Leadership "Unconference" Summit: Anchoring Drupal in a Sea of Disruption

“The only way to survive a storm is to anchor together.”

We are living through unprecedented shifts. Between historic budget cuts, canceled federal contracts, restructured agencies, and the rapid rise of AI, the ground beneath the GovCon Drupal community isn't just shaking—it’s shifting entirely. But we aren't going anywhere. This summit is our collective space to steady the ship, realign our strategies, and build a resilient path forward.

Who This Is For

This summit is exclusively designed for agency heads, federal IT decision-makers, program managers, and GovCon executives who are responsible for government websites powered by Drupal.

If you are currently navigating:

• Slashed budgets and sudden contract cancellations.

• The pressure to integrate AI without sacrificing security or federal compliance.

• The challenge of retaining top talent amid sector-wide job losses.

• Anxiety over the long-term viability of your department’s or company’s Drupal footprint.

...then you need to be in this room. This is a gathering of peers who share your exact stakes, challenges, and commitment to the Drupal ecosystem.

What You Can Expect

Forget the passive PowerPoint presentations. Inspired by the highly successful Drupal Pivot events in Ghent and Cambridge earlier this year, this summit operates on an unconference format.

There is no pre-set slide deck or rigid agenda. Instead, we are giving the microphone to you to dictate what matters most right now. Here is how we will spend our 3 hours together on August 12th, 2026:

• 1:00 – 1:30 PM | Setup & Brainstorming: We’ll kick off with quick introductions and explain the unconference rules. Then, the floor opens. Attendees will pitch the urgent topics, existential threats, and strategic opportunities they want to discuss.

• 1:30 – 1:45 PM | The Vote: We will collaboratively vote on the pitched ideas to identify the top 3 high-priority topics that the room most needs to solve.

• 1:45 – 3:45 PM | The Deep-Dive Discussions: We will spend 35–40 minutes on each of the top three voted topics. This is a facilitated, open-mic roundtable where you can share raw experiences, brainstorm survival tactics, and collaborate on actionable solutions.

• 3:45 – 4:00 PM | Wrap-Up & Next Steps: We’ll synthesize our key takeaways and establish how we, as a united GovCon community, will keep supporting each other through this transition.

Why This Format Works

When the landscape is changing daily, static agendas are outdated before the printer ink dries. By pivoting the schedule to focus entirely on your immediate, real-world pain points, you will walk out of this room with practical survival strategies, new alliances, and a clear-eyed roadmap for navigating the current chaos.