Adam Krieger is a Security Architect in the financial sector, holding CISSP, CSSLP, and CISA certifications. He has built SIEMs, established cloud postures, and consulted with executives on security strategy. A frequent conference speaker, Adam focuses on practical security guidance for modern development teams — and is currently fixated on what AI-assisted development means for the future of secure software.
Addison Rennick is a Principal Developer building a production agentic AI platform that automates customer service workflows using LLM-driven browser automation. The system orchestrates workers to navigate real web UIs, execute multi-step workflows, and report results back — all without human intervention. With 18 years in software development, she brings a systems-level perspective to the rapidly evolving world of AI agents.
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 cultivating a highly collaborative and efficient work environment where everyone can learn from each other and grow as a team.
Alex has been working with Azure technologies for over 5 years now, focusing specifically on the Application Development using PaaS services.
Amy is a graphic designer turned software developer currently building weird, cool, and unconventional stuff at Dimensional Innovations. On her off time she can be found volunteering with Kansas City Women in Tech, reading or playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Andrew Kuipers is a Sr. Staff Developer in the Enterprise Architecture group at iQmetrix where he works with a variety of development teams to help them design, build, and deliver software system architectures. With 15 years of experience as a software developer, as well completing a B.Sc and M.Sc in Computer Science, he has balanced his passion for writing code with deep love of learning about the science, mathematics, logic, and philosophy behind computing technology. When he isn't at the keyboard, you can often find him with a pint of local craft beer in one hand and a good book in the other.
Constantly trying to work out how to make work (and life) FUN...!!
For many years I was miserable in both work & life until I started changing my mentality, and focused on living and working with FUN. Soon after, I received the monicker 'Fun Man', at the same time I discovered companies desperately craved for not only improving their profitability across People, Products & Processes, but also their Culture, Camaraderie & Communication.
Now, with a few besties and some trusted advisors, we've turned The Fun Man, into The Fun Company!
The Life Goal is simple, albeit somewhat challenging:
(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝔹𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤, 𝕥𝕠 𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕒 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕠𝕗 ℍ𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 ℍ𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕤!! ♥
Ashleigh is the leader of the Enterprise Apps team at Neovation Learning Solutions in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She manages a team of over 20 developers, UX designers and QA analysts as they create and maintain eLearning SaaS products. A graduate of the Computer/Analyst Programmer (CAP) program at Red River College, she has held various development and management roles in the tech industry for over 12 years. Additionally, Ashleigh is on the board of Level It Up, an organization that supports autistic job seekers in finding STEAM roles and careers.
Ashleigh is a vocal advocate for accessibility and inclusive design, working to make digital websites, apps and products more accessible to users of all types and abilities. She has spoken about accessibility to a variety of audiences, including at Prairie Dev Con Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary, Confoo Montreal, and at TedxWinnipeg 2019, where she brought the idea and foundations of digital accessibility to an audience of nearly 700 Winnipeggers. Ashleigh has also published articles on digital accessibility in Code Magazine, and an article on including accessibility in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives for the Learning Guild.
In her free time, Ashleigh consumes a truly frightening amount of pop culture media, including movies, TV shows, comic books and novels. You can usually find her with Pokémon Go and Pikmin Bloom open on her phone, no matter where she is or what she's (supposed to be) doing.
Ben Goldstein is the Owner of Evergold Consulting Group and a practitioner at the intersection of digital delivery and AI transformation. With 20+ years in the digital and app build industries — including high-stakes roles at major entertainment brands where deadlines don't move — Ben brings grounded execution expertise to the problems AI is now creating for organizations trying to keep pace.
Evergold is lighting the pathway toward a modern AI services company — built on the conviction that the biggest gap in enterprise AI adoption isn't the technology, it's the context layer. A Political Philosophy degree set the stage: ask better questions, stress-test assumptions, and reason clearly under pressure. Turns out, those are exactly the skills AI transformation needs most.
Ben helps organizations move from AI curiosity to AI capability — faster, cleaner, and with fewer unforced errors.
