2025-04-18

Drupal Developer Days Leuven 2025: some people called it legendary

Drupal Dev Days 2025 in Leuven: sold out, almost everyone showed up, Belgian chocolate and fries, kayaks and breweries, a trophy, and the wildest Drupal database entries you've never heard of.

Drupal Developer Days Leuven 2025 - full group photo on the campus steps

About the Drupal Developer Days in Leuven. The event was a big success. Sold out, and almost everybody showed up. Some people called it legendary.

The ingredients

Packed lecture hall with periodic table on the wall - attendees following a session

Belgian chocolate, fries with mayo, soup, and broodjes
Friends from near and far

Friends at Drupal Developer Days Leuven 2025

People completely new to Drupal, staying until the bitter end to get everything out of the sessions
Activities: board games, kayak, brewery visit, climbing
A mega-international audience
A superb hallway track: Dropsolid, 1xINTERNET, ImageX, Open Social, and FreelyGive had some of the best conversations of the week
Lots of development happening in the contribution room, exactly what Joris Vercammen was hoping for
A balanced set of AI sessions (not everybody liked that, but we tried)
Top-notch keynote speakers

The contribution room - long rows of tables with attendees working on laptops

Marcus Johansson's AI session

Marcus built the craziest things in record time and demonstrated a really cool prompt injection hack. Put this on your watch list. The sessions are recorded and will be on YouTube.

The trophy

The DoItWithDrupal, Drupal Dev Days 2025 Winner trophy. James Abrahams and I got more additions to our exotic Drupal database: a DNA criminal database, coin-operated machine income management, hydro-electric power station monitoring. The collection grows.

What it inspired

A new idea: organise a Drupal4Gov EU event in Brussels in September. Want to get involved? Reach out.

The city

Leuven city centre at dusk - stadhuis and Saint Peter's Church at sunset

Leuven old market courtyard lit up at night

The crew and the activities

Group of attendees at the bouldering wall activity

Thanks

It was a bit hectic to combine co-organising and presenting, so I had little time to take pictures. Some photos here are from the pool.

Thanks to the Drupal User Group Belgium (DUG BE vzw) for an awesome organisation. Thanks to Platinum sponsors Dropsolid and Calibrate. Thanks to everyone who showed up in big numbers. It really meant a lot.

A tiring but amazing week.