Ever since I became more involved in the Umbraco community back in 2023, Codegarden is something I have heard mentioned constantly – people would share stories of some of the greatest (or worst) moments they had witnessed, the talks that had inspired them (both on and off the stage), and every other way they had gotten involved in the community.
This year, I finally got to experience it for myself.
To make it even more memorable, Codegarden was returning to Copenhagen for the first time in over a decade. I'd heard so much about Odense that I was slightly disappointed to miss it, but Copenhagen had been on my travel list for years, so I certainly wasn't complaining.
While we technically arrived on Monday, it wasn't until later in the evening and it all went by in a bit of a blur. Rather than regale you with tales of passport control and late-night takeaways, I'll just get straight to the good stuff.
Tuesday
Tuesday eased me into the week nicely. While some people headed to the MVP Summit, I had a workshop in the afternoon, leaving plenty of time to explore Copenhagen (and find enough coffee to keep me going).
The workshop, We Need to Go Deeper: Extending Umbraco's Extensions, was led by Corné Hoskam, Ronald Barendse and Nathan Woulfe. It introduced the philosophy behind the new backoffice - everything is an extension - before turning the session into an escape-room-style challenge where we built extensions to unlock fragments of a GUID and post messages to a leaderboard that would be posted to screens all around the conference.
That evening I was finally introduced to a Codegarden institution – Warpigs. I'd heard people talk about Warpigs every time Codegarden came up, and now I understand why. Great barbecue, excellent craft beer, and Slipknot as the soundtrack to it all. What’s not to love?
From there we headed to the pre-party, which perfectly set the tone for the week to come. It’s always a pleasure to catch up in person with members of the community who have come from further afield, as we rarely get the chance to see each other face to face.
Wednesday
Wednesday was the first full conference day, and the talks didn't disappoint.
Kenn Jacobsen's session on the new Elements library was a real highlight. I'm a big fan of keeping the Umbraco backoffice as clean and organised as possible, so seeing reusable content moved into its own dedicated section felt like a really positive step in the right direction. It's a simple idea that should make managing and modelling content much cleaner.
Phil Whittaker's Umbraco in AI was equally impressive. Rather than focusing on AI features inside Umbraco, it explored how Umbraco fits into an AI-first world through the MCP server and agent skills. It was thoughtful, practical, and left me with plenty of ideas to experiment with.
Away from the talks, Codegarden reminded everyone that it isn't just about technical sessions—it's about having fun too. From the Candyland area filled with sweets to the separate retro arcade packed with classic games, there were plenty of opportunities to relax, recharge, and enjoy the atmosphere between sessions.
The evening's "duos" theme led to some brilliant costumes, with everyone from Mario & Luigi and the Spice Girls to Rocky & Ivan Drago making an appearance. It was also a great night for us at Gibe, as our package, Umbraco.Community.Favourites, was nominated for an Umbraco Package Award. It was awesome to see the package recognised alongside so many other great community contributions.
Thursday
Thursday started with padel—an energetic way to wake up before another packed day of talks.
Some of my favourites included former Giblet Owain Williams’ deep dive into the Management API, Callum Whyte's practical session on building resilient integrations, and Jason Wodicka's wonderfully relatable talk about recognising and avoiding common mistakes.
Following the talks, we headed outside the conference hall for some Hammerschlagen, a game involving tree stumps, nails and increasingly questionable hammer technique.
As the evening went on, everyone gathered for a few rounds of bingo, followed by a performance from a student orchestra and other quintessentially Umbraco antics that kept the atmosphere going into the night. It was a great way to round off the day and catch up with people I had somehow missed up until this point.
Friday
And then, just like that, it was over.
I came home tired, but in the best possible way. The talks were inspiring, the city was fantastic, and, more than anything, I finally understood why people speak so fondly about Codegarden.
If you've been thinking about attending Codegarden, I'd absolutely encourage you to go. I spent years hearing how special it was, and now I completely understand why.
