp Berlin will be an unforgettable conference hosted in the ripe spot of Berlin as part of Drupal Week. It will be accompanied by a variety of events, such as the Drupal Business Day and Splash Awards Deutschland & Österreich 2024. The week has already begun, and tomorrow, November 8, is the 'D' day—the beginning of DrupalCamp Berlin 2024, which lasts until November 9, 2024, followed by a day of contribution. 

Adding to the buzz, DrupalCamp's 2024 return to Berlin will open its doors to international attendees. Niklas mentions that they have received a lot of positive feedback on the decision.

"We got a lot of positive feedback from the international communities for opening up the DrupalCamp to international attendees, for example with English sessions. Putting up the DrupalWeek Berlin with a lot of different events also gave the attendees more reasons to join us and travel all the way which is great."

Renowned as the biggest DrupalCamp in Germany and the DACH region, DrupalCamp Berlin 2024 is hosted at a unique location, Alte Münze. The organizer, Norman, shared quite a bit about the venue with The DropTimes, which was once a coin-minting plant.

"First of all the location is quite unique. Alte Münze – dating back to 1280 it’s a place where coin money used to be produced, throughout the Third Reich, GDR, and so on. And it’s exactly in the heart of Berlin, close to Alexanderplatz and the Berlin TV tower and very close to the former border as well."

Apart from the rich session schedule of DrupalCamp Berlin 2024, the conference invites people for lunch via vouchers on both days, so they can select a restaurant outside the venue to share the break with other participants while having a nice, warm meal in the heart of Berlin. Tomorrow night, the Drupal User Group Berlin invites all camp participants to an After Party and Networking event at the legendary C-base. 

"C-base is the oldest crashed space station on earth – a famous hacker and maker space, where also the regular User Group meetups are taking place."

another geographic update from Norman.

Considering the global contexts and development within Drupal, many factors must be considered while conducting an event. Norman and Niklas, the organizers of DrupalCamp Berlin, have many goals and aspirations. Since the global pandemic, many open-source in-person events have shrunk, and picking them up again consumes time. Norman hopes for an outcome where DrupalCamp Berlin can unite people once again and help foster the European community.

Niklas' personal goal was to create synergies between Splash Awards and the DrupalCamp in order to increase the visibility of both events. He adds,

"It is important for me to get people on board who are not familiar with Drupal as I sensed that Drupal events tend to always fish only in their own pond. Lastly, I think from an international point of view, people tend to think the German Drupal community is small which is simply not true. So we also aimed for a higher attendance than in previous Drupal events, including international community members. I think we managed to do all of that, which makes me very happy. "

As mentioned, the post-COVID reality is choking many in-person events, and DrupalCamp Berlin is not exempt from this shrinking. However, the organizers have managed to work together, proving that even in times of struggle, many people are still interested in in-person events. With the inclusion of international communities by accommodating both English and German sessions, attendance has definitely widened.

"Compared to previous years, I think we did a great job in uniting the Central European Drupal communities and also helped in getting different open-source communities connected. Providing web solutions is going beyond Drupal and I think it is important to let the different communities engage with each other—because at the end of the day, all open-source communities are facing the same challenges."

Niklas adds, ultimately focusing on how DrupalCamp Berlin 2024 can foster the German community and future DrupalCamps in Germany.

DrupalCamp Berlin has a stellar line-up of keynote speakers and featured speakers, along with other sessions covering essential topics in Drupal's evolution, including Drupal CMS advancements, security practices, and design innovations. Baddy Sonja Breidert, Sascha Eggenberger, Nils Adermann, and Stefan Priebsch are the keynote speakers for the event. 

Featured sessions will include Marie Dietz discussing accessibility, Julien Hofer exploring the role of AI in urban planning, and Jürgen Haas covering Drupal workflow automation. Marcus Johansson will delve into AI text-to-action agents within Drupal, while Joachim Nickel will address enhancing analytics accuracy using Matomo. Together, these sessions offer attendees a comprehensive look at innovative applications and best practices within the Drupal ecosystem.

Organizer Sinduri Guntupalli shares that they were happy to receive several excellent sessions. The criteria for shortlisting the speakers were relevance to the conference theme, quality of the content, and ensuring a diverse range of topics in English and German. 

"Our goal was to create a schedule with high-quality sessions while also encouraging new speakers and fresh perspectives. We carefully worked and restructured the schedule to fit in almost all the good sessions that were submitted."

Additionally, the track leads assessed factors like previous presentations to avoid redundancy, prioritized recent topics of high interest—such as accessibility, AI, and the evolving Drupal CMS—and ensured robust representation of the German community. This thorough selection process resulted in a dynamic program that addresses current trends and meets the diverse interests of attendees.

The current economic situation caused many headaches during the event's organization, even from the beginning. Despite financial struggles and marketing limitations, DrupalCamp Berlin 2024 is only a day away. Even better, all the sessions will be recorded for future viewing.

"I think it’s safe to say that we managed to consider every aspect to pull of a great event in the heart of Berlin, perfectly located and with a lot of content to explore: Amazing sessions, both in German and in English, highlighting not only Drupal but also numerous topics from the open-source spectrum as well as workshops for Drupal Beginners, great social events and connecting the European Drupal Community."

Still, Niklas personally feels they could have done more. However, we will have to agree with him when he says, 

"But that might only be my very ambitious self-talk!" 

Indeed Niklas.