Victoria Uwumarogie, Imani Ellis, Beverly Jackson
[MEDIA ONLY] Fireside Chat With Imani Ellis and Beverly Jackson - Media Networking Event
Conversation on being Black women who made the leap from big-name brands to create change, both for influential companies and for their own game-changing brands. offer insight on how to take those next steps out of your comfort zone when you're craving more to have an impact on a larger scale, with insights from women who did just that. We will also discuss how they handle such major roles and responsibilities, who they lean on for support professionally and personally, and how they pour into themselves after pouring out so much of their genius to help creatives, hopeful homebuyers and more.
This session is open to only media badge holders.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Sagar Das
Beyond the Senior role : A guide for becoming a Staff Engineer
Embarking on a journey from a Senior Engineer to a Staff Engineer is a significant career transition that demands more than just technical prowess. In this session, we will delve into the nuanced aspects of advancing your career beyond the Senior level, especially when you find yourself seemingly stuck. Drawing from personal experiences, industry insights, and success stories, this talk aims to equip you with practical strategies and a holistic understanding of the skills and mindset required to make the leap to a Staff Engineer role.
Key Topics will include:
1. Self-Reflection and Goal Setting
2. Technical Excellence
3. Leadership and Collaboration
4 .Communication and Influence
5. Mentorship and Continuous Learning
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Tessa Mero
Breaking Through the Mid-Level Barrier: Your Guide to Leadership Advancement
Attaining a leadership role is a proactive journey, not a game of chance. In this interactive session, I'll unveil the strategic steps that propelled my career from a dedicated mid-level developer advocate to an influential leadership position.
You'll gain insights into:
* Designing a career path that reflects your professional ambitions while meeting your organization's goals.
* The art of self-advocacy for career advancement and the tools for making your case effectively.
* The critical shift from a mid-level mindset to a leadership mentality — and why it matters from day one.
* How executive coaching can put you in a more competitive advantage
Expect to leave with a pragmatic blueprint that will not just inspire but equip you with a tactical approach to career progression, positioning you for the leadership role you’re aiming for.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Allyson Eman
Fireside Chat with Allyson Eman
Join us for an engaging fireside chat with Allyson Eman, a visionary leader with over 30 years of experience in marketing, communications, sales leadership, and business development. In 2007, Allyson took the helm as Executive Director of the newly established Venture Atlanta annual conference. Under her leadership, Venture Atlanta has grown into the largest venture capital conference on the East Coast, drawing over 1,500 attendees, including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and senior business executives.
Now in its seventeenth year, Venture Atlanta has played a pivotal role in connecting companies with capital, helping emerging technology companies raise over $7.8 billion and facilitating exits totaling over $18 billion. The conference boasts a network of over 850 alumni companies, many of which have achieved significant success.
Before her tenure at Venture Atlanta, Allyson was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for SouthStar Funding, where she contributed to the company's remarkable growth from 8 employees to 800, with 30 offices nationwide. Her leadership was instrumental in establishing SouthStar Funding as a reputable and trusted wholesale mortgage lender. Allyson also has experience as a branch marketing manager at SouthTrust Bank, overseeing the marketing platform for 100 branches across Georgia.
In this fireside chat, Allyson will share her journey, insights into building and scaling successful ventures, and her vision for the future of Venture Atlanta and the broader tech ecosystem. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, or business leader, this conversation promises valuable takeaways and inspiration.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Katelyn Nnake, Avantha Arachchi
Who you build for matters
The tech industry is expansive. Retail? Even more so. In this fireside chat-style session, we’ll discuss how to make your products and services fit in a crowded landscape, building with a customer-first mindset, finding product-market fit, and the importance of looking where others don’t to find your audience.
Join Klaviyo EDI leader Katelyn Nnake (formerly Twitter, Coca-Cola) as they sit down with Avantha Arachchi, COO of A-Frame brands (home of Naomi Osaka’s KINLÒ, Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union’s Proudly, and John Legend’s Loved01) in this engaging conversation, with participation from the audience encouraged.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Jermaine L. Murray
Bridging the Gap: Navigating the Tech Job Market for Underrepresented Talent
In my talk, I'll unveil strategies aiding jobseekers in tech role preparation, emphasizing the power of Storytelling in resume crafting, interview readiness, and online platform utilization for job hunting. Storytelling, a potent tool, can encapsulate a candidate's journey, skills, and ambitions, rendering a resume or interview memorable to employers. It also aids in authentic online profiling, creating a narrative that resonates with prospective employers. Through real-time examples and proven methodologies, attendees will learn to intertwine storytelling in their job search, amplifying their potential in the competitive tech job market.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Kham Ward, Khalif Muhammad, Zach Nunn, Kevin Burch
Building a Tech Culture Where BLK Men Can THRIVE
This interactive session aims to explore and establish strategies for fostering a supportive and inclusive tech culture specifically designed to empower Black (BLK) men in the tech industry. In the fast-paced world of technology, creating an environment where BLK men can thrive requires intentional efforts to address unique challenges and capitalize on their diverse perspectives. Participants will engage in discussions, case studies, and collaborative activities to gain insights into the nuances of building a tech culture that embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a focus on the experiences and opportunities for BLK men.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Justin Samuels, Patrick Austin
Welcome To Render 2024 | Opening
Welcome to Render 2024 from our Founder & CEO, Justin E. Samuels along with some special guests 😉
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Jamar Harrison, Carlyne Lucas, Alan Janbay, Andrea Thomas
Lifting as We Climb - BOLD and Innovative BRG Strategies w/ Delta
As the leading global airline, Delta's mission to connect the world creates opportunities, fosters understanding and expands horizons by connecting people and communities to each other and to their own potential. Powered by top talent and a broad tech infrastructure, Delta continuously raises the standard for the industry, and our teams are thinking big, starting small and scaling fast.
Join the conversation to hear how Business Resource Group leaders are leading from the front on Employee Engagement and Professional Development, as well as Community Outreach and connections to Diverse Suppliers, with the ultimate goal of supporting business impact.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Sean Henry
Building and Scaling in Atlanta: The Journey of STORD
Join Sean Henry, co-founder and CEO of Stord, for an inspiring talk on the remarkable journey of building and scaling Stord, an ecommerce enablement platform headquartered in Atlanta. Sean, a Georgia Tech alumnus and Thiel Fellow, will share insights from his experience in transforming Stord from a startup into a $1B+ industry leader recognized for providing brands with "Prime-like" shipping and e-commerce experiences. Learn how Stord partners with hundreds of brands like AG1, Native, and American Giant to enhance revenue, reduce costs, and delight shoppers. Discover the strategies behind Stord’s success in managing over $5B+ of commerce and hear about the pivotal role Atlanta played in this journey. This talk is a must-attend for entrepreneurs and business leaders looking to understand the dynamics of scaling a high-growth company in the vibrant Atlanta ecosystem.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Executive (10+ years of experience)
Ashley Willis
Building Trust: The Key to Leading Successful Teams
In this session, you'll learn about building real, lasting trust within your teams. Whether you're stepping into a leadership role for the first time or you've been leading teams for years, Ashley is here to guide you. She'll draw on her decade-long experience managing teams to underline the critical role trust plays in a team's success. Expect to leave with actionable advice that will help your team bond, unleash their creative potential, and achieve shared objectives more effectively. Together, we'll explore strategies to foster an environment where everyone feels valued and motivated.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Nyah Macklin
Data Ethics: How to Avoid Tech Horror Stories and U.S. Senate Hearings
Has your engineering team ever talked about ethics during the development process? Don't be ashamed, we didn't either. As software engineers, it's not our problem right? I get it. Let me take you through "story time" where we will dissect tech horror stories that could have been solved by centering ethics in the software development life cycle. Today, you'll come away with tangible tools and frameworks to implement into your engineering team's sprint to ensure ethical data handling, and avoid becoming the next tech company sitting in front of the U.S. Senate.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Reginald Matthews, Micheal Binns, Ashley Nightingale, Brent Radcliff
Innovate & Protect: Intellectual Property Insights for Tech Engineers
In today's fast-paced tech landscape, safeguarding intellectual property (IP) is paramount for fostering innovation and maintaining a competitive edge. This speaker session, tailored for AI & Machine Learning Experts, Software Developers & Architects, UI/UX Designers, Cybersecurity Experts, Tech Decision Makers, DevOps Engineers, QA Engineers, and Product Owners, will delve into the intricate realm of trademarks, patents, and copyright within the tech industry.
