- September 21-25, 2026
- Hydro at CSU Spur | Denver, CO
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Deepen your software design practice at an immersive event for technical leaders.
Explore is not your typical conference. Two days of pre-conference workshops (Sept 21-22), then three days of expert talks alongside hands-on workshops across up to five parallel tracks, capped by the Design Storm: a multi-cohort modeling challenge using real water-management data.
Denver, Colorado. September 23-25, 2026, with optional pre-conference workshops September 21-22. Group rates available for teams of 5+.
Pre-conference workshops Monday and Tuesday. Conference Wednesday through Friday. Click any day for the full schedule.
Civil engineers have a concept called a design storm. When they're designing a drainage system, they don't design for a sunny day, and they don't design for the worst storm in human history. They pick a calibrated event, something like the 100-year, 24-hour rainfall. Real enough that what you build will work in the wild. Bounded enough that you can actually build for it.
Working from real public water-management data, with a domain expert in the room to answer your questions, you and a cohort of peers at your level spend Thursday afternoon and Friday modeling a complex, ambiguous domain you don't already work in, pairing with each other and with agentic coding tools to discover, model, and prototype a slice of the system. Water management is deliberately unfamiliar so nobody short-circuits with their own expertise; the domain has real complexity, real ambiguity, and real stakeholders with competing needs.
Friday afternoon, every cohort gathers for a science-fair-style surfacing. Each group sets up their model, their prompts, and what they built; you wander between stations and see how five different teams attacked the same challenge. The contrast is where the deepest learning happens.
You'll join one of four cohorts, calibrated to where you are with modeling and agentic coding today.
Where the river starts. For attendees newer to both modeling and agentic coding, looking for a gentle entry into the Design Storm.
Where streams converge. For attendees comfortable with modeling OR agentic coding (not both yet), looking to bring their strengths and stretch into the other.
Fast-moving water. For attendees confident in both modeling and agentic coding, ready to move fast on harder challenges.
Beyond the map. For experts in both modeling and agentic coding, ready to invent new patterns alongside other experts.
You leave with sustained practice in modeling under genuine ambiguity with agents in the loop, and a cohort of peers you'll keep talking to long after the conference closes.
Kickoff Thursday 9am · Working sessions Thursday 3pm + Friday morning · Surfacing & demos Friday 1:45pm
Eric Evans
Author of Domain-Driven Design
Opening Keynote
Indu Alagarsamy
Principal Engineer, CircleCI
Pre-Conference Workshop
Paul Rayner
Consultant, Virtual Genius
Javiera Laso
Lead Engineer Consultant at Thoughtworks
Sonya Natanzon
Architect, team leader, decomplexifier
Joseph Yoder
The Refactory - MetaYoda
Tina Thomas
Senior Software Developer at Thoughtworks
Kyle Brown
IBM Fellow
Registration is open. Register early for the best price.
Expert talks, experiential workshops, and a dedicated open space day.
| Tier | Price | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Early Bird | $1,295 | Sold Out |
| Regular | $1,495 | April 1 through August 1 |
| Procrastinator | $1,795 | August 7 through September 14 |
| Eternal Postponer | $1,995 | September 14 through event |
Hands-on workshops with expert instructors. Workshop lineup announced soon.
| Tier | Price | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Early Bird | $1,895 | Sold Out |
| Regular | $2,095 | Until sold out |
Bring your team and save on every ticket. Discounts apply to all ticket types.
| Total Tickets | Discount | |
|---|---|---|
| 5-9 tickets | $100 off | per ticket |
| 10-19 tickets | $150 off | per ticket |
| 20+ tickets | $200 off | per ticket |
How it works: Email contact@exploreddd.com with your company name and the number of tickets you expect to purchase. We'll send you a discount code that automatically applies the discount at checkout.
Conference and workshop tickets combine toward your group total. Tickets can be purchased in a single bulk order or individually using the same code, as long as your group meets the minimum ticket count. For example, 5 conference tickets plus 5 workshop tickets qualifies as 10 tickets for the $150 off tier.