I remember the first gathering of Drupal contributors back in 2005. At the time, there were less than 50 people in attendance. In the 15 years since that first gathering, DrupalCon has become the heartbeat of the Drupal community. With each new DrupalCon, we introduce new people to our community, demonstrate the best that Drupal has to offer, and reconnect with our Drupal family.

Next week's DrupalCon Global is going to be no different.

Because of COVID-19, it is the first DrupalCon that will be 100% virtual. But as much as we may miss seeing each other in person, the switch to virtual has opened opportunities to bring in speakers and attendees who never would have been able to attend otherwise.

There are a few moments I'm particularly excited about:

• Mitchell Baker, CEO and Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, is joining us to talk about the future of the Open Web, and the importance of Open Source software.
• Jacqueline Gibson, Digital Equity Advocate and Software Engineer from Microsoft, will be talking about Digital Inequity for the Black community – a topic I believe is deeply important for our community and the world.
• Leaders of current Drupal strategic initiatives will be presenting their progress and their calls for action to keep Drupal the leading CMS on the web.
• And of course, I'll be giving my keynote presentation to celebrate the community's accomplishment in releasing Drupal 9, and to talk about Drupal's future.

Beyond the sessions, I look forward to the human element of the conference. The side conversations and reunions with old friends make attending DrupalCon so much more powerful than simply watching the recordings after the fact. I hope to see you at DrupalCon Global next week!