He lives in Winnipeg with his wife, two teenage boys, and their Aussiedoodle, who thinks he runs the house (and might be right).
As a member of the technical staff at Cohere, Borko help clients deploy secure, enterprise-grade AI solutions at scale. Borko is a constant learner with passion for all things related to Kubernetes and cloud native technologies. In his free time, he enjoys listening to podcasts, and running along the beautiful Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Canada.
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 Azure. Cameron has blended his expertise in software development and business analysis to deliver a variety of enterprise web, integrations and cloud applications using the Microsoft technology stack.
Cameron spends his off-hours as a tabletop board game enthusiast, cooking up delicious meals, watching anime and training his husky dogs. Cameron is always up for any tabletop game, but he especially enjoys strategy games such as Settlers of Catan and Go (Baduk).
Carey Payette is a Principal Engineer at Financial Finesse, an Azure AI MVP, Microsoft Certified Trainer and part of the Progress Ninja community. Known for turning cutting-edge AI concepts into practical, production-ready solutions, she specializes in architecting intelligent, agentic systems, ensuring AI system and data security, and designing scalable platforms that solve real-world problems. She brings additional depth through her work in machine learning, IoT, and data analytics. Carey combines deep technical expertise with a passion for creating impactful, forward-thinking technology.
Chris Ayers is a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, where he builds AI-driven tooling to analyze outages and incidents across Azure. His work focuses on improving the way engineers understand failures, uncover risks, and strengthen reliability at cloud scale.
With a background spanning DevOps, cloud architecture, and modern application design, Chris brings both engineering depth and practical experience to the challenge of making large systems more resilient. He’s also a frequent international speaker who loves sharing real-world lessons about developer productivity, reliability, containers, and automation.
Outside of work, Chris is a proud dad, lifelong gamer, avid reader, and unapologetic nerd.
Chris Woodruff, also known as Woody, is an Independent Consultant and brings nearly three decades of industry expertise, having launched his career before the first .COM boom. Renowned for his contributions to software development and architecture, Woody is a regular speaker at international conferences, where he shares his deep knowledge on topics ranging from database development to APIs and web technologies. He is a Microsoft MVP in .NET and Web Development.
A dedicated mentor, Woody thrives on guiding fellow developers and enhancing their skills through his talks, written work, and digital content. He co-hosts the popular "Breakpoint Show" podcast and YouTube channel, which he uses to connect with and educate the tech community. He is also writing a book covering network programming with C# and .NET.
Woody's interests extend beyond his professional life, adding a personal touch to his character. He is a passionate bourbon enthusiast, often embarking on adventures along the Bourbon Trail in search of unique finds to savor and share with friends. Family time is a cherished part of his life, and he often shares insights from his professional journey on his blog at https://woodruff.dev. To stay updated on his latest projects and adventures, follow him on Twitter at @cwoodruff and Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@cwoodruff, where he shares his thoughts and experiences, fostering a sense of connection with his audience.
I am a technology generalist with experience in platform engineering, data engineering, software development, and cybersecurity. I have spent much of my career in the energy sector, helping organizations modernize their data platforms, adopt AI, and securely scale technology in highly regulated environments. I am passionate about applying technology in practical ways that deliver measurable business value.
Principal Consultant Grind Software Inc. All around nice guy.
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, delivering applications on the public cloud, and most recently building and growing great teams.
Dave specializes in helping organizations mature their software development and information technology practices on both the process side using Kanban and on the technical side using ASP.NET Core, Kubernetes, Azure, and a variety of other technologies. He is passionate about cloud-native architectures, DevOps tooling, techniques, and mindsets and regularly talks and teaches on a wide range of Kanban, DevOps, and Software Development topics.
He is also an Accredited Kanban Consultant (AKC), Trainer (AKT), and in the first cohort of Kanban University Distinguished Fellows. Dave was the first Canadian AKT in 2012 and one of the first AKC (KCP) in Canada and globally. Dave was the director of the KCP Program from 2014 until 2020 when the program transformed into the modern-day AKC program.
