Five-day community-driven developer conference at Kinepolis Antwerpen, 5-9 October. One of Europe's largest developer gatherings, with 3,500+ software engineers, the theme "FROM DEVELOPER TO BUILDER" and a community-curated programme on agentic AI, Java 27, cloud-native development and intelligent developer tooling.
Devoxx Belgium is an annual community-driven developer conference held at Kinepolis Antwerpen, one of the largest cinema complexes in Belgium, which provides unique theatre-style presentation spaces suited to live coding and technical demonstrations. Founded in 2001, Devoxx Belgium is among the most established developer events in Europe. The 2026 edition theme, "FROM DEVELOPER TO BUILDER," reflects the shift in developer practice driven by AI: from writing code to orchestrating AI agents, applying agentic engineering patterns and directing AI-powered development workflows. The programme is community-curated through a Call for Papers process, resulting in practitioner-led content rather than vendor presentations.
The 2026 programme centres on:
The community-curated format means sessions are selected by peer vote, not editorial committee or sponsorship. This distinguishes Devoxx Belgium from commercially curated conferences.
Devoxx Belgium draws primarily software developers, Java engineers, cloud architects, platform engineers and DevOps professionals from across Europe, with particularly strong participation from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France. The conference has historically welcomed over 20,000 developers across the Devoxx global series; the Belgium edition draws approximately 3,500. The audience is predominantly technical (engineers and architects) rather than management or business-oriented.
Devoxx originated from the JavaPolis conference and is now a global brand with editions in Poland, France, Morocco, Greece and other markets. The Belgium edition at Kinepolis Antwerpen is the original and flagship event. The community curation model, the cinema-hall format and the multi-day programme length set Devoxx Belgium apart from commercially produced developer conferences.
Kinepolis Antwerpen provides stadium-seating cinemas with high-quality audio-visual setups, projectors and screens suited to live coding demonstrations and technical talks. The multi-cinema layout provides multiple parallel session spaces without hotel ballroom acoustics. Food, parking and public transport access are built into the venue.
Java remains the historical core, but the programme has expanded significantly to cover cloud-native, AI tooling, developer infrastructure and modern software engineering practice. Developers on any stack will find relevant content; Java engineers will find particularly deep coverage.
Yes. Devoxx Belgium uses a Call for Papers (CFP) process followed by community voting. Selected sessions are practitioner presentations, not sponsored vendor slots. This creates a programme that reflects what the developer community finds valuable, not what sponsors want to present.
Kinepolis Antwerpen is one of the largest cinema complexes in Belgium, located at Groenendaallaan 394 in Antwerp. It is accessible by bus from Antwerp Centraal station (approximately 20 minutes). Antwerp Centraal is served by Thalys/Eurostar connections from Paris (approximately 90 minutes), Brussels (approximately 30 minutes) and Amsterdam (approximately 1 hour). Antwerp is also accessible from Brussels Airport (BRU) by train and taxi.
Devoxx is the organisational entity behind the Devoxx Belgium conference and the broader global Devoxx series (Poland, France, Morocco, Greece and others). The Belgium edition has been running continuously since 2001, making it one of the longest-running community developer events in Europe.
Devoxx Belgium is the standard-setter for European developer conferences: five days at Kinepolis Antwerp, with 3,500+ engineers and a community-curated programme on Java, AI agents and cloud-native development.
Registration details available at devoxx.be. Pricing for 2026 was not publicly confirmed at time of verification. Previous editions have offered early-bird pricing and group rates.
From Antwerp Centraal station: bus 17 or 14 to Kinepolis (approximately 20 minutes). From Brussels: train to Antwerp Centraal (approximately 30 minutes), then bus. From Amsterdam: Intercity direct to Antwerp Centraal (approximately 1 hour). Kinepolis Antwerpen has a large parking facility for those arriving by car.
Devoxx Belgium has historically published session recordings on YouTube. The 2026 recording and publication policy was not confirmed at time of verification.
The Call for Papers timeline varies by edition; check devoxx.be for 2026 CFP status and deadlines.
| Official website | https://devoxx.be/ |
| Programme / CFP | https://devoxx.be/ |
| Devoxx series | https://devoxx.com/ |