The 2025 conference season - a recap

(This post has originally been published on LinkedIn and has been cross-posted here for conservation and accessibility. It has been auto-translated from German and human-reviewed.)

A year full of talks, sessions, conversations—and coffee. ☕️

These pictures perfectly captures how I spent a lot of my time at conferences this year: curious, inspired, maybe a little tired, but incredibly happy.

Let’s be real: Of course we take continuous learning very seriously at Lotum and programmier.bar. But there’s something that matters even more.

I had the privilege of attending quite a few conferences this year — even getting to co-organize some of them — and I saw a ton of inspiring speakers. But the hallway track—the chats between sessions… and of course, the ones afterwards — were just as valuable. 🍔🥤

I’m just incredibly grateful to have a job that doesn’t just allow, but practically demands that I constantly connect with smart, curious, and passionate people.

We’re keeping that momentum going right into 2026 — the first few conferences are already locked in the calendar: DecompileD, DevLand, Google Cloud Next, SoCraTes, programmier.con… and I’m sure a few more will join the list.

And because it needs to be said: A massive shoutout to everyone who gave talks, organized, debated, inspired, or simply talked tech (and everything else) with me this year. You know who you are. ❤️

These specific moments really stood out to me, and I want to say a special thank you for them:

🛫 Sebi and Garrelt Mock - for the best conference trip ever

🚓 🤷 Nico Martin - for a highly entertaining talk about talking cars

🎲 Clemens Hübner & Simon Dreher - for the most entertaining talk format in a long time

🛝 Michael McRoskey - for the absolute best slide deck

🫶 Maria Grygorovych and Ievgen Grygorovych 🇺🇦 - for the most honest and emotional talk devcom has ever seen

🤩 Viva La Dirt League (Rowan Bettjeman, Alan Morrison, Adam King) - for my personal fanboy moment at devcom