Ah Vienna: Annertech’s highlights from DrupalCon Europe 2025

The buzz of DrupalCon Europe 2025 in Vienna is still with us! A massive thank you to the Drupal Association, Kuoni, the volunteers, and everyone who came along for making it such an incredible event. 

For those who don’t know, DrupalCon is the premier gathering for the global Drupal community, bringing together developers, site builders, content strategists, and agencies (like us!) for a week of learning, networking, and fun.

We were thrilled to be in the stunning, historic city of Vienna, and it was a packed few days for Annertech, featuring everything from captivating talks on cutting-edge tech and serious life topics to a fiercely competitive trivia night.
 

Annertech Days: Team building in Vienna

Twice a year, Annertechies come together from across the world to work, discuss, and build our agency. This year, one of our Annertech Days events took place right here in Vienna, prior to DrupalCon. We had 30 people travelling to Vienna, as well as people joining us online for presentations and workshops. 

It was a productive two days as we broke out into working groups, working on ways to streamline processes and figure out better ways of doing things.

The event wasn't all work, though! We had a team-building scavenger hunt that took us all over the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, including a task at the foot of the Wiener Riesenrad, the famous Ferris wheel. The scavengers were rewarded with a massive team meal at the nearby Die Allee restaurant, and we are still talking about the gigantic portions of ribs! 

The camaraderie and closeness of this team are always something to marvel at. We genuinely like each other and get on, and Annertech Days reinforce the bonds that have formed over the years.

Annertech sessions

Annertech had a major presence on the speaker schedule of DrupalCon Vienna 2025, and we were so proud to see our colleagues deliver a series of high-impact talks.

A BEM vs Tailwind Death Match

The Annertech sessions kicked off with a brilliant, lively debate on Tuesday, when our frontend developer Tony Barker took on fellow frontenders in a BEM vs Tailwind Death match. Tony bravely engaged with opposing points of view to answer the burning question: “Which technology should we be using...?” Peppered with dry comedic wit and some hilarious examples, the session saw some passionate arguments and (dare we say) a bit of flip-flopping from the developers in the room as Tony forged ahead. It was a fantastic way to start our week of talks.

Inside a year connecting communities: from Media Management in Drupal CMS to leading LocalGov Drupal development

Tony also presented a session about his year of connecting communities.

In 2024 and 2025 Tony segued from heading up the Media Management in Drupal CMS to becoming the lead developer for LocalGov Drupal for Annertech. The two roles revealed something powerful: we’re all trying to solve the same problems.

Imposter Syndrome and the Power of Shared Vulnerability

We started off Thursday at DrupalCon Europe with a powerful and moving talk on imposter syndrome and shame, also delivered by John Albin Wilkins. John is such an accomplished developer, and to hear him open up about this deeply personal and important topic was truly moving. 

As he shared: “Understanding the complexities of shame has helped me to begin to navigate these issues and start to heal. We cannot be afraid to talk about it.“ 

The Future of Theming with Declarative Shadow DOM

Our final session of the conference, Declarative Shadow DOM and the future of Drupal Theming, was delivered by John Albin Wilkins on Thursday and the room was absolutely packed to capacity. 

For the past decade, developers have been experimenting with JavaScript-based frontend frameworks that completely replace Drupal’s frontend. John demonstrated a fascinating alternative: how to inject a fully modern JavaScript API into Drupal’s rendering system. 

It’s a huge topic, and John’s ability to tackle this complex subject was clear when he took questions for nearly 45 minutes after the presentation!

Our DrupalCon booth: Where we lost our marbles

Our Annertech booth this year was a real showcase of our newly launched website redesign, annertech.com. Featuring building blocks – a nod to our Drupal foundation – a pop of LocalGov Drupal yellow, and a marble run that had people arguing over who was taking it home (spoiler: you may have another chance to lay claim to it), it was a great place to hang out. 

A big thank you to everyone who came by to chat (and see how high they could build the marble run… we’re still looking for lost marbles!).

The grand finale: Trivia Night

For many, Trivia Night is the highlight of DrupalCon, and a fantastic way to end off the conference.
Gleisgarten was absolutely packed. At one point we had to move tables into the raised section that had been dedicated to the event! This classic pub quiz featured six rounds of ten questions each, covering all things Drupal along with a sprinkle of general topics.
 

The title of Drupal trivia champions went to Alina’s Lost Souls (Alina may or may not be an Annertechie). The quizmaster was the hilarious Alan Burke, egged on by MC Marine Gundy, of the French Drupal Association. 

Annertechies Stella Power (who also compiled the quiz – thanks to everyone who sent in questions), Alison Visser, Layal Khatib, and Vít Moravský handed out and collected the answer sheets from teams. The judging panel was made up of Hilmar Hallbjörnsson (drupalviking) and Annertech’s Bill Seremetis, Tony Barker, John Cook, and John Albin Wilkins. A true collaborative effort that made for a memorable night!

Drupal in a Day Seminar

Delivery Manager Sav Monzac attended this highly popular day-long Drupal crash course.

“Drupal in a Day” is designed for university and college students, but is for anyone who wants to get hands-on experience with Drupal. It gives attendees the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops and learn directly from experienced Drupal developers and agencies.

“I knew Drupal was powerful, but the saying ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ really hit home when I started trying to do anything even slightly non-standard. I tend to grasp the technical aspects fairly well, but what really stood out from the seminar was how Drupal CMS now removes a lot of the barriers that used to require deep technical knowledge. I don’t think Drupal has ever been in a place to do that before,” said Sav.

“My biggest takeaway wasn’t so much about site building or launching a site, it was about how much the platform has evolved in lowering barriers to entry. Drupal has always been powerful and that’s what’s made it so good at handling complex ideas and structures. It used to really reward people who could think technically and dig deep into how things worked and that’s still true. But what’s changed is that it now welcomes a much wider group of people. You don’t have to be a hardcore developer to build something meaningful anymore. It feels like Drupal’s matured in a way that keeps all that flexibility and power, but makes it more approachable for everyone.”

This is definitely one workshop to bear in mind for next year.

Conclusion

DrupalCon Europe 2025 in Vienna was an overwhelming success, professionally and personally. 
From sharing our knowledge and driving key discussions in the Drupal community to strengthening the bonds within our own distributed team, it was a truly energising week.

We’re already looking forward to the next one! Roll on, Rotterdam!