Prairie Dev Con Winnipeg

Sept 22-23 2025Winnipeg, MB
2
Days
50+
Sessions
30+
Speakers

About Prairie Dev Con

Prairie Dev Con started in 2010 with the goal of bringing a software conference experience to the Canadian prairies and we're continuing into 2025!

Why Attend?

  • Learn from thought leaders and industry experts
  • Discover new tools and practices
  • Connect with developers from across the prairies!
Want to see what last year's event looked like? Click below to access last year's event site with speakers and sessions!

Event Starts In:

Speakers

A N M Bazlur Rahman
Java User Group Bangladesh
Toronto, ON

A N M Bazlur Rahman is a Software Engineer, Java Champion, Author, Blogger, and Speaker. He has more than a decade of experience in the software industry, primarily with Java and Java-related technologies. He enjoys mentoring, writing, delivering…

Read more →
Adam Krieger
Online Business Systems
Winnipeg, MB

Adam Krieger is a Principal Security Consultant with Online Business Systems. With a background in software development, cloud architecture, and distributed systems, and a certified CISSP, CSSLP, and CISA, he is driven to improve the way we build con…

Read more →
Adam L Barrett
Regina, SK

Adam L Barrett is a JavaScript Consultant / Developer with a love for front-end and the mobile web. His job is helping developers improve their JavaScript skills and write better front-end code. When he's not discussing prototypal inheritance or whic…

Read more →
Alex Drenea
Microsoft
Toronto, ON

Well-rounded Solution Architect with over 10 years of hands-on experience in all areas of Software Development Lifecycle (Back-end, Cloud, Database, DevOps, Mobile, Desktop, Web) Passionate about building and leading technical teams to success, by…

Read more →
Ashleigh Lodge
Neovation Learning Solutions
Winnipeg, MB

Ashleigh is the Leader of the Product Team at Neovation Learning Solutions in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She manages a team of over 30 developers, UX designers and QA analysts who work to maintain and grow two separate products. Ashleigh is a voc…

Read more →
Cameron McKay
MNP LLP
Winnipeg, MB

Cameron McKay is a Microsoft Azure Integration MVP with a strong background in web, integration, and business analysis. Cameron is a thought leader in Azure integration services and has spoken at numerous conferences on topics related to Microsoft Az…

Read more →
Chris Ayers
Microsoft
Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL

Chris is a Senior Site Reliability Engineer on the AzRel team at Microsoft. He has a focus in modern applications built with DevOps, microservices, containers, Single Page Apps, RESTful APIs, and cloud technologies following agile practices. In his f…

Read more →
Christopher Usick
Northfield IT
Bluemenort, MB

I am a maker. My drive to create change through tech has taken me from programming as a teenager to freelancing, web dev, DevOps, backend software engineering, machine learning, business, physics, and epistemology. I have a deep appreciation for the…

Read more →
Conner Schiissler
Calgary, AB

I am an IT generalist with a diverse background spanning platform engineering, data engineering, software development, and cybersecurity. Passionate about leveraging technology to drive business value, I thrive at the intersection of innovation and p…

Read more →
Dale Birtch
Axon
Saskatoon, SK

Dale is a classically trained Sys Admin who has worked through the transition from physical servers, P2V lift and shift virtualization, native virtualization, hosting in private data centers, and delivering applications on the public cloud. He's intr…

Read more →
Darryl Shpak
Conquest Planning
Winnipeg, MB

I've been a professional software developer for over twenty years (and an unprofessional one longer than that), and for the last five years I've been working at Conquest Planning developing the next generation of financial planning software. I tend n…

Read more →
Dave Rooney
Saphala Consulting
Ottawa, ON

Dave Rooney is a veteran Agile Coach, Speaker, Manager & Developer who has been at this software thing since the 80's. He has a deep interest in the human factors involved in the effective delivery of software that delights its customers, and in prom…

Read more →
David Paquette
Microsoft
Calgary, AB

Dave is a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft on the Azure DevOps team. Prior to joining Microsoft, he has built up over a decade of experience in developing software for financial, agricultural and energy companies where he has specialized in .…

Read more →
David Wesst
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB

David Wesst, otherwise known as “Wessty” or “DW”, is a Web Platform developer working as an enterprise software architect, defining technology strategy by day, and building cool web tech by night. When DW isn’t live-coding on Twitch or YouT…

Read more →
Dylan Marcoux
Winnipeg, MB

Dylan Marcoux is an independent security consultant that assists organizations in various industries enhance their cybersecurity capabilities. Dylan's current focus is on security topics related to DevOps, cloud service providers, containers, and orc…

Read more →
Harold Campos
Microsoft Corporation
Toronto, ON

Harold is a Peruvian-born Canadian living in Toronto, working as a **Principal Product Manager** with the **Azure Logic Apps Team**, where he focuses on legacy modernization. Prior the Logic Apps team, Harold had over 15 years of experience as a CTO…

Read more →
Heather Ronnebeck
Work Wranglers
Winnipeg, MB

Read more →
Jason Bock
Rocket Mortgage
Shackopee, MN

Jason Bock is a Staff Software Engineer at Rocket Mortgage and a Microsoft MVP (C#). He has 30 years of experience working on several business applications using a diverse set of frameworks and languages. He is the author of ".NET Development Using t…

Read more →
Jay Harris
Arana Software
Las Vegas, NV

Jay is a code wrangler, software consultant, and owner of Arana Software. He has been developing on the web since 1995, when the Blink tag lured him away from Visual Basic 3, and has been awarded as a Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft MVP. Re…

Read more →
Jeff Kosciejew
Agile Magic
Toronto, ON

Jeff is a Coach, Consultant, Change Manager, and College Professor who developed his skills delivering and working with both large and small organizations across a diverse range of industries. He's always looking for ways to disrupt & highlight ineff…

