Except you’ve been residing beneath a mousepad, you recognize about WeAreDevelopers. The Berlin-based software program builders convention and networking occasion, now in its eleventh 12 months, attracts 15,000 devs from greater than 70 international locations to the German capital every July.
You is perhaps forgiven, although, if you happen to weren’t conscious that the convention is increasing in 2026: WeAreDevelopers is coming to San Jose, California, in September and Bengaluru, India, in November.
When you ask Sead Ahmetovic, co-founder and CEO of WeAreDevelopers, concerning the worth of the convention — particularly because it expands in two instructions this 12 months — he’ll inform you firstly about giving builders an summary for constructing new software program. However the second cause he goes just a little deeper: WeAreDevelopers is an all-too-rare alternative for generally unsung builders to get collectively and truly have fun themselves just a little.
“We aren’t that loud once we obtain one thing or construct one thing. However builders construct the merchandise that your entire world makes use of.”
—Sead Ahmetovic, co-founder and CEO of WeAreDevelopers
“We wished to provide the developer group an even bigger voice, as a result of the advertising individuals, the enterprise individuals, the gross sales individuals, the startup individuals — all of them celebrated themselves,” Ahmetovic says. “And builders are introverts. I’m an introvert. We aren’t that loud once we obtain one thing or construct one thing. However builders construct the merchandise that your entire world makes use of.”
Thomas Dohmke, the Seattle-based expertise government (he’s now co-founder and CEO of Whole and the previous CEO of GitHub), tells The New Stack that one enchantment of WeAreDevelopers is it offers builders a chance to inform the story behind their work.
“When you can [tell the story of your work to a crowd of developers], then you can’t solely persuade them of what’s about to come back and the way their life goes to alter, however you too can make them one in every of your largest supporters.”
Take heed to the total interview within the newest episode of The New Stack podcast. Beneath is an abbreviated Q&A with Ahmetovic and Dhomke, edited for readability and brevity.
The New Stack: Sead, WeAreDevelopers started in 2015 as primarily a facet mission. What was the hole you and co-founder Benjamin Ruschin noticed?
Ahmetovic: Ten years in the past, you had this rise of cool startup occasions and nice advertising conferences — individuals occurring stage celebrating themselves. For me, as a developer, it was not that attention-grabbing, since you do not need the hands-on substance. Developer occasions existed, however they have been largely based mostly on a distinct segment subject — a programming language, a framework. If you wish to construct nice software program, it is advisable to convey all of the totally different stakeholders collectively. And we wished to provide the developer group an even bigger voice. Builders are introverts — we aren’t that loud once we obtain one thing. However builders construct the merchandise that your entire world makes use of.
The quick model is we did a meetup, 300 individuals confirmed up, we did it once more, 600 confirmed up, and all the things else simply occurred. There was no actual technique at first.
How did you select the identify? It virtually feels defiant — like, “we deserve our personal convention.“
Ahmetovic: Might be, however I actually don’t know. We brainstormed what domains can be found, and all the things was taken. However on the finish: OK, “we’re builders.” That’s what we’re. Somebody informed me, “Do you even know what accountability you might have when you might have this identify?” However truthfully, I feel we by no means actually took that too critically.
Why broaden to the US now?
Ahmetovic: Folks requested for it, companions requested for it. Most of our companions in Europe truly are US-based tech corporations. My first response was: However you should have these sorts of conferences in North America. We went abroad and checked out numerous nice occasions, however we noticed there’s a area of interest — the vibe, the deep technical content material, the hands-on codecs — that’s lacking. It’s very complementary to the present tech occasion scene.
Thomas, you left GitHub in August 2025, after main it previous 150 million builders, to develop into a founder once more. What was the itch you couldn’t ignore that pushed you to begin Whole?
Dohmke: I used to be born within the late ’70s in East Berlin, so when the web increase occurred within the mid-’90s, I used to be too younger to take part as a startup founder. However by the journey of Copilot and ChatGPT, I might see we’re within the early levels of one other drastic change — just like the web essentially modified our lives, I consider AI is such a change. All the businesses based now are successfully post-AI — constructing with AI in thoughts — and all the businesses that exist already have to consider a change. I believed that’s an incredible alternative to return to that founder life-style and construct Whole as a brand new developer platform for these AI-native software program builders.
You’ve mentioned GitHub was constructed for people collaborating with people, not for builders operating dozens of brokers. What does a platform constructed for that world appear like?
Dohmke: GitHub’s touchdown web page is commonly a repository, which reveals you information and folders. But most of those information at the moment are written by brokers, and virtually no one desires to flick through a file tree — that’s not the artifact you’re serious about. What’s way more attention-grabbing is what the developer put as a immediate into the agent. Now we have to maneuver to the artifacts which can be truly related: your session logs, your checkpoints — the issues describing the thought. They’re the institutional data of your group, codified along with the code. These artifacts create the mind of each software program mission that each people and brokers can leverage.
5 years out — let’s say 2030 — what does a developer’s day appear like?
Dohmke: You may verify in along with your agent the identical means you verify electronic mail and Slack, and feed in three extra duties earlier than you even head to breakfast. However what it received’t imply — we’re seeing this already — is much less work. We’ll really feel like magicians with orchestras of brokers, however there’s solely a lot we are able to course of. Those that determine methods to set up will construct extra and obtain greater than ever.
“We’ll really feel like magicians with orchestras of brokers, however there’s solely a lot we are able to course of.”
— Whole CEO Thomas Dohmke
Ahmetovic: The query I used to be ready for is, “Will there be a necessity for builders?” A developer is somebody who builds one thing. In 5 years they’ll nonetheless construct issues — much less typing, extra considering, extra orchestrating, extra speaking. The opposite stuff stays the identical: simply constructing stuff.
WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America runs September 23–25 in San Jose, California. Particulars at wearedevelopers.com.
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