Speakers at Devfest GemJam

Vanessa Eaton | Product Management at Scale

AI Product Manager | Specializing in Delivering Production-Ready AI Solutions at Disney

This talk will explore the critical and often misunderstood role of the technical product manager in bridging the gap between research & development and real-world application. We will follow a model’s lifecycle, from the initial stages of defining research goals, through the challenges of deployment, and into the long-term work of sustainment. Learn how effective technical product management ensures that groundbreaking research delivers tangible, valuable, and sustainable products.

Dwane Hemmings | The Challenge: Building Community Through Live Streaming

Vonage

Hackathon Challenge

“The Challenge: Building Community Through Live Streaming.” Teams use the Vonage Video API (and optionally Messaging, Voice, etc.) to create an interactive live-streaming experience that goes beyond broadcasting — think Q&A, co-streaming panels, watch parties, captions, breakout rooms, etc. Goal: design an engaging solution that shows how live streaming can foster real community.

Dwane will be leading guests through an interactive code-along where participants:

• Get guided through Vonage’s APIs, sandbox, and dashboard
• Learn what Web Components are and who uses them
• Create a Web Component
• Use that Web Component in a framework of their choice
• Build a live streaming platform with the Vonage Video API

Team Vonage will be providing a Slack channel for participants to ask Vonage team for help.

Check out Dwane’s blog at https://dwane.io

John Papa and Anthony Bartolo | Open Hack: AI Agent Challenge

Microsoft

Are you ready to build the next generation of AI agents? Join us for an electrifying kickoff to the AI Agent Open Hack! This session will get you pumped up and prepared to create powerful agents using Azure AI Foundry, Copilot Studio, or M365 Copilot. Don’t miss this chance to get inspired before diving into the hackathon!

John Papa is a dedicated father and husband, a professional Web Developer, and professional storyteller in the technology community. He currently is a Partner GM for Microsoft leading Developer Relations teams and has formerly worked for Disney on several web and mobile applications that you may use. His passions are coding and teaching modern web technologies, running, and enjoying everything Disney with his family. John is a co-host of the Web Rush podcast, author of the Angular Style Guide, and many popular Pluralsight online videos courses. Check out Web Rush podcast at https://webrush.io

Anthony Bartolo is a Principal Cloud Advocate at Microsoft who thrives on turning bold ideas into reality. He’s best known for designing and running hands-on “experiments” that showcase how Microsoft cloud technologies and Generative AI can solve real-world challenges. Partnering with industry leaders, Anthony drives hackathons and other activities where hypotheses are tested, Proofs of Concept are built, and new possibilities emerge. Please connect with his amazing lessons at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/category/itopstalk/blog/itopstalkblog

David M. Elgueta | AI Agents, MCP, Langflow examples

Senior Technical Communicator at Eccentex Corporation

How to go from a conceptual prompt to a functional, real-life agent without getting lost in a sea of code and complex orchestration frameworks? I’ll walk through a practical, real-world scenario: building an AI agent that automates tasks. I’ll show how to leverage Langflow’s visual interface to connect different components—from an LLM’s reasoning engine to external API tools and data sources—to create an intelligent workflow. In this talk, I’ll provide a clear, actionable blueprint. Topics to cover:

• The core components of an AI agent and how they function.
• How to use Langflow to rapidly prototype and deploy agents.
• Integrating external tools and APIs.
• A practical example from a real-life scenario.

Christi Kapp

Our GDG founder Christi Kapp will be leading a bold new track, The Company Pitch track at DevFest Florida. This track is focused on the hypothetical company “Event Horizon Labs”, which is tasked with becoming the trigger for the technological “Singularity” where AI surpasses human intelligence. Product Manager teams are challenged to create a business plan and product definition for this company, detailing the mechanism of the trigger itself and how it will scale globally. A core component of the pitch must also include human-centric guardrails to ensure the preservation and expansion of human dignity, creativity, and agency in a post-Singularity world. Teams must also define a business model, identify early adopters, and craft a narrative and brand that inspires trust and momentum for this transformative vision. Judging is based on visionary impact, responsibility, feasibility, and creativity, culminating in a plan for a new era of civilization.

About Christi Kapp: I have played numerous roles throughout my career including Executive Leadership, Technology Leader, Business Management Consultant and more. I thrive in environments that value contributions of people that have a unique ability to “connect the dots between disparate aspects of an organization” to enable desired business outcomes. I creates and connects combinations of people, processes and technology.

• Company website: https://www.DataPsy.com
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/datapsyinc

Kendra Kennedy | Master Controlled “Vibe Coding” Workshop

Software Engineer at DesignInteractive.NET

Agentverse - The Shadowblade’s Codex - Vibecoding with Gemini CLI

This workshop is an enterprise playbook for mastering the agentic future on Google Cloud. We provide an end-to-end roadmap that guides you from the first vibe of an idea to a full-scale, operational reality. You will learn how the specialized skills of a developer, architect, data engineer, and SRE must converge to create, manage, and scale a powerful Agentverse.

In this hand-on lab, make sure to prepare the following tools before the session: Gemini CLI, Google Cloud account, Firebase, Firebase Studio

Michael Rosario | Building Collaborative AI: A Guide to Multi-Agent Systems with Google ADK

Senior Software Engineer at DesignInteractive.NET

Discover the Google Agent Development Kit (ADK), a robust, “batteries-included” framework for building and deploying scalable, enterprise-grade AI agents. This talk will explore how ADK simplifies complex multi-agent workflows with built-in tools and production-ready features, offering a streamlined path from prototype to deployment using Google Cloud Platform and your favorite LLM tools.

• Multi-Agent Architecture: Learn to design collaborative, hierarchical agent teams.
• Integrated Tooling: Explore ADK’s powerful built-in tools, like Google Search and code execution.
• Production & Deployment: Understand ADK’s simplified developer experience and seamless deployment on Google Cloud.

For this hand-on lab, make sure to prepare the following tools before the session: https://ai.google.dev/