Meeting C++ online

Interview with Jan Wilczek: Using type erasure

Tue, Oct 6 · 5:00 PM CEST

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Online

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Meeting C++ is hosting an interview with Jan Wilczek! He will be giving the talk Using Type Erasure to Extend APIs You Don't Own at Meeting C++ 2026!

Talk description:
Application developers sometimes hit a limitation of a 3rd-party library or framework. The Type Erasure design pattern can help us overcome such limitations without the need to change the 3rd-party API.
Type Erasure is a relatively complex design pattern that allows us to treat a set of unrelated classes as if they shared a common base class, while preserving value semantics. The downside is increased code bloat and code complexity as the pattern requires a significant amount of additional code.
There have been quite a few talks explaining HOW to implement Type Erasure, while the topic of WHEN has been rarely discussed. Should we always use type erasure instead of virtual polymorphism? And if not, then what are the criteria?
This talk will show a concrete example from the audio programming industry of how Type Erasure allowed adding new functionalities to the parameter class system of the JUCE C++ framework without changing its API. As such, the talk will be useful for application and library developers who use 3rd party libraries but need an extra degree of flexibility.
You will come out of the talk understanding

• what Type Erasure is,
• when to use it, and
• how to implement it.

You don't need to understand Type Erasure, audio development, or JUCE to attend the talk; the necessary minimum will be explained during the talk.

His bio:
I'm a C++ developer, a conference speaker, and an online course creator from think-cell.
My background is in audio plugin and app development.
I work from home in Katowice, Poland.

Bring your questions!
17:00 Interview start

Interview with Mateusz Pusz: Opening Keynote

Wed, Oct 7 · 5:00 PM CEST

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Online

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Meeting C++ is hosting an interview with Mateusz Pusz about his keynote Why Great C++ Libraries Fail (And How to Fix That) at Meeting C++ 2026!

Keynote description:
A participant at one of my workshops asked: "Which open source project should I contribute to if I want to learn Modern C++?" The answer was "it depends": on the documentation, on the community, on whether a newcomer can build the project at all. Many technically brilliant C++ libraries are built like a fortress: the README starts with "First, install Clang 18, CMake 3.28...", the only documentation is "Read the source, Luke", the maintainers reply "This is the correct design. Period.", and there is no clear path for contributors.
The language now has concepts, ranges, and `constexpr` almost everywhere, and adopting a C++ library is still where many people give up. Users hit the friction and write their own. Contributors move to ecosystems that welcome them. Companies stay on twenty-year-old code because nobody made the new option easy to try. Technical excellence goes unused.
This keynote follows a user through six stages: Discovery, Evaluation, Understanding, Integration, Contribution, and Community. At each stage, we look at why people leave and what to change so they stay, with mp-units as the running example of a project that went from a hobby to a library proposed for the C++ standard. Expect a README that passes the five-second test, a randomized build matrix whose modules and freestanding builds catch the missing `export` and the accidental before your users do, and documentation organized with the Diátaxis framework instead of a Doxygen API reference and nothing else. The talk also covers Compiler Explorer links, GitHub Codespaces for one-click setup, CMake targets and Conan packages, release notes in prose, and a contribution policy for the growing stream of AI-generated pull requests.
Whether you use other people's libraries, want to contribute to one, or maintain your own, you will leave with a checklist of eleven changes. Don't start with all eleven: pick one and spend two hours on it this week.

His bio:
Mateusz Pusz is a C++ architect and voting member of the ISO C++ Committee (WG21), with 100% meeting attendance since 2017. As an active contributor to Library Evolution, he originated variable template template parameters (P2008, now part of C++26), co-authored heterogeneous lookup for associative containers, and is the lead author of the Quantities and Units library proposed for C++29 (P3045).
With more than 20 years of experience, Mateusz specializes in zero-overhead abstractions and low-latency systems. He led the C++ technical side of a low-latency matching engine delivered for one of the world's largest derivatives exchanges, and led the C++ technical roadmap for a competency center of over 500 engineers.
As the founder of Train IT, Mateusz has spent over 15 years training more than 1,000 engineers at world-leading companies, including Intel, Bosch, BMW, Nokia, and Flow Traders. He is the lead author of the mp-units library, which underpins P3045. An international speaker with 50+ talks at conferences including CppCon, C++Now, and ACCU, he has keynoted CoreHard and using std::cpp, and his talk "Supercharge Your C++ Project" received the Best Presenter Recognition at using std::cpp 2026 with the highest audience rating of the conference.