Attendees will gain invaluable insights into effective trademark strategies and the establishment of a robust brand identity in the ever-evolving tech sphere. Furthermore, the session will offer practical approaches and expert guidance on securing patents in the dynamic landscape of AI and Machine Learning, empowering participants to protect their groundbreaking innovations effectively.
The session will also focus on the significance of integrating copyright safeguards into the software development lifecycle, emphasizing best practices for preserving the integrity of code, content, and user interfaces while adhering to evolving copyright laws.
Join us for an engaging discussion where Reginald Matthews ( Legal at Centegix), will be in conversation with Michael Binns, Associate General Counsel and Head of Patents at META. Together, we aim to equip you with the necessary tools and knowledge to navigate the complex world of intellectual property protection, fostering innovation, and ensuring sustainable growth within the technology and digital advancement space.
This session will result in CLEs issued for licensed attorneys.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Aakash Singhal
Engineering Leadership Culture for High-Performing Teams
In the swiftly evolving global technology marketplace, platforms and products emerge and vanish daily. The enduring constant is the necessity and gap they aim to fill. Technology not only enables us to accomplish numerous tasks for personal and business goals today, but it also propels innovation and collaboration to deliver exceptional products. However, teams are often impeded by the tools and frameworks they employ, akin to a doctor engrossed in his computer during your annual checkup.
Discover leading frameworks, behaviors, and techniques that foster effective collaboration among teams to create products cherished by the industry. Additionally, become aware of the key behaviors and early warning signs to watch for, enabling you to pivot before ingraining detrimental habits in your team's ways of working (culture).
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Mark Patience, Ralph McNeal, Beverly Jackson, David Beitel, Kourtnee Jackson
Empowering Innovation: How a “Better Together” Culture Drives Strategic Success
Zillowing homes is easy and has become a popular pastime, but navigating the home buying journey is far more challenging. Today, Zillow has evolved from a search and find company to one that’s streamlining the real estate experience and making home a reality for more and more people. Our teams are focused on building “the housing super app”-- an integrated digital real estate experience that makes renting and buying more accessible, more seamless, and more inclusive to customers. Just as we're simplifying the real estate transaction for customers, Zillow is also fostering a culture where our people can connect, innovate, and collaborate seamlessly from anywhere.
This session dives into how Zillow’s culture of innovation and inclusion is an intentional part of the company’s business strategy, as the strategic enabler to every accomplishment. With core values like “Better Together” and “Thing Big, Move Fast”, Zillow’s culture is how we stay ahead of the curve, constantly push boundaries and unlock new possibilities in real estate through innovative solutions and advanced technologies.
Hear from Zillow leaders from across the company, including Zillow's Chief Technology Officer, David Beitel, to learn how you can lean in and be part of a culture of innovation that empowers teams to take big swings.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)Keynote
Ruhiyyih Mahalati
Building Diverse and High Performing Teams: Lessons from Microsoft
How can organizations build high performing and diverse teams that can thrive in today's complex and dynamic environment? This is the question that this presentation will address, drawing on the real-life examples and experience of building such organizations over 15 years at Microsoft.
High performing teams achieve superior results, while maintaining high levels of satisfaction and engagement among their members. Such teams are also those that can adapt and innovate in response to changing demands and opportunities. To achieve this, teams need to have a clear and shared purpose, a high degree of trust and collaboration, psychological safety, and a supportive and empowering culture.
However, it is not simple to create diverse and high performing teams. It demands deliberate and ongoing actions from team leaders and team members alike, to deal with the issues and obstacles that may emerge. Some challenges and barriers are: different cultures and mindsets, prejudices and assumptions, unconscious biases, difficulties in communicating, and fear.
This presentation will offer some practical strategies and tools to help team leaders and team members to build high-performance and diverse teams, based on four key principles:
- Create Clarity: Team leaders and members need to synthesize complex data and insights, ensure shared understanding of the team's vision, goals, and roles, define and execute a course of action, and measure and celebrate success.
- Generate Energy: Team leaders and team members need to foster a positive and constructive mindset, and to encourage and appreciate new ideas and perspectives. They also need to promote a culture of learning and feedback, and to help each other develop new skills and capabilities.
- Deliver Success: To create value for customers and stakeholders, team leaders and members need to deliver what they want and expect. They need to try new things and learn from users and the market. They also need to be curious and passionate, and to encourage and excite each other to achieve excellence and impact.
In conclusion, building high performing and diverse teams is a key factor for organizational success. This presentation will provide some insights and examples on how to achieve this, and how to overcome the challenges and barriers that may arise.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Leon Noel
The Cavalry Ain’t Comin’: Building Equitable Career Paths into Tech Before it is Too Late
A strategy session on transforming your workplace into a pipeline for underrepresented talent. The jobs our communities of color depend on are rapidly disappearing or set to be automated. All the while our people sit in proximity to some of the largest tech economies. So while government leaders want to taut a 2-3% unemployment rate even though communities of color are seeing double digits, we will build what they can’t before it is too late for our people. I've helped train and place over 1000 people with no prior experience and often without a degree into high growth engineering roles. Let me show you how to do the same for your community your people.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Tony Gauda
The Undeniable Executive
Unlock the secrets to becoming an authentic and effective executive, even in the face of unconscious bias, uncertainty, and limited time and resources. Discover how to lead with integrity and stay true to your unique values and personality. Learn strategies to identify and combat hidden biases, make confident decisions amid ambiguity, and harness your time and resources for maximum productivity. By consistently delivering excellence, you'll build trust, credibility, and lasting success, inspiring greatness in yourself and others.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Ashley B Webster
Get Out Of Your Way: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Tech From a Non-Traditional Journey
When you don’t fit the typical mold, self-doubt can hit hard. This session dives into tackling imposter syndrome in tech careers, especially for those of us who are underrepresented. Discover how to break free from limited thinking and know when to shift your focus to showcase your true talents. Your unique experiences and skills are proof that you are where you belong and can conquer hard things. We will explore practical strategies to reframe your mindset, embrace your strengths, and understand the value you bring to the table.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Taylor Poindexter
The Engineering Manager's Odyssey: Navigating Growth and Evolution in Your Career
Now that you have chosen a career in Engineering Management, how do you maximize your overall career happiness and ability to build impactful teams while ensuring you you continue to grow as a leader? In this talk we will discuss concrete skills that will enable you to better stay on top of the many curve balls that will come your way as a leader as well as discuss ways to ensure you continue to grow in your career. Management is tough, but with the right tools and mindset you can absolutely rock it.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Jon Birdsong
How Cities Engineer Serendipity to Make It a Startup District
Post Covid, we live in a new world of remote work and geographical freedom. How does South Downtown approach what makes a city unique where engineers, entrepreneurs, and technologists are attracted to live, work, and play. Cities are the new software companies where citizens are users; net negative retention means the city is growing while churn means the city is on the decline. We talk about what South Downtown is doing to attract talent and build the future of Atlanta. We have 10 city blocks, 15 acres, and 53 historic buildings to reimagine into a downtown Atlanta we are all proud of.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Doyin Sobowale, Christopher Daniel
Leading with Purpose: Navigating Leadership, Culture, and Innovation in Tech
This chat with Doyin Sobowale, a Senior Director at Zillow, and (moderator - to be determined), will discuss insights on leadership, culture, and innovation in the tech industry. Drawing from his experience overseeing operations in Zillow's Rentals organization, Doyin will highlight how effective leadership fosters inclusivity, drives innovation, and fuels business growth.
