Why Conferences Still Matter in 2025
With so many tools for async communication, remote hiring, and virtual demos, it’s fair to ask — do in-person conferences still make sense?
For dev teams and tech leaders: absolutely.
The truth is, some conversations just don’t happen on Slack or Zoom. Whether you're a CTO looking for new tools, a dev exploring the next step in your stack, or a founder trying to meet partners, conferences offer something the internet can't replicate: serendipity.
People go for the keynotes, but stay for the hallway chats. Deals get sketched on napkins. Career moves happen over coffee. And sometimes, one technical talk gives you a month’s worth of clarity.
Even regional meetups can reshape your roadmap, help you avoid mistakes others have already made, or connect you with that one person who’s already solved the exact problem you’re facing.
That’s why this list isn’t about FOMO. It’s about being intentional with your calendar — and choosing the events that will give you real return on time.
Collision Conference 2025
📍 Toronto, June 16–19, 2025 (
Collision is North America’s most startup-centric tech event — think of it as Web Summit’s scrappy, deal-driven sibling. While not a developer-first conference, it’s become a key spot for technical founders, product-oriented engineers, and anyone working at the intersection of code and growth.
Who should go:
Technical co-founders, SaaS builders, devs with side projects, and engineering leads who collaborate with product or marketing.
What to expect in 2025:
Expect lots of noise aroundAI-powered product development, scaling teams post-Series A, and no-code/low-code integrations. Developer tool companies will be out in force, showcasing new ways to automate workflows, ship faster, and monitor smarter.
🗣 Expert Insight
“Collision is where I first realized how to position my product as more than just a tool — it forced me to explain value clearly. You don’t get that kind of pressure at most dev conferences.”
—
Why it matters:
For devs building startups — or thinking about it — Collision exposes you to pitch pressure, feedback loops, and unexpected investor attention. It’s not about live-coding — it’s about communicating technical value to a business world that often doesn’t speak your language.
WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2025
📍 Berlin, June 26–27, 2025 (
Often referred to as “the Woodstock for developers,” WeAreDevelopers World Congress is one of Europe’s largest gatherings for software engineers. It brings together backend, frontend, DevOps, and cloud professionals with thought leaders from across the tech spectrum — including giants like Google, GitHub, and AWS.
Who should go:
Mid-to-senior developers, CTOs, engineering managers, and DevRel leads. The content spans from hardcore language-specific sessions (Go, Rust, Python, JavaScript) to talks on architecture, code quality, and the future of development workflows.
What to expect in 2025:
This year’s themes are expected to dig deeper intoAI-assisted development, distributed architectures, and performance-first backend patterns. Based on the 2024 buzz, there will likely be a stronger focus on developer productivity tools and real-world case studies in LLM integration.
🗣 Expert Insight
“Last year, I attended 5 major events in Europe, and this one stood out. The technical depth is real — it’s not just product showcases. We met a few partners there that we’re still working with today.”
—
Why it matters:
If your team is exploring how to scale backend systems or considering a shift to new runtime environments or languages, this conference offers direct insight from practitioners, not just evangelists. And if you’re hiring or building tech culture, the community here is active, international, and opinionated (in a good way).
🧩 DEF CON 33
📍 Las Vegas, August 7–10, 2025 (
DEF CON isn’t your standard tech conference. It’s loud, chaotic, borderline anonymous — and worth it if you build or ship anything online. You won’t find glossy sponsor booths or neatly filtered panels. What you will find: people breaking things, sharing how they did it, and teaching others to think like attackers.
More devs are showing up each year, not just security pros. Especially those working on fintech, infrastructure, or anything AI-related. Because once you see how easily systems fail, you don’t write code the same way again.
Who should go:
Backend engineers, platform teams, DevSecOps folks, and CTOs in high-trust industries.
What to expect in 2025:
Expect even more sessions around LLM jailbreaks, supply chain security, and practical zero-day walkthroughs. Side villages like AI, biohacking, and hardware will be packed — and weirdly inspiring.
