Humanizing Tech: Key Takeaways from DrupalSouth Melbourne 2025
Event recap
OSPea Felicity Brand presented at DrupalSouth in March 2025, Drupal's annual conference for Australia and New Zealand. Here are her impressions of the event.
DrupalSouth Melbourne 2025 wasn't just another tech conference—it was a tapestry of ideas weaving the technical and human elements of digital experiences together. Held at ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the event brought Drupal enthusiasts together across three distinct tracks to create a space where code meets creativity and technology meets humanity.
As I settled into the 'User Experience and Content' track, I found myself amongst kindred spirits—people who understand that behind every line of code and every CMS implementation lies a human connection waiting to be nurtured.
Humanizing Tech: From Keynote to Content
Nicola Nye’s keynote, Humanizing Technology, struck a chord that resonated throughout the conference. In a world where machines generate content for other machines, Nye challenged us to be brave, to lead with hope, and to reclaim our identity and agency in digital spaces.
The parallels with my own talk on audience experience were uncanny—so much so that I experienced a bit of title envy. I found myself wishing I’d opted for Humanizing Tech Communication because we’re threading the same needle: bringing humanity back to the center of our digital solutions.
Weaving Empathy into Technical Content
During my presentation on OSP's three principles of Authentic Communication—empathy, clarity, and trust—audience questions revealed an interesting challenge: How do we retrofit empathy into existing content?
Ideally, we’d create empathetic content from the start. In reality, the challenge isn’t just about creating something new—it’s about weaving empathy into what’s already there. This question reminded me that our work is never truly done: our tools and processes should help us work with what we have and not just fresh, greenfield projects. Maybe refreshing legacy projects starts with incrementally adding valuable elements while refining or removing outdated ones as you go.
In the Australian government’s Drupal projects, public sector content workers face the challenge of maintaining complex content systems while balancing technical constraints with human needs. Several sessions explored the rigorous demands of meeting readability and accessibility standards, all while maintaining a real connection with readers. Adrian Redman’s session, How inclusive can your documents get?, shared an insightful experience with a blind user who demonstrated that even when content met WCAG 2.1 AAA compliance, the result was still frustrating to use. This was a powerful reminder that empathy isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the foundation for effective communication and meaningful digital interactions.
Community Connections: Past and Present
The organizers displayed a group photo from DrupalSouth 2015 during the conference opening. I was delighted to see jam front and center. This visual thread across time and continents perfectly encapsulates the Drupal community’s strength.
Seeing familiar names and faces throughout the event—current clients, organizations we’ve helped along the way, and friends-of-OSP—reinforced that technology communities are, at their core, human networks. These relationships aren’t just transactional; they’re the foundation of authentic communication.
Human-First, Always
DrupalSouth reinforced what we at OSP have long believed: technology succeeds only when it serves humanity, not the other way around. When we think about "Audience Experience," our collective challenge remains the same—creating digital spaces that connect rather than alienate, clarify rather than confuse, and build trust so that technology amplifies our humanity rather than diminishing it.
Want to learn how our tools and processes can help you humanize your content? Get in touch!
Image credits
Photos taken at the event by flicstar. 2015 DrupalSouth photo from cafuego on flickr.