Conference Report #

Vienna CodeCrafts 2022 marked a notable new addition to Austria’s software conference landscape: a community-driven, single-day event created by the local company SQUER and hosted in the heart of Vienna. With a clear focus on the “craft” of building exceptional software, the conference brought together a diverse mix of Software Engineers, Software Architects, Cloud Engineers, and Team Leads—alongside local heroes and international thought leaders—around one common goal: sharpening mindsets through practical, experience-driven learning.

Setting and Format #

The event took place at Expedithalle Wien (Brotfabrik Wien), a venue known for its distinctive Viennese brick architecture paired with an industrial atmosphere. Designed for up to 800 attendees, it provided ample room for the conference’s scale—600+ participants—and for the many informal conversations that became a defining feature of the day.

CodeCrafts ran as a single track with 9+ speakers and trainers, which helped keep the community together around shared sessions and themes rather than fragmenting attention across parallel rooms.

Program Highlights #

The agenda combined technical depth with broader product and communication perspectives. Among the standout sessions:

• Patrick Kua — “Architectural Fitness Functions”: a strong architecture-focused talk emphasizing measurable, continuously validated qualities in software systems.
• Greg Young — “Event Sourcing: The bad parts”: an unvarnished look at event sourcing trade-offs, adding welcome realism to a topic often discussed only in idealized terms.
• Tim Berglund — “An Intro to Realtime Distributed Datastores with Apache Pinot”: a practical introduction to real-time analytics infrastructure and modern distributed data needs.
• Uwe Friedrichsen — “Resilient functional service design”: resilience and service design considerations grounded in real-world constraints.
• Manfred Steyer — “Micro-Frontends with Module Federation: Beyond the Basics”: modern frontend modularity patterns with concrete implementation guidance.
• David Leitner — “The Rise of Reactive Microservices”: a perspective on reactive systems and their implications for scalable service architectures.
• Elif Alp-Marent — “UX Writing 101”: a valuable reminder that crafting software also includes crafting language—interfaces, product messaging, and clarity for users.
• Martin Gutenbrunner — “How to Win the Coding Grand Slam”: a mindset-and-practice oriented talk complementing the day’s engineering-heavy topics.

Community and Networking #

A central promise of CodeCrafts—connection with an open-minded community—was reinforced through networking opportunities before, during, and after the talks. The single-track design made it easier to continue discussions across breaks since attendees shared the same reference points.

Overall Impression #

As a first edition, Vienna CodeCrafts 2022 delivered a confident mix of international expertise and local momentum. Its focus on actionable learning, honest discussions of trade-offs, and a shared-track community experience made it feel cohesive and intentional. With strong attendance, a distinctive venue, and a program spanning architecture, data, microservices, frontend patterns, and communication, CodeCrafts 2022 set a solid foundation for a new Vienna-based conference centered on the art—and discipline—of software craftsmanship.