Dave is a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft on the Azure DevOps team. Prior to joining Microsoft, he has over a decade of experience in developing software for financial, agricultural and energy companies where he specialized in .NET and web development. Dave lives in Calgary where he enjoys exploring the nearby mountains with his family.
As a Solution Architect at the University of Manitoba, I specialize in modernizing legacy enterprise systems with a focus on user experience and cloud-centric platforms. With a Bachelor of Computer Science and nine years as a Microsoft MVP, I’ve built expertise in web technologies like HTML, CSS, and .NET, while sharing insights at conferences across North America. Outside work, I channel my passion for video games into designing original creations through Cocoboko Studios, combining technical innovation with creative storytelling.
Dima Kramskoy is a Field Delivery Engineer and Solutions Architect at DoiT, where he partners
with enterprise customers to design
scalable, well-architected solutions on AWS and other major cloud platforms, optimizing cloud
spend while maintaining reliability,
performance, and security.
With over two decades of software engineering experience, Dima has architected web
applications, cross-platform integrations, and
service-oriented architecture (SOA) systems across diverse industries. His career spans
automation engineering, DevOps leadership,
and full-stack development, giving him comprehensive understanding of the entire software
lifecycle.
An AWS Community Builder, Dima holds AWS Professional certifications in Solutions Architect
and DevOps Engineer, as well as the
Security Specialty certification. His architectural training from IDesign's Master Class, combined
with hands-on engineering
experience, positions him as a trusted advisor for organizations navigating multicloud
environments.
Erik Siegmund is a research consultant and AI methodology designer with Evergold Consulting Group, based in Winnipeg. He is a creator of a proprietary behavioral architecture for designing AI agents, and has built production AI systems across domains ranging from executive coaching to clinical support. His work sits at the intersection of structured reasoning traditions and language model design. The central argument: the disciplines most needed in AI development are not narrowly technical but broadly intellectual — logic, linguistics, philosophy, any field that has spent centuries solving the problem of thinking carefully under genuine difficulty.
Before turning to AI methodology, Erik spent over a decade leading R&D and patent strategy in medical device innovation, developing two international patent families across multiple jurisdictions. That work required translating complex technical and regulatory frameworks into precise, enforceable specifications — knowing how to encode constraints so a system behaves correctly under pressure. It turned out to be exactly the right preparation for AI agent design. He works across sectors wherever structured thinking and hard problem design intersect.
Greg Peter-Joyal is a Senior Data Solution Consultant with extensive experience in data engineering, DevOps, and Enterprise data architecture. He’s led teams during complex migrations and built scalable data solutions using Azure Data Factory, Databricks, and Fabric for small and large enterprises. Greg specializes in bringing modern development practices—like CI/CD, source control, and workspace governance—into the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem. His practical insights and hard-earned lessons help teams collaborate better and deploy with confidence.
Harold works a Principal Product Manager with the Azure Logic Apps Team at Microsoft Corporation, where he focuses on legacy modernization and AI Growth. Prior the Azure Logic Apps team, Harold had over 15 years of experience as a CTO architect, overseeing many of largest customer solutions built by the Microsoft Industry Solutions organization. Harold has delivered complex programs in more than 30 countries leading large teams for many of the largest Microsoft customers, Outside work, he loves playing Saxophone, lifting weights, and watching old movies.
Heather Ronnebeck didn't choose project management — it chose her. Starting out as a civil and CAD technologist, she moved through network administration and construction safety before landing in project management by accident. What followed was mulitple years of walking into broken organizations across industries and fixing them.
Today she is President of Work Wranglers Inc., delivering PMO consulting and enterprise work management transformation across professional sports, streaming media, manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services. She holds her PMP and Scrum Master certifications, has been an Atlassian Silver Partner and administrator since 2015, and serves as the Winnipeg Atlassian Community Leader. Her philosophy is simple: people first, processes second, tools third — because technology enables better ways of working, it doesn't create them.
She speaks plainly, fixes what others gave up on, and still believes the fundamentals matter more than the tools.