Read more →
Jeff Lefebvre
University of Winnipeg
Winnipeg, MB

With 20 years professional experience in software development, Jeff has lead teams in startups and billion dollar businesses, pioneering Scrum methodology with proven results, and is a champion of ASP.NET C# since 2010. Nowadays, he and his team are…

Read more →
Jeremy Wagner
Google
Minneapolis, MN

Jeremy Wagner is a Senior Technical Writer for Google Chrome working on content for Baseline. When he’s not writing and editing content for web.dev, you can find him nudging and death saving on pinball machines that have done him wrong.…

Read more →
Joe Kuemerle
Salesforce
Milford, PA

Joe Kuemerle is an application security engineer, developer and speaker in the greater New York City area specializing in application security, development, database and application lifecycle topics. Joe is active in the technical community as well…

Read more →
Joel Hebert
Microsoft
Ottawa, Canada Area

Joel Hebert is the Principal Consultant and Director at Opulent ASP Development Inc. He is passionate about Security , Integration and Software Architecture. He is an 11 time Microsoft MVP and is one of the User Group Leaders in Ottawa. Specializing…

Read more →
Joel Tosi
Dojo & Co
Chicago, IL

Coaching and pairing within and across teams on how to leverage new technologies to drive product learning.…

Read more →
John Tobin
Solsys
Toronto, ON

John has over 25 years of experience working in software and technology with professional services consulting firms and product companies in three countries, ranging from large enterprises to small organizations. Throughout his career, he's worked wi…

Read more →
Kevin Evans
Code To Cloud
Calgary, AB

Kevin Evans is a seasoned cloud-native technologist and the founder of Code to Cloud, a platform dedicated to empowering organizations with cloud-native solutions. With over 25 years in the tech industry, he has established himself as a thought leade…

Read more →
Lavanya Mohan
NEO Financial
Calgary, AB

Lavanya is a software professional with experience in software testing and development. In her current role as a Director of Software Development at Neo Financial, she is responsible for leading the development and testing practices across the teams. Her focus is on leadership and building high performance teams…

Read more →
Mike Diehl
Improving Winnipeg
Winnipeg, MB

Mike Diehl is the Director of Data Engineering and Business Intelligence at Improving Winnipeg (formerly Imaginet), a Microsoft partner with offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) and with Improving offices across Canada, United States, South America…

Read more →
Nazar Viznytsya
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario

I'm a software developer, currently back in school, studying Computer Science with a Specialization in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Waterloo. Previously I had the privilege of working at The Canada Life Assurance Company as a software…

Read more →
Pablo Listingart
ComIT
Winnipeg, MB

Pablo Listingart is a technology and workforce strategist whose work bridges social impact and economic development. As founder and executive director of ComIT in Canada and Comunidad IT in Argentina, Pablo has led initiatives that provide free tech…

Read more →
Peter Ritchie
Accenture
Ottawa, ON

Peter Ritchie is in his third decade in the software industry. Peter has a track record of successful platform and solution architecture and delivery. Peter is a book author, open-source author, international speaker, blogger, and Microsoft MVP in .…

Read more →
Rob Richardson
robrich.org
Provo, UT

Rob Richardson is a software craftsman building web properties in ASP.NET and Node, React and Vue. He’s a Microsoft MVP, published author, frequent speaker at conferences, user groups, and community events, and a diligent teacher and student of hig…

Read more →
Sandy Liu
Toronto, ON

Sandy Liu is a Certified Scrum Master with almost a decade of experience working with many Toronto startups. She is the author of "Confessions of a Scrum Master" and is currently a Senior Product Manager at one of Canada's largest media and entertain…

Read more →
Saumik Gupta
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries
Winnipeg, MB

I am working in software industry for around 20 Years. I have worked over different geography like Asia, U.S.A and Canada and in different business lines like Auto Insurance, Health, Insurance ,Utility, Retail. I have worked both in private and publ…

Read more →
Scott Stauffer
Imaginet is now, Improving
Metro Vancouver, BC

Principal Consultant @ Improving | Microsoft MVP Alumni - Data Platform | Volunteer Puppy Trainer @ BC and Alberta Guide Dogs Scott has spend the better part of the last 25 years moving data around, mostly with the help of Microsoft SQL Server, an…

Read more →
Travis Gosselin
SPS Commerce
Toronto, ON

Travis is a Distinguished Software Engineer at SPS Commerce, the world's largest retail network, where he leads innovation, drives meaningful change, and amplifies team productivity. With a passion for technology and a talent for simplifying complex…

Read more →
Tyler Doerksen
Manulife
Winnipeg, MB

Hello, I'm Tyler Doerksen, a local Winnipegger and Lead Solution Architect with Manulife Group Benefits. I work with engineering teams and business leaders to help them understand how technology can provide business value for their organization. I r…

Read more →

Sessions


AI & Acceptance Criteria

We'll briefly explore the purpose of Acceptance Criteria, and touch on a couple of common approaches to writing Acceptance Criteria. We'll look at how using ChatGPT (or other AI tools) can be used to accomplish this task with some real-world examples. And then we'll discuss the pros and cons to this approach.

AI-Ready .NET Apps with Aspire & Ollama

Transform your Modern .NET applications into AI-powered solutions without a full rewrite. In this session, you’ll learn how .NET Aspire and Microsoft.Extensions.AI abstract away provider details so you can experiment locally with Ollama and seamlessly switch to Azure OpenAI for production.

We’ll demonstrate practical code patterns, like caching, that keep your integrations performant and reliable. You’ll see how to manage secrets and configuration with .NET Aspire, ensuring secure, compliant deployments.

We’ll explore best practices, discuss performance considerations, and highlight the power of .NET and Azure’s toolset. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a newcomer, you’ll leave with the guidance to enhance your projects using cutting-edge AI technologies.

