The Future of Software Architecture in the Age of AI

Java Stage — 30 minutes

AI is no longer a futuristic buzzword—it’s reshaping the way we build and design software today. In the past decade, machine learning has been quietly powering decisions on unstructured data. However, these solutions were often complex, requiring specialized models for narrow tasks and significant integration overhead.  Fast forward to today: large language models (LLMs) have shifted the landscape. They enable us to process and interpret vast amounts of unstructured data with greater ease—but not without trade-offs, such as increasing cost and the risk of hallucinations. In this talk, we’ll explore how modern software architecture is evolving to embrace AI—not just for code generation or explanation, but as a foundational component. We’ll dive into practical examples, especially from the Java ecosystem, and cover: How to design systems leveraging LLMs effectively Techniques to reduce cost and mitigate hallucinations Strategies for scaling AI-infused applications Real-world challenges in going from prototype to production Join us to see how AI can be a first-class citizen in your software architecture—and what it takes to make it work in the real world. a Read More...

• Răzvan Bălașa [Java Developer — Playtika]
• Adrian Coman [Java Technical Lead — Playtika]

Create your own AI-infused Java apps with ease

Java Stage — 45 minutes

Generative AI has taken the world by storm over the last year, and it seems like every executive leader out there is telling us “regular” Java application developers to “add AI” to our applications.  Does that mean we need to drop everything we’ve built and become data scientists (and Python developers) instead now? Fortunately, we can infuse AI models built by actual AI experts into our JAVA applications in a fairly straightforward way, thanks to some new projects out there. We promise it’s not as complicated as you might think! Thanks to the nice AI integration capabilities that the LangChain4j libraries offer, and the ease of use and superb developer experience of Quarkus, it becomes trivial to start working with AI and make your stakeholders happy :)
In this session, you’ll explore a variety of AI capabilities. We’ll start by trying out local AI models even before writing any code. Then we’ll get our hands dirty with some code and exploring LangChain4j features such as prompting and preserving state; agents and function-calling; enriching your AI model’s knowledge with your own documents using retrieval augmented generation (RAG); and discovering ways to run (and train) models locally using tools like Ollama, Jlama and/or Podman AI Lab. In addition, we’ll take a look at observability and fault tolerance of the AI integration and compile the app to a native binary. Maybe we’ll even try some new features, such as generating images, or building a full-blown Model Context Protocol (MCP) server! Read More...

• Kevin Dubois [Principal Developer Advocate — Red Hat]

Java streams: evolution from JDK 8 to today

Java Stage — 30 minutes

Java Streams, introduced in JDK 8, have become a cornerstone of modern Java programming. This session explores the key enhancements and optimizations made to the Stream API in subsequent JDK releases. Join this session to learn about new APIs, performance improvements, or how Streams integrate with reactive programming through the Flow API. This talk is perfect for developers looking to deepen their understanding of Streams and apply the latest features to write more efficient, modern Java code. Read More...

• Mihaela Gheorghe-Roman [Software Architect — Systematic]

The Hidden Gems of Java 25

Java Stage — 45 minutes

Java is turning 30 years old and remains innovative and modern with each release. To become a creative engineer for your company, you should know what's new in your language. This session will uncover Java SE's 25 hidden gems, including exciting new language features, compiler changes, library additions, critical bug fixes, and deprecated elements that will simplify your migration to Java 25. They're useful in your day-to-day work. Read More...

• Mohamed Taman [Solutions Architect — Magna International]

Lunch Break

Java Stage — 1 hour

Haunted projects survival guide

Java Stage — 45 minutes

Have you ever been in a project that resembled a haunted mansion straight out of a horror story? This talk will guide you through the old ghosts of bad decisions, countless bodies falling out of the closet, voices whispering conflicting requirements, ancient code, gargantuan monoliths deep down in the dungeons, enigmatic figures in suits, scrolls with cryptic documentation, a mummy wrapped in bureaucratic papers, micromanaging puppeteers, sense of impending doom and a constant struggle between autonomy, mastery and purpose Even if there is no easy way out, we can fight the monsters or befriend them together. Stay and listen, adventurers. Read More...

• Paweł Zajączkowski [Dev Manager — Xebia Poland]

The long and winding road to building an enterprise microservice framework that's actually being used

Java Stage — 30 minutes

"Go for microservices," they said. "They're so much better than monoliths," they insisted. Like many teams, we followed this popular advice, expecting smooth sailing.  Instead, we ended up with a distributed monolith that, to say the least, didn’t exactly solve our problems. We took a step back to evaluate our architecture and learn from our mistakes. Then, by carefully crafting a microservice platform from scratch, we managed to regain the flexibility and agility we initially sought.Join this session to discover the insights, pitfalls, and lessons learned from our journey, and see how we ultimately built a robust and scalable microservice ecosystem—this time getting it right. Read More...