🗣 Expert Insight
“At DEF CON, you don’t just hear about security theory — you see people break real things, live. It’s chaotic, but the learning curve is insane. Every dev should do this once.”
—
Why it matters:
If you’ve never seen your tech stack from the other side — the offensive side — DEF CON is the place to start. Bring a burner laptop, expect zero Wi-Fi trust, and take notes the old-fashioned way.
PyCon Europe 2025
📍 Location & Dates: TBD (Expected September 2025) -
If you write Python professionally — backend, data, automation, DevOps — PyCon Europe is one of the few events where every hallway conversation feels relevant. It’s not a product expo. It’s where people talk honestly about edge cases, bugs they fought, and what actually worked in production.
The event draws contributors from major open-source tools like FastAPI, Pandas, Django, PyTorch — and it’s refreshingly community-driven. Most speakers are working engineers, not “evangelists.”
Who should go:
Python developers (mid to senior), ML/AI engineers, DevOps with Python-heavy stacks, open-source contributors.
What to expect in 2025:
Expect deeper dives into Python performance tuning, AI model orchestration, and async best practices. There’s also likely to be more cross-talk with Go and Rust developers — especially for teams mixing languages in real-world systems.
🗣 Expert Insight
“PyCon is where I stopped feeling like a Python user and started feeling like part of the ecosystem. It’s smart, friendly, and full of devs solving the exact problems you’re dealing with.”
—
Why it matters:
Whether you’re optimizing APIs, building pipelines, or just want to understand what Python 3.13 changes under the hood — PyCon EU is where deep tech meets real people. And it’s one of the few places where you can walk up to someone who built the tool you use every day — and ask themwhy it works that way.
🧩 TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
📍 San Francisco, September 16–18, 2025 (
Disrupt has always been more startup-heavy than dev-focused, but in recent years, it’s carved out serious space for technical founders and engineering leaders. If you're building something new — especially in AI, SaaS, or dev tools — this is where you’ll find early adopters, VCs, and brutally honest feedback.
Who should go:
Tech founders, early-stage CTOs, developer-entrepreneurs, and engineers involved in product strategy or growth.
What to expect in 2025:
Pitch competitions will dominate headlines, but the real value is in backstage sessions on scaling infrastructure, building with LLM APIs, and hiring when you’re still writing most of the code yourself. If 2024 was any indication, we’ll also see a wave of AI-first productivity startups debuting their developer-facing features.
🗣 Expert Insight
“Disrupt forces you to simplify your tech story. You can’t hide behind jargon — if your pitch makes sense to that crowd, it probably makes sense in the real world.”
—
Why it matters:
It’s one of the few places where you can pitch your idea in the morning, meet an engineer who’s solved your backend scaling issue at lunch, and shake hands with a potential investor before dinner. Not bad for three days in SoMa.
🧩 GitHub Universe 2025
📍 TBD (Expected October or November 2025, San Francisco or virtual) -
GitHub Universe isn’t about learning to use Git — it’s about seeing where software development as a discipline is going next. If you're even remotely involved in developer experience, internal tooling, automation, or open source — this is where GitHub rolls out what’s next.
Who should go:
Platform engineers, DX teams, open source maintainers, backend and DevOps leads, and anyone working on CI/CD, developer workflows, or code intelligence.
What to expect in 2025:
In 2024, Copilot X stole the show. This year? Expect deeper integration with AI across pull requests, code reviews, and test automation. GitHub is pushing toward an “autopilot” model for common dev tasks — and Universe is where they show what’s cooking before it lands in your IDE.
🗣 Expert Insight
“GitHub Universe is one of the few events where devs can see what’s coming beforeit becomes the new normal. If your team ships code — you should be paying attention.”
