Zoocha Puts Contribution at Centre of DrupalCon Rotterdam Plans

Agencies that benefit from Drupal should also put time, money and people back into the ecosystem, according to Will Huggins, CEO of Zoocha. Sharing the agency’s priorities with The DropTimes ahead of DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026, Will said community investment is the starting point for Zoocha’s involvement, even though events such as DrupalCon also create commercial opportunities. For him, the more important question is what organisations return to the open-source community from which they benefit.

That position reaches beyond event sponsorship. Zoocha is also putting funding and people into the Drupal AI Initiative. Drupal.org currently lists the agency as a Gold Drupal AI Partner and identifies Zoocha team member Bruna Emerich as the initiative’s QA lead. Artificial intelligence is also the area Will identifies as the most significant shift currently affecting Drupal organisations and their clients.

Will said the interest surrounding AI is producing an equally important counter-pressure around trust, governance, transparency and accountability. “I think the biggest shift is obviously the direction of AI. What we find most interesting is the counterbalance that creates,” he said. As organisations explore AI-assisted services, he said clients are asking harder questions about where their data goes, how decisions are made, what human oversight remains and who is ultimately accountable.

Zoocha has tied that position to its own governance processes. The agency announced on 24 August 2026 that it had achieved ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for its Artificial Intelligence Management System, covering how AI is selected, configured, integrated, used and governed across its digital services. Will said Zoocha’s approach is to use AI where it creates measurable value while keeping people in control.

That distinction is central to what Zoocha expects agencies to navigate as AI adoption accelerates. Will sees AI as capable of making experienced teams faster and more capable, but not as a substitute for expertise, openness, collaboration or trust between clients and their digital partners. In his view, those qualities become more valuable as AI adoption increases.

Another part of Zoocha’s Rotterdam agenda moves from how Drupal organisations use new technology to how the wider project talks about what it builds. Will is among the four speakers scheduled for “Help shape Drupal’s story: A global marketing call to action”, part of the agency, business and marketing programme. The session asks how agencies, contributors, marketers, business-development teams and others can take a more active role in strengthening Drupal’s story outside its established audiences.

Will sees a gap between Drupal’s record of building technology and the way that work is communicated. “Drupal has always been incredibly good at building things, but I don’t think we’ve always been quite as good at telling the world about them,” he said. He pointed to the Drupal AI Initiative as an example of what can happen when technical activity is accompanied by a clearer story and an effort to carry that story beyond people who already know Drupal.

The Rotterdam session is intended to extend that discussion beyond professional marketers. Will said agency leaders, contributors, business-development teams and anyone concerned with Drupal adoption can play a part, making the session a call to action rather than simply a discussion about marketing. The current DrupalCon schedule places it on 29 September from 16:40 to 17:25 CEST alongside Maya Schaeffer, Ryan Witcombe and Rosie Gladden.

The event itself gives Zoocha another setting for those conversations. DrupalCon Rotterdam introduces a dedicated Summit Day on 28 September, with focused gatherings around AI, government, higher education and online communities before the two core conference days. Will said the format should provide opportunities to meet new members of the community, hear what others are working on and take stock of where Drupal is heading.

DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026 runs from 28 September to 1 October at the Postillion Hotel & Convention Centre WTC Rotterdam, with the final day focused on contribution activities and Drupal in a Day. For Zoocha, the week brings together three priorities Will identified in his responses: contributing resources to Drupal, adopting AI with accountability and helping broaden the way Drupal communicates its value. More information about the agency and its Drupal work is available on the Zoocha website.