EvolveDrupal Boston Digital Summit

June 6, 2025

Microsoft NERD Center
Cambridge, MA

EvolveDrupal Boston 2025 was a huge success with close to 40 speakers and 190 attendees! Sign up for our newsletter to benefit from special discounts and not miss the next event!

AGENDA

Sessions

Learn more about our 30+ case study, technical, AI and digital strategy sessions as well as panels from thought leaders below. Check back soon as recordings will be added in the next few days.  

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9:00 am - 10:00 am

Registration & Opening Remarks

11:00 am
-
11:20 am

Rise of the Refresh

Digital Strategy & Comms
Evolving Web Room

Alixandra Nozzolillo

Director of Communications, Harvard College

Harvard University

Description:
Learn how Harvard College reimagined its digital presence with smart, strategic updates—earning an award and impact without full-scale overhauls. From website and video refreshes to a revived content platform and a shift in strategy, this session explores how incremental improvements, audience insight, and clarity can lead to powerful results.
About speaker(s):

Alixandra Nozzolillo is an award-winning communications and marketing professional with over two decades of experience in higher education and healthcare. Known for turning complex ideas into clear strategy, she brings both creative firepower and analytical depth. Beyond deadlines and to-do lists, she’s an avid gardener and lifelong explorer.

11:00 am
-
11:20 am

Getting to Know Drupal Experience Builder (XB)

Tech & AI
Pantheon Room

Dharizza Espinach Barahona

Drupal Trainer & Senior Backend Developer

Evolving Web

Description:
Experience Builder (XB) is a new open-source tool designed to make it easier for people to build and theme Drupal websites through a visual interface—no deep Drupal knowledge required. In this session, we’ll walk through what XB is, how it works, and how it fits into the broader Drupal ecosystem. We’ll also look at what it enables for site builders and content creators, and how it builds on Drupal’s strengths around structured content, scalability, and flexibility.
About speaker(s):

Dharizza is a Senior back-end developer with 9+ years of experience building successful Drupal projects. She also has a long-standing passion for knowledge sharing and empowering others to learn new things by providing Drupal training and speaking at international Drupal Camps.

1:30 pm
-
1:50 pm

API Normalization in the Real World: Connecting Drupal, GitLab, and Everything In Between

Tech & AI
Bluefly Room

Thomas P. Scola

CEO & Founder

Bluefly

Bryan Jiencke

Senior Director of Operations

Bluefly

Description:
Today’s digital platforms are stitched together by APIs—yet most teams struggle to manage them consistently. In this session, we’ll explore API normalization as a strategy to unify how Drupal, GitLab, and external services communicate. You’ll learn how to streamline and standardize your content workflows by aligning data with the OpenAPI standard, integrating Drupal with GitLab through APIs, and automating cross-platform operations to reduce complexity. I’ll show practical examples of building centralized control panels, streamlining workflows, and turning API chaos into structured, maintainable systems—making your Drupal practice more scalable and future-proof.
About speaker(s):

Thomas is a Customer Success Manager at GitLab, helping enterprise and public sector clients accelerate software delivery and maximize their investment in the GitLab platform. With deep expertise in Drupal since 2003, he is certified by both Acquia and GitLab and specializes in CMS migrations, DevOps, and technical architecture. He is also the founder of Bluefly.io, an Acquia Partner delivering open-source solutions with a team of former Acquia leaders.

3:10 pm
-
3:30 pm

Creative Control: Finding the Right Structure for Your In-House Team

Design & Strategy
829 Studios Room

Jeff Deutsch

Creative Director

Oxfam America

Adrienne Smith

Senior Digital Strategist

Evolving Web

Description:
Should your creative team be a centralized powerhouse or embedded across the org for maximum focus? In this session, Adrienne and Jeff share lessons from building in-house design and content teams at Ubisoft Entertainment and Oxfam America. You’ll hear real-world pros, cons, and hybrid approaches—plus how to design a structure that actually works for your people and your goals.
About speaker(s):


Jess Deutsch, Creative Director, Oxfam America
Jeff Deutsch is the Creative Director at Oxfam America, where he oversees a team of writers and editors, designers, content strategist and video editor to deliver creative output for Oxfam’s initiatives in the US market, as well as the design and design system for the Oxfam America web properties. He draws on over 25 years of experience in design across digital and analog media, and a focus on user experience, in non-profit, creative agency, and tech start-up environments.