As an executive sponsor for Billow, Zillow's employee resource group for Black employees and allies, Doyin will share perspectives of the importance of driving diversity and equity, in the tech industry, and the value of creating a more inclusive workplace culture. Additionally, Doyin will explore the power and strength in being your authentic self at work. Attendees can expect actionable insights and strategies for driving leadership, culture, and innovation within their own organizations.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Matthew Castilla
They Hope You Fail, And I Do Too
What do you do when you can’t meet the goals you’ve set for yourself in your career? When your mentors leave and don’t follow up with you. When your personal life derails your professional one. When failure follows you closely as if your downfall is a PR that was approved without your knowledge. You pivot. Even if it feels like you’re sinking. You learn how to swim well enough to give yourself a fighting chance. Even if it means going against the career norms of those around you, figuring out what’s wrong, testing for a solution, and if it means doing something like staying put in your organization and making your mark. Yes, it could even mean it’s best not to job-hop in your current situation *gasp*. Let’s get real and talk about refactoring your career after falling short of your dreams.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Julian Anugom, Joe Dunleavy, Sarah Honeyman, Kara Nishida, Shane Goronkin
Partnership to personalized: Experience design in the era of tech convergence w/ Delta
Since launching fast, free Wi-Fi and Delta Sync in early 2023, Delta has redefined how airlines think about connecting customers at each step of their journey. Unlocked by reliable, streaming-quality connectivity available to Delta SkyMiles Members, Delta’s new platform for entertainment and discovery is deepening brand loyalty and lighting a roadmap for the future onboard experience. And after connecting more than 650 aircraft, welcoming two million new Delta SkyMiles Members, enabling 40 million logged-in sessions and countless human connections along the way, the innovation doesn’t stop. This session looks behind the curtain—from imagination to implementation, design to optimization—at what it takes to deliver personalized, human connections at scale.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Annyce Davis
Two Decades in Tech: A Survival Guide
Working in tech for the past 20 years hasn't been without its challenges. In fact, it's been challenge after challenge. Yet, I know this journey has come with opportunities for my family and self that only others can dream of.
I want to pay it forward. I want to leave a blueprint, as you will, for how I've been able to navigate this career and stay grounded and focused on what really matters.
This talk is all about embracing the adventure of a tech career with the excitement and preparedness of a camping trip. You’ll learn to adapt, balance, communicate, navigate, and innovate, ensuring your tech journey is as thrilling and fulfilling as a journey through the great outdoors!
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Justin Samuels, Detavio Samuels, Shannon Sharpe
Champions of Change: Leading and Scaling Teams to Transform Organizations
Organizational change is essential for staying competitive and relevant in a rapidly changing business environment. Shannon Sharpe, Legendary Hall of Famer NFL Player and Entrepreneur and Justin E. Samuels, Founder of RenderATL, have proven they are the embodiment of champions of change. As a 3x Super Bowl Championship winner over his illustrious career, Shannon Sharpe played a major role in leading his team to the finish line. Never losing that competitive nature, Shannon has successfully pivoted from running plays on the field to now running one of the most successful podcasts, as the media force has shifted his cultural relevance with his “Club Shay Shay” and “Night Cap” where he boasts over 3 million YouTube subscribers and counting.
As the Founder and CEO of the country’s leading software engineering tech conference, RenderATL, Justin E. Samuels is the definition of leading a successful team with a clear vision and strategy. Since its inception in 2019, RenderATL has scaled successfully with an economic impact of over 6.5 million dollars and over 6,500 attendees at Render’s social events across the city of Atlanta, in the engineering and tech communities. This economic impact was felt across various sectors from local businesses, service providers, hotels and lodging, restaurants and transportation. With the ever-changing tech industry, Justin always stays ahead of the shift by providing attendees with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of cutting-edge technologies and gain practical skills to drive success in their respective fields as well as positioning RenderATL as a platform for employer recruiting with high career placement success rates.
Leadership, Culture & Management (LCM)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)Keynote
Theo Browne
Abusing Next.js For Fun And Profit
We've heard a lot about using Next.js the right way, what if we used it the WRONG way? Once you have javascript on the server, you can do a lot. In my opinion, we don't embrace this enough.
This session would be valuable for any typescript developer, especially those already familiar with Next.js. It will still be interesting if you're NOT familiar with Next.js, but you should expect to have a lot more to Google search after.
Either way, I recommend checking out my previous NextConf talk "Next.js Is A Backend Framework" for additional context
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)
Mark Techson
Building the Next Generation of Super charged Web Applications Today
Web development is on the cusp of a revolution and you need to be a part of it. Users are starting to expect applications to do things that previously required massive engineering efforts. You can harness the power of LLMs and other AI features to build applications that interact with your users in new ways.
Tired of web applications that feel static? In this action-packed session, Mark will show you how to use AI to transform your applications and reimagine the way you interact with users. Prepare to be inspired and empowered to reimagine the possibilities of your apps.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Monica Powell
Art + Data: An Exploration of Computational Creativity
Join us as we explore the fascinating world where art and various datatypes collide. In this talk, we'll discover some of the fundamentals of generative art, where even the simplest data inputs can spark creativity. Through clear examples and accessible explanations, we'll show you how basic data inputs can be transformed into one-of-a-kind visuals. From turning numbers into mesmerizing visual compositions to understanding how technology can enhance artistic expression, you'll leave feeling inspired to create your own data-inspired masterpieces.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Gift Egwuenu
Automate the Browser with Workers Browser Rendering API
This talk will explore how the Browser Rendering API can automate browser tasks. We will begin with an overview of Cloudflare Workers and how they enable JavaScript to run at the edge. Then, we will discuss browser automation in detail, covering how to interact with the DOM, fill out forms, and scrape data from web pages. At the end of this talk, attendees will better understand how to use the Browser Rendering API to automate browser tasks and take their web development skills to the next level.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Bogdan Balas
10 Lessons from 10 Years of youtube.com
"10 Lessons from 10 Years of youtube.com" is a talk presented by Bogdan Balas, the tech lead for YouTube web client. I will share anecdotes and lessons learned from scaling youtube.com and dive into the challenges of revisiting early decisions or outdated practices in software development. The session will blend technical strategies and team management skills, aimed at transforming past decisions from burdens into valuable learning experiences. I will also address the team dynamics and psychological aspects of dealing with tech debt, and discuss strategies for how to evolve and modernize a large complex product to keep up with modern best practices.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Stephanie Brubaker
Tales from the Trenches: Lessons Learned on the Quest for $100M ARR
What does it take to grow a company from nothing to a $2B valuation? Grit, luck, and a lot of wrong turns. This talk focuses on some of the common pitfalls on the path to growth, based on lessons learned from 10 years of building a successful Atlanta company at FullStory. It's not all doom and gloom; we'll also cover some key decisions that put the company on a trajectory for future success.
Come for the cautionary tales, stay for some practical advice on what you can do today to future-proof your company.
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)
Jeremiah Peoples
Building Conversational AI Apps in Slack
Slack is more than just a place to communicate with your coworkers. When you leverage the features of the Slack Platform, Slack transforms into a place where work gets done. Building meaningful automations has never been easier, from no-code tools like Workflow Builder to the reimagined suite of developer experience tooling. In this session, we will explore how to use these features to create a conversational AI Slack app using a Large Language Model and deploy it to Slack managed Infrastructure.
