DrupalCon North America 2021: Keynote speakers making a positive impact in open source and beyond

This year’s DrupalCon North America 2021 keynotes highlight the power of the global Drupal community to make a difference in some of the most crucial issues of our time and the future of digital experiences. Register today.

The Drupal Association is planning a blockbuster event for DrupalCon North America, the most widely attended Drupal event, 12-16 April from 11:00 – 15:00 EDT daily. This year’s all-virtual event brings together Drupal experts, enthusiasts, end users, and the broader open source software community to connect, collaborate, and contribute to advancing Drupal – the world’s leading open source digital experience platform (DXP).

Heather Rocker, executive director of the Drupal Association states, “Our global community of developers, marketers, and business leaders come to DrupalCon to connect, learn about the experiences of their peers, and share their own expertise. DrupalCon participants also benefit from the opportunity to learn from our keynote and featured speakers. This year, those topics include the role of open source in schools to close the digital divide, the importance of allyship in developing diversity and inclusion, building successful mentorship for people of color in tech, and understanding digital rights as human rights.”

Featured keynotes will highlight inclusion, closing the digital divide, and the Drupal platform’s future.

Sheree Atcheson, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader
Allyship—the key to unlocking the power of diversity
Monday, 12 April 12:10-12:40 EDT
Atcheson, an industry-leading voice on diversity and inclusion in tech, will talk about the importance of intersectional allyship in creating inclusive environments and technology. She’ll offer tips on how everyone in any role can actively consider, champion, and advocate for others in their work and be more inclusive in their day-to-day lives.

Atcheson has been named one of the UK’s Most Influential Women in Tech and has received multiple international awards for her work to advance diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.

Dries Buytaert, Founder, Drupal
Driesnote
Wednesday, 14 April 12:30-13:50 EDT
A much-anticipated highlight of DrupalCon, Buytaert, Drupal’s founder, will deliver his annual talk celebrating Drupal successes over the past year, outlining the state of the Drupal project now, and offering his thoughts on what’s next.

Buytaert is the original creator and project lead for Drupal, an open source platform used around the world to build websites and digital experiences, as well as co-founder and chief technology officer of Acquia, a venture-backed technology company.

Stuart Keroff, Social Studies and Technology Teacher, Aspen Academy
School needs open source, now more than ever
Friday, 16 April 14:20-14:50 EDT
Technology educator Stuart Keroff, founder of the first two middle school Linux clubs in Minnesota, has spent the last 10 years guiding middle school students to use open source as a tool to close the digital divide in education. He and his students will share how they used open source software to recycle computers for their fellow students during COVID-19 school closures.

To date, he and his students have provided over 600 Linux computers, helping students learn while also saving money for their schools.

New this year – participants can attend keynote sessions dedicated to strategic Drupal Initiatives:

Decoupled Menus
Tuesday, 13 April
This initiative is focused on developing an easy-to-integrate solution for JavaScript front ends to consume configurable menus managed in Drupal—a key enhancement for developers. This is the first step in standardizing best practices for Decoupled Drupal.

Easy Out of the Box
Wednesday, 14 April
This initiative is designed to refine improvements introduced in the Drupal 9 release and enable new features that can make Drupal even easier to use.

Automated Updates
Thursday 15 April
This initiative is all about implementing a secure system for automatically deploying safe, secure updates for Drupal sites—a crucial enhancement for Drupal service providers and end users.

Drupal 10 Readiness
Friday, 16 April
This initiative is our effort to update and enhance the platform to enable a smooth, secure transition to Drupal 10, which launches in 2022.

Invest in your career, register today
The global pandemic has increased pressures around work-life integration, so DrupalCon 2021 is built with flexibility in mind. Each day is streamlined with 4 hours of live content, and the virtual setting allows easy participation in the featured keynotes, small group discussions, and interactive skill-building sessions most relevant to you.

Tickets are $245 per attendee and include access to all DrupalCon events, premiere access to the session recordings, as well as admission into the industry summits of your choice (higher education, healthcare, nonprofit, and government) held throughout April. Registration details, as well as additional speaker and session information, are available at https://events.drupal.org/northamerica2021

DrupalCon is brought to you by the Drupal Association in collaboration with a team of dedicated contributors and sponsors, including Diamond Sponsors Acquia, Pantheon, and Platform.sh.