Expect the unexpected?
Despite knowing others who have participated in past Codegardens, trying to get a straight answer about what to expect from past attendees was a challenge in itself. The basic information about the event was pretty clear: Codegarden is an annual conference for people in the Umbraco community to share knowledge, connect, and inspire one another as they learn about (and help shape) the future of the platform. This year marked the 20th anniversary of Codegarden. In the early years, it was hosted in Copenhagen, but eventually moved to the city of Odense.
Yet, for whatever reason, every previous attendee I spoke with made a point to tell me that words can’t describe what to expect and that I’d just have to experience it. And if you put a couple of past attendees together? Forget about it. In such encounters, you’ll witness the exchange of knowing glances, nods, and obscure references to past shenanigans, including but not limited to upended vehicles, software funerals, or “tons of sand.”
And so, off to Odense I was headed, equipped with all the logistical details but preparing myself to expect the unexpected.
Arriving in Odense, as a cowboy.
The Umbraco events I’ve been to in the US tend to be pretty casual, but since I was also attending the business summit as a part of Codegarden, I wanted to take a lead from the ZZ Top playbook and arrive as a sharp-dressed man. The only problem was that, hours before I planned to leave for the airport, when I went to pick up all the clothes I planned to wear throughout the week from the dry cleaners, NOTHING was ready. None of the clothes I planned to pack and bring were there. At home, in my closet, the sum total of remaining business attire (that still fits) was zero. But, as fate would have it, what I did have was a whole lot of country western clothing—some fresh off the rack from the Alcala’s Father’s Day sidewalk sale.
And so, that’s how my first trip to Denmark and my first trip to Codegarden involved me dressed as an urban cowboy.
Highlights from the Pre-Conference
We arrived in Odense early Sunday afternoon. Sunday and early Monday, we had a chance to explore Odense and visit some charming cafes before attending a Happy Hour meetup for other U.S. partners. There, we got to catch up with friends and industry colleagues from other agencies. There’s a good amount of collaboration between partners, and with Umbraco starting to gain traction in the U.S. market, it’s a good opportunity to share information and discuss business and industry trends.
Business Summit
The business summit kicked off on Tuesday with a keynote by Chuck Gahun, principal analyst at Forrester, who spoke optimistically about the future of CMS. He indicated that investment in CMS technology is increasing as AI agents augment the capabilities of content teams to produce and manage personalized content at scale. Overall, the summit was an engaging mix of panels and case studies, masterfully MC’d by Mats Persson, Umbraco’s CEO. The intimate nature of the summit is a good reflection of Umbraco’s openness to feedback and ideas from partner agencies. On the agency side, we have a good perspective of what the market wants. In bidding for projects, we get to see what technology sells and what doesn’t. Working across projects, we have a direct line to the features and functionality Umbraco end-users want and need.
The willingness to listen and the ability to adapt the product roadmap based on customer feedback are not as common as you would expect and, in my opinion, create a competitive advantage for Umbraco.
Yee-haw, a Pirate Party!
The business summit coincided with workshops and an event for MVPs. Afterward, the first day concluded with a kick-off party at Umbraco HQ—a pirate-themed party, as it turns out. Just my luck. Should I don the eye patch or not? Cowboy boots, western suit, and a parrot on my shoulder—what cosplay blasphemy have I gotten myself into!?
The party was lively, and setting the tone for the rest of the conference, everyone was friendly and inviting of conversation. It’s a big shift from the cliquey nature of other tech conferences I’ve attended where, aside from small talk and pleasantries, people mostly keep to themselves or the group they came with. Codegarden veterans seem to go out of their way to make first-timers or people off by themselves feel welcome and included.
And inevitably, the next thing you know, maybe you’re out too late, singing karaoke duets with newfound friends.
Highlights from the Conference Sessions
The conference was packed with insights that spanned both the technological and human sides of digital work. One big highlight was the announcement of Umbraco Compose, a CMS-agnostic orchestration tool that acts as a middleware and promises to streamline the way we integrate data from different sources for use across systems. It's entering beta this fall. Practical demos showed off Umbraco Engage’s personalization features and how it can help deliver smarter product recommendations, all while navigating the realities of privacy and first-party data collection.
Several talks dove into the future of the web and AI’s expanding role—including a thought-provoking session that questioned whether, as AI agents become our go-to helpers online, we might soon be designing digital experiences less for humans and more for the AI themselves. There were also candid discussions about the environmental impact of large language models, the ethics of using AI responsibly, and some passionate debate about which penguin species reigns supreme (spoiler alert, it’s the Rockhopper).
On the practical side, sessions covered advanced search strategies for better performance and showed how tools like Umbraco MCP could let AI agents help with everyday tasks like content entry and migration. And beyond all the tech, there were deeply moving talks about community-building and the power, and risks, of creating in-groups and out-groups.
Overall, the sessions provided a great mix of looking to the future, practical takeaways, and human-centered discussions, leaving me both inspired and thinking hard about where the industry, and our world, is headed.
Inclusive Absurdity
I could leave things here, and you might feel like you’ve gotten a good picture of what to expect at Codegarden: a fun party, friendly people, and thought-provoking sessions. But that wouldn’t do it justice. The veiled warnings I had received in preparing for this trip proved true, and now I also agree that it’s an event one must experience to appreciate.
I believe the magic of the hard-to-describe part of the experience stems from the intersection of three powerful forces.
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The first is the cultish enthusiasm of the Umbraco open-source community and their passion for co-creating the product and the packages that support it.
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The second is a chemical reaction from these enthusiasts coming together that results in what I can only describe as “inclusive absurdity.” Get weird, have fun, be yourself, be nice to each other.
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The third is a seemingly obsessive attention to detail by the Codegarden organizers that embraces the absurdity and creates a place and space for it to thrive.
It makes sense to me now why it’s hard to explain what to expect at Codegarden. The brilliance is that most people at Umbraco are not entirely sure what to expect either. The masterminds of the event distribute parts of the planning, in secrecy, to different internal groups. So, as the event unfolds, there’s an element of surprise for everyone.
Some of the highlights on the fun and weird side are things that seem to have become canon: bingo at the formal dinner on the last night of the conference and preposterous prizes for winning challenges—I was two squares away from winning a camper trailer! Other weird fun included potentially breaking a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest game of musical chairs. A unicorn was walking around one day. We hopped on a party boat and rode down the river between sessions, serenaded by pirate maidens with a killer Spotify playlist. There were skits. Gregorian monks chanting (an homage to Monty Python). There were plenty of Hammerschlagen matches. And most nights ended up with dancing.
Codegarden Final Thoughts
I thought Codegarden was great and had an exceptional time. But like most things, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. As a community-focused event, the more you participate, the better time you’ll have. If you haven’t attended Codegarden before and are considering whether to make the pilgrimage to Copenhagen in 2026, I think it comes down to whether you want to be a “part” of it all. If you’re exclusively focused on the educational side of things, you might opt to stream the sessions and benefit from the content that way. But if you are interested in forming connections within the community, you’d probably have a great time.
For those who are Codegarden-curious, consider checking out the Umbraco US Festival in Chicago this year. It will be a great opportunity to meet Umbraco leadership, developers, enthusiasts, and people who are excited about the future of the platform.
Personally, I hope to see you all in Copenhagen next year!
