A Journey by Bicycle
Setting off in early June from Denmark on two wheels, I pedaled over 600 km to arrive at the H2O Esports Centre near Amsterdam, ready for two intense days of Delphi deep-dives.The northern weather delivered all the wind and rain promised 🙂 After a tire explosion and other small technical difficulties (you cannot go in an adventure without having the adventure) I arrived at the Summit.
World-Class Speaker Line-Up
This year’s program featured almost 30 in-depth sessions from leading voices in the Delphi ecosystem, including:
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Ian Barker (Embarcadero Developer Advocate)
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Marco Cantu (Product Manager for Delphi at Embarcadero)
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Ray Konopka (Founder of Raize Software)
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Vincent Parrett (CEO, VSoft Technologies; creator of DUnitX and Delphi-Mocks)
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Marco Geuze (Co-CEO, GDK Software; author of Pioneering Simplicity)
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Cary Jensen (CTO, Jensen Data Systems; author of Delphi in Depth: FireDAC)
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Bob Swart, Primož Gabrijelčič, Stefan Glienke … among many others speakers.
I attended all possible talks on the main and breakout stages. It was really difficult sometimes to choose one of the three! Highlights included Cary Jensen’s deep dive into FireDAC caching strategies, Ray Konopka’s hands-on component-building workshop. A few presenters seemed under-prepared. Other times the slides were unreadable under harsh ceiling lights—but overall the technical level remained high.
Gift from NexusDB
On Day 2, at the raffle, I got a license from the NexusDB team. Lucky me: I don’t work with databases!
But their presentation (Algorithms and Implementations for NP-Complete and NP-Hard Problems Part II) was great. Jens Fudge is a great speaker (with strong Australian accent) and a great sense of humor.
Evolution Since 2024
Comparing to the 2024 edition, which kicked off with a keynote by Jim McKeeth and Ian Barker and featured Serge Pilko on REST-API integration, this year scaled up both attendance (250+ developers) and session breadth, adding new voices like Primož Gabrijelčič (OmniThreadLibrary) and Stefan Glienke (Spring4D profiling).
Key Takeaway: Rallying Young Blood
I think the conference was a total success. I meet great people there and I have learned stuff… but… I also left with the feeling that the white-bearded veterans dominate the room. The whiter the beard, the greater the knowledge – nothing to complain about this! But I realized the amount of effort that Embarcadero and the Delphi community must put in order to attract younger developers – without fresh talent, Delphi risks stagnation. I spoke with at least 8 people about this and all shared the same opinion.
For you dear Delphi fellow: if you can attract young developers, do your duty. I do mine… I wrote 5 books about Delphi – the 6th one will be for kids, I keep a (free) Scratch/Delphi club for kids and I hope that this summer I will teach Delphi in my son’s school.
🙂
Recommendations for Delphi Summit 2026
Catering Upgrade: Source a more varied menu—this year’s fare was functional but uninspired. My stomach cannot digest so much deep fried and creamy food.
Lighting Control: Ensure stage lights are dimmed above monitors; audience struggled with washed-out slides.
Facilitated Networking:
(3a) Gamified icebreakers to draw more reserved programmers into conversation.
(3b) Longer breaks and end-of-day pub gatherings (weather permitting) to foster peer-to-peer exchange—attendees lingered only until the 18:00 buses this year.
Youth Discounts: Offer reduced rates for under-30s; a visible junior developer presence will signal Delphi’s future.
Audience Analytics: Present live stats—average/minimum age, geographic distribution, etc.—potentially as an Ian Barker session.
WhatsApp Group: Creation of a Summit participants’ group to sustain post-event discussions. I volunteered to share my number if needed.
If you have been to the Summit this year, and we spoke and I haven’t contacted you yet, please feel free to drop me an email. I promised that I will contact everybody I spoke with.