As we get prepared to meet again in Stockholm for the Nordic APIs Summit (this will be our ninth Summit), I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the importance of in-person events. Especially the importance of in-person technology conferences that get real humans together to talk shop.

We all know the excitement, energy, and knowledge that an in-person event can inspire. In-person events give a space to humanize with others, share deep knowledge, have spur-of-the-moment discussions, and make connections that set the foundations for career-lasting relationships.

Before we head over to the Nordic APIs Summit, I thought I’d share some of my opinions on why these kinds of events matter for encouraging community and benefiting the entire industry.

You Take In a Lot in Person

In-person industry events are important for continued education or first-time exposure to a specific field. Conferences truncate the learning experience into a curated format too, assembling experienced speakers and panelists to cover cutting-edge topics.

It’s a total immersion into knowledge sharing. You deliberately dedicate time to absorbing information. There are fewer everyday distractions to bring you out of the flow (aside from the occasionally unsilenced phone!), and that allows you to really soak up the information from various perspectives and consider how it relates to your role or company.

The energy is simply more electric in person. You can see the excitement and passion in talks — even if the themes are quite technical or operationally focused. Especially when you have good speakers on stage!

And in a more intimate Summit format like Nordic APIs, you often have the ability to connect with the speakers and panelists, which is important for not only information sharing, but community building as well.

In-Person Networking Matters Even More Today

Face-to-face connections arguably matter more and more these days. The human element is what sets us apart from the machines!

Who knows, the people you meet could be potential collaborators, partners, mentors, clients, employers, or colleagues. Having personal relationships with others in a field is also incredibly vital for fields where trust really matters, such as in security standards and compliance, which are foundational for API security.

It’s not totally hot air, either. There’s evidence that uniquely human skills remain important in the AI era. A 2026 analysis from Cangrade Research that examined 200 active job postings with “AI” in the title found that 83% included at least three of five recurring soft skills. Soft skills like strategic and conceptual thinking, critical thinking, communication, attention to detail, and creative problem solving keep coming up over and over.

Seeing the bigger picture, bringing skepticism to create tough questions, finding edge cases, conducting architectural planning: all of which is super important in the AI age, and a muscle that you tend to work at live events.

It’s also simply just fun to connect with peers, share drinks, and share stories. Which brings me to my next point…

The Hallway Discussion Factor

Some of the most insightful discussions aren’t the presentations themselves: It’s what happens between the talks. My favorite part is the openness and face-to-face interactions, which many call “the hallway track.” Giving more space for that hallway mentality is part of the reason why we started our own UnConference series in the first place.

The best part is the off-the-record conversations. You can swap horror stories, compare stacks, or share what you’re working on internally with other engineers. It’s funny: some of the most interesting ideas are what you unlock from the presentations in discussion afterward, rather than the slides themselves.

One study about the impact of face-to-face interaction at scientific conferences found that informal interaction played a large role in the creation of teams. A separate six-year study of scientists found that scientists with overlapping research interests went on to co-author 1.2 more papers. Turns out, there might actually be some science behind the hallway track!

Not saying we all need to be scientific paper authors, or be incredibly outgoing at every event we attend. But, it just goes to show that it benefits to get out of the office (or out of the house, cafe, or coworking facility, if you happen to work remotely).

Hands-On Showcase Floor

Whether it’s Nordic APIs, APIDays, KubeCon, I always enjoy wandering the solution showcase and see what vendors are up to, or just seeing what swag they’re giving out. You can grill three API gateway vendors on why they’re approaching the same problem in different ways, or ask “why can’t I just build this with AI?”

At an event like Nordic APIs Summit, you can meet the people building cool things. You can ask the solution providers tough questions, get hands-on with the technologies, see demos in practice, and share what problems you’re trying to sort out in your organization.

And what’s best is that it’s all in real time — no chatbot, no emailing, no waiting to hear back, no scheduling phone calls. It’s all right there in front of you. Getting hands-on with creators can let you see what you actually need specialists for, versus what you could homebrew or use AI to generate.

The Getting Offline Factor

This reason is a bit more philosophical, but I think it’s important to address: it’s hard to surface everything online. For one, social media platforms are controlled by algorithms that often surface sensational or short-form content, but don’t always surface insightful takeaways that will actually help you learn or grow.

You could watch as many YouTube videos as you can, or follow as many industry journalists, columns, and read countless Medium articles. The world is saturated with content. But these content creators can’t possibly cover everything, either. It’s also getting harder to know who to follow and what to trust.

You might think, well hey, I can just ask ChatGPT or Claude. And you most certainly can. However, the truth is a lot of institutional wisdom stays hidden from public view. Public-facing AI platforms typically don’t have access to this private, internal knowledge, and Google hasn’t indexed it. Conferences can be Day One for opening up institutional knowledge to the public, with internal case studies, learned anti-patterns, and success stories.

They say being “first to market” is a benefit in business. Well, as a conference-goer, you’re “first to think” in a different way. You take in information the moment it’s created and shared with the world by the real experts with a background to help guide the industry through highly complicated technical trends. I think there’s a hidden superpower in that if you use it in the right way.

Getting IRL: Usually Worth It

In today’s world, where tech news and ideas are so fleeting, and AI seems to dominate (and even generate) many discussions online, the idea of community can easily get shoved to the side. I still think there is a beauty to in-person events, networking, and getting offline into the real world.

This isn’t to say that everyone has to overshare or become an extrovert overnight. Not at all. It’s just to say that in-person events give us an opportunity to make those connections and leave room for serendipitous encounters that you normally wouldn’t have online.

This isn’t to downplay the benefits of online, remote events, either. Physical events can pose a barrier to some, due to travel restrictions, costs, parenting, and the occasional s**t happens of life. I get it. We’ve also seen how important they were amidst a global pandemic to stay afloat. Our YouTube channel and LiveCast series has helped keep the core community together over the years, too.

But if any of this resonates with you, and you have the means, I highly recommend checking out an in-person event. Whether it’s a meetup, mini local conference, or even a multi-thousand-person trade show, it’s usually worth getting out there. I think we sometimes overlook these opportunities simply because of how busy we all are these days.

And, for a final plug, the Nordic APIs Summit is just around the corner. If you believe in the power of in-person events, were thinking of attending a conference this year, or want to meet some of the fellow humans behind the API industry, we’d love to see you there!