DrupalCamp Kortrijk Speakers Preview Configuration, Performance, CSS and Editorial UX

Speakers at DrupalCamp Kortrijk are previewing sessions that connect Drupal’s implementation details with everyday project decisions, including configuration schema, performance engineering, modern CSS and editorial experience improvements. The in-person camp is scheduled for 29–30 June 2026 at Sint-Martens-Latemlaan 1B, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium.

The speaker responses shared with The Drop Times point to a programme shaped by practical Drupal work rather than broad platform discussion. Joris Vercammen is focusing on Drupal’s configuration schema layer, Sean Blommaert is examining performance across the full delivery stack, Nicolai Schwarz is presenting new CSS and HTML features for frontend developers, and Nadiia Nykolaichuk is addressing improvements for Drupal content editing.

The Drupal.org event listing confirms DrupalCamp Kortrijk as an in-person camp running from 10:30 CEST on 29 June 2026 to 20:00 CEST on 30 June 2026. The event website also frames the camp beyond formal sessions, stating that organisers plan social activities to help attendees discover Kortrijk’s local spaces and community setting.

Joris Vercammen, a web developer based in Belgium and a board member of the Drupal Belgium User Group, will present A Practical Deep-Dive into Drupal’s Configuration Schema on 30 June 2026 from 14:40 CEST to 15:35 CEST in the Dropsolid room. Joris told The Drop Times in a written response that the session revisits a talk he delivered at Drupal Developer Days and earlier in Grenoble, with the goal of helping developers understand how configuration schema works in Drupal.

Joris said the topic remains relevant because Drupal’s configuration schema system has been largely stable since Drupal 8, even as recent years have brought improvements, mainly around validation.

He expects attendees to leave with a basic understanding of Drupal’s typing system and a clearer reason to write configuration schema, especially for contributed modules. He also connected the topic to newer AI-assisted site-building discussions, saying he had heard Jaime speak about “vibe configuring Drupal” and that strict configuration rules become more important in that context.

As part of the organising team, Joris said the camp is testing several changes to its usual format. He pointed to a new city and location, a Monday and Tuesday schedule instead of the more familiar Friday and Saturday format, and a pre-event dinner and drinks. He said the weekday schedule is intended to make it easier for people with children to attend both days, and added that he is personally interested in Ramon Fincken’s session on sustainable and sovereign hosting choices.

Sean Blommaert, director of awesomeness at TwelveBricks, will present Making Drupal Fly: A Deep Dive into Drupal Performance on 29 June 2026 from 15:35 CEST to 16:30 CEST in the Dropsolid room. Sean said in a written response that the session is based on years of real-world experience building and maintaining high-traffic Drupal websites.

Sean’s central point is that performance is not isolated to one layer of a Drupal project. He said the session will show how infrastructure, backend architecture, frontend optimisation and content delivery networks all influence the final experience. The takeaways include infrastructure, PHP, database and caching configuration, Drupal-specific caching APIs, techniques for rendering content efficiently, frontend improvements tied to Core Web Vitals, and tools for measuring and monitoring performance over time.

“The Belgian Drupal community is full of passionate people doing a lot for the international community,” Sean said.

He added that camps remain useful places to share knowledge and learn from others as the Drupal ecosystem continues to change.

Nicolai Schwarz, a freelance web developer and author based in Dortmund, will present New in CSS on 29 June 2026 from 14:40 CEST to 15:35 CEST in the Drupal.be room. Nicolai said in a written response that he missed Drupal Developer Days in Athens this year and is making up for it by attending DrupalCamp Kortrijk and DrupalCamp Frankfurt later in the year.

Nicolai said he prefers smaller DrupalCamps over larger events such as DrupalCons. His session is designed as an easier-going frontend alternative for attendees who feel surrounded by AI-heavy or backend-heavy programming topics. He said the session will give a quick overview of new CSS and HTML features, including features that make frontend work easier, improve accessibility and performance, and move some responsibilities away from JavaScript.

Asked about favourite new features, Nicolai pointed first to Masonry, also known as Grid Lanes, as the feature frontend designers have been waiting for the longest. His personal favourite is the proposed focusgroup attribute. “This will make a lot of JavaScript obsolete,” he said.

Nicolai’s key message is that CSS is becoming more complicated each year, but that complexity also brings useful tools. He said frontend developers will have more features to work with and should stay slightly ahead of the curve. The session’s official description frames the talk as a look at useful CSS features that are now widely supported in modern browsers.

Nadiia Nykolaichuk, Technical Copywriter at ImageX, will present Practical Drupal Tweaks for Smarter, Faster, and More Enjoyable Content Editing on 29 June 2026 from 10:00 CEST to 10:55 CEST in the Drupal.be room. The session marks her first time speaking at a live Drupal event.

Nadiia said her session bridges technical accuracy and user-friendliness. As a technical copywriter with a decade of Drupal experience, she said she works across both technical and editorial perspectives, understanding how Drupal works under the hood while also understanding what makes content editors comfortable.

Her session will give attendees a collection of practical Drupal tweaks they can apply to websites immediately. These include best practices, useful tools and configuration settings intended to make editorial work faster, safer and more consistent. Topics include the text editor toolbar, scheduled publishing, automatic redirects, real-time SEO feedback, instant accessibility checks, AI features and other improvements for daily content operations.

Nadiia said the goal is to reduce manual work, prevent common human mistakes and keep content pages consistent across a website. Her framing makes the session relevant not only to site builders, but also to editorial teams and project teams responsible for maintaining content quality after a site launches.

“It’s finally time for me to step out from behind the keyboard, transition from a regular attendee to a speaker, and share my expertise live with the community at DrupalCamp Kortrijk,” Nadiia said.

Taken together, the four speaker previews show DrupalCamp Kortrijk balancing technical subjects with practical site-building and community concerns. Configuration schema, performance, CSS and editorial tooling sit at different points in the Drupal workflow, but each session addresses how Drupal teams make better decisions in real projects.