Nordic.js Afterglow

Imagine candy, code and creative chaos in Stockholm, that was Nordic.js 2025 in a nutshell.

This week, I attended Nordic.js for the second time and I’m going to spoil this whole Vibe right away by telling you that I’m really happy I did.

Earlier this year, I also went to CSS day and these two conferences are different. CSS Day is super nerdy, two full days focused on one specific topic and I absolutely love it. I always leave feeling inspired and full of creative energy, ready to dive deep into new ideas.

Nordic.js on the other hand, is a broader conference centered around JavaScript and the ecosystem around it. It benefits me in a completely different way one that helps me stay both a broader and more up-to-date developer. But before I tell you more about that I have to say, out of all the conferences I’ve been to Nordic.js is the one that has the best event experience around the talks themselves. It’s actually more of a creative and fun playground than anything else.

When we entered we found a gift shop of wrapped art, soft serve, pick-and-mix candy, a wishing well, a ball pit, a fishing pond, a sauna, an obstacle course and even a stand where you could get glitter makeup… and I could go on. It made it such a fun and inspiring place to be.

Now that you have a picture of the place itself, let’s get back to the talks and my biggest takeaways.

One thing I didn’t really expect was that some of the sessions I appreciated the most this year were the super nerdy tech ones like new features in ES2027, updates in Node.js (config improvements and ESM packaging) and learning more about Passkeys in detail. It was all really interesting.

I can’t write this without mentioning Ulrike Rausch, who gave a talk on creating crazy fonts in 90s style. It made me so curious to learn more about making fonts, such a fun and inspiring session!

Other thoughts that stayed with me were more about the softer sides of tech, how we prioritize what we build, how we follow up and celebrate our victories and what kind of experience we actually want to give the people using the applications we create.

“Quality is an emotion.” — Andreas Eldh

Last but not least I got the question - What was the most inspiring thing you’re taking home?

It almost feels like cheating, but I can’t think of a better answer than this. The best talk this year was by Una Kravets, on the topic back to the future. It was all about the new CSS features that can now replace JavaScript in many cases. She’s the perfect mix of inspiring and professional and also the kind of person who literally entered her talk by coming out of a huge birthday cake! Two things from her talk that I’d like to explore more are the Popover API and Scroll State.

After conferences, people sometimes ask me something like. So, what did you learn?

But for me, it’s so much more than that. It’s about the sparks, the ideas I want to explore, the old things I want to do in new ways and even the things I didn’t know I needed to know. It’s about staying inspired and staying sharp in my profession. Nordic.js really did that for me and for that, I can only say a big THANK YOU!

Who knows, maybe someday I’m happy enough to give a lightning talk on that stage myself…