Drupal Day in Groningen Scheduled for 12 March 2026

Developers, students, and open source practitioners will gather in Groningen on 12 March 2026 for a full-day event focused on Drupal and digital autonomy. The programme, hosted at the Digital Society Hub and organised by DICTU, the ICT service organisation of the Dutch government, introduces participants to Drupal development and the broader role of open-source software in public-sector technology environments.

The event begins at 13:00 with “Drupal in a Day,” a hands-on workshop designed primarily for students who are new to the platform. Participants will build their first Drupal site under the guidance of experienced developers and complete the session with a working Drupal installation and practical introductory knowledge of the content management system.

The workshop will open with a keynote presentation by Bert Boerland, chair of the Drupal Netherlands Foundation. His talk will explore the role of open source software in supporting digital autonomy, a topic that has gained increasing attention among public sector organisations seeking greater control over digital infrastructure and data governance.

Following the workshop sessions, participants will gather for an informal networking break with food and refreshments from 18:00 to 19:00. The evening programme will then continue with technical talks from 19:00 until approximately 21:00.

Rikkert Steenbergen of DICTU will present the architecture behind the Generieke Basis Website platform, a Drupal-based generator that uses Drupal Recipes to deploy government-compliant websites quickly across multiple organisations. The system enables reusable site deployments built on a shared codebase while meeting the accessibility and security requirements of the Dutch government.

A second talk by Emiel Bloem will explore how artificial intelligence is being integrated into Drupal development at DICTU. The session will demonstrate practical AI use cases ranging from content assistance to workflow automation within government Drupal environments.

Participation in the event is free, although registration is required. More information about the programme and registration details are available on the Digital Society Hub event page.