Markus Voelter and I are having fun at the moment preparing our keynotes for Code Generation. The descriptions on the web page are deliberately vague, but the important fact is there: we'll be giving both keynotes together.

As frequent conference attendees will know, Markus and I are both quiet, meek guys who would never presume to disagree, so the talks will most likely be boring consensus... NOT! I did suggest mud wrestling would be an easier way to settle our differences, but my imposing physical presence must have convinced Markus he'd have a better chance with PowerPoints at twenty paces.

In related news, Mark Dalgarno has finally realized that the concepts of "early bird" and "software developer" make uneasy bed-fellows, and the way to get people to sign up some reasonable time before conferences is to use the stick not the carrot. Yes, there's now a special not-very-early-bird price increase of 10% extra heading your way if you don't go to the site NOW and register.

It's not all stick though: if you were there at either previous conference, you get 5% off. Canny forward thinker that he is, and with CodeGen 2026 clearly in mind, Mark isn't offering 10% off if you were there both years (darn!).

However you cut it, Code Generation is simply the best conference on DSM in Europe. Even without the mud wrestling.