Breaking Java Stereotypes: It's Not Your Dad's Language Anymore

Forget what you thought you knew about Java. This isn't the clunky language of yesteryear. With a wave of powerful new features, Java has shed its verbose reputation and emerged as a streamlined, expressive force in modern development.

In this talk, we'll explore the Java Renaissance. We'll explore records, sealed classes, pattern matching, and string templates - the tools that are making Java code more concise and elegant than ever before. We'll also take a peek at virtual threads and structured concurrency, features that streamline multithreading for the modern era.

Ready for a fresh look at an old favourite? Discover the Java that will surprise you and transform the way you code.

Building an Internal Developer Portal that Empowers Developers

Internal Developer Portals are revolutionizing how teams streamline workflows, enhance developer experience, and boost productivity. But for medium-sized organizations with limited resources, the path to success is unclear and fraught with challenges. Simply mimicking or using industry frameworks like Spotify Backstage might seem like a shortcut, but without a clear vision and strategy, it can lead to frustration and failure.

This talk dives into how to build a successful Internal Developer Portal tailored to your unique needs. We'll explore critical steps: making a compelling business case, navigating the buy-versus-build dilemma, designing scalable architectures, driving adoption, and measuring impact in meaningful ways.

Packed with actionable insights from SPS Commerce’s journey “the force behind the world’s largest retail network" you'll gain a roadmap to reduce cognitive load, empower your teams, and align your engineering practices with business goals. Whether you're starting fresh or refining an existing portal, this session will equip you to achieve big wins, even on a lean budget.

Building Packages and Tools Using the Compiler API

Since 2015, the C# compiler has been implemented in C# itself. The compilation infrastructure, which is composed of numerous tools and packages, is called the Compiler API. The API is open for any developer to use to build powerful packages and tools to refine and enhance applications. In this session, I'll cover a number of areas where you can use the Compiler API to review your code and suggest improvements or produce code at compile-time to make your code better in so many different ways.

Busting .NET Myths

Types and attributes. Language keywords and features. Both C# and .NET have a ton of features and capabilities within, but sometimes erroneous information is spread about how they work. In this session, we'll set things straight on a number of topics, so you know exactly what's going with your code.

Code Like an Agent: Cracking the MCP mysteries

This session will cover the foundation of what MP (Model Context Protocol is) is and how it all ties into the Agentic frameworks. It will focus mostly on the developer experience with practical examples on how to build, deploy and integrate and MCP server into your daily coding workflow. A session for developers, by developers!

Code Smarter with GitHub Copilot Chat

GitHub Copilot Chat is a game-changer for developers, helping you write code faster and smarter. I'll break down how to use Copilot Chat as a real coding assistant â€"one that boosts your productivity without doing the thinking for you. We’ll look at practical ways to integrate it into your workflow, whether you're generating code snippets, debugging, or exploring new libraries.

Learn how to write better prompts that get the results you need, and how to strike the right balance between leveraging Copilot’s power and maintaining code quality. With the right approach, Copilot Chat can help you write better code in less time, while keeping you in full control of your development process.

By the end, you’ll know how to use GitHub Copilot Chat to improve your development process and enhance your coding workflow â€"making it a true assistant in your everyday work.

Collaborating with the Enemy

Often times, to get something done, we need to work with people we don’t agree with or like or trust. This talk will go over 5 ways to deal with problematic situations as outlined in Adam Kahane's book, Collaborating with the Enemy. We will go over the phases of: simple collaboration, force, adapt, exit and stretch collaboration.

Confessions of a Flow Junkie - Maximizing Flow Within Your Work

We are literally surrounded by examples of how disrupted Flow affects our daily lives! Vehicular traffic, grocery store lines, and even making dinner in your kitchen all require Flow in order to work effectively. However, software delivery in general seems to ignore how disruptions in Flow cost time and therefore money. When I ask about how people feel when they're able to work uninterrupted for a reasonable number of hours, I consistently hear terms like, "In the Zone" and "On Fire" and there is palpable delight when they speak of those times. That's what Flow feels like! If it feels that good, why not seek to achieve it as often and for as long as possible?

In this session we will explore the concepts behind Flow at a number of different levels and why it's so critical for success. Through hands-on activities, we'll experience what Flow is, how it feels and what happens when it's disrupted. This will allow you to take away key actions that you can implement immediately to improve your team & organization's Flow.

There is no prerequisite knowledge for this session, except perhaps curiosity!

Containers in the cloud

It seems like every day public cloud providers are releasing new services that utilize Docker and container technologies. In this talk I will go over some of the cloud services you have available for container-based solutions, including general guidance on which service to use. Specifically I will be talking about Microsoft Azure, but there are similar services in GCP or AWS.

We will be talking about:

  • Azure Kubernetes Service
  • Azure Container Apps
  • Azure Container Registry
  • Azure Container Instances
  • Containers on Linux and Windows App Services
  • Azure Batch Using Containers

After attending this talk you will have a high level understanding of how containers fit into various cloud managed systems, and which compute paradigm you can use for your container-based project.

Crafting Quality APIs at Scale: Collaboration with API Design Reviews

Building high-quality APIs at scale requires more than technical expertiseâ€"it demands effective collaboration and a structured approach to design. API Design Reviews provide an approach that elevates API quality, ensures consistency, and drives alignment across teams. By bringing together stakeholders from diverse disciplines, design reviews foster thoughtful discussions that catch issues early, reduce rework, and create APIs that are intuitive and developer-friendly.

Creating AI Integrated Smart Devices, with Minimal Low Level Coding

Developing smart devices with microcontrollers typically comes with the stigma of having to learn a low level language, but what if there was a way to seamlessly integrate these devices with larger, more well documented, and powerful services such as Azure or other cloud functions. With the accessibility to low-cost, internet connected, microcontrollers, creating smart devices that push most of the heavy lifting to outside services has become much easier.

