AI DevSummit 2025 + DeveloperWeek Leadership 2025

Alexander Arians, AXA, Chapter Lead

While we developers have learnt over the course of our careers how to tackle new technical challenges and frameworks, many of us struggle with our personal career development. Once we have reached senior status, there is a lack of clear requirements and expectations of us. Without the classic career ladder as in other professions, we are challenged to take our development into our own hands.

In this presentation, we will explore together the essential skills we need to advance our careers. The focus will be on practical approaches with concrete recommendations on how we can optimally position ourselves through a strategic approach, soft skills and our technical abilities.
We will also explore together how we can best utilise our leadership skills. I will share my experience as a developer and as a manager with you.

Let's find out together how we can advance our careers in a self-determined way!

learning objectives:
-Career development: strategies for professional development
-Advanced skills: Insights into communication, leadership and business acumen
-Networking: Building and utilising professional networks
-Mentoring: Benefits of mentoring and finding mentors
-Influence and impact: Scaling influence without authority and impact
-Continuous improvement: Lifelong learning for competitiveness

Shivali Naik, Snowflake, Data and Technology Enthusiast

Generative AI is transforming industries by enabling businesses to create content, automate decision-making, and enhance user experiences. But how can organizations effectively build and deploy AI-powered solutions while maintaining security, efficiency, and scalability?

In this session, we will explore the fundamentals of Generative AI models, their real-world applications, and how they can be leveraged to drive innovation.

🔹 Key Takeaways:
✅ Understanding Generative AI models and their capabilities
✅ How to implement LLMs for text generation, summarization, and automation
✅ Building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflows for AI-driven insights
✅ Best practices for AI model governance, optimization, and ethical considerations

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.

More details coming soon!

Alexander Arians, AXA, Chapter Lead

While we developers have learnt over the course of our careers how to tackle new technical challenges and frameworks, many of us struggle with our personal career development. Once we have reached senior status, there is a lack of clear requirements and expectations of us. Without the classic career ladder as in other professions, we are challenged to take our development into our own hands.

In this presentation, we will explore together the essential skills we need to advance our careers. The focus will be on practical approaches with concrete recommendations on how we can optimally position ourselves through a strategic approach, soft skills and our technical abilities.
We will also explore together how we can best utilise our leadership skills. I will share my experience as a developer and as a manager with you.

Let's find out together how we can advance our careers in a self-determined way!

learning objectives:
-Career development: strategies for professional development
-Advanced skills: Insights into communication, leadership and business acumen
-Networking: Building and utilising professional networks
-Mentoring: Benefits of mentoring and finding mentors
-Influence and impact: Scaling influence without authority and impact
-Continuous improvement: Lifelong learning for competitiveness

Shivali Naik, Snowflake, Data and Technology Enthusiast

Generative AI is transforming industries by enabling businesses to create content, automate decision-making, and enhance user experiences. But how can organizations effectively build and deploy AI-powered solutions while maintaining security, efficiency, and scalability?

In this session, we will explore the fundamentals of Generative AI models, their real-world applications, and how they can be leveraged to drive innovation.

🔹 Key Takeaways:
✅ Understanding Generative AI models and their capabilities
✅ How to implement LLMs for text generation, summarization, and automation
✅ Building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflows for AI-driven insights
✅ Best practices for AI model governance, optimization, and ethical considerations

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.