What Umbraco Codegarden 2026 Left on Me—Permanently

When Umbraco interviewed me at Codegarden this year, they asked me a simple question: "What's been your most memorable moment at Codegarden?" My answer?

If you saw the LinkedIn post, you know. If you didn't—yes, that's the Umbraco logo. Yes, it's permanent. And yes, Umbraco is #NotACult. (Or is it?)

Here's what makes it better: the tattoo shop, Graven Tattoo, was on the official Codegarden venue map before we even left for Copenhagen. I noticed it, filed it away, and suspected something was up. Sure enough, on day one it was announced: the first 5 people to get an Umbraco tattoo at Graven would get it for free. I showed up, never having gotten a tattoo in my life, and walked out as number 5—the last free tattoo. I like to think it was destiny.

That story tells you everything you need to know about this community. People don't get logos permanently inked on their bodies because they use a piece of software. They do it because they belong to something: a community so genuinely hard to explain that sometimes a tattoo says it better than words can. And every year, Codegarden reminds me exactly why I belong to this one.

Competitors who share solutions with each other. Developers who stay on the dance floor well past midnight. Agencies that fly across the Atlantic to help each other get better at what they do. That's not normal in this industry. That's the Umbraco community. Once you've experienced it, it's genuinely hard to go back to anything else.

One of Our Own

This year, Marathon had even more reason to celebrate. Our lead Umbraco developer, Aaron Sawyer, was named an Umbraco MVP at the opening keynote. He was one of only 25 new MVPs announced globally in 2026.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Aaron is the real deal. What sets him apart isn't just his technical depth. It's that he never loses sight of who we're building for: the editors and the content managers. The people who will actually use what we build every day. Umbraco HQ doesn't hand these out lightly. MVPs are nominated and have to meet a real bar. Aaron cleared it without breaking a sweat. #H5YR, Aaron!

A Mature Platform That's Ready for What's Next

One theme Mats Persson, Umbraco's CEO, kept returning to throughout the business keynote was this: Umbraco is a "mature platform that developers love and businesses trust." But the more interesting thread running through the whole conference was honesty about where we actually are with AI.

Mats framed it through Amara's Law: "We are at the peak of inflated expectations." We tend to overestimate what technology does in the short run and underestimate what it does in the long run. That's not pessimism. It's the most useful thing anyone could say in a room full of people being bombarded with AI hype every single day.

And it connects directly to what Mats has been saying publicly: the future is agentic, but it has to be on your terms. Not locked into a proprietary vendor's walled garden. Not betting your entire digital strategy on whoever is loudest right now. Umbraco was patient with their AI approach by building an open, stable foundation that can pivot as fast as the tech does. That's a meaningful difference, and it's a message we'll be taking to every client conversation.

Big Announcements, Bigger Takeaways

The announcements backed up the message.

Umbraco Automate

One of the headlines out of Codegarden was the announcement of Umbraco Automate, a drag-and-drop automation engine built natively into the Umbraco backoffice. Think Power Automate or Zapier, but running entirely inside your own infrastructure with no per-run limits and no data leaving your environment unless you choose to send it somewhere. Marketing teams can build onboarding flows, sales alerts, and campaign automations without pulling in developers. And with human-in-the-loop approval steps, nothing AI-generated goes live without a person signing off. The trust angle here is significant, and it's yet another reason we'll continue to recommend Umbraco to our clients.

AI in the Backoffice

AI in the backoffice took a big step forward, too. Umbraco Copilot is now in final release. This allows editors to dictate via speech-to-text, drag and drop files directly into content, and work with complex block structures, all with a manual approval step before anything publishes. For the more agentic future, the new Editor MCP means editors can open their preferred AI client—Claude, ChatGPT, whatever they use—and draft, find, update, and publish content directly in Umbraco just by describing what they want. Nothing to install. Secure by default. It's a glimpse of where content management is heading, and Umbraco is already there.

Umbraco Compose

From Chris Osterhout's session on Compose, my biggest takeaway was that it's far more powerful than most people realize—it's not just content orchestration; it scales to large web applications. Worth noting for US-based clients: a dedicated US region for Compose is on the roadmap, which means lower latency and regional compliance are coming.

AEO and AI Discovery

With AI everywhere, answer engine optimization (AEO) and AI discovery is critical. In Kyle Brigham's packed-out AEO session, the message was blunt: if you're building a website today without thinking about AI search optimization, you're already behind. AEO isn't optional anymore—it belongs in every project we scope.

Troopers, Bingo, and a Boat

But Codegarden isn't just sessions and keynotes. It never has been.

Wednesday evening brought the Umbraco Awards, a proper celebration of the best sites, integrations, and packages the community has built over the past year. The energy in that room—watching people get recognized for work they poured themselves into—is one of those things that makes you proud to be part of this ecosystem.

On Thursday night, I was recruited as a "trooper" and called up on stage during the famous dinner. If you've never experienced Codegarden Bingo, there's really no way to prepare you for it. You just have to be there. At one point, I was also called up to show off the tattoo alongside the other brave souls who got inked.

The week wrapped up the way only a Codegarden can—on the water. On Friday, we closed out the week with a boat tour around Copenhagen, trying (with varying degrees of success) to slap Umbraco stickers on the bridges as we passed under them. I landed a couple. No regrets.

What We Brought Back

I also had the chance to sit down with Mats and fellow Umbraco partners over breakfast on Friday morning. We had an open, honest conversation about how the week went and where things are headed. I asked him whether the ideas that came out of the partner event in New York back in April had shaped Automate. He told me they had. Directly.

As the first US-based Umbraco Platinum Partner, we have a real voice in shaping this platform. After a week like this one, we're ready to use it.

Expect to hear more about AEO, Automate, and what AI-ready really means for our clients in the months ahead.

Community Isn't a Buzzword

Strip away  the keynotes, the announcements, and hammerschlagen. What remains is this: everyone at Codegarden is, in some sense, competing with everyone else. Same space, same platform, and sometimes, same clients! And yet, we share what we've learned. We solve each other's problems. We dance together. We apparently get matching tattoos. That's the thing about this community: it's not just a nice-to-have. It's the whole point. And it makes every one of us better at what we do for our clients.

If you want a taste of the Umbraco community without the transatlantic flight, the Umbraco US Festival is coming this October and it's one we're very much looking forward to. Come find us there.

See you in Copenhagen next year.