Software EngineeringBeginner (0-2 years of experience)
Brandon Bayer
Database modeling for multi-tenant SaaS
You should build in “teams” functionality on day 1. Because it's a nightmare to add later. And you almost certainly will need it at some point. But how? Single DB or DB per user? And there are many hidden considerations that you won't know unless you've learned the hard way. In this talk, I share all the hard-won lessons I've learned so you can easily build teams functionality in a way that will scale to every possible use case. .
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Jay Miller
Awkward End-to-End Testing with Playwright
Testing your project is easy right? Maybe if you own all the components or if you have a testing team to make sure everything is acting the way it should.
Sadly end-to-end testing is full of pitfalls and things to think about, especially when you don't control the entire stack. Often you end up with awkward conversations with engineering, marketing and others as you all fight for space to get your message across.
Enter Playwright, the open-source testing platform, to help us test what we control and what we don't.
This talk will walk through testing your site End-to-End with playwright. We'll address the highlights, concerns and next steps when you need to test things that may or may not be in your control. It won't solve all your testing problems but it will help you identify when you need to have those awkward conversations early before they're with your users.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Adora Nwodo
Designing Modern Distributed Applications with SurrealDB
In distributed systems, we have to think about different database solutions that fit the different bits of the system. Traditional monolithic databases can become bottlenecks for modern applications, struggling with scalability, real-time data, and the ever-evolving nature of data models.
This talk explores how SurrealDB, a powerful open-source multi model database, can address these challenges. We'll delve into how SurrealDB empowers developers to design and build robust, flexible distributed applications. We'll explore how its capabilities can solve real-world problems encountered when building distributed systems.
By the end of this talk, you'll gain a fresh perspective on building distributed applications. You'll understand how SurrealDB can help you design systems that are not only scalable and responsive, but also adaptable to ever-changing data needs. This newfound knowledge will equip you to tackle the complexities of modern distributed applications with confidence.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Zack Jackson
Rewriting Webpack in Rust, Module Federation V2, and the ROI
Our company handles more than 10,000 frontend apps across various products. The traditional structure of module federation started showing its limitations, and the faster bundlers couldn't meet our business needs. So, a redesign was necessary.
Why the redesign?
• To fix the natural limits of the old module federation
• To manage several thousand apps
Rewriting webpack in Rust?
• In the last year, we've been making webpack's API in Rust, passing 85% of webpack's tests
• We plan to launch v1 this summer and will talk about our plans after v1
• We'll talk about the system we made for Rust-based tools
Module Federation v2
• We'll give an overview of the improved abilities of module federation
• Give much more control over distributed apps
• Talk about features like Hot Module Reloading, Remote type hints, and type hinting from the browser
A New React Native Meta Framework?
• We'll give some early details about our next big projects moving from in-house to open-source, including our native app frameworks
The Business Value of our investment in these tools:
I will share some business data from ByteDance about the improvements we've made by using Rspack and Module Federation.
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)
Crystal Moore, Lee Rudolph, Tanisha Barnett, Justin Simpson
IC to VP: A Conversation on Career progression for Software Engineers by Brilliant Black Minds
Are you currently in your technical career and determining what's next in your career? Have you wondered whether you want to lead a team or organization, or have the freedom and flexibility to work as an individual part of a larger team?
In this session, we invite you to join a panel of engineering leaders from some of Brilliant Black Minds' corporate partners as they discuss the challenges and opportunities you may encounter when seeking to transition your career from an IC (individual contributor) role to a leadership role.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Charlie Gerard
Building hacking tools in JavaScript
If we follow Atwood’s Law, “Any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript”. As I started studying cybersecurity in my personal time, I noticed that the tools available to hackers are usually coded in C, C++ or Python but, as a front-end developer, I started wondering… Wouldn’t it be cool to rebuild some of these tools in JavaScript instead?! In this talk, I will explain how I rebuilt a famous tool to hack wireless devices using only Web APIs so you can hack doorbells, garage doors and more right from the browser!
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Shruti Kapoor
Everything you need to know about React 19
React 19 Beta is here! This new release brings a suite of exciting updates. From new hooks and Actions to changing the way we use refs, React 19 is going to change how we build web applications and use hooks. In this deep dive talk, we will explore the new features of React 19. Learn everything you need to know about Form Actions, the React Compiler, and new hooks such as useOptimistic and useFormActions. Additionally, we will delve into the capabilities of React Server Components.
Join us to catch up on what's changing in React 19
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)
Adam Gaidi
From Magic to Mechanics: Demystifying GPU Programming
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Today’s technological landscape is marked by rapid advancements, from awe-inspiring artificial intelligence to captivating 3D graphics and highly advanced simulations. At the heart of these innovations lies the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) – the workhorse driving modern computation.
Spanning a wide array of platforms – from palm-sized mobile devices to vast data centers – GPUs have become a solid foundation for innovation, enabling technology that truly feels like magic. But there are no arcane spellweavers inhabiting our computational devices. Only cleverly authored bits and bytes running on specialized architecture.
However, while GPUs are everywhere, fully leveraging their capabilities remains a complex puzzle for many developers. Navigating the vendor-specific API landscape and mastering parallel programming is a daunting task. Nevertheless, with the advent of the upcoming WebGPU API bringing high-performance computing to the web, and the success of modern APIs such as Vulkan and CUDA, the era of computationally demanding products is already upon us. Making it the perfect time to learn the fundamentals of GPU programming.
Learning objectives:
- Learn the fundamentals of parallel programming and how to avoid common pitfalls.
- Understand the general architecture of modern GPUs.
- Understand the role of Vulkan as a modern GPU API
- Understand the role of WebGPU as a low-level API that exposes modern GPU APIs directly to the browser.
- Learn how to set up, optimize, and initiate GPU computations in WebGPU.
By the end of this talk, attendees will have a foundational understanding of GPU architectures, the role of WebGPU and Vulkan, and the basics of writing GPU-accelerated code. Join the quest to unravel the potential of GPUs – no magic wand required.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Rhia Dixon
Getting Good (or Better) at Code Reviews
If you write code, you should review code.
That's it.
That's the talk.
There are quite a few "reasons" why developers at various levels find themselves code-review averse: impostor syndrome, time constraints, and area of expertise are a few I've heard. For code owners and project leads, it's a constant battle.
But it shouldn't be! It doesn't have to be!
Let's discuss the benefits of reviewing code, what it is, what it isn't, and how to make it more than the blind rubber stamp approvals we've grown used to. I'll show you my process and things that have helped me cultivate totally awesome code reviewers!
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Keith Kurak
Soar Above The Cloud: How Local-First Software Can Help Users and Developers
Many of even the most impressive apps today have one glaring bug: they become almost useless if the network goes out. Even when you have a perfect connection, anything that depends on server state is going to have some sort of delay. End-users will tell you that spinner fatigue is real! The cloud tax is a major drag on developers, too; even very simple app ideas require provisioning infrastructure, sophisticated networking code, and so many other complexities that would melt away if only you could just worry about whatever data is on disk. Local-first architecture is a paradigm for keeping the primary working copy of app data on the user's device rather than the cloud, syncing those changes without conflicts, even when devices are offline for a long time. Let’s get familiar with “LoFi,” how it’s a win for users and developers, and some new tools that streamline building local-first cross-platform React apps.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Lee Robinson
Generative UI with React Server Components
What if powerful LLMs could render React components? What would the future of user interfaces look like?
React Server Components and streaming server-rendering are the perfect technology to enable Generative UI. This talk will explain how it works, the type of product experiences companies are creating, and how you can get started with the latest AI tools.
Lee Robinson is the VP of Product at Vercel, a frontend cloud platform, is the creator and maintainers of Next.js.