In this talk, we'll go over the general development process for creating such devices, primarily focusing on creating cloud applications that efficiently and effectively get around computational constraints on the microcontroller. We'll do this by going through specific case studies of such device and cloud application development.

By the end of the talk you'll understand the simplicity of interfacing an ESP32 microcontroller with outside services, know all the tools to get started with developing your own devices, but also be able to apply the content of the talk to all situations where integration is needed between a device with low computational power and the cloud.

DevSecOps: Harnessing the Power of PyRit and the AI Red Teaming Agent

Welcome to my journey into the world of generative AI Security and Risks. I'll introduce PyRit, a framework that revolutionized my approach, and discuss how the AI Red Teaming Agent uses PyRit to enhance security. Join me to discover the power of DevSecOps in safeguarding AI.

Does It Need To Be An End-to-End UI Test?

Many of us understand the concept of the Test Pyramid and know the challenges of maintaining a large end-to-end UI test automation suite. Yet, a lot of software engineering teams find themselves with a large number of end-to-end UI tests - many of which could have been or already are covered at the lower levels of the Test Pyramid.

In this talk, with the help of an example, I would like to share some of the benefits of testers getting involved in understanding the unit and integration tests that we have on our projects.

Empower business with Microsoft Power Automate

This presentation will go over some real-life use cases where manual business processes were automated using Power Automate. How it impacted business user and their overall experience.

We will cover People, Process and Technology aspects of the business process automation.

People:

  • How to start the dialogue
  • How to encourage participation and engagement

Process:

  • How to identify which processes fit for automation

Technology:

  • Desktop flow vs Cloud Flow
  • API integration
  • Code versioning
  • User training
  • License

Exploring Legacy Code Test-First... with AI!

Imagine that you've been tasked with changing a pile of unfamiliar legacy code that hasn't received much attention over its lifetime and you've been told explicitly that rewriting the it isn't an option! There are innumerable dependencies in the code and few tests. On top of that, the changes you have to make have a hard deadline owing to the sunsetting of an external API!

Well, that was me recently and I needed to start somewhere with understanding the code and making it safe to change. So, I leveraged JetBrains' AI Assistant to help characterize the code and then write tests for the behaviour in order to build a "safety net".

In this session we'll delve into how working with the AI was both the best of times and the worst of times, how it helped and how it hindered. I'll also show some of these issues in a live demo.

Failure - Lessons the hard way

With 20 years of interesting failure modes and incident management, join me for a review of multiple situations, lessons and takeaways to improve your incident handling. This talk will cover handling identifying risks, handling in-flight problems, and how to maximize the benefits and learning once failure has occurred.

Feature Flags: Separate Deployment from Feature Release

Tired of rolling back the feature because a hotfix is coming through? Want to get away from code freezes to fit an arbitrary deadline? Feature flags allow us to release code when we're ready and then turn it on when business is ready. There's subtleties and nuance here though. Join us on this journey where we introduce feature flags, talk about the options for cloud-based services vs. built-in systems, and look at best practices for testing and retiring feature flags. You'll leave with a repo of solid examples and techniques to take control of your deployment future.

FinOps for Generative AI with Azure API Management - A Journey.

Join me on a journey through the world of FinOps for Generative AI using Azure API Management. Discover how I navigated the complexities of financial operations, optimized costs, and ensured efficient resource management. Learn about the tools and strategies that transformed our approach, making AI both powerful and cost-effective.

From Good to Great: Usability for Software Engineers

Usability? Isn't that something for designers to worry about? Learn why usability matters to everyone on the team and how to make it your secret weapon for success. Applying the principals in this session will give you the power to improve user satisfaction, reduce frustration, and ultimately create software that not only meets requirements but also delights your users.

Front to back, Never back to front

This talk will show you how the simple idea of coding “front-to-back” can reduce complexity, increase security, and help keep your codebase performant and maintainable.

It's explored in both the macro and the micro, from event-storming for architecture design, test-driven-development, to just drawing a picture before you start typing. We'll discuss the pitfalls of solving problems from the implementation to the user and the benefits of consumer first thinking, and designing your abstractions.

Future Proof with ASP.NET Core API Versioning

In the ever-evolving life of a modern application, maintaining API flexibility is crucial for the success and longevity of your systems. Your application's requirements and interfaces will change over time, and must be able to support the future without breaking the past.

This session will cover ASP.NET Core API versioning using the Asp.Versioning package. Discover practices and strategies that help you to navigate a seamless change in paths and payloads, effectively introduce version updates, and communicate deprecation and sunset policies, all to ensure that your APIs remain robust, adaptable, and ready for the requirements tomorrow without breaking the consumers of today.

Geek Out and Get Ahead: In-House training for all

Ready to turn your team into tech wizards without needing a crystal ball? Join us for "Geek Out and Get Ahead: In-House Training for All," where we’ll unravel the secrets to crafting an in-house tech training program that doesn’t involve sacrificing your sanity or your weekend. Discover how to transform your colleagues into industry superheroes, all while avoiding common pitfalls and having a little fun along the way. By the end, you'll be armed with the tools and tricks to make tech training the highlight of your company’s year. Prepare to geek out, get ahead, and maybe even enjoy the process!

GenAI-assisted Test Automation

Generative AI can be used to create content such as text, images, or even code, and it finds applications in many different areas. GenAI is also a tool that can assist us with test automation. Like any other tool, the value of GenAI comes not just from its intrinsic properties but from how we use it, where we use it, the context, and so on.

