This series is useful because it makes compiler behavior easier to see. Matt shows real code and the resulting assembly, which helps you understand what the compiler improves and when those improvements don’t apply. It’s also a good follow-up to his 2025 keynote “C++: Some Assembly Required”. And, honestly, it’s just fun to have a daily technical treat during December.

As we wrap up 2025, it’s easy to lose sight of the “invisible helpers” that make our code fast, safe, and efficient. Matt’s Advent calendar is a lovely reminder — and a gift — that compilers are not magic, but they are powerful tools when we understand them. We hope you’ll join us each day in December, pull back the curtain, and learn something new about what’s really happening under the hood.

Happy holidays, and happy optimizing!

The Academy is interested in proposals for either onsite classes or online classes.

If you are interested in teaching a class or workshop, please review the instructors’ prospectus and/or contact jon@cppcon.org with any questions that you might have. The deadline for submitting proposals is January 30, 2026.

The above photo is from CppCon 2025 by CppCon’s photographer, Jonathan Phillips. Not only do I want to share this brilliant photo, I also want to announce CppCon 2026 dates, September 12-18, 2026, save the dates now!

CppCon 2025 just wrapped up and was an amazing conference. For an early preview of what happened, see Bjarne’s keynote, Daisy’s keynote, Herb’s keynote, Vittorio’s keynote, and Matt’s keynote.

Videos of all our other Main Program sessions will start to be published on our YouTube channel, one a business day, starting in November.

Trip Reports

I’ll update this post as trip reports are published. If you see a CppCon 2025 trip report published or you’d like your trip report to be included, please send us a note. You can see some short reports on LinkedIn and on X.

• Akash Kumar Dutta’s post on LinkedIn
• Microsoft C++ Team at CppCon 2025: Trip Report
• Cippi’s official CppCon Portrait
• Optiver post on LinkedIn
• Sandor Dargo’s Blog Post
• EngFlow/tipi.build trip report
• Filip Frącz on LinkedIn
• Laurie Kirk on LinkedIn
• Matt Godbolt on X
• Victor Ciura on mastodon
• Keith Stockdale’s Blog Post

Thanks

A conference the size of CppCon doesn’t just happen. There are a lot of heroes that work hard to make this happen. You’ll find many of their names on our staff page which lists the organizers, program committee, volunteers, and vendors.

You’d find more names (and faces) on the presenters page for this year’s conference which lists presenters from the Main Program, panels, Poster Program, Open Content sessions, and lightning talks.

As much as all of these people work hard so that we are providing the best that we can in technical content, food, production values, live music, comfortable ambiance, and supportive environment, none of those is the most important part of CppCon.

Returning attendees know that the most important part of CppCon is the opportunity to engage with the attendees (including the presenters), who are tackling some of our most challenging problems, with creative and innovative techniques, using powerful tools provided by C++ and the C++ community.

Above, you’ll see the faces of the most important part of CppCon, the attendees. (I’ve not matched faces to the registration list to verify that no one is missing, but I think most of us are in the photo.)

This year, more than any other, you are all my heroes.

I look forward to seeing you all next year.

Jon Kalb
Conference Chair

Overview

Again at CppCon 2025, staff and volunteers participated in CoC training prior to the conference.

The Code of Conduct team for CppCon 2025 was Colleen Passard (chair), Gillian Faith, and Jacqueline McCauley. Colleen Passard additionally served as on-site Ombudsperson.

The code of conduct for CppCon 2025 was published here, inclusive of commits up to and including 4c03199ab226e86f31977bad51c2f6c5aa9b5e89.

Summary of reports

Since the CppCon 2024 Transparency Report and during CppCon 2025, there were no CoC incidents reported to the CoC Team.

Attendee Engagement with the CoC Office and Ombuds

The CoC Office and Ombuds served as a resource for attendees throughout the conference, providing confidential support and a space to talk through a variety of personal and professional matters. In addition, some interpersonal frictions were brought forward which the parties did not consider CoC incidents but were constructively addressed with Ombuds assistance to facilitate dialogue or resolution. The community collectively created a respectful, supportive, and welcoming environment for everyone.

Note that the Ombuds role extends beyond, but never replaces, the CoC process. Attendees are fully informed of the option to raise a formal CoC incident report, encouraged to engage in the reporting process when needed, and supported by both the Ombuds and the CoC Team throughout.

Matt’s talk, titled C++: Some Assembly Required, explored the organic evolution of the C++ ecosystem and how the community has built powerful tools and solutions in the spaces between language features. For more details on the talk, you can visit the original keynote announcement.

This video is in “prerelease” and cannot be found directly on our YouTube channel. Instead, we are providing a direct link here only! Feel free to share this with colleagues and friends and impress them with your insider access.