• Yury Dolzhenko [Staff Engineer Customer Tech Enablement — Albert Heijn]

Safeguarding the software supply chain: addressing the rise of AI tools in attacks

Java Stage — 45 minutes

The increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has given rise to new threats in the software supply chain.  This talk (with live examples) delves into the alarming emergence of AI tools in software supply chain attacks, examining their implications, challenges, and strategies to enhance security. From the proliferation of super botnets to the intricacies of spear-phishing and even the simplicity of ChatGPT-style prompt kiddie attacks, generative AI tools have become the preferred weapon for malicious actors.
Read More...

• Steve Poole [Java Developer — Independent]

Streamtoxication: how a fluent API turns into a tangled mess

Java Stage — 1 hour

Should we use streams everywhere? Certainly, using streams is often clearer and more concise than iterating a collection. But sometimes stream code requires a complex combination of collectors, folding, monads, nested flatMap operations, which makes the verdict debatable.  In this session, we will pick several use-cases, workout the best solutions we can in both imperative and functional styles, and then argue over which is better. Of course, you'll get to vote! If you're a Java developer, you shouldn't miss this session! You'll have fun, replenish your energy, and leave with a better idea of where streams excel, and where you should stay with old-fashioned imperative style. Read More...

• Victor Rentea [Java Champion — Independent Consultant]

The Web Can Be Weird

Web Stage — 30 minutes

The web is capable of way more than we might think. During this talk, we’ll explore some lesser known parts of the web. Did you know you can control the web via webHID or send and receive notes to devices via webMIDI? In this interactive talk we might make some music together, by controlling synthesisers and exploring the wide range of strange web API’s. All that in vanilla JavaScript, no frameworks needed. Read More...

• Elian Van Cutsem [Lead DevRel — React Bricks]

Rust and web development

Web Stage — 45 minutes

Rust is well known for its performance, safety, and reliability. But can it be used stably and in production for web development?  This talk explores the current state of Rust in the web space, looking at its strengths and limitations and how the ecosystem is evolving for both backend and frontend development. Read More...

• Francesco Ciulla [Developer Advocate — daily.dev]

Implementing your own design system: good or bad idea?

Web Stage — 30 minutes

A Design System is a set of UI elements and standards that help maintain visual consistency and user experiences across different applications.  There are many pre-built Design Systems, such as Material Design (Google), Cupertino (Apple), Fluent (Microsoft), etc. But how adaptable are they? Wouldn't it be better to create your own Design System? And if so, how should you go about it? At Criteo, the CDS (Criteo Design System) allows different teams to integrate their micro-frontends within a single platform in a way that is completely seamless for the user. In this talk, I will share a critical perspective on the development and maintenance of an in-house Design System library, along with tips on how to optimize the performance of your Design System - or any application using one.  Read More...

• Sylvain Dedieu [Senior Software Developer Engineer — Criteo R&D]

The new era of AI data collection

Web Stage — 45 minutes

• Fabien Vauchelles [Web Scraping Expert — Scrapoxy]

Lunch Break

Web Stage — 1 hour

Client side web AI agents: building smarter user experiences for a future agentic internet

Web Stage — 45 minutes

AI is everywhere, and Web AI usage in JavaScript on the front end is growing exponentially - but where is it going and how will this change websites of the future?  In this talk by Jason Mayes, Web AI Lead at Google, see how you can use the latest generative AI models from Google that run entirely client side on the front end (no cloud) to perform agentic behaviors in real world applications. Get common tasks done faster than ever before on any website, including yours, giving you an edge over your competition. Read More...

• Jason Mayes [Web AI Lead — Google]

Start building distributed applications with ease using building block APIs

Web Stage — 30 minutes

Are you interested in building distributed applications or microservice architectures, but don't know where to start? Join this session and learn how the Dapr building block APIs can make your life easier! Dapr, the Distributed Application Runtime, provides a set of common APIs that speeds up microservice development. As a graduated CNCF project, Dapr is used in production by companies like IBM, Alibaba Cloud & Microsoft and is a trusted OSS technology backed by a large developer community. This code heavy session covers the most popular building blocks of Dapr: service invocation, pub/sub messaging, and state management. In addition, the built-in cross-cutting concerns such as resiliency, observability, and security are covered. Code samples & live demos will be provided in .NET. After this session, you'll have a good understanding how Dapr can help you build reliable distributed applications faster. Read More...

• Marc Duiker [Senior Developer Advocate — Diagrid]

A deep dive into advanced TypeScript - a live coding expedition

Web Stage — 45 minutes

Get ready to embark on a journey into the depths of TypeScript. We'll be exploring the often overlooked, yet powerful, features that lie beneath the surface of this versatile language. But we're not just talking theory here – this exploration will be a hands-on experience. Each feature will be brought to life through real-world examples, all done in a live coding session. Join in as we shine a light on these secret TypeScript treasures and discover how they can elevate your coding skills to new heights.Recursive types, type permutations and a css validator written in typescript are just three of the cool topics we are going to cover during this talk. Read More...

• Christian Wörz [Fullstack Engineer — Independent]

Beyond the Cart: Rethinking E-Commerce as a Product, Not a Platform

Web Stage — 30 minutes

This talk offers a deep dive into the architectural transformation required to evolve a commodity e-commerce platform into a scalable, impactful digital product.  We'll explore how moving to a modular, API-first stack, product-minded teams, cross-functional collaboration, and a focus on delivering measurable business value, rather than just features, can turn a transactional engine into a strategic growth driver.  Read More...