In this talk, I will share some of my experiences with GenAI-assisted test automation. We will explore several effective ways to leverage GenAI in test automation, identify areas where it can accelerate our work, and examine other areas where it may be less useful. We'll also discuss why it is essential to have a human-centered approach, with humans leading the activity and being in the driver seat.

Harnessing legacy value in Financial Services with Azure Logic Apps AI Agents

Legacy systems, often contain valuable historical data but are typically isolated and difficult to integrate with modern technologies. For example, legacy data might include customer transaction histories stored in DB2 databases or financial records in COBOL-based applications. These systems are often rigid and lack the flexibility to interact with contemporary cloud-based services or AI-driven analytics platforms.

Azure Logic Apps facilitates seamless connectivity between these old systems and new applications, enabling financial institutions to leverage their existing data for improved decision-making and operational efficiency. With Logic Apps, financial services can automate workflows, validate and transform data, and ensure real-time data synchronization across various platforms.

AI Agents built with Azure Logic Apps, further enhance these capabilities by automating data mapping, predicting integration failures, and providing conversational interfaces for easier integration creation. AI can analyze and map data across platforms, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy. I will show a demonstration on how this is being done in north American financial services institutions.

Hey ChatGPT, where are the bugs? Using GenAI As a Blue Team Force Multiplier

Application Security continues to be overwhelmed with more and more applications being built than we have time to review. Engineering teams need non-blocking security reviews along with accurate and actionable security reports. In order to help with that we need to use better tooling to improve our security advisory work.

Fortunately there is tooling that can help supplement human review of the security of an application beyond static analysis of source code.

In this talk we will use GenerativeAI tooling to analyze engineering artifacts in order to identify security risk and dig deeply into the design to find and fix security bugs before they ship.

You will learn how to use vectorization, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering and agentic driven workflows to help security teams keep up with developer velocity.

How Engineers Use Copilot at Microsoft to Solve the Hard Problems

Real world examples of how software engineers at Microsoft are using Copilot. What works and what doesn't? Learn how to evolve as an engineer to thrive in the era of AI.

How to not think like an LLM

Generative AI forces us to rethink what value software developers truly create. While it's obvious developers, operators, and managers have to face new workflows powered by AI Agents, there's a deluge of topics vieing for attention. In order to thrive in this storm of innovation, it's necessary to take a fresh look at the value proposition *human* developers bring to the table.

In this presentation we'll understand the foundational principles that differentiate AI agents and humans. Then we will see how these principles hold up through practical examples of automated workflows, copilots, and their failures. IT professionals across the field - manager, devopers, operators - will gain a valuable foundational understanding to guide future decisions.

How to ship successfully with boring technology

We’re deluged by new technologies and new frameworks, promising to make us more productive and more successful. Keeping up with the latest tools can be exhausting, but can we afford to fall behind the curve? In this talk, Darryl will use his real-world experience as part of successful product (and company) launches to extol the virtues of being boring. Not (just) because he’s a middle-aged dad and boring by default, but because he’s seen the benefits of relying on proven tools and saving your energy to innovate where it matters.

Hybrid AI Enablement of Mission Critical Workloads for Local Processing Needs Using Azure Logic Apps

For scenarios where customers need to use, control, and manage their own infrastructure, they can create Standard logic app workflows using the hybrid deployment model in Azure Logic Apps. This model provides capabilities to build and host, integration solutions for partially connected environments that require local processing, storage, and network access. Customer’s infrastructure can include on-premises systems, private clouds, and public clouds.

This session will show you how to implement Azure Logic Apps Hybrid and enable on-premises workloads can leverage all existing Azure Logic Apps AI capabilities.

Identity Obsession: What is it and Why It Should Be Avoided

Identity Obsession is a code smell that can occur in the context of Domain-Driven Design where entity identities are misinterpreted as always being global identities. This session details how it can happen, how you can recognize it, and the issues that arise and solutions:

  • Leaking domain model in API responses and separating response model from domain model
  • Leaking data model in API responses and separating response model from data model
  • Leaking primary keys in non-aggregate root entities and abstracting data model with Entity Framework
  • How everything having global identity affects local identities and what to do about it

Integrating with AI using Azure Logic Apps

In this talk, we will delve into the exciting world of AI integration using Azure Logic Apps. We will explore how Azure Logic Apps, a powerful cloud-based service, can be used to create intelligent, automated workflows by architecting with Azure AI Foundry, MCP and RAG.

We will start discussing the basics of Azure Logic Apps, Azure AI Foundry, MCP and RAG, and how they can be leveraged to enhance your business processes. We will discuss show examples of how you can build, architect and design with each of these in Azure Logic Apps.

By the end of this talk, you will have a solid understanding of how to harness the power of AI in your operations using Azure Logic Apps. You will be equipped with the knowledge to transform your business processes, boost productivity, and drive innovation.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a business professional looking to leverage AI in your operations, this talk will provide valuable insights and practical knowledge.

Introduction to Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric is an all-in-one analytics solution for enterprises that covers everything from data movement to data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence - all backed by a shared platform providing robust data security, governance, and compliance.

This session will be a whirlwind introduction to Fabric features and architecture to help you decide how you can implement it in your organization.

Java + LLMs: A hands-on guide to building LLMs Apps in java

AI is revolutionizing the software landscape. However, for many Java developers, integrating these powerful AI tools into existing enterprise applications or a new one can feel daunting. In this hands-on session, we'll demystify the process and show you how to build LLM-powered features directly into your Java codebase.

Using JakartaEE and the LangChain4j library, we'll dive deep into Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), a cutting-edge technique that combines the vast knowledge of LLMs with the precision of your own data. We'll explore how to create both few-shot and zero-shot RAG models, and then add practical features like summarization and similarity search, backed by an Embedding database.

Through a live coding demo, we’ll walk you through constructing an AI-powered online store backend and provide practical insights into the architecture and code.