Adrienne Smith, Senior Digital Strategist, Evolving Web

Adrienne has a masters in Information Studies and has been working in the digital content strategy space for the past ten years. She's an expert in tackling information architecture and content governance problems head on to enable efficient information retrieval and sustainable content management.

3:10 pm
-
3:30 pm

Pillars of Tomorrow: Evolving Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs Website

Digital Strategy & Comms
Evolving Web Room

John Cloys

Assistant Director of Web & Digital Initiatives, Office of Public Affairs and Communications

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Suzanne Dergacheva

Co-Founder

Evolving Web

Description:
Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) recently launched its new “Pillars of Tomorrow” brand platform. While the brand has already been implemented across digital signage and print materials, a key next step is applying it to the School’s website. This involves updating the messaging, positioning, and visual design of the existing Drupal-based site — a modern, modular CMS that already supports high-quality, structured content. The challenge: how to translate the new brand guidelines into a refreshed web strategy and UX direction without undertaking a complete redesign and rebuild.
About speaker(s):

John Cloys, Assistant Director of Web & Digital Initiatives, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

John is an innovative Drupal developer, arts administrator, advocate, and national events and programs production expert with proven creative and management ability in organizational infrastructure, strategic planning, higher education, association, and non-profit enterprise. Solid results in relationship, project and change management, process improvement, developing and maximizing new business models with integrated advertising, marketing, and fundraising strategies.

Suzanne Dergacheva, Co-Founder, Evolving Web
Suzanne is the co-founder of Evolving Web, a digital agency that helps organizations that make a big impact in the world. She helps translate institutional goals and user needs into a tangible digital strategy, often bridging the gap between technology and user experience design. She runs trainings and strategic workshops and has collaborated with teams at Georgia Tech, Princeton University, McGill University and the University of Waterloo.

3:10 pm
-
3:30 pm

We'll Do It Live: Enterprise Content Staging with Workspaces

Tech & AI
Pantheon Room

Devin Zuczek

Senior Drupal Solutions Architect

Purple

Description:
Imagine a world where everything is done...on production! The core Drupal Workspaces module allows site builders to stage all sorts of changes in bulk before going live. Entities, nodes, blocks, menus, whatever it is, can be bundled up into one set of changes, hidden from the rest of the world, and then activated with one click. We can go beyond core with a handful of contributed modules in the Workspaces ecosystem to do really cool things that benefit everyone involved in content authoring: - Offering stakeholders a sneak peek at what’s to come, without granting full site access - Delivering personalized whole-site experiences to specific audiences - Ensuring staged content meets approval standards with a robust moderation workflow - Managing "forked" content simultaneously, creating distinct experiences tailored to specific scenarios - Testing conversion rates with content (and even Commerce, experimentally!) Supercharge your authoring experience, and save your site builders time by not making changes twice.
About speaker(s):

Devin is a seasoned software architect with over a decade of experience in enterprise applications, specializing in Drupal, PHP, and cloud infrastructure. He loves tackling complex technical challenges, supporting both developers and site builders, contributing to open-source projects, and cheering on the Phillies while enjoying a post-run beer.

4:40 pm - 5:00 pm

Closing Remarks

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Networking Reception

Training

Brush Up Your Skills

Join us for a one-day Drupal for Beginners or one of our three half-day sessions on Drupal CMS and UX.

Reach out for group discounts : info@evolvedrupal.com

How to Get the Most Out of Drupal Using Drupal CMS

9 am - 12 pm, June 5

Using and Building Drupal Recipes

1 pm - 4 pm, June 5

Hands-on UX Research Training

1 pm - 4 pm, June 5

Attendees

Why attend EvolveDrupal?

For speakers

Enjoy free registration with full conference access, network with industry leaders at exclusive pre-summit events, and share your expertise with a diverse audience of professionals.

For attendees

Learn from 30+ expert-led sessions, build valuable connections at receptions and networking events, and enhance your digital skills.

For sponsors

Gain prominent visibility with sponsor recognition, showcase your projects through speaking opportunities, and enjoy free tickets for your team and discounts for your guests.

Connect
Learn
Inspire

Venue

Event location

EvolveDrupal Boston will be hosted at the Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center. Microsoft creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Address

One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142, United States.

Public Transit

Take the T to the Kendall/MIT stop on the Red Line.

Parking

Onsite parking available for $37 / day.

Airport

15-minute drive to the Boston Logan International Airport.

Our sponsors