Summit FAQ
What is the NEDCamp Higher Education Summit?
The Higher Education Summit is a full-day event focused on the intersection of Drupal, the web, and higher education. It brings together people from colleges, universities, and organizations that work with higher-ed institutions to share experiences, discuss common challenges, and learn from one another.
For 2026, the Summit will use a collaborative working format rather than a traditional schedule of keynote speakers and presentations. The people in the room will be an important part of the program, with facilitated discussions and working sessions built around the challenges higher-ed web teams are actually facing.
Who should attend?
Anyone involved in building, managing, designing, supporting, or creating content for higher-ed websites and digital platforms is welcome.
That includes developers, designers, UX professionals, content and communications teams, digital strategists, accessibility practitioners, web managers, technical leaders, and others working in higher-ed digital experiences.
You do not need to be a Drupal developer to participate. Drupal provides a shared technical context for the Summit, but many of the challenges we will discuss involve content, people, process, governance, accessibility, user experience, and organizational decision-making as well as technology.
How is this different from previous Higher Education Summits?
In previous years, much of the day was organized like a small conference, with a keynote, presentations, and discussions between sessions.
This year, we're putting more of the focus on conversation and collaborative problem-solving. The day will include peer roundtables, short stories from other institutions, small-group problem clinics, and working sessions built around real challenges brought by attendees.
There will still be plenty of structure and facilitation throughout the day, but you will spend less time listening to presentations and more time learning with and from your peers.
Do I need to prepare anything before the Summit?
No presentation or formal preparation is required.
Before the event, we may ask attendees to answer a few short questions about the topics they are interested in, challenges their institution is currently working through, and lessons they might be able to share with others. Your responses will help us shape the conversations for the day.
Otherwise, just come ready to share your experience, ask questions, and learn from your peers.
Will I have to speak in front of the entire room?
No. This is an interactive Summit, but participation does not mean being put on the spot.
Most of the day's conversations will happen in pairs or small groups of approximately six to eight people. Activities are designed to give everyone time to think and discuss ideas in smaller settings before anything is shared with the larger room.
You are welcome to contribute as much as you are comfortable with, whether you are an experienced conference speaker or attending your first Drupal event.
What topics will be discussed?
The specific topics will be shaped by the people attending the Summit. We will gather input from attendees before the event and again at the beginning of the day so that the conversations reflect what is most useful to the room.
We expect discussions may include topics such as:
- Drupal architecture, platforms, migrations, and technical debt
- AI and responsible automation
- Accessibility
- Content strategy and editorial governance
- UX, design systems, and component-based development
- Search and content discovery
- Staffing, team processes, and limited resources
- Analytics and measurement
- Managing distributed websites and content editors
- The changing role of higher-ed websites and web teams
These are starting points, not a fixed list. If there is an important higher-ed web challenge that attendees want to explore, there will be opportunities to bring it into the conversation.
What are Peer Problem Clinics?
Peer Problem Clinics are working sessions built around real challenges facing institutions represented in the room.
An attendee will briefly describe a problem their institution is working through. The group will first ask questions to understand the situation and its constraints before discussing possible approaches. The goal is not to declare one correct solution, but to bring together different technical, content, UX, organizational, and institutional perspectives to help the group think through the problem.
Will the Summit be technical?
Sometimes, but not exclusively.
Some conversations will involve Drupal architecture, development practices, modules, integrations, design systems, or other technical subjects. Others may focus more heavily on content, accessibility, governance, UX, staffing, workflow, or strategy.
One of the goals of the Summit is to bring those perspectives together. Higher-ed web problems are rarely purely technical, and technical decisions often have implications for editors, users, policies, processes, and teams.
I'm new to Drupal or early in my career. Is the Summit for me?
Yes.
You do not need years of Drupal experience to have something useful to contribute. Newer practitioners often see assumptions, workflows, and user experiences differently from people who have worked with the same systems for years.
The Summit is designed to include a range of experience levels and professional backgrounds. It is an opportunity both to learn from experienced members of the community and to bring your own perspective to the conversation.
My institution has a very small web team. Will the discussions still be useful?
Yes. Higher-ed institutions represented at NEDCamp vary significantly in size, resources, organizational structure, and technical complexity.
Throughout the day, we will look at how approaches change depending on those constraints. A solution that works for a large university with a dedicated web platform team may not make sense for a two-person web team, and vice versa.
Understanding those differences and finding approaches that can work at different scales is part of the value of bringing institutions together.
Can vendors and organizations that work with higher education attend?
Yes. People from agencies, vendors, and other organizations that work with higher-ed institutions are welcome and can bring valuable experience from working across multiple institutions.
The Summit is a peer-learning environment, not a sales event. We ask commercial participants to contribute by sharing experiences, approaches, patterns, and lessons learned rather than giving product pitches or sales presentations.
Is the Summit a vendor sales event?
No.
The focus of the day is on the challenges that matter to higher-ed web teams and on building connections between the people working on them. There are no vendor sales presentations or product pitches as part of the Summit program.
What should I expect to leave with?
Our goal is for you to leave with practical ideas you can bring back to your team, a better understanding of how other institutions are approaching similar challenges, and new connections with people doing similar work.
We also want you to leave with at least one concrete next step: something to try, investigate, discuss with your team, or continue exploring with someone you met during the Summit.
Have more questions?
contact the NEDCamp Summit Lead Organizer, Mike Miles ([email protected])