Whether you're familiar with AI or just getting started, this session will give you the confidence and skills to harness the potential of LLMs in your Java projects.

JS Signals

JavaScript has a new primitive for reactive programming: Signals. Almost all the major frameworks have adopted them and there is even a TC39 proposal to add signals directly into the language. But what do they do?

In this talk we will dig deep into the (imho) poorly named Signal, discuss how they are used in modern programming, demystify them by implementing our own in JS, and address the current status of the ECMAScript Signals proposal.

Keeping Group Chats Private - Expanding Simple Peer-to-Peer Messaging Platforms

Peer-to-peer messaging platforms remain one of the easiest and most well known ways of delivering privacy for users, however, most resources detail in depth about how to create direct messaging but not group messaging.

In this talk, we’ll go through the architecture of peer-to-peer group messaging applications, starting off first with a brief overview of peer-to-peer messaging in the direct sense, and expanding to group messaging. We’ll then look at the steps it would take to create a generic peer-to-peer group messaging system. Finally, using public libraries and our architecture for a group messaging platform we'll create a group chat website that provides enhanced privacy for potential users compared to a traditional client-server platform.

Manage Change within Power BI Reports & Semantic Models with Git

Many Power BI developers have experienced the frustration of learning that a report that they've developed is no longer working. Upon investigation they learn that other people have made enhancements to this report and somewhere along the timeline, things have fallen off the rails.

Today's reality is that Power BI does little to help you compare changes across versions, or indicate "who made what change when?"

This is a reality because the pbix file format makes it difficult to see the code stored in the file for the various report components, conversely, making it difficult to track changes across versions or a Power BI Report.

Don't be discouraged - All is not lost - A solution exists! Git and the pbip file format to the rescue!

We can leverage Git [a free, open-source version control system (VCS)], to provide the ability to track changes over time. Git then leverages the file and folder structure of the pbip (Power BI Project) file format.

In this session we will demonstrate setting up and integrating git to achieve change tracking across Power BI Report versions. I will also demonstrate how developers can 'commit' changes to git, make changes over time, and then highlight the differences in code across versions. This capability to Track Changes allows developers to resolve issues quicker and have greater insight on what is changing in their reporting solutions.

Modernizing Legacy Code - While Not Bringing Down Prod

Imagine you have some legacy code. It may be on an outdated tech stack, or perhaps you are looking to go to the cloud, or perhaps it just isn't properly aligned with the product anymore. How do you actually go through and modernize the application when multiple teams are involved...and not bring down production?

In this session, you will learn real world techniques to help you with modernization. Including

  • Realigning product, architecture, and teams with Strategic DDD
  • Finding seams in your existing product
  • Questioning product assumptions
  • Making boring changes to get quick learning
  • Natural code expansion and contraction
  • As well as how to decided if you are better of modernizing than migrating.

Non-Human Identity and APIs: Vital Blueprints for Application and AI Security

Identity management is a well-known topic, but what about non-human / application / AI identity? Software applications (including AI agents) aren't people. Well, yet. Until the robots completely take over, we need to prioritize and think differently about enabling successful and secure non-human identity management. APIs are where non-humans meet, enabling applications and AI to talk - so what needs to be in place to ensure those interactions happen securely? What do we need to think about in terms of tooling? Why is the visibility of these identities and permissions important? We'll talk about this and more, and more, covering some of the tools and capabilities you want to have in place.

Observability in an imperfect world

The goal of this talk is to provide companies an alternative approach to adding observability in an environment filled with manual and automated processes, where automated tools fall short on features or data governance requirements. Following principles of the COBIT framework, we review what's possible using tools like Sharepoint, Power BI, Power Automate, Atlassian Compass and optionally Jira ITSM to give Developers, Operations and Leadership the reporting it needs to identify KPIs as well as business and system impacts from changes and incidents to downline systems. Expect fancy network charts!

Power BI for the Faint of Heart - Building an Interactive Report Step-by-Step!

You’ve heard about Power BI, and you’ve seen it, but you haven’t yet rolled up your sleeves and got your hands dirty. It looks like it is really easy, but sometimes it helps to have someone step you through it the first time to help you hit the ground running. We will grab various public data sources, join them together in a model and build an interactive pièce de résistance on the visual design surface!

Problem Solving From Beginner to Expert: No Shouting Required

As people gain experience in their role or at their company/organization, how they approach and solve problems changes - but not always for the better. We've all been in a room where everyone is shouting at each other but nothing ever gets fixed, and we all know there has to be a better way, but what is it?

This session will walk you through the three stages of problem solving, how to recognize them in yourself and others, how to coach someone (including yourself) to move beyond their current stage by asking good questions and giving good answers, and ultimately, how solving a problem doesn't have to be done at the top of our lungs.

Product Owner Value Game

We'll play the Product Owner Value Game which involves attempting to deliver as much value as soon as possible. We'll look at what inputs we need in order to determine what work we should explore, refine, and deliver. We'll talk about how we get those inputs, and why it can be groundbreaking for organizations to start to use this approach in sequencing work. Of course, we'll also discuss why so many don't use an approach like this, and explore some of the challenges to this approach... And what can be done to ensure we're working on truly valuable & impactful work.

Refactoring Your Developer Identity

What happens when your next project isn’t in the stack you know best? For many senior developers, deep expertise becomes part of their identityâ€"so when faced with unfamiliar tools, they hesitate, opt out, or try to force-fit what they already know.

But this moment isn’t a threatâ€"it’s an opportunity. A growth mindset shifts the focus from comfort to curiosity, and from control to adaptability. The most valuable developers aren’t defined by syntax or frameworks, but by their ability to solve problems, understand systems, and make sound decisionsâ€"regardless of the tools involved.

