Kevlin Henney

Independent consultant, speaker, writer and trainer

GOTO Copenhagen 2026 YOW! Sydney 2025 YOW! Brisbane 2025 YOW! Melbourne 2025 GOTO Copenhagen 2025 GOTO Copenhagen 2024 GOTO Amsterdam 2022 GOTO Copenhagen 2021 GOTO Book Club Live GOTO Amsterdam 2020 GOTOpia Europe 2020 GOTO Unscripted GOTO Chicago 2018 GOTO Amsterdam 2017

Kevlin Henney

Independent consultant, speaker, writer and trainer

#author

Kevlin Henney is a GOTO legend with more than 500k views on the GOTO Youtube channel.

He's an independent consultant, trainer, reviewer and writer best known for being the author of two volumes in the Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture series and editor of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know and 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know.

Kevlin's development interests are in programming, people and practice. He has been a columnist for various magazines and web sites, a contributor to open source software and a member of more committees than is probably healthy (it has been said that "a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled"). Kevlin also boasts over 500K views on the GOTO Conferences YouTube channel and is a contributor to the Modern Software Engineering YouTube channel.

He has written on the subject of computer programming and development practice for many magazines and sites, including Better Software, The Register, C/C++ Users Journal, Application Development Advisor, JavaSpektrum, C++ Report, Java Report, EXE and Overload.

One of our favorite quotes by Kevlin: "Less code = less bugs"

Topic focus: Programming, people and practice

Check out some of Kevlin’s past talks:

GOTO Chicago 2018 - Old Is the New New
GOTO Amsterdam 2017 - Code as Risk
GOTO Copenhagen 2016 - Small Is Beautiful

A few of Kevlin’s books:

Upcoming conference sessions featuring Kevlin Henney

Watch Your Language

There are (at least) as many opinions and preferences on programming languages as there are developers. Each programming language embodies a philosophy of development and a world view, but each developer also has a personal story of the languages they have encountered, whether it has been a career-changing choice, a deep insight or a bit of fun. Programming languages are more than just the fabric from which we weave code, whether by prompt or by craft.

Join Kevlin Henney and a handful of GOTO speakers for an illuminating, personal and provocative showcase of programming languages. What languages will they select and why? The weird? The wonderful? The mainstream gem hidden in plain sight? Come along and find out.

Thursday Oct 1 @ 10:15 @ GOTO Copenhagen 2026

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