Digital teams from five councils recently met in Newcastle for the first LocalGov Drupal Connect event.
Hosted by Newcastle City Council, attendees from Northumberland, Cumberland, North Tyneside, and Gateshead joined to share experiences, discuss common challenges, and explore ways to improve how councils use the platform.
Lightning talks
The sessions were structured to encourage discussion and practical problem-solving. After an introduction to LocalGov Drupal and an energiser activity, we heard lightning talks from councils about their experiences.
This included Michael and Jordan from Newcastle City Council sharing their LocalGov Drupal journey and Craig from Cumberland Council presenting work they've done on integrations. Thanks to all those who presented.
Group discussions and problem solving
These were followed by group discussions. The breakout groups focused on four key questions:
Moving content over quicker in a standardised way
Councils discussed different approaches to content migration, ranging from manual processes to automation. Some highlighted the benefits of a "lift, check, shift" method, ensuring content quality is maintained during migration. Others explored AI-assisted approaches to improve readability and structure.
There was also discussion around whether councils should prioritise content migration based on popularity, service importance, or contractual deadlines.
Keeping the quality of content high after publishing
Ensuring content remains accurate and useful over time is a challenge. Some suggestions included:
- introducing version history and approval systems to track changes
- integrating AI-powered style guides to assist with consistency
- setting up automatic readability checks before publishing
Councils also discussed how performance insights could be shared with service teams to help them refine their content based on user feedback.
Making content easier to find
Improving search functionality emerged as a shared concern. Councils looked at different search technologies, including Elastic Search and SOLR, and debated the need for better tagging, filters, and regional search variations.
Some councils expressed interest in setting up a shared working group to pool knowledge on search implementations and test different solutions. We’ll try to help facilitate this.
Introducing LocalGov Drupal to new starters
Onboarding new team members effectively is critical for councils adopting LocalGov Drupal.
Participants explored creating a "sandbox" environment where new starters can safely experiment with the platform. They also called for more structured onboarding resources, such as a dedicated community group, webinars, and a repository of best practices.
Several councils committed to sharing their own internal onboarding materials to help improve resources across the community.
Some resources currently exist on our docs site >
Reflections from Attendees
The event sparked plenty of ideas and positive conversations, with many attendees valuing the chance to connect in person:
Great atmosphere with great people... the agenda was great with an energiser that worked really well.”
Ross Mowatt, Northumberland
Like, wow, there were so many connections made in such a short space of time! Loads of potential to collaborate between councils, lots of new ideas and lots of energy and commitment to making change happen. Brilliant!”
Finn Lewis, LocalGov Drupal Tech Lead
Was great to get together and share ideas and pain points with other LA's in the area. Hopefully some good network contact made.”
Kristina Owen, Northumberland
It was a great meetup and some really useful discussions and conversations. Really appreciated having something local to us - especially so we could bring a few members of our team who normally wouldn't get the opportunity.”
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Northumberland
Next Steps
A number of practical ideas and actions emerged, including:
- Developing guidance on content migration to support councils moving onto the platform.
- Establishing a working group to look at search improvements.
- Creating a shared resource for onboarding new team members.
- Collecting examples of best practice and case studies to share across councils.
Several attendees expressed an interest in continuing these discussions. The LocalGov Drupal community will support follow-up conversations to move these ideas forward.
Get Involved
This event was run as a pilot, and after such positive feedback, we’ll be running more. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting a Connect event at your council.
If you couldn’t attend but would like to contribute to any of these areas, please reach out via the LocalGov Drupal Slack. Your input will help shape future improvements and strengthen collaboration across councils.
Watch for future events, and let’s keep the conversation going!
A big thank you to Newcastle City Council for hosting and to everyone who joined the discussions.