Also, remember to bookmark our Video Archive Portal (VAP) and check back each day for each new keynote as it becomes available. The VAP portal will provide exclusive access to all CppCon 2025 Keynotes/Plenaries, in addition to providing Early Access to the rest of the 2025 video releases (separate registration required). We’d also like to thank JetBrains for their continued Video sponsorship.

Vittorio’s talk, titled More Speed & Simplicity: Practical Data-Oriented Design in C++, explored how prioritizing data layout not only unlocks significant performance gains but can also lead to surprising simplicity in code. His talk is valuable for any developer seeking to improve code quality and performance. You can find more details about his keynote on the original announcement page.

This video is in “prerelease” and cannot be found directly on our YouTube channel. Instead, we are providing a direct link here only! Feel free to share this with colleagues and friends and impress them with your insider access.

Also, remember to bookmark our Video Archive Portal (VAP) and check back each day for each new keynote as it becomes available. The VAP portal will provide exclusive access to all CppCon 2025 Keynotes/Plenaries, in addition to providing Early Access to the rest of the 2025 video releases (separate registration required). We’d also like to thank JetBrains for their continued Video sponsorship.

Herb’s talk, titled Reflection: C++’s Decade-Defining Rocket Engine, explored the transformative potential of compile-time reflection in C++26. He demonstrated how reflection could reshape how we write abstractions and simplify the language’s evolution. You can read more about his talk on the original keynote announcement page.

This video is in “prerelease” and cannot be found directly on our YouTube channel. Instead, we are providing a direct link here only! Feel free to share this with colleagues and friends and impress them with your insider access.

Also, remember to bookmark our Video Archive Portal (VAP) and check back each day for each new keynote as it becomes available. The VAP portal will provide exclusive access to all CppCon 2025 Keynotes/Plenaries, in addition to providing Early Access to the rest of the 2025 video releases (separate registration required). We’d also like to thank JetBrains for their continued Video sponsorship.

Daisy’s talk, titled Crafting the Code You Don’t Write: Sculpting Software in an AI World, explores the rapidly changing landscape of developer productivity with the rise of AI. She shared her experiences from Anthropic and offered insights on how we, as software engineers, can leverage these tools and evolve our roles. You can find more details about her keynote on the original announcement page.

This video is in “prerelease” and cannot be found directly on our YouTube channel. Instead, we are providing a direct link here only! Feel free to share this with colleagues and friends and impress them with your insider access.

Also, remember to bookmark our Video Archive Portal (VAP) and check back each day for each new keynote as it becomes available. The VAP portal will provide exclusive access to all CppCon 2025 Keynotes/Plenaries, in addition to providing Early Access to the rest of the 2025 video releases (separate registration required). We’d also like to thank JetBrains for their continued Video sponsorship.

This year’s opening keynote was delivered by the creator of C++ himself, Bjarne Stroustrup. His talk was a deep dive into concept-based Generic Programming, a topic that’s central to the future of the language. For more details, you can visit the original keynote announcement.

For a limited time, we’re giving you exclusive access to the keynote video. This “prerelease” can’t be found directly on our YouTube channel, so we’re providing a direct link here only. Feel free to share this with colleagues and friends and impress them with your insider access!

Get Early Access to More Keynotes

Don’t forget to bookmark our Video Archive Portal (VAP)! We’ll be adding each new keynote daily as it becomes available. The VAP will give you exclusive access to all CppCon 2025 Keynotes and Plenaries, plus Early Access to the rest of the 2025 video releases (separate registration required).

The deadline to avoid late fees for CppCon 2025 Registration is this Friday, August 29^th!

Avoid the $400 late fee on CppCon 2025 Registrations:

• 5+ days of C++ content across Five Stages
• More than 100 total sessions available to watch live
• Learn best practices from top presenters from dozens of industries and preview the latest from the C++ Standards Committee
• Featuring eight focus tracks (Back to Basics, the new Business & Career Track, Embedded, GameDev, Robotics & AI, Scientific Computing, Software Design, and Tooling & Ecosystem)
• Plus Panels, Bonus Sessions, Lightning Talks!
• Also register for onsite and online classes for focused instruction by the world’s top C++ instructors.

Join hundreds of C++ enthusiasts, enjoy the beautiful Rocky Mountain views, rub shoulders with industry experts and network with peers across the full 5 days of the event.

Register this week to avoid late fees.

Field Trip Registration

The field trip is filling up rapidly! If you want to join us at the Wings Over the Rockies Air Museum register soon.

Where to stay during the conference

The conference hotel, the Gaylord Rockies, has filled up.  We have opened up an overflow block at a second hotel for those still looking to make reservations.  See our lodging page for details.