James Colp is the Manager of Technology and Development at Western Canada Lottery Corporation. He holds B.Sc. (hons) in Applied Computer Science, a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma and a Black Belt in judo - all have come in quite handy. He has chosen to multiclass his character into the fields of software development, business systems analysis and technical IT leadership.
Having facilitated hundreds of hours of solutioning workshops, trivia games, Dungeon and Dragons sessions - virtually, hybrid and in-person - he's eager to share his experience making sessions fun, engaging and "The least painful I've ever attended".
Jay is a speaker, 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, ASPInsider, and Microsoft MVP. Recognizing that the greatest application performance bottleneck is a developer’s time, Jay’s continuing quest is for frameworks, modules, tools, and practices that make developers stronger, fitter, happier, and more productive.
Jay resides in Las Vegas, USA. Follow him on Twitter at @jayharris.
Jeff is a veteran delivery coach, change leader, and consultant who has supported teams and executives across industries from finance to insurance to healthcare to public service. He helps organizations modernize how they work, improving alignment, flow, and delivery, all while building capability that lasts beyond any single project.
Jeff draws on deep, practical experiences, and a wide toolkit of practices to guide executives, leaders, teams, and individuals through complex change.
He teaches part-time at College and speaks internationally, always emphasizing practical, evidence-based approaches. He's a national badminton Umpire, a provincial badminton referee, and a magician.
Jeff is passionate about helping people and teams become their best. He finds it amusing to write about himself in the third person.
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 responsible for all integrations and interfaces into the Student Information System (SIS) and many other systems at the University of Winnipeg. On the side he experiments new technologies on his publicly-available LAN Party Management site https://LanHUB.net, and is a moderator of reddit.com/r/csharp, one of the largest c# communities in the world.
Co-Author of 'Signals & Levers (ITRevolution, September 2026)', 'Coaching for Learning; the Art and Practice' and 'Create Your Dojo; Upskilling Your Organization for Digital Evolution,' Joel helps organizations evolve through learning. This combines a blend of systems thinking, XP, agile, lean, devops and product thinking practices all to embrace learning in the context of work.
With deep experience in architecture modernization, blending product discovery with delivery and architecture, and systems thinking, Joel helps organizations make it easier for their teams to do great work.
Joel is a lifelong technologist and passionate learner who brings more than two decades (25 Years) of hands‑on experience in the Microsoft ecosystem. Currently at Microsoft, he helps partners and teams with all things AI and Cloud Platforms. Before joining the company, Joel spent 14 consecutive years as a Microsoft MVP—an achievement that reflects not only deep technical expertise but also a long-standing dedication to community, mentorship, and knowledge‑sharing. His career has been shaped by a belief that learning is never finished and that technology is most powerful when it empowers people to grow.
John has over 30 years of experience working in software and technology, with professional services consulting firms and product companies, ranging from large enterprises to small firms. John currently helps clients with their API governance, API management, and API security problems. Having spent several years as a product owner of an API gateway and management platform for a large telecom client in Canada, John is using hard-learned lessons from the front lines of a high-performance and high-volume API platform to enable clients to improve the way they deal with their API technology and AI integrations.
Joy Marie Curtis is an AI and organizational transformation executive specializing in Agentic AI, enterprise deployment, and global team scaling. She currently serves as Head of Organizational Development at NeuralSeek, where she leads enterprise AI strategy, delivery models, and talent pipelines across regulated industries including government, healthcare, insurance, and financial services.
Joy’s career began in education, an experience that deeply shaped her leadership philosophy: complex systems succeed when they are designed for people first. That foundation now informs her work guiding organizations through large-scale AI adoption—helping executives cut through hype, reduce risk, and turn AI from experimentation into measurable business impact.
She has overseen 40+ enterprise AI initiatives, delivering Agentic AI solutions across IBM, AWS, and Azure, and ensuring deployments meet PCI, HIPAA, and SOC 2 compliance standards. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy, governance, and execution—aligning executives, legal and compliance teams, technologists, and end users around a shared operating model for AI.
