2024-06-12

DrupalJam 2024: freshly baked cookies, an eye-shower, and Dutch AI ambition

DrupalJam 2024 at De Fabrique in Utrecht: the nicest Drupal event in the Benelux, Dutch companies ahead on AI, and a 20th anniversary to remember.

Arriving at De Fabrique Utrecht: industrial gate with the De Fabrique sign, old soap factory turned event venue

DrupalJam is one of the nicest, if not the nicest, Drupal event in the Benelux. This was the 20th anniversary edition at De Fabrique, the old soap factory in Utrecht. Old and new tech collide beautifully in a space like that.

Personal highlights: freshly baked cookies on arrival, DIY drinks, and a great programme.

On stage

DrupalJam keynote slide: Drupal is so good at many things - Swiss army knife with labels: Headless, Composable, API-first, Low-code no-code, Fully Accessible, AI-powered, Cache Tags, Multilingual

Based on the feedback, I was still able to teach the crowd a thing or two. It's also cool to see Dutch companies actively working on AI solutions. In some regards the Dutch are ahead of the Belgians. The Dutch government even incentivises Drupal companies to have more points on drupal.org in their tenders. I learned that here.

Looking at you, SWIS Digital Agency and Matthias Snoei.

The venue

Original industrial eye-shower fixture in the old soap factory, mounted on tiled wall - old factory safety equipment

This is what an eye-shower looks like. No need to use mine here though.

Grateful to be inspired and honoured to present. Thanks Calibrate and The Digitals.