Last year in November some of our staff attended the beautiful site of Nara, Japan for DrupalCon Nara 2025 where we met many talented developers and speakers. We even got a chance to speak with Dries himself.

Alongside the talks we also attended Contribution Day, putting our time and skills to support the amazing Drupal community.

We spoke with Tim Doyle to get the low-down on Drupal certification, as our team has significantly contributed to the Drupal community over the years. We also met with the Drupalcon steering committee to hear about where the future is headed for Drupalcon in Australasia/Asia Pacific regions, and how we can continue to support them.

 

A huge focus across the conference was Drupal CMS, part of the Starshot Initiative, a real game-changer for front end developers and low code solutions. Paired with some of the new AI tools, it looks like we’ll be seeing a huge uptick in accessibility across various fields - and with this brings new ideas and rich creativity to the Drupal scene.

Alongside the new shiny Drupal CMS comes Recipes, a great and efficient way of grouping and installing certain modules and configuration together. Expect these to be a big cornerstone of Drupal CMS. You can check out the community’s “Cookbook” over here [link].

Something I’m personally excited to write about is addressing a more human side of troubleshooting - in this case, Imposter Syndrome and the experience of women in tech, presented by Suchi Garg and Julia Topliss in their “Brilliant, But Doubting” talk.
Despite increasing participation of women in the technology sector, many continue to grapple with imposter syndrome, a psychological pattern marked by persistent self-doubt and a fear of being exposed as a fraud, despite evident competence and achievements.
We learned that systemic bias can perpetuate imposter syndrome, and that it’s not imposter syndrome, but psychological safety that will help women in the workplace. 

For the women in tech out there, here was our take on improving psychological safety in the workplace: Celebrate wins. Embrace failures as learning. Build a supportive network. Challenge the internal narrative we have about ourselves. Prioritise self-development and wellbeing. Ask ourselves, “Am I doing this for me, or because of who I want to represent?”

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You’ve probably heard a thing or two about Xequals and how we care about building up the communities around us. So naturally, we really enjoyed going to Nikita’s “Back Together Again: Lessons From Reviving a Community Post-Covid” and learning how she kick-started her Drupal community back up again. 

One of the big takeaways was hearing that a big contributor to meetups fizzling out of steam can be caused by being too dependent on too small a group of organisers, too little documentation and standards, and burnout from too much pressure. Her solution recipe? Setting up a new org team, and being clear from the beginning about team owners and roles. Have regular check-ins; meet-ups give momentum. Be consistent in outreaching to others. People need to be connected for a cause. 

Nikita told us the shift that changed everything for her: She reintroduced rituals (such as sharing stickers, taking photos). Organising networking drinks. If the local Drupal scene is too small, try collaborating with other open-source communities. Build visibility; talk about what you’re doing, and put people first.

And that’s such a Drupal thing, isn’t it? To have not only a huge focus on accessible, open-source tech, but also the community and human side of it all. DrupalCon Nara really shone a light on all of our best strengths and where we are going to go in 2026 (hint: things are going to grow REALLY big in the best of ways!)
 

See you all at DrupalSouth in Wellington this year!

Love,

The Xequals Team