A sought-after speaker, Joy challenges the tendency to overcomplicate AI implementation. She introduces leaders to metacognitive approaches to AI adoption—thinking deliberately about how organizations think, decide, and deploy—so AI initiatives remain grounded in purpose, accountability, and outcomes. She speaks candidly about both successes and failures, offering practical frameworks that help organizations move AI from concept to real-world, scalable impact.
Joy has presented at LASCON 2025, Microsoft Azure, and Google’s Agentic AI forums, speaking to executives, developers, and compliance leaders on responsible AI deployment, enterprise readiness, and scaling AI organizations globally.
Kevin Evans is a Senior Strategic Solutions Engineer at Cloudflare. He is also the founder of Code To Cloud, where he works with engineering teams on the hard end of agentic AI — modernizing legacy estates, and building the harnesses that make autonomous tooling safe enough to run near production.
His work sits in the gap between the demo and the deployment: why agentic tooling that looks extraordinary on a conference stage struggles against a real codebase, and what has to be engineered around it before anyone should trust it with a pipeline. He is vendor-neutral by design, on the argument that the harness you build outlasts the model you rent — and he'd rather show a live demo than a roadmap slide.
With over 7 years of experience working in B2B SaaS and EdTech, I am continuing to push the boundaries of our small team, bringing in new workflows and technologies to deliver top tier user experiences to our clients. I am a passionate advocate for accessible and inclusive design, as well as integrating the design team into the overall workflow and vision of the company. Design always has a seat at the table.
Martiall Pitts is a systems architect and strategic leader dedicated to making complex systems legible, humane, and navigable. As the Founder and CEO of RiGEL, Martiall specializes in translating organizational complexity into actionable clarity, designing workflows that reflect the realities of human connection rather than rigid institutional boxes.
With a professional background rooted in marketing and extensive experience in board governance, Martiall's career arc has been defined by a transition from relationship-driven advocacy to high-level systems design. He possesses a unique ability to bridge cross-sector communication gaps, building trust between disparate groups and creating repeatable frameworks that turn abstract values into usable structures.
His expertise includes:
Complex Systems Mapping & Decision Modeling
Program Development & Membership Models
Community Engagement & Relationship-Based Leadership
Martiall is particularly noted for his commitment to designing for those underserved or harmed by default institutions, ensuring that every framework centers dignity and real-world outcomes. Based in Fort St. John, he balances his rigorous analytical work with a deep passion for the arts, including music curation, poetry, and multi-instrumental performance on the drums, guitar, cello, and ukulele.
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, and South America. Mike has over 25 years of experience using Microsoft database technologies and is an expert in Agile Analytics and Microsoft Azure DevOps.
Mike has spoken many regional, national, and international SQL events over his long career, including Microsoft Fabric Community conferences, the PASS Summit in Seattle Washington, SQLBITS in London UK, and at various SQL Saturday events across Canada and the USA, and other development conferences in Canada.
Mike works with people who are crazy enough to believe they can improve their world every day. They do this by taking responsibility for whatever happens without blame, excuses or shame. Through this, they inspire others to do the same. Mike taps into his experience as a facilitator, mentor, teacher, and coach to activate the people he works with. Mike's equally comfortable working with executives as much as front-line teams. In his mind, it's all the same because of one factor: all teams are made up of people. Mike is the author of "Activate your Leadership," Host of the videocast "Empowered Until Further Notice," and co-host of the "Open Door Podcast." Mike is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CTI), Professional Certified Coach (ICF), Leadership Graduate (CTI), Organizational and Relationship Systems Coach (CRR Global), Responsibility Mentor (The Responsibility Company), and IC-Agile Expert-Agile Coaching (IC Agile)
Principal Software Architect at Clear Measure with a background in building and evolving scalable distributed systems, and a deep interest in turning cutting-edge technology into practical outcomes. Will find a way to work board games into any conversation.
