DrupalEurope is this year’s largest European conference devoted to Drupal. In previous years, each edition of the conference (formerly known as DrupalCon) was attended by about 2000 participants. We already know the programme of the conference with 162 hours of lectures over the course of three days! Because I run a Drupal agency myself, the conference is super exciting for me. I decided to go through the programme and make a list of 13 lectures that I think are worth seeing.

1. Driesnote

On Wednesday, 12th of September at 9:00 a.m. Dries Buytaert will talk about the status of Drupal 8. This is a lecture I always attend at DrupalCon. You can learn interesting things about Drupal usage statistics and the systems development plans. It's definitely worth attending if you want to know what will happen with Drupal in the coming months.

2. Using React with Drupal. The Basics.

It is actually more of a workshop, rather than a lecture, but in my opinion it’s simply worth going there. The popularity of modern frameworks such as React, Vue and Angular is increasingly growing. At Droptica, we also work with more and more projects using React. If you don't know the React.js library yet, this workshop is a must-see for you. If you already know React, it’s also worth going - if only to see the approach to the subject of another developer.

The lecture will be conducted by Martin Spencer from 1xINTERNET GmbH https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/using-react-drupal-basics

3. Progressive Web Apps for all Drupal sites

PWA brings the possibilities of native mobile applications to websites. I’ve been watching PWA implementations for several months now and there has been a lot of them, and the future is going to bring even more.

At Droptica, we implemented PWA in the TrainingRealm application. Currently, we are working on connecting Vue Storefront with Drupal Commerce, which also implements PWA.

The lecture will be conducted by Chris Ruppel

https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/progressive-web-apps-all-drupal-sites

4. How we built a government video platform using Vue.js in just 100 days

I love case study lectures, since they allow me to learn about real issues during project implementations, as well as their solutions. In this case study, you can see a combination of all the new trends in online technologies: Drupal 8, Vue.js and media streaming.

The lecture will be conducted by four developers from Digitalist Group https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/how-we-built-government-video-platform-using-vuejs-just-100-days

5. Introducing the Gutenberg content editor for Drupal 8

Personally, I am a fan of the Paragraphs module, which we use in Droopler – our Drupal distribution for creating small websites and for marketing departments. However, I will be happy to learn more about the Gutenberg editor. If it’s stable, then its implementation in Drupal may be a big change for people who work with content on a daily basis.

The lecture will be conducted by Per Andre Rønsen from Frontkom

https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/introducing-gutenberg-content-editor-drupal-8

6. Drupal distributions panel

Distributions are close to Droptica’s heart, since we run our own distribution – Droopler. In Drupal 8, building a distribution is not as burdensome as in the case of Drupal 7. I see a great potential in the development of distributions and I’ll be happy to listen to the experiences of other developers of such projects.

The panel discussion will be attended by: Cristina Chumillas (Ymbra), Moritz Arendt (GoalGorilla), Miro Dietiker (MD Systems

Kampaweb), Christoph Breidert (1xINTERNET GmbH), Bojan Zivanovic (Commerce Guys), Mohammed J. Razem (Vardot), Keith Jay (Five Mile), Daniel Bosen (Burda Magazine Holding GmbH), Ted Bowman (Acquia) https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/drupal-distributions-panel

7. Drupal 8 migrations by example

It’s time for yet another workshop on our lecture list! It grabbed my attention from the second I noticed the description: “No PHP coding required.” At Droptica, we migrated many websites to Drupal 8, but in most cases YML files alone were not enough. I’ll happily listen to someone else’s experiences with migration to D8.

The workshop will be conducted by Mauricio Dinarte from Agaric https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/drupal-8-migrations-example

8. Autosave and concurrent editing in Drupal 8

The topic of comfortable content editing in Drupal has been very close to my heart in recent months. We have clients who create large amounts of content in their Drupal systems every day, and every slightest improvement to this process is important to them. The modules presented during this lecture can streamline the process of creating content.

The lecture will be conducted by Hristo Chonov from bio.logis GIM GmbH https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/autosave-and-concurrent-editing-drupal-8

9. Creating an enterprise level editorial experience for Drupal 8 using React

Another lecture devoted to content editing and React that is definitely worth seeing. Convenient editing of content in systems where it is abundant is very important can save a lot of time.

The lecture will be conducted by Ruben Teijeiro from 1xINTERNET https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/creating-enterprise-level-editorial-experience-drupal-8-using-react

10. OpenSource meets Enterprise - how Drupal and SAP Hybris can team up

Drupal 8 and SAP in the same lecture – this has to be interesting. I'm always interested in integrating Drupal with other systems, especially large enterprise systems.

The lecture will be conducted by Jan Pilarzeck from Trio-interactive https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/opensource-meets-enterprise-how-drupal-and-sap-hybris-can-team

11. Successfully Proving Enterprise Drupal 8 at Bayer

Bayer, a large international corporation, needs no introductions. This lecture on using Drupal 8 as a platform for over 2000 websites is definitely worth seeing.

The lecture will be conducted by George Steven from Bayer https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/successfully-proving-enterprise-drupal-8-bayer

12. Open Source E-commerce solutions: Stop to compare, start to analyse

Choosing an e-commerce platform is always a difficult task. Many times, we have implemented online shops based on Drupal Commerce, but I am also aware of the existence of strong competition such as Prestashop, Magento, WooCommerce and Sylius. This lecture will be particularly interesting for everybody working with e-commerce implementations.

The lecture will be conducted by Mathieu Le Cain and Fabien Clément from L'équipe.tech https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/open-source-e-commerce-solutions-stop-compare-start-analyze

13. The king is dead, long live the king - or how Hooks were superseded by object-oriented alternatives in Commerce 2.x.

Well-written and clean code guarantees stable operation of the application and its convenient expansion in the future. This lecture seems to be a must-see for every developer planning to use Drupal Commerce.

The lecture will be conducted by Andreas Albers and Jakub Piasecki from Linkfactory A/S https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/king-dead-long-live-king-or-how-hooks-were-superseded-object-oriented-alternatives-commerce

Summary

The above list is a list of lectures that I definitely want to see (unfortunately, I’ll probably have to watch some of them after the conference due to various meetings during the event). Looking back at the previous DrupalCon conferences, the level of the lectures should be high. The speakers are always well-prepared for their lectures.

If you're still thinking about going to DrupalEurope, I think it's definitely worth buying a ticket. You can gain a ton of knowledge, and the event also gives you an opportunity to talk to people who do what you do every day from all over the world. I always come back from these events with a lot of new ideas, which I systematically implement at Droptica, where we do a lot of drupal development.

