How Do You Design a Code Retreat in 2026?

In November, it’s time for the Global Day of Code Retreat. That’s usually a day where surprisingly many (senior) developers leave their caves and congregate for Pizza and some TDD. In 2026, participation in live events for anything job related, and especially for anything software, has declined a ton. Global problems and local problems compound. Local to my community, pressure on the dev job market is unprecedented. Automotive software dev leaves the country (Germany), manufacturing and industry overall is struggling around here, from traditional industry to agriculture. People everywhere are confused, afraid, and the country’s chancellor Friedrich Merz is #nichtMeinKanzler i.e. rather unpopular and failing to be a good human bean overall, which includes his cabinet of clowns, and worsens things with almost every step. So people are unhappy, afraid, and jobless on top. There’s not much left of Maslow’s pyramid. And software devs don’t code as much because they delegate to LLM GenAI.…