Drupal Events January 2026: 25th Birthday Celebrations, Training, and DrupalCon Chicago Deadlines

Drupal's 25th Birthday: Global Celebrations

The Drupal project officially launched on January 15, 2001, making this milestone birthday a big deal for the community. Celebrations span from January 8th through January 20th, with both in-person and virtual options.

Vienna, Austria – January 15, 2026

The Vienna celebration serves as a hybrid event, meaning you can attend in person at the ACOLONO GmbH offices or join remotely. The event starts at 19:00 CET and focuses on community connection, expect informal discussions about Drupal's history, networking, and general celebration.

Format: Hybrid (in-person and virtual)
Registration: Through the Drupal.org event page
Cost: Free

Kochi, India – January 15, 2026

The Drupal Kochi group is hosting a birthday meetup at TinkerSpace from 18:00 to 20:00 IST. This event combines technical content with celebration, including presentations, hands-on workshops, and a cake-cutting ceremony. If you're in Kerala or nearby, this offers both learning and networking in one evening.

Format: In-person only
Location: TinkerSpace, Kochi, Kerala
Registration: Via Drupal.org event listing

Mechelen, Belgium – January 20, 2026

Drupal Belgium is hosting a birthday celebration combined with a New Year's reception at Technopolis. The event features a Technopolis escape game along with food and drinks. This one runs a few days after the official birthday, giving European community members another option.

Format: In-person only
Time: 19:00 CET
Registration: Via Drupal.org event listing

Global Online Activities – January 8-15, 2026

For those who can't attend in-person events, the community is running online celebrations throughout the birthday week. These sessions accommodate different time zones and include informal virtual gatherings organized by local groups worldwide. The Drupal.org events calendar remains the best place to find newly added online sessions as they're announced.

Professional Module Development Training – January 27 Start

DrupalEasy's Professional Module Development course kicks off its Winter 2026 session on January 27th. This isn't a quick workshop; it's a 14-week program running through May 6th, designed to build serious Drupal development skills.

Course Options

Full Version (90 hours)

• Complete coverage of development environment setup
• Automated testing practices
• Code quality tooling
• Advanced topics including events, custom Drush commands, and caching
• 300 pages of written materials
• Weekly office hours (2 hours per week)

Lite Version (60 hours)

• Core module development fundamentals
• Nearly 200 pages of materials
• Excludes some advanced topics like events and Drush commands

Format and Delivery

Classes run via Zoom with a dedicated Slack channel for ongoing communication. The twice-weekly sessions plus optional office hours require a real time commitment, but the structured approach works well for developers who learn better with guided instruction than self-study.

Registration deadline: January 23, 2026 at 18:45 EST
Start date: January 27, 2026 at 07:00 EST

DrupalCon Chicago 2026: January Deadlines

While DrupalCon Chicago doesn't happen until March 23-26, January holds the most important deadline for ticket purchases.

Ticket Pricing Tiers

Early Bird: $575 (Until January 20, 2026 at 7:59am CST)
Regular: $700 (January 20 – February 23, 2026)
Late/On-site: $850 (After February 23, 2026)

The Early Bird rate saves $125 compared to Regular pricing and $275 compared to Late registration. The conference notes that 2026 tickets are roughly 36% cheaper than 2025 prices overall.

What's Included

Your ticket gets you access to keynotes, general sessions, the Expo Hall, opening reception, Trivia Night, meals during the event, and contribution opportunities across all four days. Thursday specifically includes first-time contributor workshops with mentored sessions.

Pre-registration (limited capacity) opens for affinity events including "Black in Drupal," "Women in Drupal," and the "Ripple Makers Breakfast."

Why These Events Matter

For developers and teams working with Drupal, January's event lineup addresses different needs depending on where you are in your Drupal journey.

For networking and community connection: The birthday celebrations, particularly the Vienna hybrid event, offer low-barrier entry points for meeting other Drupal professionals. We've found that these informal gatherings often lead to collaboration opportunities that don't emerge from purely technical conferences.

For skill development: The Professional Module Development course fills a specific gap. Many developers learn Drupal through documentation and trial-and-error, which works but leaves gaps in areas like automated testing and code quality practices. A structured program covering these topics systematically can accelerate growth that might otherwise take years of on-the-job learning.

For conference planning: The January 20th Early Bird deadline creates real savings, but more importantly, early commitment often translates to better preparation. Teams that lock in attendance early tend to engage more meaningfully with session selections, travel planning, and contribution sprint preparation.

Professional Insights: What We're Seeing

The emphasis on Drupal 11 across January's events reflects broader ecosystem trends. With Drupal 11.2.7 as the current stable release and 11.3.0-alpha1 available for testing, the community is firmly focused on the Drupal 11 branch.

Our experience shows that teams still running Drupal 10.x should pay attention to support timelines. Drupal 10.5.x maintains security coverage until June 2026, but earlier 10.x versions are at or past end-of-life. January's training and networking events provide good opportunities to connect with others who've completed migrations and can share practical lessons.

The Professional Module Development course curriculum explicitly covers code quality tools and sustainable development practices. Topics that become increasingly important as sites grow and teams change. Drupal modules built with proper testing foundations are dramatically easier to maintain and update when core releases introduce changes.

For US-based participants, January's main opportunities are virtual: the global birthday celebrations (particularly any online components), the DrupalEasy training, and acting on the DrupalCon Early Bird deadline. The in-person birthday events are concentrated in Europe and India, though additional regional meetups may appear on the calendar as the month progresses.

Action Items for January 2026

Here's a practical checklist for making the most of January's Drupal ecosystem activities:

This Week (Before January 15)

• Check the Drupal.org events calendar for online birthday celebration sessions in your timezone
• Register for the Vienna hybrid event if you want to join the January 15th celebration virtually
• Review the Professional Module Development course details if skill development is a priority

By January 20

• Purchase DrupalCon Chicago Early Bird tickets ($575 rate expires at 7:59am CST)
• If applicable, coordinate with your team on who's attending DrupalCon

By January 23

• Complete Professional Module Development registration if enrolling (deadline: 18:45 EST)
• Ensure your development environment is ready (DDEV or Lando, Git, Composer) if you're joining the course

Ongoing

• Monitor the Drupal.org events calendar for newly added January events
• Join your regional Drupal Slack channels for local meetup announcements

We recommend treating the Early Bird deadline as firm if you're planning DrupalCon attendance. The $125 savings is meaningful, but beyond cost, early commitment tends to drive better preparation and engagement with the conference content.

Finding and Registering for Events

All events mentioned in this article are listed on the Drupal.org Community Events calendar. To find them:

• Visit drupal.org/community/events
• Filter by date range (January 2026)
• Filter by event type if desired (meetup, training, virtual)
• Click through individual listings for registration links

Most birthday celebrations are free. The Professional Module Development course has associated fees. Check the DrupalEasy site linked from the Drupal.org listing for current pricing.

For DrupalCon Chicago tickets, visit events.drupal.org/chicago2026 directly.

Conclusion

January 2026 offers Drupal professionals a mix of community celebration, structured learning, and conference preparation opportunities. The 25th birthday events provide accessible entry points for networking, whether you join virtually from the US or attend in person in Vienna, Kochi, or Mechelen. The Professional Module Development course addresses a real gap in structured Drupal education, and the DrupalCon Early Bird deadline creates a concrete savings opportunity for conference attendees.

Choosing which events fit your goals comes down to what you need most right now: community connection, technical skill building, or conference planning. If you're evaluating how Drupal fits into your organization's web presence and want guidance on which events or training paths would be most valuable for your team's specific situation, we can help you map out an approach that matches your current Drupal projects and growth plans.