Bring your questions!
17:00 Interview start

Interview with Andreas Pfaffenbichler: Static and Dynamic External Polymorphism

Thu, Oct 8 · 5:00 PM CEST

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Online

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Meeting C++ is hosting an interview with Andreas Pfaffenbichler! He will be giving the talk Static and Dynamic External Polymorphism in C++23 and Beyond at Meeting C++ 2026!

Talk description:
The C++ "built-in default" for polymorphism is "Inheritance".

Over the last 20 years, it became clear: separating the interface from the implementation is in many aspects superior. These two adjacent approaches got named "Internal" and "External Polymorphism".

While Rust pioneered first class language support for the latter paradigm, libraries showed up to bring this approach to the C++ world.

After we gained an overview of the "Polymorphism Landscape" in C++, we will use Any++, a C++23 based library to show how complicated design patterns can be elegantly addressed with External Polymorphism, when:

• Known C++ runtime super powers like Downcasting and Crosscasting are also supplied
• Open (Multi)-Methods are integrated. E.g. for visitors and binary Type Erased operators.
• Flexibility of Type Erasure is combined with the performance of std::variant
• Type Erasure is merged with Templates
• The v-table is replaced with type based Static Dispatch (Concept Maps!)

To achieve this functionality without boilerplate, Any++ had to resort to a preprocessor based EDSL.That is not a romantic setting to fall in love at first sight.
Luckily C++26 is around the corner! In the last chapter we will show, how a boilerplate free API with the functionality of Any++ can be provided with C++26's generative reflection mechanisms.

Bio:
Dipl. Ing. Computer Science
Founder (1993) and CEO of Bit Factory Software GmbH in Steyr, Austria.
Their product "ALEX" is used in 800 companies in Austria and Germany for planning and billing working hours and services.
The system is written in C++ and has evolved over 30 years from a Windows client-server architecture to its current form, where the same codebase runs on Windows, WebAssembly, and mobile devices. Its functionality extends to an ML component that can solve practical nurse scheduling problems.
To ensure an agile and sustainable development process over this period, they place great emphasis on comprehensive and automated testing, as well as the latest and most promising technologies, especially Sanitzer and the latest available C++ versions (Currently all C++23 features, excluding modules).
He is currently working on improving their object-oriented architecture through the use of Type Erasure.

Bring your questions!
17:00 Interview start

Meeting C++ 2026

Thu, Nov 26 · 9:00 AM CET

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Online

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Meeting C++ 2026! Get your tickets while you can!
Tickets are available in the online shop at Tito
Access will be provided to ticket holders only. This event is what makes Meeting C++ all year possible.

Meeting C++ 2026 - Schedule of 2026
This years Meeting C++ is a hybrid event in Berlin and online on 26th - 28th November 2026.
The conference will be again hybrid - just like last year, attendees will join us on location in Berlin, but the conference will be also featuring online and onsite only content.

• Meeting C++ 2026
• streaming the onsite tracks and hosting a track online
• Tickets are available in the online shop at Tito
• Tickets are transferable for the full event, but not refundable
• Book your hotel room (soon tm) on the Meeting C++ ticket contingent
• Rooms are also available as hotel tickets in the ticketshop
• Get cheaper train tickets for Deutsche Bahn
• Student and Support Tickets are available
• Talklisting of Meeting C++ 2026
• A first schedule for the conference
• Sponsors are welcome
• Meeting C++ 2025 Trip reports:
• Frances Buontempo (2025)
• Sandor Dargo
• Guillaume Dua
• Omniverse
• Meeting C++ 2026 runs under the Berlin Code of Conduct

### Attending onsite

The onsite part of the conference is hosted in the Vienna House by Wyndham Andel's Berlin Hotel (Address: Landsberger Allee 106, 10396 Berlin)
You can secure your own little spot to sit for 3 days by putting up a name sign in the main hall on the table you chose to sit. If you have special needs, the conference hotel is fully accessible and offers rooms with accessible bathrooms and a twin room for an assistant.
For 3 full days Meeting C++ 2026 will be held in Berlin. Meeting C++ will host 3 tracks onsite: the main track and tracks B and C. Keynotes and the main program is hosted in Track A. See last years schedule for further information such as time tables on the conference. Onsite attendees will also have access to the online part of the conference.

### Attending online

Meeting C++ will stream all the tracks including the keynotes to the online part of the event and features an online only track with talks by various speakers. A few words on how-to-attend. First, the link to the online event will be send to the email you've (been) registered with, this is then also your login. Meeting C++ will send some more details about the event to that email, so if you don't receive these in November, make sure you're registered with the right email. You'll need to register then with that email for the event.