Day 2
Keynote Speakers
Ballroom a
Farm Credit services of america stage
AI Ethics And Compliance Panel | 9:00 - 9:45 AM
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries and transform societal landscapes, the imperative for ethical and compliant AI deployment has never been greater. In this thought-provoking panel session, leading experts in AI ethics and compliance will convene to explore the multifaceted challenges and opportunities inherent in navigating the intersection of AI, ethics, and regulation.
Drawing upon their collective expertise from diverse domains including technology, law, ethics, and governance, the panelists will engage in a dynamic discussion aimed at unpacking the complexities surrounding AI ethics and compliance. Participants can expect insightful insights, practical strategies, and actionable recommendations for fostering a culture of responsible AI innovation within their organizations.
Explore the transformational journey of these start-up pioneers as they navigate the intricate web of data management, cybersecurity, and scalable infrastructure within the state-of-the-art Scott Data Center. From groundbreaking solutions to unprecedented challenges, our panelists will recount their stories of perseverance, breakthroughs, and lessons learned, providing invaluable takeaways for both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.
Panel Discussion
Ballroom a
Farm Credit services of america stage
Lunch with Leaders | 12:15 - 1 PM
'Digital Innovation and Transformation Leadership Panel’:
Monika Philp, Director of Talent Transformation | AIM Institute
Robyn Messerly, CIO | Nebraska Furniture Mart
Jerry Vuchak, Chief Information & Innovation Officer | Children's Hospital
Kate Brown, Vice President & CIO | OPPD
Melissa Pruch, VP of I/S Performance and Operations | Mutual of Omaha
Leanne Ball, Director of Data Architecture | Carson Group
Rahul Jalali, Chief Information Officer | Union Pacific
The discussion will focus on emerging technologies, digital transformation strategies, and fostering a culture of innovation.
Breakout Topics
Data Science & AI
Room 212
Brian Curee | 10 - 10:45 AM
'Metaverse & Virtual Workplace Experience'
CEO of Killer Bee, Killer Bee Marketing
Digital marketing platforms are constantly evolving, but the need for meaningful connections stays consistent. Social media was designed to bring us together, yet it's become a source of division in our lives. People are fed up with their posts not being seen and endless ads- platforms that were once popular have lost touch with the authentic connection between people. The virtual world opens new possibilities to develop more meaningful connections with people worldwide. During this session, I will share how we use our purpose statement, "Transforming lives worldwide by making digital personal," to create connections that serve people, foster relationships, and earn trust. Plus, learn how our team has designed a safe place for people to connect and share life experiences in the Metaverse while providing thoughts and ideas on how businesses could connect with their target audience in the virtual world.
Jack Horgan | 2:15 - 3 PM
‘AI: Legal Issues for Users and Providers'
Attorney, Koley Jessen
Overview of legal risks businesses should consider when using AI as an internal tool or incorporating AI into its product offerings.
Arun Giri | 11 - 11:45 AM
‘From Swivel Chair Analytics To AI/ML :Our Data Mesh Journey'
AVP - Platforms & Lead Enterprise Engineer, Union Pacific Railroad
Union pacific is undertaking a large Data Modernization Journey guided by our growth strategy. DataMesh implementations at scale requires a robust “zero trust” and secure by design foundation and orchestration of complex tech stack. This talk will cover some of our platform approach and the building blocks we are using in this ongoing journey to create a modern Data foundation to enable UP to deploy advanced AI/ML powered solutions.
DEv / Sec Ops
Room 214
Vaibhav Gujral | 3:15 - 4 PM
‘Getting started with Azure OpenAI Service'
Director, Capgemini
In this session, Vaibhav will showcase the capabilities of Azure Open AI service and how developers can take advantage of large-scale, generative AI models with deep understandings of language and code to enable new reasoning and comprehension capabilities for building cutting-edge applications.
Arun Giri | 10 - 10:45 AM
‘Taming API Sprawl: A Journey with Observability'
Head of Platform Engineering & Lead Enterprise Engineer, Union Pacific Railroad
API sprawl is a common problem that many organizations face as they grow their API infrastructure. It can lead to a lack of visibility and control over APIs, which can result in security vulnerabilities, increase in technical debt and complexity, and other issues. Traceability is one way to combat API sprawl by providing a way to track and monitor API usage across an organization. This presentation will explore how UP developed and implemented traceability solution to battle API sprawl and provide best practices for implementing traceability in your organization.
Randy Pagels | 11 - 11:45 AM
'Shift Left on Security with GitHub and Azure DevOps'
DevOps Architect, Xpirit USA
Applications are under attack and developers become the first line of defense by protecting the code and ensuring that we are applying security best practices.
There are several methods to attack your code, from directly inserting malicious code into your repo, to taking over an account or compromising a signing key to distribute software that isn’t officially part of a component, and many other ways.
It's simple to talk about shifting left on security, but how exactly are you supposed to do that? What tools should you be using and how do you apply them in a way that helps you release with confidence? We will cover the concept of application security, talk about tools available to you and ways that you can help ensure that tools don't get in the way of development.
