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

Anthony Bartolo, Dan Wahlin, Henk Boelman | Open Hack: AI Agent Challenge

Microsoft

The Microsoft Azure AI Agent Open Hack is a hands-on 3-hour challenge-based activity where developers explore how Azure AI Foundry can be used to create agents that simulate real-world scenarios. Participants will learn to build AI agents that improve business efficiency, apply Azure AI in practical contexts, and adopt best practices with VS Code and GitHub Copilot. The event also offers opportunities to network with Microsoft experts, while getting answers to technical and workplace challenges. It’s ideal for developers interested in building agents or deepening their skills in VS Code and GitHub Copilot.

Anthony Bartolo, Principal Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, is known for turning bold ideas into reality through hands-on experiments showcasing the power of Microsoft AI solutions. His projects range from training drones for search-and-rescue missions to automating research workflows sparking new possibilities in crisis response, and community knowledge-sharing. Passionate about empowering others, he openly shares results and best practices, while also engaging with peers on LinkedIn and Twitter at @WirelessLife. Please connect with his amazing lessons at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/category/itopstalk/blog/itopstalkblog

Dan Wahlin is a Principal Cloud Developer Advocate at Microsoft, specializing in Microsoft 365 and Azure integration. He also creates Pluralsight training courses, speaks at global conferences, runs webinars, and shares insights through his blog and Code with Dan Web Development Newsletter. Before Microsoft, he spent 20 years as CEO of a consulting and training company, authored books, and published numerous articles. Connect with Dan at https://www.linkedin.com/in/danwahlin

Henk Boelman is a Cloud Advocate specializing in Artificial intelligence and Azure with a background in application development. He is currently part of the AI cloud advocate team and based in the Netherlands. Before joining Microsoft, he was a Microsoft AI MVP and worked as a software developer and architect building lots of AI powered platforms on Azure. Connect with Henk at https://www.linkedin.com/in/henkboelman

John Papa | GitHub Copilot Tips and Tricks for AI Skeptics

Microsoft

You’ve had enough of all this talk about AI for developers. It feels like a lot of hype and meanwhile, you have work to get done. I feel you! It is hard to tell the difference between what’s hype and what’s real at this current moment. The magic of AI for developers is very real though. In this session, you’ll get the tips and tricks for GitHub Copilot that will take you beyond the hype and into a true believer to help you today and tomorrow.

John Papa is a dedicated father, husband, and professional web developer, as well as a well-known storyteller in the technology community. He is a Partner GM at Microsoft, leading Developer Relations’ Cloud Advocacy teams for App Dev and Tooling, and previously built web and mobile apps at Disney. Passionate about coding, teaching, and Disney, he also co-hosts the Web Rush podcast, authored the Angular Style Guide, and created many popular Pluralsight courses.

Check out Web Rush podcast at https://webrush.io

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

Founder of DataPsy.com

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

Leo Farias

Gen UI, Epheneral UI | CEO of Concepta

The static interface era is ending. This session explores ""Fleeting Interfaces"" - ephemeral UIs that intelligently evolve without explicit programming. Unlike traditional adaptive designs, these interfaces transform based on usage patterns and context, with elements appearing, adapting, and vanishing as needed. Through schema-driven architecture in Flutter, powered by Gemini for decision-making, I’ll demonstrate how interfaces become living temporal experiences. Discover how combining Flutter’s rendering capabilities with AI can create interfaces that respond to the fourth dimension - time - establishing a new paradigm for truly responsive digital experiences.

Session Details

See the future of UI with Flutter and Gemini AI:

• Build with behaviors, not states: Schema systems that adapt naturally
• Smart interfaces: AI-powered decisions based on how users interact
• Live demos of tomorrow’s UIs:
• Interfaces that shift with context and learn from use
• Elements that appear when needed and vanish when done
• Demos showing real world applications

Leo Farias is a Flutter and Dart GDE with extensive experience in interactive design, dynamic user interfaces. Currently leading Bitwild, an Innovations lab at Concepta Technologies, Leo Farias specializes in creating next-generation UX that push the boundaries of what’s possible with Flutter. With a focus on generative UI and open source contributions, Leo Farias has developed Mix, an open-source styling system for Flutter, and created headless component libraries and design systems for the Flutter ecosystem. This work in schema-driven interfaces directly informs the ephemeral UI concepts presented in this talk.

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/