Learn more about Lee, Next.js, and Vercel:
◆ Lee: https://leerob.io
◆ Next.js: http://nextjs.org
◆ Vercel: https://vercel.com
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)
Sergio Rio
Make it or break it: a practitioner’s perspective on the key success factors for building AI systems
Recent advances in Generative AI, specifically in large language models (LLMs), have revolutionized the field of natural language processing and have taken the "AI Hype" to an extreme. LLMs have the potential to become a backbone that supports the growth and development of numerous industries. Their versatility and adaptability make them powerful tools for innovation and problem-solving.
At the same time, there is growing unease around whether the behavior of these systems can be rendered transparent, explainable, unbiased, and accountable.
Better and cheaper algorithms and data are required in tandem; however, AI is different from other technologies because it learns. In essence, it provides prediction, a way of managing uncertainty, and creating value by improving decision-making.
It's still in the early days, but the use of Generative AI is already widespread. It can substantially increase labor productivity across the economy:
• Augmenting the capabilities of individual workers
• Automating some of their activities
When Generative AI is focused on augmenting humans rather than mimicking them, humans retain the power to insist on a share of the value created. Moreover, augmentation creates new capabilities, products, and services, ultimately generating far more value than merely human-like AI. It can lower the cost of exploration and accelerate hands-on experimentation, feedback, and iterative progress. However, we've just started learning how to work with them.
Product leaders, software engineers, application developers, and technology entrepreneurs must make effective decisions to leverage and embed Generative AI in their products, applications, and businesses.
Understanding how AI differs from other technologies and its critical success factors can make or break their endeavors.
In this idea exchange and networking conversation, a CTO turned entrepreneur presents a practitioner's perspective, illustrative examples, and lessons learned prototyping an "expert AI assistant" for a stealth tech start-up company. Some of the key challenges and critical success factors discussed are:
1. It's challenging to contemplate new system design opportunities. Valuable AI-based products streamline minimum essential decisions, considering high-fidelity prediction machines are available.
2. First-mover advantages depend on how good the prediction needs to be to enter the market (minimum viable predictions).
3. Early adoption of Generative AI is not necessarily a moat if the prediction does not improve with time. The advantage isn't launching first; it's launching by collecting feedback data. Improving prediction with feedback data creates a race between competitors. It might be impossible to catch up to a competitor that falls behind.
4. AI use cases appeal to different groups or businesses, so domain knowledge is vital. Many AI systems are only differentiated by quality (a term that requires a precise definition depending on the use case).
5. Measuring discrimination by machine is straightforward, while doing the same with humans is hard.
Join this conversation! It's a work in progress; we're making history, and no opinions are final!
Software EngineeringBeginner (0-2 years of experience)
Todd Gardner
Hostile JavaScript: Attacking and Defending the Browser
How much JavaScript is on your website? Do you know what it does? No really, have you looked at the code and seen what it does? No, you haven't.
JavaScript controls the client side environment, and we can use it to compromise users, consume resources, and steal data. Yet many websites continue to add scripts without review, audit, or thought.
Let’s explore what JavaScript can do to a browser, the vectors that JavaScript can get added to websites, and how we can defend against JavaScript attacks.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Shaundai Person
Lag? What Lag?! How Remix Makes Your App Feel Faster than the Internet
Your users love interacting with your Remix application because of the rich experience. Even without a strong internet connection, the pages of your client-side or server-side rendered app seem to load instantaneously. Users immediately see and can interact with the parts of the app they’re most interested in. But how is this possible? The power of Remix.
In this talk, we’ll discuss how Remix uses data fetching and provides rendering optimizations out of the box, giving developers the power to create exceptional user experiences. We’ll also discover the features and tooling that provide a wonderful developer experience!
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Animesh Koratana
Building an AI engineer
AI is going to change the way we build and support our software. In this talk, we'll explore how these agents are built and the engineering, techniques, and frameworks required to design and iterate world class AI products. We'll also explore the data intensive systems that enable the core of modern agentic workflows and how they can rewrite the future for how we build products.
We'll also look through a few examples of how incredible brands have started deploying AI in their day to day development workflows to move faster and not break things.
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)
Kelsey Hightower
Grand Closing
There is more to tech than your HR title and in this session Kelsey will examine what happens when the whole person is allowed to show up, and how they can help shape the industry, and not just work in it.
Kelsey will reflect over his 25 year career, from being introduced to technology at Lovejoy High School, to retiring from Google as a distinguished engineer. There is a lot that happens in-between from starting a family to learning how to live debt free so you can invest in the important things.
Software EngineeringSenior+ (6+ years of experience)Keynote
Angie Jones
How I Bought Booze with a JSON Web Token
In recent years, we've seen the prevalence of delivery apps that are ready and willing to bring whatever you need right to your doorstep - whether that be food, groceries, or even alcohol.
However, in the case of the latter, verifying one's age for alcohol purchases poses an interesting challenge. Traditional methods, like presenting a physical ID, are not feasible for online transactions. And sharing complete personal details like date of birth online can compromise privacy.
Fortunately, Angie Jones was able to use her mobile driver’s license application to share a special JSON Web Token (JWT), known as a Verifiable Credential (VC), to digitally prove to both the vendor and the delivery company that she is of legal drinking age.
Adhering to W3C open standards, VCs offer a streamlined, privacy-centric method to digitally verify just about any qualification including identity, employment, education, residency, and so much more!
Join Angie Jones for a practical demonstration of creating and sharing tamper-resistant digital credentials in the form of JWTs. Learn how these credentials not only enhance efficiency but also uphold privacy in online transactions.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Dolly Desir
Observability in a Serverless environment
This session will provide a basic overview of serverless environments as well as identifying the pros and cons that come with a serverless infrastructure. Having a good observability strategy is critical for running applications in production, particularly in a microservices architecture.
We will be answering the question of how you can ensure that you’re getting the right data from your systems without compromising size and performance.
I'll be sharing best practices when using a serverless environment, such as function design, cold starts, dependency management, error handling and anything else I can try to squeeze in =)
I'll introduce the topic of providing full visibility into all of the managed services in a serverless environment and what that looks like in a service such Datadogs
Software EngineeringBeginner (0-2 years of experience)
Malcolm Player
OWSAP Top Ten and How to Defend against them
As we go to more of a digital society with api ,cool frontends and etc. We need to talk about security. The Open Worldwide Application Security Project is an online community that produces freely available articles, methodologies, documentation, tools, and technologies in the field of web application security. The OWSAP Groups produces two lists
OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks
WASP Top 10 for Web Application
In this talk we go over the above lists. I will give you strategies on how to defend agist the treats identified and how to find them. It is my hope after this talk you will have a better understanding of the threats and how to write better code to defend against them.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Danny Thompson
Typescript and Your Codebase, They deserve each other!
In the talk "TypeScript and Your Codebase: They Deserve Each Other!" we'll embark on a journey to explore the harmonious relationship between TypeScript and modern codebases, revealing how this powerful language is not just an add-on but a necessity for robust, scalable, and maintainable applications. Through a comprehensive dive into the core features of TypeScript, including its versatile system of generics, we'll uncover the potential to write cleaner, more efficient code that can adapt to any requirement or challenge. This session aims to illuminate the profound impact of adopting TypeScript, showcasing how its features like static typing, interfaces, and enums, coupled with advanced generics, can revolutionize the way developers approach common programming paradigms.
Delving deeper, the talk will navigate through the best practices in TypeScript programming, from leveraging design patterns that are suited to TypeScript's strengths, to practical advice on structuring projects for ease of maintenance and scalability. We'll dissect real-world scenarios where TypeScript's features, especially generics, play a pivotal role in creating flexible and reusable code components, thus elevating the quality and reliability of your codebase. Attendees will gain insight into how TypeScript fosters a development environment conducive to tackling complex projects, reducing bugs, and enhancing team collaboration. Whether you're looking to migrate an existing JavaScript project to TypeScript or aiming to refine your TypeScript skills, this talk will arm you with the knowledge and techniques to make your codebase and TypeScript a match made in heaven.
