This Was beyond tellerrand Düsseldorf 2026 – 15 Years On

It is Thursday morning. The Capitol Theater is quiet again, the team is catching up on sleep, and I am sitting at home at 7 in the morning with a coffee, trying to put down a few words about what just happened.

Two days. One stage. A room full of people who showed up open, curious and kind. Fifteen years of beyond tellerrand. I am still letting that one sink in.

When I started this in 2010, I had no roadmap. I just wanted to bring people together for two days and see what would happen. Somehow, against the odds and across more than a few difficult years for community events, we are still here. Looking out from the back of the room this week, watching conversations spill from the seats into the lobby and out onto the street, I had the same feeling I have had every year since: this is exactly what I hoped it would be and what I wanted to do.

What Happened on Stage

The line-up this year was a wide one – on purpose. From Annie Atkins and the invisible craft of film props, to Marjan van Aubel asking why solar energy has to look like solar energy, to André Michelle reminding us why curiosity matters more than permission. Niels Leenheer brought CSS flamethrowers and oscilloscopes (and yes, we did check the fire extinguishers). Lauren Celenza asked how we stay human in the age of AI. Oliver Reichenstein did what he does best.

Different topics. Different worlds. But there was a thread running through all of them, and Sasha Maximova put her finger on it on LinkedIn:

Not speakers, makers. Not to teach how, but to show what they are making.

That, to me, is the thing. That has always been the thing. beyond tellerrand is not a conference about a topic. It is a gathering of people who make things and care deeply about what they make and who are willing to share that with the rest of us.

What I Have Been Reading

I have spent the morning reading what attendees have written online and I am not going to lie when I say, it got to me. A few moments stayed with me:

This year’s beyond tellerrand gave me exactly that glimpse of warmth at a time when everything around me felt a bit dark. – Kitty Huang

The room feels like a mix of design lab, class reunion and very well-curated creative loss of control. Nothing about it feels ironed flat. That is exactly why it feels so alive. – Frank Schmidt

It was never primarily about design or technology – it was always about people. – Simon Praetorius

They were more grounded, not hyped. I didn’t have a single second to realise what was happening between the talks. – Tomáš Hejč

That last one captures something I have been chasing for fifteen years: a programme paced so the breaks matter as much as the talks. A “playlist”, as Frank put it, rather than a schedule. Thanks to all of you who took the time to write about your experience. It means a lot to me.

Thank You

To every speaker who stood on that stage this week. Thank you for showing up the way you did. For being honest, for being human, for trusting us with your work in progress.

To the partners who made this possible in a time where partner support is anything but a given. mittwald, TYPO3, StickerApp, Kirby, Adobe and everyone else listed on the partners page – thank you. A traditional, independent event surviving and thriving in 2026 takes real conviction from the people backing it. I do not take that for granted.

To Holger at Illhill, printing t-shirts as he has done for years now. To the Tobi who turned every talk into a musical follow-up. To the Capitol Theater team and the cleaners who made the venue shine each morning. To the volunteers who make sure everything runs. To Lars and Friederike from KomKuK for that unforgettable cake. It is appreciated more than you know.

And to you, reading this. Whether you were there in the room or following along from afar: thank you. The atmosphere everyone keeps talking about is not something I make. It is something you bring. I just provide the space and time to let it happen.

What’s Next

Talks will go up on YouTube over the coming weeks. Photos, write-ups and podcast episodes will follow here on the blog. If you want to stay close to all of that, subscribe to the newsletter, join the Discord, or follow us on Bluesky and Mastodon.

For now, I am going to close my laptop, hug my family and probably sleep for about a week.

To the next fifteen years.

Stay curious.