What We Learned in 2020

Updated on December 21, 2020
4 min read

We’ve combed through all of these events along with the interviews, videos and tweets to gather the moments you loved most this year. Take a look back to enjoy them again and discover a few new ones, and join us for much more in the year to come


With 2020 coming to an end, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the time we spent with you over the year and the things we learned along the way. We know: it’s been a bumpy one for most of us. Yet despite the unexpected challenges, we’ve been fortunate to share so many moments of community, leadership, laughter and connection with you all.

The biggest shift for us at GOTO was moving fully online from March onwards, and this could not have happened as successfully as it has without your steady support and never-ending commitment to keeping up with your learning and development. With 3 highly rated multi-day conferences and more than 75 meetups held fully online, we’ve got some proof to back that up. 


Rediscover a few of your favorite talks, interviews and quotes from 2020, and join us for much more in the year to come


Your favorite Book Club episodes

There’s no better place to start than our Book Club series, where leading authors interview each other on the hottest new dev books. You made it clear that this was a favorite, bringing in close to 1.5 million views over season 1

You watched experts like Andy Hunt, Dave Thomas, Trisha Gee and so many more living legends share unique insights into their newly released books with us. 

We’ve dropped some some of the episodes you enjoyed the most below: 

  • Getting Started with Service Mesh with Eberhard Wolff and Hanna Prinz
  • When To Use Microservices (And When Not To!) with Sam Newman and Martin Fowler
  • Reaping the Benefits of Elixir: How to Get Started with Saša Jurić and Erik Schön

  • To close out season 1 of the GOTO Book Club, we rounded up 8 of our favorite authors to chat about what went well in 2020 despite the rocky year it’s been and how we can improve things for 2021.


    Your favorite quotes and tweets from the year



    Your favorite videos of 2020 

    After close to 1,400 videos and 3 million hours of watch time (that’s more than 300 years), we hit 200,000 subscribers earlier this month.

    We’re proud to have such an outstanding community taking in our (almost) daily videos from the industry’s leading minds. As part of this milestone, we’ve put together a list of the talks you all watched the most this year. 


    Download your favorite talks for free on GOTO Play

    You can also catch tons of talks from past conferences on the GOTO Play app, available for iOS or Android. You can even download these for offline viewing!


    The year of the online meetups

    You met with fellow devs, chatted with speakers and learned plenty on the topics that interested you most in more than 75 casual meetups that took the form of AMAs, Round Tables, Meet the Author sessions, trivia rounds and GOTO Nights.

    • What is design thinking and why is it (still) so important?
    • Julie Bork Nellegaard & Thomas Ove Rasmussen
    • Aligning organization and architecture with strategic Domain-driven Design
    • Michael Plöd
    • Code that fits your brain
    • Adam Tornhill


    Good news: we’ve already got more planned for early 2021!


    Bringing SimCorp’s Software Engineering Day to Life

    We didn’t just bring together the brightest minds in tech for our GOTO community. Earlier this year we helped design and deliver a unique and highly rated internal conference for SimCorp. 

    Check out our case study of the event exploring how we brought new learnings, ideas and inspiration to their global engineering team.


    Thank you for helping us create some powerful memories to outshine the more difficult moments of the year. We hope you all have a lovely break and come back refreshed and ready to create lots more in 2021!


    Keep up the learning in 2021: GOTOpia Feb, Copenhagen, Aarhus and Amsterdam

    We’re preparing for many more conferences, meetups and interviews throughout the upcoming year so that you can continue upgrading your skills and knowledge to take the next step in your career. Join us for…

    GOTOpia February 2021

    If you haven’t attended one of our highly-rated online conferences yet, you need to add GOTOpia February 2021, happening Feb. 9-11,to your list. Join us for our first conference of the year and discover how we take all of the best bits of an in-person conference and mold them into a fully immersive online experience. 



    GOTO Copenhagen & GOTO Aarhus 2021

    We’re taking GOTO on a roadtrip through Denmark in 2021, bringing you not one, but two GOTO conferences. Along with our flagship event, GOTO Copenhagen, we’re taking things back to the roots in Aarhus where it all started for GOTO back in 1996. Join us for either (or both) GOTO Copenhagen June 7-8, 2021 or GOTO Aarhus June 10-11, 2021.



    GOTO Amsterdam 2021

    GOTO Amsterdam’s 10th birthday celebration was sadly postponed in 2020. But instead of forgetting about the milestone, we’re pushing back the celebration to 2021, which means we’ve been given more time to make GOTO Amsterdam 2021 THAT much more special. Join us and a plethora of bright tech minds as we dive into good old plain programming June 15-18.

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