With just days to go until Florida DrupalCamp 2025, excitement is building for what promises to be an immersive and engaging event for the Drupal community. Scheduled from February 21 to 23 at Florida Technical College in Orlando, this year’s camp will bring together Drupal professionals, enthusiasts, and newcomers for a weekend of insightful sessions, hands-on training, and networking opportunities.
As attendees gear up for the event, anticipation is high for the diverse sessions covering design, theming, usability, development, performance, project management, and more. The camp starts on Friday with in-depth training workshops led by industry experts, providing hands-on learning experiences in key Drupal technologies. The following days will feature a mix of presentations, case studies, and interactive discussions, ensuring something valuable for everyone—whether a seasoned developer or someone just starting their Drupal journey.
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To capture the energy leading up to the event, The Drop Times contacted organizers and speakers to learn what makes this year’s camp unique. Here’s what they said about the sessions, the community, and what attendees can expect from Florida DrupalCamp 2025.
Florida DrupalCamp has its own special vibe—it’s welcoming, fun, and just the right amount of quirky. We love seeing new faces and making sure everyone feels at home, whether it’s their first camp or their tenth.
—Amyjune Hineline
When asked about the sessions at the event, Amyjune couldn't hold back her enthusiasm. She says,
"Sometimes they’re even better than DrupalCon (yeah, we said it). But more than anything, we hope attendees walk away feeling connected—to new ideas, new friends, and the amazing Drupal community that makes this all possible."
TDT also approached another organizer, Mike Herchel with the question of what makes DrupalCamp Florida unique. According to him, the event brings attendees real fun.
We always have multiple afterparty events and try to include new community members. We want our attendees not to see Drupal as a software platform, but as a community of amazing (and fun) people."
—Mike Herchel
We were curious about how the organizers managed to build the Florida DrupalCamp into a significant event for the Drupal Community. Mike shared his success mantra with us:
"Just do it. Even with one or two users, you keep momentum by keeping the same schedule and onboarding new people well."
Over the years, the camp's organization has become a well-oiled system, with various organizers playing their respective roles for a while. Their work even extends to identifying new community members and reaching out to them at the camp. For every Drupal event, organizers are like sleepless bees who churn out the nectar of success.
Mike Anello, who is an organizer and speaker, gives the community the full credit in shaping a fine Drupal developer.
Being involved in the community is a catalyst for becoming a better Drupal developer. There's nothing I do independently that improves my skills more than being involved in the community—sometimes it feels like cheating.
—Mike Anello
Mike is also a well-known Drupal trainer and co-owner of DrupalEasy. He will be leading the training session "Drupal CMS Preview." Apart from that he will lead the session "From Chatbots to Content Magic: The AI-Driven Future of Drupal" on the third day of the camp along with Martin Anderson-Clutz. We asked him about the upcoming changes in Drupal's AI capabilities. Here's what he said:
"I'm not sure we'll see any huge leaps for site-builders in the near future—the Drupal Agent Chatbot in Drupal CMS is a very cool demo, but I'm not sure how often it will be useful in the real world. I think the biggest near-term impacts of AI in Drupal will be for content authors. I am a big fan of having a human in the middle of AI-related tasks, and I think the more that we can craft interfaces for authors that keep them in control, the more AI will benefit Drupal."
Mike's training session will explore the Experience Builder (XB), a feature designed to simplify site-building. When asked how XB would fare in the low-code/no-code market, Mike had much to say.
"The jury is still out on Experience Builder—actually, the jury hasn't even been convened! Time will tell, but we have a whole lot of really freaking smart people working on it, so I don't doubt that it will be impressive.
I feel like the real debut of Drupal CMS will be the version that ships with Experience Builder—right now, Drupal CMS is solid, but it isn't a no/low-code solution yet.
The big advantage that an Experience Builder-powered Drupal site will have is our best-of-breed structured content on the backend. I am really looking forward to seeing designer-centric workflows be developed with Experience Builder as their destination - I think there is tons of potential there.
I don't think 'seasoned Drupal developers' are going to be affected all that much by Drupal CMS nor Experience Builder—with both of these things, we'll bring new folks into the Drupal community, and a portion of those will quickly require things that require a 'seasoned developer'."
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