• Rodica Piciorusi [Managing Director of Tchibo TECH Romania and Head of Tchibo TECH International — Tchibo Tech]
• Martin Roehder [Head of Online Technology, IT Platforms and Software Engineering — Tchibo GmbH]

AI, Agents, SaaS and the true power of Open Source

Web Stage — 30 minutes

Artificial Intelligence is directly or indirectly becoming an integral part of our lives, constantly pushing the limits of what's possible, with a huge impact on how companies conduct business. This talk will cover several high impact topics for developing AI-powered products. Read More...

• Silviu-Tudor Serban [Staff Engineer, AI — TCN]

Crafting Next-Gen UIs on Wearables with Compose for Wear OS

Mobile Stage — 30 minutes

Understand modern UI experiences on Wear OS. How do teams operate at Google scale to design and build tools and libraries for developers? We show you new Compose for Wear OS components that use Google’s new expressive design language so you can build beautiful experiences on Wearables that complement and enhance your phone apps. Read More...

• Greg Bullock [Engineering Manager — Google]
• Yuri Schimke [Staff Software Engineer — Google]

Surviving as an android engineer in a backend(server) driven product

Mobile Stage — 45 minutes

I will share an experience how we built our backend-driven app, tooling we use and how engineers challenge themselves doing more with less, building dynamic forms, navigations, backend versioning and etc.

• Merab (Tato) Kutalia [Engineering Manager — TNET]

Let’s Add AI: Build GenAI Apps Without the Complexity

Mobile Stage — 30 minutes

"“Let’s add AI to the app” - sounds simple. Maybe it comes from your boss, maybe from a product roadmap, maybe from your own curiosity. Generative AI is quickly becoming a must-have skill for modern app development—but getting started can feel overwhelming.  With constantly evolving tools, backend complexity, and the pressure to look like you know what you’re doing, it’s hard to know where to begin.In this talk, we’ll walk through building a functional GenAI-powered Flutter app using Firebase and the GenKit toolkit. Starting from a prebuilt template, we’ll focus on adding two real AI features step by step—without diving into ML theory or setting up heavy infrastructure. While the examples use Flutter, the same approach works for native and web apps too.By the end, you’ll know exactly how to bring generative AI into your Flutter projects—and the next time someone says “let’s add AI” you’ll be ready.
Key takeaways:How to extend an app with generative AI capabilitiesHow to use the GenKit toolkit to implement multiple AI featuresHow to deploy an AI model using Firebase Functions" Read More...

• Ivanna Kaceviča [Lead Software Engineer — LMT]

Kotlin idioms to best serve your API Design with Compose

Mobile Stage — 45 minutes

When building a piece of software or a framework that is going to be used by others, it is necessary to think of API Design! Having a simple yet efficient API allows the developers to easily integrate your tool in their apps.  And this applies to Compose when you are building a shared Design System. During the session, we'll see how you can take advantage of the best Kotlin idioms to build the right API for your Compose Design System. We'll explore multiple iterations to show how to build components and see the pros and cons of each one.When building a piece of software or a framework that is going to be used by others, it is necessary to think of API Design! Having a simple yet efficient API allows the developers to easily integrate your tool in their apps. And this applies to Compose when you are building a shared Design System. During the session, we'll see how you can take advantage of the best Kotlin idioms to build the right API for your Compose Design System. We'll explore multiple iterations to show how to build components and see the pros and cons of each one. Read More...

• Julien Salvi [Android Lead — Aircall]

Lunch Break

Mobile Stage — 1 hour

Scaling Flutter to 100k MAU as a solo developer

Mobile Stage — 45 minutes

Scaling “Scanner Alimente” - a Flutter app to 100,000 Monthly Active Users (MAU) as a 23 year old solo developer. Why smart planning in both technical implementation and cost management was a vital aspect in the application’s journey. Reaching 100k MAU is a significant milestone – many indie apps never even hit 1k MAU​. This level of growth brings new challenges in performance, infrastructure, and maintaining quality. As a one-person team, you must be strategic in how you spend both time and money.Embrace tools and services that save you time (like Backend-as-a-Service solutions) since you don’t have a dedicated ops team but those must be used with care, since those choices will scale in cost as the user base grows. We will cover a hybrid cloud approach in which we try to stay within the limits of Firebase’s free tier and offload heavy computation and database operations to a Hetzner Cloud machine.We’ll cover cost management strategies, performance optimization across devices, power efficiency techniques, deployment practices for growing demand such that costs are kept low. These are the key areas to focus on to ensure your Flutter app can scale smoothly both technically and in terms of business viability. Read More...