—
Why it matters:
Even if you're not deep into GitHub’s ecosystem, chances are your code lives there. The universe is where you’ll learn how to make the most of it — from automating boring reviews to tightening security across repos. And if you're hiring engineers who care about good DX, this is where they’re watching.
🧩 Go.dev EU Conference 2025
📍 Berlin or Vilnius, October 2025 (TBD)
This one’s for the Go crowd. Not people thinking about it, not curious passersby — but devs who ship stuff in Go daily. The kind who know what panic/recover does without Googling.
The Go.dev EU conference isn’t huge, and that’s exactly why it works. You sit next to someone who built the middleware package you’ve been using quietly for years. You ask a question, they shrug, and explain it over coffee.
Who it’s for:
Backend engineers, DevOps people, SREs, tech leads. Anyone wrangling concurrency, clean deployments, or dealing with memory the hard way.
What 2025 might bring:
More sessions on Go’s role in LLM tooling, better profiling practices, and how real teams mix Go with Python and Rust in one stack without losing their minds.
🗣 Expert Insight
“This is the kind of conference where you run into someone who wrote the Go library you’ve been quietly depending on for three years — and they’re happy to chat.”
—
Why show up:
Because blog posts are fine, but they won’t tell you how other teamsactually deal with Go at scale. This event will.
🧩 Web Summit 2025
📍 Lisbon, November 3–6, 2025 (
Web Summit is massive. 70,000+ people, 1,200+ speakers, and enough stages to get lost. On the surface, it looks more like a media festival than a dev event. But dig a little — and you’ll find a ton of value, especially if you’re building or scaling a technical product.
Who should go:
Tech founders, CTOs, platform leads, and engineers involved in product or growth strategy. Also ideal if you're exploring new markets or partnerships.
What to expect in 2025:
AI everything. But also real talk on scaling SaaS, running lean dev teams, and how emerging markets are reshaping tech hiring and delivery. Product-led growth and developer-focused go-to-market strategies will likely be big themes again.
🗣 Expert Insight
“Web Summit isn’t where you come to learn a new framework — it’s where you figure out how to position your product, meet people way outside your bubble, and see how tech is actuallyshifting.”
—
Why it matters:
Because when you’re too deep in the dev loop, it helps to zoom out. Web Summit forces that. You’ll leave with new context, new contacts, and probably a few things to rethink about your roadmap.
🧩 Slush 2025
📍 Helsinki, November 20–21, 2025 (
Slush is cold, dark, and absolutely worth it. Held in Helsinki at the gloomiest time of year, it somehow manages to be one of the most energetic and focused tech events in Europe. Less hype, more depth.
It’s startup-heavy, yes — but very founder- and product-minded. You won’t find 300-person HR booths or dancing mascots. You will find sharp technical conversations, fundraising deals happening behind the curtains, and honest panel talks from people in the trenches.
Who should go:
Early-stage CTOs, product-minded developers, technical co-founders, and VPs of Engineering from startups that are either growing fast or trying to.
What to expect in 2025:
There’ll be a lot aroundAI/ML infrastructure, deep tech, developer tooling startups, and sustainable engineering culture. Expect more Eastern European and Nordic startups this year — the ecosystem’s maturing fast.
🗣 Expert Insight
“I’ve been to big flashy conferences, but Slush felt more direct. Every conversation was with someone building or funding something serious.”
—
Why it matters:
If you’re burned out on bloated conferences and want to actually learn from other technical leaders — Slush delivers. It’s not huge, it’s not easy — and that’s what makes it valuable.
🧭 Final Thoughts
This list is just a slice of what’s coming. There are dozens of local meetups, unconferences, and invite-only gatherings that don’t make the headlines — but might shift how you build, hire, or lead.
Point is: don’t leave it to chance. Look at your roadmap, your hiring goals, your open questions, and pick 1–2 events that actually match what you need. Put them on the calendar now. Block the time before your sprint planner fills it up.
And if you end up at any of these — come say hi. Most of the good conversations don’t happen on stage anyway.