Another great year attending Nebraska.Code()! We’ve been attending Nebraska.Code() for a decade (check out our blog from 2016!) and have always enjoyed the speakers, topics, and meeting other professionals who are as passionate about engineering as we are.
The theme, “Rise of the Machines,” captured AI's impact on the technology industry. There were excellent sessions on our role as engineers, on working alongside new technology, and on specific platforms.
Nebraska.Code() 2026 was my first conference experience! I found it to be a wonderful opportunity to learn new things, hear from fantastic speakers, and network with other engineers.
I really enjoyed Jonathan Tower’s talk about NASA’s Power of Ten. He discussed the rules NASA put in place to ensure its mission-critical code was successful. Tower went on to demonstrate how the idea of “mission-critical” code can apply outside of rocket ships and offered ideas and best practices for designing systems that don’t fail and can recover safely when they do.
I also learned a lot from Tiffany Hall’s session, “Business Analysis for Developers: Embracing a Curiosity Mindset.” She discussed the basic principles of business analysis and offered a valuable toolkit of questions to help uncover the root of a problem. In today’s AI-driven world, it is more beneficial than ever for engineers to adopt the curiosity and tenacity of a business analyst, both when working with clients and collaborating with AI agents.
Overall, my expectations were not only met but exceeded at Nebraska.Code() 2026! I learned something new in every session, and I left feeling more invigorated about the future of software development.
This was also my first time going to a conference. It was awesome to go down to Lincoln, meet other developers, and make some new connections.
Richard Campbell was a fantastic speaker. Besides his history of AI keynotes, he also discussed the feasibility of deploying data centers in space. He worked through it as a real engineering exercise. He talked about orbital altitudes and their latency tradeoffs, the collision risk from ~35k objects in orbit, of which only ~19k are working satellites, deorbiting strategies, and the fact that the solar array and radiators would dwarf the data center they're serving. His conclusion was that data centers in space might not work, but putting power in orbit might. Space-based solar power! Catch the power in space and project it back down to earth. It was a very fun talk to attend!
I also really liked the "Signal vs. Noise" session hosted by Anne Ruskamp and Andrew Rush. They talked about optimizing communication with your clients. They framed it as three pillars: know your people and how they prefer to communicate, know your moment and how urgent your message really is, and know what you actually want out of the exchange. My favorite part of the presentation was when they talked about the idea that sometimes the best message is the one you don't send. What they meant by this is that just writing out the message in depth can help you think critically about the problem and help you solve the problem yourself, or at least better refine your understanding.
This was my first time in Lincoln, NE. and the great food really stood out! We went down to the Haymarket and had Buzzard Billy's the first night and Lazlo's the next. I appreciate the opportunity to go down there and experience a new city, make connections, and learn new things.
A big thank you goes out to NE.Code for another great conference!
I had the honor and privilege of presenting this year. That also meant I got to bring my wife along (she enjoyed time in the Haymarket and visiting bookshops), and we went to a fun speaker event at the Starlight Lounge. I also got a mug along with a cool, personalized gift: a handmade figure based on my profile picture (see it below).
My presentation, “Using SpecKit and Specification-Driven Development to Tame AI Coding,” was well-received. You can read all about it at https://aligneddev.net/blog/2026/speckit-necode-2026/.
I’ve been to many NE Code and HDC conferences since 2012. This year, I found myself spending time in conversations at the lunch tables and the booths, then showing up late to the sessions. I met a lot of great people, and I learned from many at the sponsor booths. There were a lot of sessions I wished I had been able to attend.
I enjoyed hearing Richard Campbell’s AI history keynote (Dotnet Rocks fame; I even got to say “thank you for coming” in the meal line). He challenged us all to work toward a future where AI is used for good; we have an opportunity to guide the approach.
I was glad to see a common theme was making guardrails for AI development. One common approach was to define the work to be done from a specification before generating code. However, we are all learning how to use these tools and managing the costs.
Brian Zimmer from Don’t Panic Labs shared that employee engagement has been stuck at around 30% for 25 years. There are 52% somewhat disengaged and 17% completely disengaged. He challenged us to take advantage of the current AI adoption moment to improve work and human lives by reducing drudgery and possibly creating custom roles. I hope to be a part of making things better using these technologies.