• Dinu-Stefan Rusu [Senior Software Engineer — scanneralimente.ro]

Frontend observability: beyond assumptions

Mobile Stage — 30 minutes

App code runs in unpredictable, user-controlled environments: mobile devices, versions, networks we don’t control. Unlike backend systems, we can’t assume consistent execution or behavior. It’s a black box. But with the right observability tools, we can open that box and gain real insights into how our code actually runs in the unknown and know what went wrong, how it performed, and how it behaved on a real user machine. In this talk we'll explore how to bring first-class observability to the apps: what to measure, how to trace, and how to debug what users actually experience.We'll dive into practical strategies for implementing logging, errors, metrics, and distributed tracing in the apps. Whether you're a Frontend engineer, mobile dev, lead, or devops person, this session will enable you with actionable techniques to make app observability a core part of your stack and not an afterthought. Read More...

• Trishul Goel [Principal Frontend Engineer — Blacklane GmbH]

The art of choosing the right architecture for your project

Mobile Stage — 45 minutes

Dependency injection? Use cases? Repository abstraction? Mocks or fakes? Features or layers? For example, the Android and Flutter community has faced so many different recommendations on the topic of architecture. Yet, we still struggle to understand if those recommendations align with our projects, the team, software practices we value, or overall possibilities. In this talk, I will cover all the different approaches I have encountered throughout my career and provide a decision tree to help developers choose the right architecture for new or existing projects. Read More...

• Petar Ljubić [Mobile Development Engineering Lead — Trivago]

LLMs on Mobile: The Unseen Challenges of Scaling an AI-Driven App with Swift, Kotlin & Firebase

Mobile Stage — 30 minutes

What does it mean to build a native mobile app that integrates conversational AI and scale it quickly? In this technical presentation, you'll see how we tackled real-world challenges in developing BibleChat using Swift, Kotlin, Firebase, and Cloud Functions, all within an ecosystem powered by LLMs (Large Language Models). Read More...

• Marius Iordache [Co-Founder & CTO — Bible Chat]

Beyond the Window: How I used the improved WindowSize Class tooling to make my Android app better

Mobile Stage — 30 minutes

Imagine developing an app that looks flawless on a tiny smartphone, a massive tablet, or even a futuristic foldable device. With WindowSize Classes, this is not only possible but also surprisingly straightforward.  Since their introduction, the tooling for WindowSize Classes has significantly improved this year, making it even easier to implement and maintain adaptive UI in your Android apps. In this talk, I'll share my experiences using WindowSize Classes and how the advancements in tooling have streamlined the development process. Many organizations overlook the importance of adaptive UI, mistakenly believing that it doesn't have a direct monetary value. I'll also discuss the critical importance of adaptive UI for accessibility and the long-term benefits for organizations that prioritize it. Join me to discover the power of WindowSize Classes and how they can help you create exceptional user experiences that are accessible and beneficial for your organization. Read More...

• Ahmed Tikiwa [Senior Software Engineer — Disney]

How Banking Technology ensured a smooth transition from monolith to distributed systems - a developer's perspective

Women in Tech Stage — 30 minutes

In this talk you’ll hear a developer’s perspective on how a bank is transitioning from monolithic to distributed systems by using an internal architecture built around industry standard tools.  You will learn how this approach enabled scalability, autonomy and  a smoother integration across teams and services.  Read More...

• Andreea Trupcea [Chapter Lead – BPM Product — ING Bank Romania]

GenAI done right

Women in Tech Stage — 45 minutes

In the rapidly evolving landscape of Generative AI (GenAI), it's important to move beyond the hype and focus on delivering solutions that are both innovative and trustworthy. 
This talk will focus on the current market trends, practical implementation strategies, and the essential skills required to excel in GenAI projects. Attendees will gain insights into practical delivery and evaluation of GenAI systems. Join us to explore how to navigate the complexities of GenAI and implement it effectively within your organization. Read More...

• Tijana Nikolić [Founder — Centaurium AI]

Navigating the rapids: building resilience in the tech landscape

Women in Tech Stage — 30 minutes

Emilia’s keynote speech will delve into the importance of building resilience in the tech landscape, focus on three main topics – problem solving, adaptability and emotional intelligence.

• Emilia Dumitrescu [Director — Deloitte Technology Delivery Center]

Women leading innovation

Women in Tech Stage — 45 minutes

Innovation is the driving force behind progress, but what does it take to lead innovation successfully? In this session, Anca Iordanescu, VP of Engineering at IKEA's Store of the Future and founder of the Women In Tech Alliance and AI Society, will explore why innovation is crucial in today’s AI-powered world.  She will discuss the challenges leaders face when driving technological transformation, key learnings from her experience, and the role of AI in shaping the future of smart cities. Anca will also highlight the importance of diversity in innovation and how women can play a pivotal role in AI-driven advancements. Read More...

• Anca Iordanescu [VP Engineering, Future Stores & Founder @ WomenInTech Alliance — IKEA]

Lunch Break

Women in Tech Stage — 1 hour

Intelligence Amplified: The Collaborative Future of AI (and the Women Building It)

Women in Tech Stage — 30 minutes

• Alexandra Pahomi [Channel Sales & Activation Manager, Central Europe — Google]

What shapes software most is the humans behind it

Women in Tech Stage — 30 minutes

The greatest force shaping software is not the technology itself or the methodologies applied, but the people who bring it to life.  This talk focuses on the human aspects of software creation — how our ability to communicate, empathise, collaborate, and evolvedetermines the success of our products. It’s a reminder that the hardest problems in tech are rarely technical, and the true challenge is understanding people and seeing their true potential. Through stories from my own journey — building teams, launching products, growing through both success and setbacks — I’ll share what I’ve come to believe truly matters in software development: the people, the trust they build, and the space they create for each other.  Read More...

