2024 represented a year of gradual recovery and adaptation for the Drupal community, with events across three continents showcasing both resilience and evolution in the face of ongoing challenges. While the major DrupalCons in Portland, Barcelona, and Singapore demonstrated the community's enduring strength, attendance figures at regional DrupalCamps revealed a more nuanced picture of post-pandemic recovery. Many events saw participation numbers hovering around 60-70% of their pre-2020 levels, as evidenced by published numbers. This trend reflects a broader pattern in tech conferences, where in-person events are steadily rebuilding but haven't yet returned to pre-pandemic scale. However, the quality of engagement and the depth of technical discussions remained high, suggesting that while the community might be smaller in physical gatherings, it has maintained its collaborative spirit and innovative drive.

Let's dive into the main events of 2024.

Early 2024: Florida Sets the Tone
The year began with Florida DrupalCamp, held from February 23-25 at Florida Technical College. This regional event, while smaller in scale than the international DrupalCons, proved to be an important bellwether for the themes that would dominate the year. With 130 attendees spread across five concurrent tracks, the camp created an intimate environment for deep technical discussions. The event stood out for its practical focus on Laravel integration and artificial intelligence tools, reflecting the broader industry's movement toward integrated development approaches and AI adoption.

DrupalCon Portland: A Spring Milestone
DrupalCon Portland, held from May 6-9 at the Oregon Convention Center, emerged as one of the year's pivotal events. The conference served as a crucial platform for several major announcements, most notably the formal introduction of Drupal CMS, previously known under the working title "Starshot." This development represented a significant step forward in Drupal's evolution, demonstrating the community's commitment to modernizing the platform while maintaining its core values.

The Portland event was particularly noteworthy for its emphasis on artificial intelligence integration, with numerous sessions exploring how AI could enhance content management and development workflows. Technical sessions provided practical insights into implementing these new technologies while maintaining Drupal's commitment to accessibility and security. It was also marked the 4th time that DrupalCon was held in Portland.

Canadian Summer: Chill vibes in Ottawa
DrupalCamp Ottawa 2024 offered a comprehensive program featuring sessions across multiple tracks including Development, Business and Strategy, and Front-End Development & Web Design. The event began with a Drupal 101 session for beginners, followed by a keynote on the Drupal Starshot initiative. Throughout the day, attendees could choose from various sessions covering topics such as the GC-Drupal initiative (Government of Canda), Drupal Commerce, CiviCRM integration, AI implementation, GDPR compliance, and advanced development techniques. The program included both beginner and experienced-level content, with sessions taking place across three venues.

European Summer: Regional Events Foster Innovation
The summer months saw a series of impactful regional events across Europe. DrupalCamp Poland, hosted at SWPS University in Warsaw on May 18, brought together approximately 80 participants for focused discussions on web security and component development. The event's bilingual format (English and Polish) reflected Drupal's commitment to maintaining its global accessibility while supporting local communities.

June proved especially active, with Drupal Developer Days in Burgas, Bulgaria (June 26-28) attracting over 160 participants for 45+ sessions across eight tracks. The conference's location on the Black Sea coast provided an inspiring backdrop for discussions about AI integration and Drupal CMS. Earlier that month, the Netherlands hosted the 20th anniversary edition of DrupalJam in Utrecht (June 12), centered around the theme "Open Up." This event particularly stood out for its collaborative approach, bringing together representatives from various open-source content management systems to discuss shared challenges and opportunities.

US Summer: DrupalGov is the place to be
DrupalGov has evolved into a conference that rivals DrupalCon in both scope and complexity. The 2024 edition demonstrated this growth by successfully executing a  program spread across three days and four concurrent tracks. The technical breadth of the conference was remarkable as well, covering everything from Drupal's transformative Starshot initiative to cutting-edge artificial intelligence applications, while also providing deep dives into fundamental skills like site building and advanced theming techniques. What makes this achievement particularly noteworthy is the event's timing during the peak of summer, when leisure activities typically compete for attendees' attention. The strong attendance also reflects the public sector's increasing recognition of Drupal as a strategic platform for delivering digital services to government entities. 

DrupalCon Barcelona: Autumn in Catalonia
The September 24-27 gathering at Barcelona's CCIB marked a crucial moment in the year's calendar. DrupalCon Barcelona provided comprehensive coverage of practical concerns, such as upgrading from Drupal 7 to 10, while also looking toward the future with sessions on Drupal 11, 12, and the evolving Drupal CMS initiative. The traditional Driesnote by Dries Buytaert offered strategic insights into the platform's direction, while the Experience Builder Initiative presentations demonstrated concrete steps toward making Drupal more accessible to non-technical users.

