The 10 Best Development Conferences in Europe
Web conferences are always a great place to network with other like-minded individuals as well as learn about new technologies and best practices. There is a large collection of web conferences happening around the world. Some are more specific in terms of topics they cover and speakers they host, while others are broader and appeal to a wider range of web development groups.
That being said, whether you choose to attend a smaller, niche conference, or a larger, more general conference, there are benefits to both. Being based in Switzerland, here at KeyCDN, we tend to visit web development conferences held in Europe. We believe that it's important to be as close as possible to the community and our customers, not just virtually but also physically.
That's why in this post we've compiled a list of some of the best web development conferences in Europe.
The best web development conferences in Europe
The following list is not ordered in any particular fashion. Each conference brings its own set of benefits to those in the web development industry. Visit the linked conference web page if one peaks your interest and check the list of speakers/topics (if available) to see if they are of interest to you.
1. Velocity
This is O'Reilly's technology conference about web performance, dev ops, and scalability. With the slogan "Build resilient systems at scale", this three-day conference is a must for web performance experts. The attendees are mostly developers, sys admins, architects and tech leaders.
2. OSCON
The Open Source Conference (OSCON) is also one of O'Reilly's technology conference which is now hosting its 20th year. Like many conferences, this one changes locations and this year it is based in the US. However, the organizers do base it out of Europe from time to time making it a great conference for those who are near.
For everything open source related, OSCON is the conference to be at. Open source software is an important component of KeyCDN's architecture and we're happy to join that community.
3. code.talks
This is one of the biggest developer conferences in Europe created by developers for developers. Code.talks started in 2010 and has grown to over 1500 attendees. Over 110 presentations take place within two days.
4. Frontend Conference
A two-day conference where design meets technology. It's one of Switzerland's leading conference on state-of-the-art frontend and UX technologies. This conference is ideal for researchers, developers, and designers.
5. Smashing Conf
Smashing Conf is organized by the team over at Smashing Magazine. They put on a variety of conferences around the world, however, each one typically revolves around the topics of web design, development, and performance. Each of these conferences last two days and this year (2018), the European Smashing Mag conference is being held in Freiburg Germany.
6. Web Summit
Web Summit is known as "The largest tech conference in the world". It takes place in Lisbon, Portugal and has been running since 2010. It brings together an impressively large collection of attendees (70,000+ in 2017) and speakers (1,200+ in 2017) from all around the globe. If you're looking to attend a conference that has a lot of potential reach to some people in senior management, Web Summit is a good choice.
7. Front-Trends
Front-Trends is in its 8th year of existence. Hosted in Warsaw, Poland, Front-Trends focusses on frontend technologies, ideas, and practices. It's a two-day conference with speakers whos backgrounds involve a variety of facets pertaining to frontend web development and design.
8. FullStack
FullStack is a 3-day conference that primarily focusses on JavaScript, Node, and IoT. However, speakers at this conference also cover a variety of other topics as well. Of course, this changes from year to year however in 2018, other topics include CSS3, functional programming, web performance, and more.
If you love JavaScript, this is a great conference to attend to not only dive in-depth on certain JavaScript-related discussions but also subjects related to web development in general.
9. QCon
QCon is a London-based development conference and workshop that is spread across 5 days. It is focussed towards senior software engineers who like to keep up to date on the bleeding edge of technology. QCon's attendee breakdown includes: 46.2% are technical team leads or higher, 30.1% are senior developers or engineers, and 23.7% are software developers or programmers.
Topics covered are somewhat broader than other conferences and are focussed towards enterprises.
10. DeltaV
The DeltaV conference is primarily focussed towards web performance and those in the performance industry. It's a two-day conference held in London with an impressive list of speakers (many of which we've highlighted in our 60 Web Performance Experts to Follow Online article). A few speaker topics for this year (2018) include "Redefining Web Performance", "How to Manage Performance like a Product", and "QUIC: in theory and practice".
If you're interested in the world of web performance whether for your profession or personal development, consider checking this conference out.
Summary
Our team at KeyCDN has both attended and sponsored many development conferences in the past and we've always been happy to connect with the community wherever possible. As previously mentioned, conferences are a great place to chat with peers and make new connections. If you happen to be at a conference we're attending don't hesitate to reach out and say hi!
Additionally, if you think we've missed any great European web development conferences in this list, let us know which development conferences are your favorite in the comments section below.