• Ana Maria Ghenovici [Director of Product Management — Tremend - Publicis Sapient]

Fireside chat: Women in Tech Data!

Women in Tech Stage — 1 hour

• Steliana Moraru [Moderator — Women in Tech Stage]
• Dragos Gheban [Managing Partner — Hipo.ro & Catalyst Solutions]
• Anca Iordanescu [VP Engineering, Future Stores & Founder @ WomenInTech Alliance — IKEA]
• Alexandra Stancu [Talent Attraction and Employer Branding Expert — Catalyst Solutions]

Discrimination DRIFT: reshaping the AI divide

Women in Tech Stage — 45 minutes

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform industries and societies, it also carries the risk of reinforcing and amplifying existing inequalities. In this keynote, I introduce a practical, research-informed framework designed to support the ethical and inclusive development of AI systems.  The Discrimination DRIFT framework combines the complexity of AI ethics and fairness into an accessible guide that enables professionals across disciplines to apply responsible principles throughout the AI lifecycle, from design to deployment. It also serves as a shared language for stakeholders to communicate ethical considerations clearly, supported by a simple aide-mémoire.With the high cost of AI development, addressing bias and fostering inclusivity is not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic advantage that enhances long-term profitability, trust, and sustainability. As global regulations evolve to prioritize harm prevention and fairness, and as geopolitical shifts continue to reshape regulatory landscapes, economic priorities, and global cooperation, organizations must be proactive in managing these risks.At the heart of this keynote is the introduction of the Discrimination DRIFT framework, a holistic approach that recognizes AI as a gatekeeper of opportunity, power, and capital. I will explore how Discrimination DRIFT can move society toward equity or division, depending on the choices we make today. If we focus on transparency, accountability, and inclusivity, we can shape a future where AI contributes to a more just and equitable world. Read More...

• Sarah Wyer [PhD Researcher: Bias in AI, LLMs, NLP. — Durham University]

Creating the Cloud Hero

BigData & Cloud Stage — 30 minutes

The presentation focuses on enhancing the developer experience with cloud technologies. It highlights strategies to streamline cloud infrastructure creation and deployment processes.  The talk outlines ways to eliminate barriers to cloud adoption for development teams, emphasizing simplified processes and targeted tools to enable more efficient, cost-effective workflows. The goal is to empower developers with greater ownership while reducing infrastructure friction.  Read More...

• Dan Rusei [Engineering Manager — Booking Holdings Romania]
• Bogdan Pascal [Cloud Software Engineer — Booking Holdings Romania]

What's hard about developing applications powered by LLMs?

BigData & Cloud Stage — 45 minutes

In this talk, you will learn about some of the common challenges that you might encounter while developing meaningful applications with large language models. Using non-deterministic systems as the basis for important applications is certainly an 'interesting' new frontier for software development, but hope is not lost. In this session, we will explore some of the well known (and less well known) issues in building applications on the APIs provided by LLM providers, and on 'open' LLMs, such as Mistral, Llama, or DeepSeek.
We will also (of course) dive into some of the approaches that you can take to address these challenges, and mitigate some of the inherent behaviors that are present within LLMs, enabling you to build more reliable and robust systems on top of LLMs, unlocking the potential of this new development paradigm. Read More...

• Ian Massingham [Developer Relations — Griptape (griptape.ai)]

Multimodal Artificial Intelligence in the world of cloud

BigData & Cloud Stage — 30 minutes

Have you ever wondered how a customised AI model works in production? And not just a simple model, but one which combines different types of data which helps us understand the world around us?  The use of AI has rapidly become part of our daily activities, especially if working in tech. In this session, I will share with you how to use a trained and deployed multimodal AI in a cloud computing service. The model will accept different inputs, combine/aggregate multiple sources of information and generate or predict various outputs. The trained model will have a front-end application where I can run inference on new data through our machine learning API. The front-end will be built with latest Next.js and React versions, while the backend will use Python. Multimodal AI is shaping the future of AI and the world around us faster than we think. Join me in this workshop and see how this innovative solution can improve your life and industry as well. Read More...

• Andrei Muja [Senior Developer — LSEG Romania]

AIOps in Action: How AI is Transforming Application Operations on Cloud

BigData & Cloud Stage — 45 minutes

Move past the hype and see how AI and machine learning are being used to predict application operation incidents before they happen, accelerate service recovery, automate root cause analysis and optimize cloud spend. We will go together step by step through the journey of deploying AIOps – including new ideas and tips for you. Read More...