Olena is an AI Engineer and Consultant at Improving Winnipeg, specializing in Azure technologies and AI-native engineering. She leverages her background in Statistics and years of R&D experience to help organizations bridge the gap between complex data estates and actionable intelligence, with a particular focus on Microsoft technology, Agentic Operations, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
From her early days organizing IT events to attending international Machine Learning summer schools, Olena has remained at the forefront of the evolving data landscape. Beyond the terminal, she is a passionate mentor within the Women in Tech community and a frequent contributor to the Winnipeg developer scene.
Peter Ritchie has been in the software industry for over 3 decades. Peter has spent most of his professional career consulting with clients specializing in distributed applications and agile software development. Peter is a book author, open-source author, international speaker, blogger, and former Microsoft MVP in .NET Development Technologies.
Peter has spoken internationally on a variety of topics including unit test design and management, asynchronous programming, advanced .NET language features and syntax, concurrent and parallel programming, and distributed programming.
Author of Refactoring with Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2010 Best Practices, and Practical Microsoft Visual Studio 2015.
Peter has also been an advisory board member of Microsoft Patterns and Practice: CQRS Journey guidance on command and query responsibility segregation and Enterprise Library
Peter has been Microsoft Certified, SAFe Certified, and SOA certified.
Ricardo Covo is a Solution Engineer at Microsoft Canada, helping organizations adopt Agentic Development using GitHub and AI‑powered developer tools to deeply integrate AI across the software development lifecycle.
With 20+ years of experience in the software industry, Ricardo has worked as a Developer, Cloud & Solution Architect, DevOps Engineer, Development Lead, and Agile Coach. He has delivered and modernized systems across multiple industries, working with teams and customers in Latin America, the United States, and Canada, and supporting global, distributed engineering organizations.
Ricardo is a frequent conference speaker, educator, and mentor, passionate about enabling high‑performing teams, modern developer experience, and practical AI adoption. His sessions blend real‑world architecture, hands‑on demos, and lessons learned from the field, helping teams move from experimentation to production with confidence.
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 high quality software development. You can find this and other talks on https://robrich.org/presentations and follow him on Mastodon at @robrich@hachyderm.io.
Sandy is a product manager and certified scrum master with a natural ability to build relationships and coax the best work from team members. Passionate about leadership and team dynamics, and dedicated to building high-performing, collaborative teams that deliver meaningful outcomes. She's experienced in agile process development and documentation and tactfully communicating complex ideas to varying audiences with different needs and priorities.
Sarah is a detail-oriented leader with twenty years of experience in marketing and cloud-based technology, specializing in sales, marketing, customer service, and reporting tools. As principal and founder of Ulster Technologies (www.ulster-tech.com), Sarah drives innovation to foster collaborative, data-driven decisions with her clients.
She has served as an enterprise architect, product owner and program/project manager at leading regional and national healthcare institutions. Sarah led dynamic, cross-functional teams through multiple product and platform migrations, passionately improving business processes and driving sales growth.
A graduate of Rosemont College with a Master’s in Strategic Leadership, Sarah is also an active volunteer, serving on various boards and committees, including as Vice President of Communications, Technology & Marketing for Village on the Ridge and as a Board Member and Technology Co-Chair for Philanos.
Areas of Expertise
Through an intentional and winding professional path, Sarah has had the opportunity to gain expertise across a variety of industries, domains, and organizations, continually expanding her knowledge base. At the intersection of marketing, technology, and leadership, Sarah is comfortable and engaging while speaking about a variety of topics including, but not limited to: project and change management frameworks; leadership and communication styles; building trust; managing customer data and experiences; marketing technology and integrations; professional development and empowerment.
Simon has over twenty-five years of development experience and has worked on a variety of projects, including object-oriented databases, police communication systems, speech recognition and unified messaging. His current focus is building out Infrastructure as Code and Function as a Service capabilities for Sanity. Simon’s been building web applications since the days they were written using shell scripts, and he still has nightmares about those dark days.