This talk is about recognizing your transferable skills and using unfamiliar challenges as a springboard for growth. Because your long-term value lies not in what you already know, but in your willingness to grow beyond it.

Key Takeaways:

  • Why tying your identity to a single stack can limit your career
  • How to reframe new technical challenges as growth opportunities
  • Ways to apply architecture and design skills across stacks
  • Moving from “good developer" to “trusted problem solver"
  • Adopting a mindset that keeps you resilient, relevant, and irreplaceable

Scaling Innovation: Platform Engineering with Azure for Smarter CI/CD

In the evolving world of **Platform Engineering**, teams seek ways to make CI/CD workflows **more resilient, scalable, and developer-friendly**. This session dives into **Dagger**, a powerful open-source CI/CD engine, and its seamless integration with **Azure** to automate and optimize cloud deployments. You’ll learn how **Dagger’s containerized approach** eliminates inconsistencies across environments, enables **reproducible builds**, and simplifies dependency management, all while leveraging Azure’s infrastructureâ€"**Azure DevOps, AKS, and GitHub Actions**â€"for **secure and scalable automation**. Key takeaways: - How **Dagger** transforms CI/CD workflows with **declarative pipelines**. - Integrating **Dagger with Azure Kubernetes Service** for rapid deployments. - Leveraging **Azure Landing Zones & GitHub Actions** to create **self-service, developer-friendly platforms**. - Strategies to ensure **security, governance, and efficiency** in cloud-native CI/CD.

Scaling to cloud native

Let's walk through the evolution from physical servers, to virtualization, cloud migrations, containerization, app platforms and Kubernetes. We'll review the costs, benefits, tradeoffs, durability, security, and operations through these technology shifts with the goal helping you make informed decisions on the correct stack to build with.

Secure Application Design and Development With Threat Modeling

In this session you will get an overview of threat modeling techniques that help you to build the most secure application possible.

By building a threat model describing the various components of your application and how data flows through it, you will be better prepared to defend your application from attacks, improve the performance and scalability of your application, ensure consistent architecture and have some great assets easily bring new developers up to speed on all the parts of your application.

This session will dive into threat modeling and include some hands on activities to help you find and fix security vulnerabilities before any code is written.

Systems Thinking Workshop - Visualizing Relationships and Knowing Where to Act

Attendees will learn how to model systems and understand the relationships and effects of interactions between parts of their 'work system', i.e. how brittle lower environments happen, why your delivery cadence is erratic, and much, much more!

The workshop will cover:

  • Systems Diagramming (Nouns, Verbs, Reinforcing, Balancing Loops)
  • Value Demand / Failure Demand
  • Determining areas of change where 'good enough' is enough
  • Separating signal from noise - knowing your changes made a difference

This session is designed for anyone that is interested in helping teams and organizations be more effective and worry less about 'the process'

Testing Components in Cypress

Have you ever wanted to experiment or prove a React, Vue, Svelte, or Angular? Are you tired of clicking the 18 buttons to get to the scenario where the problem happens? Let's add Cypress for component testing. Cypress makes it easy to prove the component renders correctly and interacts as expected. Join us as we dive into Cypress testing, and you'll leave with confidence to refactor your way to greatness.

The Art of Keeping Things Simple

Building a data and AI platform is hard enough. Why make it more complicated than it needs to be? Too often, organizations over-engineer their architecture by introducing unnecessary layers of orchestration, duplication, and tooling. Learn how following traditional practices can accelerate delivery.

The Importance API Governance & Management: Tooling and Enablement for the API Gateway

Understand the difference between API governance and API management, and why governance doesn't have to mean another checklist or review. We'll go through some of the capabilities, tooling, and other things you want in place to help manage and govern your APIs. API gateways are key to exposure and security, but alone, they don't give you much in the way of visibility or governance control.

After developing an API gateway and associated management tooling for several years for one of Canada's big telcos, there are a ton of lessons learned about what tooling and capabilities deliver real-life benefits, streamline management, enable developers, and reduce costs. Learn about the tooling and capabilities for your API gateway that help federate governance and manage your APIs and exposure.

The Modernization Journey: Turning Challenges Into Triumphs

Modernization isn’t just about upgrading systemsâ€"it’s about transforming the way institutions operate, engage, and deliver value in a constantly evolving digital landscape. In this engaging and practical session, we’ll explore what it truly means to modernize within the context of higher education and public sector organizations.

Drawing from real-world examples, we’ll unpack key lessons learned from both successful initiatives and hard-earned setbacks. You’ll gain strategic insights into how to improve student engagement, optimize operations, and make the most of your technology investments. Whether you’re just starting out or deep in the weeds of a digital transformation, this session will help you frame your journey with clarity, avoid common pitfalls, and identify the markers of long-term success.

Join us for a candid discussion on turning roadblocks into opportunitiesâ€"and discover how a thoughtful modernization strategy can become a catalyst for meaningful, lasting change.

The PM's Playbook: Transforming Dev Productivity Through Modern Work Management

Struggling to balance developer focus time with project visibility?

In this practical session, I'll share my frontline experience as a project manager who has transformed how development teams work using Jira, Slack, and Loomâ€"creating an ecosystem that maximizes developer productivity while maintaining clear project oversight.

As PMs, we often become the bridge between business needs and engineering reality. I'll show you exactly how I've leveraged these tools to create an environment where developers spend less time reporting and more time coding, all while improving stakeholder confidence.

You'll learn:

  • How I reduced our team's meeting load by 65% by redesigning our Jira workflows and integrating asynchronous communication
  • The exact Jira automation rules that eliminate administrative overhead for both PMs and developers
  • My "Visual Context" method using Loom that cuts down explanation time and improves requirement clarity
  • Strategies for using Slack that maintain team connection without constant interruption
  • Real before-and-after metrics from teams I've managed, showing improved velocity and developer satisfaction

Whether you're a seasoned PM looking to level up your team's processes or a technical lead taking on project management responsibilities, you'll leave with immediately applicable techniques that respect developer flow while delivering the visibility the business needs.