• Sabin Popa [Application Operations Service Line Leader - EMEA Innovation Centers — IBM]

Lunch Break

BigData & Cloud Stage — 1 hour

How to do Generative AI right in your company: Acer's internally-developed success case

BigData & Cloud Stage — 45 minutes

Everyone is tired already of everyone talking about AI all the time, but here is something that people don't focus on enough: How do you actually ship an AI product in production in a real enterprise company, giving the business real benefits? Lucky you, at Acer I developed and deployed an AI tool that does just that, and I'm going to share what this experience has thought me in the process, for you to be able to create a high value product too! Read More...

• Emanuele Meazzo [Senior Manager for Data Science & Intelligence (Europe, Middle East and Africa) — Acer]

Unleashing the potential of LLMs: driving projects from idea to execution

BigData & Cloud Stage — 30 minutes

Join Olena Repechenko, as she shares how large language models are transforming project delivery. Through a few real-world examples —an automated summarization tool for customer support interactions and a classification system for customer feedback— you’ll see how LLMs can drastically reduce project turnaround times while maintaining high levels of accuracy. Get inspired to leverage LLMs for faster, smarter solutions. Read More...

• Olena Repechenko [Data Analyst — N-iX]

The future & challenges of cloud

BigData & Cloud Stage — 45 minutes

This keynote will delve into the insights and innovations that are shaping the future of Cloud Computing. It will cover a range of topics including cloud architectures, data gravity, multi-cloud strategies, security, compliance, and the future of AI & Cloud.  The session will highlight emerging trends such as AI-native cloud platforms, serverless 2.0, and composable cloud architectures, while also addressing the challenges of multi-cloud workloads, vendor lock-in, and balancing performance with cost efficiency.It will discuss the impact of data gravity on cloud strategies and the importance of standardization. Security and compliance will be another focal point, with insights into AI-powered cyberattacks, zero trust adoption, and the role of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools.Finally, the keynote will look ahead to the future of AI & Cloud, examining hardware innovations, the move to higher-level services, and the rise of no-code, low-code, and AI-assisted coding platforms. This session promises to provide valuable knowledge for anyone looking to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of cloud computing. Read More...

• Anders Lybecker [Principal Software Engineering Lead — Microsoft]

Gen AI meets IT delivery: smarter code, faster results

BigData & Cloud Stage — 30 minutes

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, staying ahead requires transformative approaches to IT service delivery. Claudiu’s presentation explores the pivotal role of Generative AI in revolutionizing service delivery processes.  This presentation highlights the deployment of an innovative accelerator solution that converts SAP code into SQL on Databricks, showcasing real-world applications with significant efficiency gains. Through engaging segments, attendees will gain insights into Gen AI's impact on software engineering, including automatic code conversion, legacy modernization, and cloud migration. A compelling case study will illustrate the tangible benefits and lessons learned from successful implementations. As we look to the future, strategic recommendations will empower IT leaders to harness Gen AI for continued excellence in service delivery. Join us to discover how smarter code leads to faster, more efficient results.  Read More...

• Claudiu Ronțu [Data Science and Machine Learning Practice Lead — Deloitte Technology Delivery Center]

The Enemy Within: How AI is Weaponizing Your Code

BigData & Cloud Stage — 30 minutes

There are no black cats, broken mirrors or sudden storms to announce the news. Still, AI-generated code has become a double-edged sword, offering unparalleled productivity while quietly introducing vulnerabilities and weaknesses.  Whether through poisoned models, maliciously crafted to inject flaws or poor-quality training data, your trusted AI companion could be a Trojan horse. This talk unveils the dark side of AI in software development, exposing how attackers exploit AI to compromise open-source projects and infiltrate the software supply chain.Learn how bad actors leverage sophisticated techniques to embed security flaws in libraries you trust, and discover how untested, AI-generated solutions can open doors to catastrophic exploits. With real-world examples, We'll dissect how these attacks happen and offer strategies to safeguard your projects. In the battle for secure software, your tools could be your greatest weakness or your first line of defence. Prepare to confront the chilling truth about AI and your code. Read More...

• Steve Poole [Java Developer — Independent]

Lead, code, AI: dev's new frontier

DevLead Stage — 30 minutes

Join us for an insightful session on navigating the multifaceted role of today's Development Lead. This presentation combines personal growth stories with practical leadership strategies that help technical teams thrive. Discover how structured processes like Bootcamps, targeted workshops, and innovative AI tools can transform onboarding, knowledge sharing, and team development. Our speakers will share real-world examples of how they've created environments that encourage innovation, support developers through challenges, and utilize cutting-edge AI solutions like Peely to enhance team capabilities. Read More...

