AI DevSummit 2025 + DeveloperWeek Leadership 2025

Sudha Viswanathan, ByteDance, Data Architect

Effective team connection, communication, and collaboration across all levels stems from strong interpersonal dynamics. This is a fundamental element of achieving exceptional team performance. Just as with any art, interpersonal skills are cultivated through learning, practice, and refinement. A team mastering both technical expertise and these vital interpersonal skills gains a significant competitive advantage, becoming a truly formidable force. This talk explores common interpersonal challenges encountered in the workplace and provides attendees with a valuable mind map, a practical tool for navigating and resolving these challenges. 

9:00 AM - 9:30 AM Welcome + Networking (Breakfast) 

9:30 AM - 10:20 AM - Panel 1: Be Where the Developers Are
Developers often rely on one another to help evaluate new technologies, dev tooling, and programming ideas. How can marketing teams engage in these conversations without being perceived as invading their space? Our panelists will discuss their tactics for finding where developers share their knowledge and their tactics for supporting and informing these conversations.

1. Michael Ortega, Head of Marketing @ Predibase
2. Yolande Poirier, Senior Manager, Developer Community @ Neo4j
3. Bo English-Wiczling, Senior Director @ Oracle
Moderator: Ziwei Chen, Senior Developer Marketing Strategist @ Catchy


10:20 AM - 10:30 AM - Break

10:30 AM - 11:20 AM - Panel 2: Building a Developer Community
We often speak of the “Developer community” as if it’s a homogenous group of technical experts. In reality, it’s a collection of various communities consisting of unique individuals with differing experiences and skillsets - some of whom never cross paths with one another. Dev marketing teams dream of tapping into these communities by building a subset of developers devoted to their products and services, but often struggle to break through. Our panelists will explore how they have encouraged community among their developer audiences, the benefits it has brought for their organization, and the support these communities provide to the technical practitioners who belong to and engage deeply with them.
1. Ojus Save, Developer Advocate @ Zoom
2, Pat Patterson, Chief Technical Evangelist @ BackBlaze
3. Stephen Chin, VP of Developer Relations @ Neo4j
4. Anthony Lusardi, Developer Relations Engineer @ LibLab
Moderator: Ziwei Chen, Senior Developer Marketing Strategist @ Catchy

11:20 AM - 12:00 PM Expo Tour + Networking

Benjie De Groot, Shipyard, Co-founder and CEO

DORA Metrics measure performance holistically, so that top scorers are those who put people and process first, and do it smartly. This means that prioritizing good DevEx eventually converts to improved DORA Metrics.

DevEx and DORA have a cause and effect type of relationship: the core components of DevEx (unblocking developers, utilizing self-service infrastructure) are all direct drivers of DORA. The 2024 DORA Report urges Platform to study the developer workflow so they can better solve for areas of friction. The most successful Platform teams use DevEx as their North Star for measuring productivity, and the subsequent DORA impact isn’t coincidental. Benjie will discuss how you can manage Platform to enable good DevEx, and what the corresponding DORA outcomes should be.

Hazel Weakly, Nivenly Foundation, Fellow

I see you want to hire a developer to work on platform engineering, internal developer tooling, developer experience, and the overall generally intangible but admirable goal of "making life better for devs". That’s awesome; you've got one hell of a challenge ahead of you. This role is extremely difficult to hire for. In my opinion, and in my experience, it’s been the most difficult role in the company outside of senior leadership, and the most likely to fail; if there ever was a role that burns people out, it’s this one.

Come with Hazel as we draw on her experiences building platform teams and organizations in order to talk about making this platform engineering thing a reality. In doing so, we'll end up discussing topics such as

- The hiring pipeline and interview loop
- Timing, politics, and the meta strategies
- Getting to zero from negative
- Avoiding pitfalls
 

Ben Lloyd Pearson, LinearB, Director, DevEx Strategy

GenAI is revolutionizing software development, offering new ways to automate repetitive tasks and improve collaboration. But with these opportunities come challenges: how do you integrate AI into your workflow without disrupting creativity or team dynamics? How do you avoid over-reliance on automation while maintaining quality and efficiency? In this session, explore practical approaches to using AI for tasks like code reviews, testing, and daily development, while overcoming the productivity dips and adoption hurdles that GenAI brings in 2025. Whether you’re optimizing your own workflow or contributing to team success, you’ll leave with actionable strategies to thrive in the evolving developer landscape. 

More details coming soon!

Ken Weiner, GumGum, Chief Technology Officer

From 0 to 70: How to Scale Product & Engineering Teams: A product is only as strong as the team behind it—without the right leadership and guidance, even the best ideas can fall flat. To foster growth and innovation, it's essential to have a clear strategy for scaling operations and aligning resources. Ken, who's grown GumGum’s technology team from 0 to 70+ employees, will share tactics to scale your teams, operations, and product for the long term. He’ll discuss strategies such as establishing career ladders, minimizing dependencies between teams, and leading with an innovative mindset. Additionally, he’ll highlight the importance of fostering diversity within your team to drive growth and creativity.