Software EngineeringBeginner (0-2 years of experience)
Matt Biilmann
JAMSTACK 2024 and Beyond
The JamStack architecture has revolutionized web development by introducing a new way to build and deliver websites. In this talk, we will walk through the initial idea behind JamStack, how and when it manifested, and where the internet was at the time of its creation in 2016. The first section of the talk will cover the architecture of JamStack, including its key principles and benefits. We will also discuss the early open-source projects and companies that were building the JamStack tool kit. Once the audience has a baseline understanding of JamStack, we will move on to discussing where we are today with JamStack architecture. We will explore how the principles of JamStack have remained the same, even as modern frameworks such as Next, Astro, and Remix have pushed the envelope on what was initially a static website development approach. JamStack's embrace of dynamic responses for responsive websites empowers developers to create engaging user experiences. With the advent of AI-driven development, future-proofing your webstack is even more critical.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Christian Nwamba
How to become a confident engineer
Becoming an exceptional and confident engineer goes beyond mastering algorithms, writing flawless tests, or knowing every quirk of your programming language. These technical skills, while essential, often only address the surface of what it truly takes to build confidence in your engineering skills. This talk will introduce a transformative framework designed to target the root causes in your insecurities and imposter syndrome. We'll explore how shifting mindsets, embracing practical experiences, and cultivating a culture of desiring difficulties can forge not just competent, but truly confident engineers.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
James Q Quick
Maximizing Your Potential in Tech Interviews: The Three Cs to Success
The economy is terrible, layoffs are everywhere, and interviewing is hard. Job searching is exhausting and stressful, so how do you overcome all of that? All you need is a plan!
Whether it’s overcoming nerves or learning to communicate your technical experience more effectively, we all have our struggles. What you can’t do is let them hold you back! In this talk, learn how to leverage the three C’s (Connections, Communication, and Confidence) to gain a competitive advantage during your interviews. By embracing this strategy, you’ll be prepared to crush your next interview and get that offer!
Software EngineeringBeginner (0-2 years of experience)
Sean McQuaid
Remix Your React Router Applications!
With the recent release of Remix SPA mode, migrating your React Router applications to Remix has never been easier. In this talk, we will define some use cases for both Client-Side Rendering and Server-Side Rendering and explain how Remix's opt-in model to build features allows you to own your architectural decisions fully. We will also discuss how you can gradually migrate a purely Client-Side Rendered React Router application to a Progressively Enhanced Server-Side Rendered application and all the benefits of migrating to Remix for the user experience and developer experience.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Austin Gil
What's a dev gotta do to make a div around here?
An in-depth journey following your code from conception in the editor through the awkward build processes into deployment pipelines out to the real world of public internet and off to its final destination, being rendered in a user's browser.
The internet has become a complex place. With the advent of frameworks, build tools, and deployment services, the distance between developers and browsers is growing. Developer Experience has improved, but with these abstractions, we've introduced layers of obscurity.
This talk is intended for web developers of all skill levels, as it fills the gaps in knowledge of how our work works. The information is not critical, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
We'll take a deep dive into what happens after you hit save, what processes take place to get your code transformed for production, how does it get deployed, how it gets to the user, and the steps the browser takes to actually render the page.
By the end of this talk, you should have a better understanding of the following:
- Dev servers
- Bundlers
- Transpilers
- CI/CD
- DNS Lookups
- TCP/IP
- SSL/TLS
- HTTP
- Critical Render Path
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Ignat Korchagin
How to protect yourself from the biggest Internet threats
Nowadays, there are many attack vectors an adversary can employ to either break into the system or impact its operations. Oftentimes a successful attack is a clever combination of smaller vectors, which on their own do not seem very important or dangerous. That’s why to efficiently mitigate modern Internet threats the system should be built with the “defense in depth” in mind.
In this presentation we will discuss the various approaches and technical solutions Cloudflare implemented to protect infrastructure and services from the biggest Internet threats. We will review a layered approach to security starting from the Internet itself, then data center networking, server and operating systems layers, application and service layers. We will see how the Internet today has become the global “security perimeter” and how to protect modern cloud workloads and corporate services.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Henri Helvetica
Down The Wire: Investigating Modern Web Performance, and Solving UX Bottlenecks.
The nature of web development in 2024 is such that we now have multiple technologies and frameworks being deployed to the web. You make your request, the content is delivered down the wire, to your cell connection, and populates your view port. However, the available evidence and data provided indicate that performance scores as well as the core web vitals across the web are poor.
Down The Wire: Investigating Modern Web Performance, and Solving UX Bottlenecks is a presentation about the investigative work that is web performance, gathering evidence and looking at data (synthetic as well as RUM), the modern metrics available to spot regressive patterns and the tools and APIs we use to solve bottlenecks.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Francesco Ciulla
Rust and Docker: Let's build an AI-powered app!
Get ready to dive into creating an AI-powered app using the OpenAI API. This hands-on session starts with a deep dive into OpenAI's API, showcasing its pivotal role in AI application advancements. We'll then explore Rust, showcasing its potential as a programming language in AI software development. Docker comes next, revealing how it transforms efficiency and scalability in our build. The crux of this session is not just about theory – it's about bringing these technologies together in a cohesive, powerful architecture. Attendees will witness first-hand the impressive synergy between OpenAI's API, Rust's robust coding capabilities, and Docker's flexible deployment methods. This is a practical guide to crafting cutting-edge, effective AI applications.
Software EngineeringMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Leron Gray
Y'all Gotta Learn to Keep a Secret
Attackers LOVE secrets. Whether they're in code, build pipelines, or the resulting artifact, secrets are the gateway to valuable infrastructure and assets. Unfortunately, finding insecure storage of credentials is all too common.
This session will cover an attacker's perspective on secrets management, discuss the mindset shift required to prioritize security within your development lifecycle, and provide insight into some frequently observed bad practices.
Come view codebases through the eyes of a hacker.
Software EngineeringBeginner (0-2 years of experience)
Rizèl Scarlett
How NOT to Use GitHub Copilot: The Time Traveler's Playbook for Coding with AI
"Does GitHub Copilot stunt learning, and why doesn't it always produce relevant suggestions?" These concerns echo the anxiety surrounding using AI to code, often rooted in the steep learning curve associated with adopting new technology.
But what if I told you that you might be using GitHub Copilot wrong?
Through 2000s nostalgia and interactive storytelling, I will provide attendees with a practical framework for effectively using GitHub Copilot, so you can write code that elevates your career and learn new programming languages. Audience members will leave with strategies for using AI pair programming tools as mentors rather than crutches.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Lizzie Siegle
Exploit Grandma: Prompt and Build Better AI apps
As Andrej Karpathy said, "The hottest new programming language is English." This beginner-friendly talk will feature plenty of live-coding in the hottest new programming language and will go over how you can become a better prompt engineer, getting better output from Large Language Models (LLMs)--by giving them better input! Using Cloudflare AI, we'll cover strategies for developing prompts, traits that good prompts share (and what some bad prompts look like), how you can slowly begin to predict output based on input and how you can nudge a LLM in a certain direction, providing extra context and information to the model to augment its knowledge, how to develop innovative chat-based apps using English, and more!
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Anthony Kerr
How Generative AI is Changing the Game for Productivity and Creativity
Generative AI is revolutionizing the way we work and create, rapidly becoming an indispensable tool for professionals across industries and disciplines. In a recent survey conducted by Microsoft, an overwhelming majority of professionals said generative AI has helped them become more productive and improved the quality of their work.