• Razvan Ritivoi [Software Developer — VOIS]
• Bogdan Buciu [Site Reliability Engineer — VOIS]
• Alexandru Gheara [DevOps Specialist — VOIS]

Zap the flakes! Leveraging AI to combat flaky tests with CANNIER

DevLead Stage — 45 minutes

Flakes aka tests that don’t behave deterministically, i.e. they fail sometimes and pass sometimes, are an ever recurring problem in software development. This is especially the sad reality when running end-to-end tests where a lot of components are involved. 
There are various reasons why a test can be flaky, however the impact can be as fatal as CI being loaded beyond capacity causing overly long feedback cycles or even users losing trust in CI itself. Ideally we want potential flakes to be flagged at the earliest stage of the development lifecycle, so that they do not even enter the end-to-end test suite. We want a gate that acts as a safeguard for developers, pointing out to them what kind of stability issues a test has. This reduces CI user frustration and improves trust in CI. At the same time it cuts down on unnecessary waste of CI system resources.
This talk will explore the CANNIER approach, which aims to reduce the time cost of rerunning tests. We will take a closer look at the feature set used to create training data from existing test code of the [KubeVirt](https://kubevirt.io/) project, enabling us to predict probable flakiness of a certain test with an AI model.
We will cover how a subset of the CANNIER feature set is implemented, how it is used to generate training data for an AI model, and how the model is used to analyze flakiness probability, generating actionable feedback for test authors.Attendees will gain insight on how the CANNIER approach can help them improve test reliability, ultimately enhancing overall software quality and team productivity. Read More...

• Daniel Hiller [Senior Software Engineer OpenShift Virtualization — Red Hat]

Beyond frameworks: training agile leaders for lasting change

DevLead Stage — 30 minutes

Agility is more than just frameworks – it’s a leadership mindset. During this presentation we explore how to move beyond rigid frameworks to cultivate future leaders who embody adaptability, resilience, and innovation.  Through real-life examples, actionable strategies and practical insights, we’ll dive into the heart of what it means to lead with flexibility, empathy, and courage to foster a culture where lasting transformation becomes our second nature. Join us to discover how a truly agile mindset can transform not just how we work but how we lead and grow together. Read More...

• Mircea Oltean [Director of Operations — MassMutual Romania]

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem

DevLead Stage — 45 minutes

Do you feel like you're constantly surrounded by managers who exhibit toxic behaviours and “shred their team's confidence” (actual quote)? Diverse and inclusive policies may not be enough to stop these individuals from causing harm. You have to actively drive change by suppressing negative behaviours and transforming toxic managers into better leaders. It's not enough to silently do a good job; You must take an assertive approach to tackle difficult situations with peer managers and those above you to create a positive work environment.However, providing feedback to individuals, especially if it's your boss, can be challenging and may strain the working relationship.In this talk, Alex will give you practical mechanisms to identify and tackle difficult situations with confidence and poise. You'll leave the talk feeling inspired and empowered with the tools you need to react to difficult situations and make a real difference in your workplace.Join us in this talk and let's kick some d**k behaviours to the curb! Read More...

• Alex Canessa [Head of Partnerships and Developer Relations — Commerce Layer]

Lunch Break

DevLead Stage — 1 hour

Panel discussion: What keeps tech leaders up at night in 2025?

DevLead Stage — 1 hour

• Alina Son [Senior Manager, Software & Product Infrastructure — VOIS]
• Ciprian Răzvan Hodorogea [Director Software Development — Amazon]
• Daniela Prodan [Engineering Site Leader — Microsoft Romania]
• Adrian Florea [Founder & author of STELL*R methodology — Trend Consult & Sonexy.com]
• Mihai Vasile [Engineering Director, Cybersecurity & IT Infrastructure — eMAG]
• Cristian Condurache [Software Engineering Manager — Google]

The Two Romanias: How a Leader's Habits Influence Organizational Culture and How Organizational Culture Shapes National Culture

DevLead Stage — 30 minutes

• Adrian Florea [Founder & author of STELL*R methodology — Trend Consult & Sonexy.com]

Leading through infrastructure investment decisions

DevLead Stage — 45 minutes

This session explores tools like SLOs, KPI Trees, and the FinOps culture to make cost management a shared responsibility across the organization.Many organizations face the challenge of delivering more with limited budgets, while also meeting the increasing demands of their customers for innovative products and improved service. For engineering leaders, this means carefully prioritizing engineering work and investments in technical projects, while also considering the need to develop new technologies. However, choosing which engineering work to prioritize involves making effective budgetary tradeoffs and identifying the most impactful investments for the business.In this session, we will explore practical tools such as SLOs, KPI Trees, and the FinOps culture to make cost management a shared responsibility across the organization. It will also focus on influencing without direct authority, driving transparency, and integrating cost optimization into the engineering culture.

During this talk, participants will learn how to:* Connect infrastructure investments to business success using actionableframeworks* Enhance cost awareness and accountability within your teams* Influence key stakeholders to align on strategic cost decisions. Read More...

• Italo Vietro [VP of Platform — Babbel]

The future engineer: how to stay relevant in the age of AI

DevLead Stage — 30 minutes

AI is changing the game: not just for engineers, but for the people who lead them. 80% of the work will soon be done by AI. Junior roles are vanishing. Companies are now looking for Product Engineers and Leaders instead of traditional Software Engineers.In this talk, we’ll explore what’s changing, the skills that will set you apart, as a leader or an engineer, and how to future-proof your career in the AI era. If you want to thrive, not just survive, in an AI-driven world, this talk is for you.Let’s dive into how to stay ahead and turn AI into an opportunity, not a threat. Read More...