Stop being caught between demanding stakeholders and protection-seeking developers. Join me to discover how these everyday tools can transform your team dynamics when used with intention and strategy.

The Three Horsemen of the AppSec AI-pocalypse

This talk aims to outline three broad patterns emerging in the AI landscape, discuss the potential outcomes and the inherent threats, and then prepare attendees for the potential effects if these threats become reality. The subjects will be the way that GenAI is changing how software is developed supported by AI tooling, the way attacks have shifted when malicious groups are empowered with AI, and the threats facing AI components themselves. Each aspect is related to one another, and understanding the whole picture can improve our decision-making and strategic choices to develop a sustainable future.

Threat Modeling at Scale: From One to Many

In an ever-evolving threat landscape, organizations must proactively identify and mitigate security risks to safeguard their assets. This talk presents a practical roadmap for initiating and maturing threat modeling capabilities within an organization. We begin by demystifying threat modeling, emphasizing its role as a proactive risk management strategy rather than a reactive response to incidents. We outline a structured approach to introduce threat modeling, starting with identifying critical assets, defining scope, and conducting modeling exercises.

Recognizing that threat modeling is an ongoing journey, we explore strategies for maturing capabilities over time. We delve into integrating threat modeling into the SDLC, fostering collaboration between security and developers, and continuously refining the modeling process based on lessons learned and emerging threats. This talk is designed for security professionals, developers, and decision-makers seeking actionable guidance on building a robust threat modeling program.

Understand and plan for web feature adoption with Baseline

Historically, understanding the compatibility of web platform features hasn't been an easy task. Various sites such as MDN and Can I Use have come a long way in helping developers to understand compatibility, but the adoption of new web features is still relatively conservative and slow.

Baseline is an initiative originated by the Google Chrome team, now owned by the WebDX Community Group, that provides clear information on which web platform features are ready to use in your projects today. In this talk, an explanation of Baseline will be given, as well as ways that you can use Baseline in your project tooling to help you decide what features are ready for adoption, and how many of your website's users can benefit from them.

Value Delivery

In this interactive activity, we'll have product managers sequencing valuable work that we'll have teams develop and QA validate before releasing.

Oh... Did I mention that we'll do this all with Lego?

Not only is this an eye-opening experience for participants, it offers incredibly practical and simple techniques that can be applied to any work that requires cognitive or creative efforts of people with diverse and disperate skills. You know, like software development.

When Clear Expectations are Lacking, Succeeding as a Software Developer

It's easy to feel helpless when developing software when what we're asked to do is constantly changing, unclear, or lacks criteria to demonstrate "done".

Developers must be:

  • Agile
  • Recognizing and responding to change
but not all changes are equal.

Any product must have purpose; changes that contradict the vision or mission create uncertainty, frustration, and quality issues.

This session digs into how business motivation relates to product engineering and how those relationships can be mined and leveraged to not only ensure the software development effort is on track but also to ensure expectations are realistic and focused.

Proven techniques to scope the effort and focus expectations will be detailed, including:

  • Understanding the business motivation
  • Questions to ask when business motivation is unclear or contradictory
  • Creating sensible software development goals and objectives
  • Translating motivation to quality attributes
  • Separating product engineering from experimentation
  • Encouraging clear and achievable acceptance criteria
  • Using estimation and time-boxing to scope efforts

Winnipeg Floor Plan

Tickets

We're excited to announce there is no price increase on tickets this year!
Early Bird
(Until July 31st)

$745*

  • Groups of 3+ get an extra $50 off each registration
General Admission

$845*

  • Groups of 3+ get an extra $50 off each registration
*Plus GST. Tickets are not refundable but are transferrable.

We use Ti.to as our ticketing service, clicking the button above will redict you to their website.

If you'd prefer to receive an invoice, click the button above to contact us to arrange one!

Sending 20 or more people? Contact us about our large group rate!

Become a Sponsor

We love our sponsors and provide numerous benefits for sponsoring organizations!

Cost: $3250 + GST

What's provided for sponsors?

  • Logo Recognition (Signage and Online)
  • A Booth at the Conference
  • 3 Free Registrations
  • Sponsor Discount on Registrations

Venue

Canad Inns Destination Centre Polo Park

1405 St. Matthews Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3G 0K5
Phone: 1-204-775-8791

Attendee Info

Below are answers to the most commonly asked questions about attending the conference. If you have a question not covered, please send us an email by clicking the "Email a Question" button below!

What are the start and end times?

On both days of the conference breakfast and the registration table open at 8AM and conference sessions end at 4:30 PM.

Where are the conference rooms and registration?

Registration is outside the Ambassador ballroom on the main floor of CanadInns Polo Park.

Do I have to pre-register for specific sessions?

We take a "Vote with your feet" approach to the sessions. Attend whatever sessions you like, no pre-registration is required. Finding a session isn't what you thought it was? No problem, feel free to go to a different session!

Will sessions be recorded?

Prairie Dev Con is meant to be a live, in person event. As such we don't record sessions for later viewing, but check with our speakers to see if their talks have been recorded elsewhere.

Will food be served at the conference?

Yes! Both days will feature hot breakfast & lunch buffets and two coffee breaks.

Is there parking available?

CanadInns Polo Park has free parking on their lot.

What is the dress code for the conference?

There is no set dress code for the conference, wear what you're comfortable in keeping in mind our Code of Conduct.

Prairie Dev Con Code of Conduct

All conference participants (attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers) at our conference are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everybody.

Prairie Dev Con is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form.

Additionally sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, vendor areas, social events, and social media/online ineractions.

Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.