In this session, you will learn how to leverage AI to supercharge your productivity and unleash your creativity. Additionally, we will explore a range of applications and products powered by generative AI, demonstrating their potential to assist you in achieving your professional and personal ambitions. Whether you are a developer or a creator, beginner or advanced user, this session promises to deepen your understanding of generative AI. By attending, you can expect to gain practical skills that can be immediately applied to your professional and personal pursuits.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Eric Heyward, Jason Sankey
Is my Data Ready for AI Modeling?
Join us for an engaging panel discussion as we delve into the pivotal question: "Is my data ready for AI Modeling?" Led by industry experts, including the Chief of Shared Technology Platforms at CDC and the Executive Director of Enterprise Data and Advanced Analytics at RaceTrac, this session will explore the critical considerations and challenges organizations face when preparing their data for AI modeling. From data quality and integrity to infrastructure and governance, our panelists will share insights, best practices, and real-world experiences to help attendees navigate the complexities of data readiness in the era of AI.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Executive (10+ years of experience)
Oskar Kwaśniewski
React Native ❤️ Apple Vision Pro: Your App in the New Dimension
Short description
Thanks to web browsers, JavaScript is everywhere, even on Apple's not (yet) released extended reality headset. But wouldn’t it be more fun to run JS natively, without the browser, with unlimited access to this new platform capabilities of spatial computing? Yes it would! And thanks to React Native it turned out easier than I thought (yet still very challenging). And with this talk I want to share my journey and ideas for the future.
Long description
I want to take the audience through a journey of adding a new platform, such as Apple’s visionOS, to React Native – where to start, and how to help yourself progressing through layers of tooling and complexity and release for other developers to use. React Native being an amazing piece of engineering, is a complex, 8-years-in-the-making project that builds on a variety of OSS tooling, including Hermes JS engine, Cocoapods, but also its own C++ code generation, new architecture, and much more. I will also discuss how we enhance React Native itself by introducing modern APIs, adding multi-screen support to iPadOS and macOS Catalyst apps, fixing bugs, and making it way easier for other new platforms to integrate seamlessly. I will also discuss how we implemented visionOS specific APIs like: `ImmersiveScenes`, `3DModel` and how you can use 3D rendering to enhance your user's experience. And how we plan to go beyond Apple Vision Pro.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Armando Pantoja
AI and Robotics & Ethics: Creating Intelligent Machines
In this session, we delve into the complex world of AI and robotics, highlighting the ethical dimensions that accompany their integration into everyday life. As AI technology progresses and becomes more entwined with our daily routines, it is imperative to address the ethical challenges that arise. Our discussion will cover pivotal questions such as: How can we embed ethical principles within robotics and software design? What obligations do developers and producers hold in the creation of these technologies? How can we ensure that the benefits of AI and robotics are distributed equitably across society?
Additionally, we will explore real-world ethical quandaries presented by intelligent machines, including the use of autonomous vehicles and military drones. Through these examples, we will consider various strategies to resolve these ethical dilemmas. This conversation aims to equip participants with a deeper understanding of the critical ethical considerations in the development and deployment of AI and robotics, preparing us for a future where these technologies will play an increasingly significant role. Join us for a thought-provoking exploration of the ethical landscape of AI and robotics.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Ken Wheeler
AI Trap
I’m going to show how to leverage AI to help write banger trap beats. We’ll explore how to get AI to give you the results you want. Next up is applying those results to building real things. Then we explore iteration, and fine tuning prompts, models and workflow to end up where we want to be. I’m going to make extensive use of the web audio API to sequence and synthesize sound. Attendees will get a great primer on how to work with audio in the browser for real applications, as well as how to set up a modern AI app.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Demetris Cheatham
Expanding Open Source in the Age of AI
Open source developers are the foundation of modern advancements in AI—creating new breakthroughs, finding new applications, and monitoring new models to coalesce around industry standards. But as we reach a critical inflection point in the Age of AI, Demetris Cheatham, Chief of Staff to the CEO of GitHub, argues it’s time to ask not what open source can do for AI, but what AI can do for open source. In this keynote address, Cheatham explores the benefits of AI across three major open source categories: learning, productivity, and security. With these benefits in mind, she imagines an open source world where anyone can contribute, opening the doors for a world of one billion developers by the year 2030.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Executive (10+ years of experience)
Osa Igunbor
Driving Innovation at Workday
Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications, delivering financial management, human resources, planning, spend management, and analytics applications built with AI and ML at the core to help organizations embrace the future of work.
Workday unifies finance, human resources, and planning on one open and connected platform. This approach makes it possible to deliver in-context, real-time reporting, and end-to-end processes for a more insightful and intuitive experience for our customers and users. During the session we will discuss Workday best practice, how we approach innovation, AI/ML and Responsible AI.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Homer Gaines, CPACC
Beyond Alt Descriptions: Authoring Accessible Content
Inclusive content writing is more than providing atl descriptions for images and video transcripts. It's authoring material that is considerate, respectful, and accessible to a diverse audience, regardless of their background, identity, abilities, and learning styles. Inclusive content writing aims to ensure that everyone can not only engage with but understand the content presented. Attendees will gain a better understanding of how content is perceived by people with various neurological disabilities and how to apply the applicable WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria. This talk will also cover a few best practices for authoring inclusive content to improve the user's experience. We will also dive into the use of modern technology, such as AI, to assist in the writing process.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Julián Duque
Building AI Applications with LangChain and Node.js
In this session, we'll dive into the process of creating AI applications using the LangChain framework and Node.js. You'll learn how to effectively integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) into your projects, and how to use embeddings to vectorize text-based documents. This embeddings will be stored in a vector database, we will use pgvector, a extension for supporting vectors in PostgreSQL, which is crucial for handling similarity search queries for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Kedasha Kerr
Langchain, OpenAI, LLMs, oh my! Finding your way home through AI
Large Language Models (LLMs) have exploded over the last year as one of the most discussed world changing movements in recent history. But how do they work? And how do we choose the right models to build with?
Journey through AI with me as we explore how LLMs work, how to choose the right model to build with and how to get started building with them. We'll dive into code to build our own AI-powered LLM app with Langchain, OPENAI and GitHub Copilot, LIVE.
You'll walk away knowing how to make AI a more useful tool in your development toolkit!
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Marques Matthews, Natasha Allen
Navigating Innovation: Legal Challenges and Opportunities in AI
Join us for an engaging conversation featuring Marques Matthews, Senior Director of Legal at Uber, and Natasha Allen, Partner at Foley & Lardner. Together, they will delve into real-life examples that spotlight the evolving attitudes and regulatory demands shaping the use of AI in businesses today. Discover the challenges and opportunities these changes present for individuals and organizations striving to ethically integrate AI into their operations and careers. Don’t miss this insightful discussion packed with practical insights and expert perspectives!
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Yemi Akisanya
Revolutionizing Public Safety: Cutting Gun-Related Deaths by 50% Through Tech Innovation
Axon is a technology leader in global public safety. Our moonshot goal is to cut gun-related deaths between the police and public by 50% before 2033. In this interactive discussion, we will share how we are building the public safety operating system of the future by integrating a suite of hardware devices and cloud software solutions and invite audience participation. Join the conversation as we chat through historical considerations in a live roundtable discussion on key issues impacting communities.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Senior+ (6+ years of experience)
Apurva Misra
Should you really be including GenAI in your products?
In an age where artificial intelligence is more than a buzzword, it's a vital component of innovation, the question isn't just about including AI in your products, but the type of AI that can truly make a difference. This talk delves into the heart of GenAI—next-generation AI—and its potential role in the future of product development.
As businesses strive to stay ahead of the curve, integrating GenAI might seem like the next logical step. But is it the right one for your product? We will explore the multifaceted benefits and potential drawbacks of GenAI, examining case studies where GenAI has been a game-changer and situations where it might not be the best fit.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Evan Hahn
Understanding Unicode
The farmer emoji (👩🏾🌾) is a bit of a mystery.