• Dan-Mihai Dinu [Engineering Leader — Independent]

Multi cloud: behind the hype

DevLead Stage — 30 minutes

“We cannot be on only a single cloud”, “What would happen if our CSP had a catastrophic failure?”, “We need to ensure cloud portability”. These are just some of the recurring themes we might hear in our organizations about operating in the cloud. But is there a clear strategy behind them? How can we understand what’s business critical and what’s just wishful thinking? In this talk we’ll address when you should start thinking about multi-cloud and which multi-cloud operating model fits best based on the needs of your organization. Read More...

• Marco Pierobon [Principal Developer — Thoughtworks]

Dapr Workflow - Use durable execution to build reliable distributed applications

Round Table | Day 1 — 1 hour

In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn:
What durable execution is and why it is beneficial when building distributed systems.How Dapr Workflow works.How to apply workflow patterns, such as task chaining, fan-out/fan-in, monitor, external system interaction, and child workflows.How to handle errors and retries.How to use the workflow management API.How to work with workflow limitations.Code samples are provided in Python and C#. Read More...

• Marc Duiker [Senior Developer Advocate — Diagrid]

Code Reviews That Don’t Suck: Turning Pain into Progress

Round Table | Day 1 — 1 hour

Code reviews are often seen as a chore, a bottleneck, or even a source of conflict. But what if we flipped the script? In this talk, we’ll explore how to make code reviews a valuable, collaborative, and even enjoyable part of the development process. I’ll walk you through actionable advice on how to give and receive better reviews, communicate clearly, and build a feedback culture that actually helps you ship better code faster. You’ll learn how to spot common review anti-patterns and replace them with proven strategies that work for teams of any size.As a bonus, I’ll share a sneak peek into a utility I built that uses AI to catch and explain compile-time errors—making the review process smarter and more efficient. Whether you’re a junior dev or a seasoned lead, you’ll leave this talk with fresh insights and practical tools to level up your team’s review game. Expect humor, real-world examples, and no fluff. Just the good stuff that makes code reviews suck less and deliver more. Read More...

• Alex Sikach [Go Developer — PROFSOFT]

You will never take interview home tasks again

Round Table | Day 1 — 1 hour

Many companies still rely on take-home assignments to evaluate candidates. Let’s question whether this is still the best way to assess talent. After participating in over 200 interviews as a candidate or interviewer, I’ve realized that interview home tasks require an unrealistic time commitment, ignore real-world teamwork, often end in silence with no feedback loop, and feel like free labor. This talk will discuss why I’m done with inefficient and unpaid interview assignments and what companies should do instead. I’ll also share alternative approaches to technical interviews from the best and most successful companies experience like Microsoft and other FAANG. The session is designed for job seekers and professionals preparing for interviews. It will provide valuable insights to help you critically evaluate why you might think twice before saying “yes” to the next interview home task. Companies will also benefit by understanding how to create fair and engaging interview tasks that attract top talent. Read More...

• Bobur Umurzokov [Developer Relations Manager — Neon]

Hands-On Workshop: Crafting AI Agents in Kotlin with Quarkus & LangChain4j

Round Table | Day 1 — 1 hour

In this hands-on workshop, you'll run and test a simple AI agent using Quarkus and LangChain4j with Kotlin. Aimed at Java and Kotlin developers, the session will explore a chatbot example based on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and touch on testing strategies for AI-powered features. The format is interactive, with live coding and time to experiment. To follow along, please come prepared with a working IDE, Docker environment, JDK, Maven, and an OpenAI API key. No prior experience with LangChain4j is required. Read More...

• Konstantin Pavlov [Staff Software Engineer — Twilio Inc.]

Talk with the fastest-growing startups in Romania: BibleChat & Veridion

Round Table | Day 1 — 30 minutes

Romanian startup Bible Chat has secured a $14 million Series A funding round led by Silicon Valley's True Ventures, with participation from Early Game Ventures and Play Ventures. Launched in early 2024 by Laurentiu Balasa and Marius Iordache, the AI-powered app offers personalized spiritual guidance and has rapidly grown to 10 million users and $15 million in annualized revenue within its first year. Ranked 13th among the most downloaded apps on the App Store, Bible Chat is now expanding its reach through additional platforms like FaithAssistant.com and AIFortheChurch.org, aiming to provide 24/7 biblically grounded support to Christian communities worldwideIn 2025, Romanian startup Veridion, co-founded by Florin Tufan, continues to stand out in the field of AI and big data. The company has raised a total of $7.5 million in venture funding with participation from investors such as LAUNCHub Ventures, OTB Ventures, Underline Ventures, Day One Capital, and GapMinder Venture Partners. Veridion was named “Best Startup in Romania” at the first edition of the Romania Startup Awards in November 2024. Their platform, Supplier Search, launched in 2023, uses AI to identify and update supplier information, providing a valuable solution for medium and large companies. Additionally, Veridion was included in the ProcureTech100 list, which recognizes the most innovative companies in procurement technology worldwide. Read More...

• Marius Iordache [Co-Founder & CTO — Bible Chat]
• Florin Tufan [CEO — Veridion]