I was undecided if I should attend to this conference or not because I didn’t had enough information about the previous one.
So, here is my 2.5 cents.
A Journey by Bicycle
Setting off in early June from Denmark on two wheels, I pedaled a few hundred km for the Delphi summit.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, near Amsterdam.
Nederland is a beautiful country – by bicycle it is even more beautiful. There are large bicycle lanes (like the one in the picture above) everywhere. And when I mean everywhere, I mean it! So, if you live within 700km from the event, DO IT! However, the weather could be quite tricky, so keep on eye on the weatherman and be prepared to ditch the bike and take the train/plane.
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! 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 3, 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, this year scaled up both attendance (250+ developers) and session breadth, adding new voices like Primož Gabrijelčič (Art of Debugging & High Performance Applications) and Stefan Glienke (Spring4D profiling).
Undecided?
Should you go next year? The answer is a big YES. It is worth going to such an event, and I recommend it for others.
Reasons to go
Personally I went there to meet people and to take the pulse of the Delphi community. Attending the presentations was down on my “reasons to go” list because there isn’t something that you can learn there, and you can’t learn from other sources. For example the content of some presentations is already available online by the same authors in the “AI code camp” and The Art of Debugging from Primož Gabrijelčič can be found on YouTube (must-see video!).
If you are not an advanced Delphi user, then there is PLENTY to learn from the sessions.
The price tag
I am quite sure that more people would go if there wouldn’t be a quite big price-tag attached. Try to persuade your company to send you. Also maybe the organizer could cut down the price a bit for people that paid by themself. If you consider the price for accommodation, food and flight, the total price is quite high.
I get the impression that many people came as “independent” – at least most of the people I spoke with were “independent” – This would be some nice statistic to see.
I appreciate all those people that I meet there and paid by themselves. So, for the employers…. what are you waiting for? You want to be tip-top? Send your people to learn stuff.
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
Facilitated networking:
(3a) 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. Because people where depending of the 18:00 shuttle, everybody fled at 17:30.
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.
Catering upgrade: Source a more varied menu—this year’s fare was functional but uninspired. My stomach cannot digest so much super-deep-fried and creamy food.
- WhatsApp group: Creation of a Summit participants’ group to sustain post-event discussions. I volunteered to share my number if needed.
- Lighting control: Ensure stage lights are dimmed above monitors; audience struggled with washed-out slides.
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.