Viva Viennaaaa! (and my nerves)
In my last post, I talked about graduating university, joining Zoocha, and getting my first contribution credits. That was the foundation—but it wasn't until I stepped off a plane in Austria for DrupalCon Vienna 2025 that everything clicked into place.
To be honest? Heading there, I was incredibly nervous. It was my very first major conference (of any kind!) and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Winning the ticket at DrupalCamp England felt like the exciting end of one chapter, but standing in front of that massive conference hall felt like a completely different beast.
The intensity (and the magic) of DrupalCon
Attending DrupalCon Vienna was intense. Between the sheer volume of sessions and networking events happening simultaneously, it felt like 10x more demanding than a normal 9-to-5 office day. I found myself stressed and exhausted early on - mostly because I was trying to experience everything on offer. I was terrified of missing out on something important.
But I quickly learned one very important takeaway that I’ll take with me forever: Don't worry about the sessions you miss. You simply cannot do it all! The moment I stopped stressing over every talk I didn't attend and focused on actually enjoying the ones I did, the event shifted from overwhelming into unforgettable.
One of my absolute favourite moments was attending a session on how the Drupal 10 Design System and Site Templates were built. It was fascinating to see how those massive infrastructure pieces come together. But beyond slideshows, what resonated most was finally putting faces to names—seeing people I only ever communicated with over Slack or Drupal.org Issues in person made the community feel incredibly warm and real.
Stepping up: The Site Template Initiative
That growing confidence didn't just stay at the conference hall, though. Back at Zoocha shortly after Vienna, we were fortunate enough to be awarded a spot in that specific Drupal.org Site Template initiative I had learned so much about.
This was a massive step up from my early contributions! I stepped into the role of Backend Developer for one of the first few templates. Because I was essentially the lead backend dev on that project, working directly alongside frontend developers to shape something that would live right next to core features on Drupal.org gave me a real sense of ownership.
A final takeaway for newbies
If you are looking at Drupal from the outside today, or perhaps feeling intimidated by that admin dashboard (like I was back in 2023), take it from someone who has been there: the community is always happy to help. Helping each other out benefits everyone in the ecosystem, so you won't be left drowning alone. The learning curve is real, but if you lean into your team and the wider community, everything eventually starts to click.
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