In Java and JavaScript, the length of this string is 7. In Python and Ruby, its size is 4. It's 15 in Go. There's just one character here...shouldn't they all have the same length: 1?
To understand this madness, you need to understand a little about Unicode. Many developers, myself included, get intimidated by Unicode. What's "UTF-8"? What's a "code point"? What does "U+1F937" mean?
In this talk, I'll try to answer these questions so that the next time someone gets confused by the length of the farmer emoji, you can help.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Jemiah Sius
How to cure generative AI hallucinations with observability
Generative AI (GenAI) applications are known to “hallucinate,” or confidently respond with false or made-up information. Hallucinations are one of the biggest drawbacks to using this tech and are also famously hard to detect, prevent, and fix. But, researchers and engineers are racing to solve this problem as GenAI adoption increases.
So, for a DevOps team adopting this tech now, what’s the best way to tell when hallucinations happen, and most importantly, why?
Engineers, and the company’s bottom line, need a way to trace the path of the response—from the user’s prompt and integration with a large language model (LLM) to work by agents, API calls, and back to the end user. By monitoring every step, engineers can learn where hallucinations originate and apply a potential fix, like adding more context to the prompt or ensuring the LLM is re-summarizing responses accurately, so they can quickly take action and improve the quality of their results.
In this session, Jemiah Sius, Senior Director of Developer Relations at New Relic will explain how companies can use observability to help prevent GenAI hallucinations and share ways DevOps teams can improve their LLM integrations with context, agents, chained models, and more—with a focus on how to do it affordably.
In his role, Jemiah leads a global team focused on solving friction points for engineering teams—keeping them at the center of New Relic’s innovation strategy—so they can more easily find and fix issues before they impact their business and customers.
With that, he understands the challenges DevOps teams face and how, if deployed strategically, GenAI solutions can help solve those challenges.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Brooke Jamieson
The ABCs of Generative AI
Generative AI exploded onto the scene so quickly, that many developers haven’t been able to catch up with new jargon, best practices and ways of working around Generative AI. At first, only experienced ML practitioners could get started, but the proliferation of new tools means Generative AI has been democratized and now all developers can participate.
In this session, we’ll go through key terms from A to Z in a fun, engaging and interactive way. Dive into:
1. Demystifying the Buzzwords: Navigate the jargon jungle, and understand the essential terms that are shaping the Generative AI space
2. Best Practices: Explore the proven techniques and strategies that will guide you to success when building with Generative AI.
3. The Democratization of AI: Dive deep into the tools that enable all builders (not just ML Experts!) to harness the power of Generative AI.
4. Building with Curiosity and Confidence: Learn enough to figure out how to start building the idea you’ve been thinking about!
This session gives all developers an overview of key terms and foundational knowledge so they can dive in to Generative AI with confidence. Whether you’re a builder without an AI/ML background, or you’re feeling like you’ve “missed the boat”, this session is for you!
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Ron Dagdag
The Prompt Engineer and the AI Agents in Javascript
Prompts in a language model are like magic spells. You tell the model what you want to talk about or ask, and it generates a magical response based on the input. AI agents are like the wizard who consults their spell book to cast a series of spells. AI Agents use Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) as a reasoning engine to determine which actions to take and in which order. Attend this session to learn how to craft AI Agents in JavaScript using OpenAI and LangChain and other prompt engineering techniques. Alohomora!
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Kia Richards, Amber Hazeley, Ashley Blackmon-Hynson, Oseyi Ikuenobe
Building Blocks from Innovation to Impact: The Power of Money Moves
Join us for an interactive panel discussion with Block, where we’ll explore how our mission and ecosystems—Cash App, Square, TIDAL, and TBD —empower individuals to navigate the economy and make impactful "Money Moves."
Across Block, our teams build products and services for their unique audiences — sellers, individuals, artists, developers and everyone in between. In this session, we’ll dig into the unifying purpose behind the products and hear from some of the leading voices driving this work.
We'll dive into the foundational elements that underpin some of our most impactful products and initiatives, from our seller tools helping power entrepreneurs to our work making bitcoin more accessible. We’ll explore how we innovate and collaborate across the Block ecosystem to make a tangible impact on how our users access the economy. From identifying emerging trends to leveraging technology and partnerships, our panelists will share insights into Block’s financial innovation.
Learn firsthand from our panelists about their experiences, successes, and the collaborative efforts shaping the future of finance. From breakthrough technologies to strategic partnerships, gain a deeper understanding of how Block's people and products are not just disrupting industries but also opening economic access.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Lucas Potter, Xavier Palmer
Using LLM's to Develop Academic Misinformation
The utility of LLM's to developing misinformation will be elaborated. The argument presented: the shared resource of knowledge-based ontological security must be treated as a common good. The current privatization of academic resources and the emergent toxic nature of academia must be changed in order to keep citizens informed of scientific progress. Other industrial sources of misinformation (using tobacco as a case study) have long ago perfected the art of using the trappings of academia in order to pursue a selfish interest. We will conclude with an example of formulating a misinformation pipeline and showing how to make that AI generated content appear realistic.
Accessibility & Innovation (A.I.)Beginner (0-2 years of experience)
Dan Mall
Design Systems Everywhere Else
As a design system consultant, I’ve had the privilege of seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly of how hundreds of design systems teams work. The first question almost every team asks me is, “Is this how it works everywhere else?”
Design system work can be lonely, and it’s difficult to know if you’re doing it right. We all want to know that we're not alone in our work. I’ll share my top findings for what most teams are doing so you can stay ahead of the curve—and what things they’re not that they should be.
DesignMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Grishma Jena
Bridging bytes and behavior with Data Science and UX Research
Today’s world generates data at unbelievably rapid rates. It is important to leverage data available to better understand the bigger picture. Data scientists and UX researchers often have the same destination but different routes. This talk gives an overview of how Data Science can complement UX research, including quantitative and qualitative methods. It introduces the Data Science pipeline along with describing useful applications for UX research like identifying users to interview, finding different segments of customers and generating data for usability studies. It highlights interesting instances of how the two fields can help each using real-life examples from Spotify, Airbnb, and others.
DesignMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Håkon Wium Lie
CSS @ 30, join the party!
Håkon Wium Lie proposed Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) while working with Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1994. Since then, CSS has reached a mature age worth celebrating. In his talk, Håkon will discuss why CSS was invented and how the language evolved to meet the increasing needs of authors and designers. Achieving interoperability between browser implementations was just as important as developing the specifications, and the Acid2 test forced even Microsoft to comply. Finally, you will be challenged to use CSS in some new ways.
DesignMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)Keynote
Jina Anne
Beyond Code Generation: The Future of Design Systems with AI
Many discussions around AI & design systems focus reducing effort in design & developer jobs easier, by generating design/code. But let’s go beyond that.
In this presentation, Jina will discuss how AI can improve user experiences by creating personalized and adaptable UIs. They will also address ethical considerations and share examples of how AI could make our design systems more meaningful. And they will share a few things that we should do now to get us there.
This talk is for designers, developers, and anyone interested in AI's impact on design systems.
DesignMid-Level (3-5 years of experience)
Hank Washington
Art and Branding Behind Tech
In this talk, we will go over a brand designer's POV of how the world of branding and tech is evolving and how those worlds collide. We will deep dive into techniques of storytelling and reverse engineering branding approaches, whether for individuals or companies, to bring personality to a space that is cut and dry. This talk aims to define branding, showcase the art in tech, and how the human story connects. We will review real-world examples of brand stories and find ways branding and art reinforce those stories. Whether you're in the process of personal branding, branding your startup, or understanding branding in your existing job, this talk aims to provide insight into the magic of a visual presence beyond UI and UX design.
DesignSenior+ (6+ years of experience)