The conference's social elements, including a beach party at Beach Club La Donzella de la Costa, reinforced the community bonds that have long been a hallmark of Drupal events. Technical partner workshops provided hands-on learning opportunities, ensuring attendees left with practical skills alongside theoretical knowledge.

Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit is back (in Seattle)
After a five year break, the event was again organized in October in Seattle. The Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit, held October 12-13, 2024, at Mary Gates Hall, demonstrated the region's vibrant Drupal community through a comprehensive program of over 30 sessions. The event balanced technical depth with practical applications, featuring advanced development topics like custom CKEditor 5 implementation and cache optimization alongside emerging technology discussions about AI integration using Flowise and RAG techniques. User experience and business strategy weren't overlooked, with dedicated sessions exploring content authoring experiences, accessibility testing, and organizational performance frameworks. The summit particularly emphasized Drupal's evolution through discussions of the Starshot initiative and the critical transition from Drupal 7 to 10, with the latter taking on special urgency given Drupal 7's end-of-life date on January 5, 2025

BADCamp is also back
BADCamp (Bay Area Drupal Camp) returned to San Francisco in October 2024, maintaining its reputation as the world's largest free Drupal event. Along with its traditional "summits," this year's gathering featured the first-ever Drupal Starshot summit. It was remarkable to see how the initiative announced by Dries at DrupalCon Portland gained momentum throughout the year, becoming a central topic at almost all DrupalCamps worldwide.

Spain in October: Drupal + Sunny = Match
The Spain Drupal Association (Asociación Española de Drupal, or AED) has established a tradition of creating exceptional events each year. The 2024 edition, hosted in the coastal city of Benidorm, continued this legacy by offering a comprehensive three-day program structured to serve the diverse needs of the Drupal community:business, trainings & knowledge sharing. The event begins with a Training Day featuring a free Drupal 10 Site Building course that includes both in-person instruction and a four-month online follow-up component. The second day focuses on business networking and professional development, while the main conference day delivers multiple parallel tracks across different rooms, with sessions in both Spanish and English covering various expertise levels. The technical content spans from Drupal's latest initiatives like Starshot to practical concerns such as migration strategies and DevOps implementation, while also addressing emerging trends in artificial intelligence and accessibility. Looking forward to the next one in 2025. Where will it be held?

DrupalCampA: Autumn in Scotland
The United Kingdom is home to several small but vibrant Drupal communities. DrupalCamp Scotland exemplifies these regional gatherings, featuring a single track of engaging sessions delivered by both local and international speakers. The 2024 event covered one major theme of the year, artificial intelligence, alongside recurrent topics such as Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration, accessibility, and Drupal implementations in government services.

NEDCamp: November bloom in New England
The New England Drupal community came together for another exciting NEDCamp, transforming Gaige Hall into a bustling hub of web development expertise. It succeeded to gather a impressive number of participants and speakers. The way to go! The event featured standout presentations on the Starshot initiative, innovative Figma component design, and crucial discussions about bug handling strategies. A highlight was the comprehensive keynote on modular CMS page builders, which sparked engaging conversations about the future of development workflows. Between sessions, developers networked over coffee, participated in the popular Drupal Coffee Exchange, and shared insights on everything from security best practices to AI integration. The IXP-Fellowship program showcased promising new talent in the Drupal ecosystem, while seasoned developers shared valuable insights on Layout Builder implementation and UX advocacy. The day concluded with a lively after-party. NEDCamp succeeded to become a tradition and the event to be at in the last part of every year.. 

DrupalCon Singapore: Closing the Year in Asia
The year concluded with a historic return to Asia as DrupalCon Singapore convened at the PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay from December 9-11. This marked the first DrupalCon in Asia in eight years, symbolizing the platform's renewed focus on global expansion. The event introduced the first DrupalCon Splash Awards, celebrating excellence in Drupal implementation across the region.

The Singapore conference was particularly significant for featuring the launch of the Drupal CMS Release Candidate, representing the culmination of years of community effort. Dries Buytaert's State of Drupal presentation provided a comprehensive overview of the progress made throughout the year and outlined the roadmap for future developments.

Wrap-up of 2024
The 2024 Drupal events calendar demonstrated the community's ability to balance innovation with stability, global reach with local engagement, and technical excellence with user accessibility. Each Drupal event contributed to the platform's evolution while maintaining the strong community bonds that have always characterized the Drupal ecosystem. Drupal Starshot as well as AI are the main topics of 2024. What will 2025 bring to us?