10 years of DDD Europe
Looking back on the 2026 edition of Domain-Driven Design Europe
Another DDD Europe is behind us! This year organising the conference was extra special. This was our 10th birthday. In 2016, Mathias Verraes founded the conference with the hope of building the conference he had always wanted to attend. While the conference has evolved over the years — and this year Mathias officially passed on his curation duties to colleague Gien Verschatse — many of its features have remained the same. Its focus on the practitioner, world-class speakers, hands-on labs, and space to discuss ideas with peers.
One early highlight was the first day’s keynote, Felienne Hermans - who spoke at the very first DDD Europe. She delivered a talk titled “AI made me doubt everything about programming”. In her talk — which ended with a standing ovation — Felline challenged the audience on topics like feminism and AI, how tech should do more to revolve around humans, and building tech that solves actual problems. A must-watch when it comes out...
Another highlight was persuading Martin Fowler to join. Martin was on stage in conversation with Eric Evans and Gien Verschatse. In that conversation and in many others on the conference floor, they discussed the role of the architect and developer designing complex systems in the age of AI.
This is just a small snapshot into a conference made up of 64 sessions (along with 12 pre-conference workshops). If you want to experience it for yourself, join us next year in Amsterdam.
More on that soon. Follow Domain-Driven Design Europe in the usual places and subscribe to our YouTube channel when this year's videos drop.