Simon is a polyglot developer who has worked on everything from serial port drivers on an Android tablet, to NServiceBus, to processing tens of thousands of messages a second using stream analytics, to building React web applications. Over the last few years he's been transitioning from writing .NET code to Ruby. He is the author of a number of books on JavaScript and ASP.NET and blogs far less regularly than he should on both the Western Dev's site (http://westerndevs.com) and his on blog (http://blog.simontimms.com).
His interests change as frequently as he changes his underwear. At the moment he is interested in exploring AI Agents, and the economics of cloud computing. He is a big picture specialist who can maintain a cogent view of an entire system and pick the right technology to solve a problem.
Terri Broome is a consultant with nearly two decades of experience building and leading PMOs across technology, manufacturing, retail, media, and telecom — at organizations ranging from early-stage startups to global enterprises. Known for operating at the intersection of engineering and delivery strategy, Terri specializes in untangling the cross-functional friction that slows even the most talented teams: the PM-engineering translation gap, the misaligned incentives hidden inside org structures, and the career paths that don't fit any standard job description. A seasoned speaker, Terri brings a practitioner's candor and a systems thinker's lens to topics that most organizations know are problems but rarely name out loud. When not consulting, she is helping technical leaders find the language — and the permission — to lead differently.
Travis is a Principal Software Engineer @ GitHub who leads innovation, drives meaningful change, and amplifies team productivity. With a passion for technology and a talent for simplifying complex architectures, Travis focuses on creating seamless Developer Experiences and fostering high-performing teams. A seasoned speaker, architect, and blogger, he thrives on sharing insights, exploring emerging technologies, and championing impactful development practices.
Tri Ho is the Founder and CEO of Futurify, a Toronto-based software development company with 60+ engineers and 13+ years delivering 200+ projects across fintech, insurtech, and automotive. A software architect by training, Tri has personally led the technical strategy behind payment rails processing billions in transactions annually for clients including Nuvei, VersaPay, and Paramount Commerce, with direct integrations into Plaid, Flinks, Finicity, Fiserv, and major banks including BMO, Scotiabank, Wells Fargo, and Fifth Third.
Tri now leads BayeFix, a diagnostic intelligence platform for legacy system modernization. His team recently built an AI agent pipeline that auto-generated 2,743 end-to-end tests across 593 endpoints for a production fintech platform, achieving 97.8% endpoint coverage across 12 microservices. After 200+ projects, his obsession is the same: how do you modernize mission-critical systems without blowing them up?
Vamsi Munnangi is a Senior Software Engineer at Walmart, where he leads the development of the Walmart Cloud Native Platform (WCNP) batch job management system, a Kubernetes based solution enabling developers to orchestrate and manage containerized workloads across edge locations and multi cloud environments including Azure and Google Cloud.
Prior to Walmart, Vamsi spent over seven years at Apple, where he architected mission critical systems serving customers globally. He led the backend infrastructure powering AppleCare applications, a system serving as the source of truth for every Apple product and part ever designed, supporting AppleCare's consumer base across the Americas, Asia Pacific, and EMEA regions. He also spearheaded the development of Apple's next generation payment gateway platform, a microservices based system integrating with major acquirers including American Express, Chase, WorldPay, and CyberSource.
Vamsi's expertise spans cloud native technologies including Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, and Istio, with deep experience in designing fault tolerant microservices architectures, multi cluster deployments with disaster recovery strategies, and PCI compliant infrastructure. He is a published researcher in digital image processing and holds an Elastic GenAI Associate Certification. He earned his Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Central Missouri and his Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Koneru Lakshmaiah University, India.
$775*
$875*
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!
On both days of the conference breakfast and the registration table open at 8AM and conference sessions end at 4:30 PM.
Registration is outside the Ambassador ballroom on the main floor of CanadInns Polo Park.
No, just bring a valid form of ID and come to the registration table to get your nametag.
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!
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.
Yes! Both days will feature hot breakfast & lunch buffets and two coffee breaks.
CanadInns Polo Park has free parking on their lot.
There is no set dress code for the conference, wear what you're comfortable in keeping in mind our 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.