You will learn:
• GHAS & GHAzDO Features
• Understand what is meant by shifting left on security
• AS a developer, what can I do to improve the security posture of my application
Alec Harrison | 2:15 - 3 PM
‘ARM Versus Bicep Deploying Via GitHub Actions'
Software Consultant, Lean Techniques
Join me as we discuss the future implementation of Infrastructure as Code! Is it better than ARM, what does the future look like, is it scary, how to prepare for the future? Find out in this presentation!
Fahim - Ahmad Ghaznawi | 3:15 - 4 PM
‘.Event Driven Architecture : Everything you need to know. The what, why and how.'
Solutions Architect , Farm Credit Services of America
Event driven architecture is crucial to any modern solution today whether on premises, in a hybrid or public cloud environment. In this presentation, we will explore event driven architecture in the context of services and will explore in detail the architecture concepts, best practices and practical tips needed to implement event driven services successfully.
Innovation
Room 213
Tyler York | 10 - 10:45 AM
'EQ: The Unofficial API for Tech'
Senior Software Engineer, FNBO
In a field where technical prowess reigns supreme, the crucial role of empathy and emotional intelligence (EQ) rarely factors into conversation. This talk aims to explore these softer skills, shedding light on their often-underestimated impact on software development, team collaboration, and innovation. Practical strategies for cultivating emotional intelligence will be shared, providing attendees with actionable ways to develop their skillset.
We start by examining the impact of empathy on understanding user needs and improving product design, inspiring creativity and underpinning decision-making processes. The discussion will extend to the dynamics of team collaboration, highlighting how EQ can foster communication, support inclusivity, reduce misunderstandings, and contribute to a cohesive, productive team. The presentation concludes by exploring the influence of emotional intelligence on innovation and problem-solving.
This talk offers a fresh perspective on the essential skillset of the modern tech professional, advocating for the importance of balancing hard technical capabilities with empathy and EQ. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of these skills and techniques for enhancing them, fostering a more holistic approach to their work in the tech industry.
Anthony Duran | 11 - 11:45 AM
'Going Slow to Move Fast: Using Alpha and Beta Releases to Ensure a Successful Product Launch'
Director of Product & Design, Carson Group
At Carson we were facing an interesting problem. For the first time in my career, I heard customers telling us we were delivering TOO Much Value, Too Quickly. We were addressing their needs with frequent new releases, but we didn't have a cohesive strategy for helping customers manage the change and integrate new products into their workflow.
In this session, I'll talk about how we overhauled our release process to incorporate Alpha and Beta phases to ensure we could learn from our partners throughout our release cycle. I'll discuss new tools we implemented to track success in those early phases, how we got other teams throughout the organization onboard, and how we used findings from our early adopters to iterate and ship new features before our final go-live.
Daniel Murphy | 2:15 PM - 3 PM
'More Advanced, Yet Accessible: Software Evolution With Active Use'
Director of Engineering, Quantum Workplace
Software must evolve in order to support the needs of your customers, embrace new technologies and reduce technical debt. Increasing odds for evolution survival depend on continued service while gaining competitive advantages. This session will cover techniques that can help embrace change and adopt advancements that make your product win.
Microservices & Cloud
Room 215
Patrick Wagman | 3:15 PM - 4 PM
'This is the Way! (But Probably not Your Way)'
(UCR) Associate Director, PMO & (DSC) Owner, University of California, Riverside & DSC Consulting Services LLC
We are told for much of our life to follow "the way", use the right productivity tool, check the right boxes, get the right education, or eat the right diet! Just do what worked for me and you will be successful guaranteed! This starts early in life when we are taught how to behave. Then we are taught how to take specific steps to solve problems and how to answer to people in authority. It continues on through the rest of our life. We see this in diet plans, project management, religious training, problem solving, career progression, manners, and colloquialisms.
One problem is that this is simply a myth. There is a really good chance that what worked for one may not work you. What worked for other people may be good guidelines or starting points, but the simple fact is that we each need to figure out what works for us! With this talk, I want people to know it's ok to recognize when the path they are on is not working and that it's ok to change, no matter who has said “This is The Way". We will explore this myth and look at the importance of developing individual approaches to life and careers.
Matt Llewelyn | 10 - 10:45 AM
'Advantages and Disadvantages of a Microservice Architecture'
Software Engineer, Children's Mercy Kansas City
The microservice architecture can offer significant advantages compared with the monolithic architecture. While a monolithic architecture may work for small applications, the microservice architecture can make it easier to separate each service into its own environment so if one service fails, then only that service fails. It can add some more complexity to set up, but if the application can logically be separated, then it can make more sense to use microservices. Also, microservices makes the code much more readable and can make it easier to debug. Overall, there are advantages to using a microservice architecture if your application has become too large to handle.
Jim Kudirka| 11 - 11:45 AM
'A Zero Tolerance for Defects Mindset'
Founder, Chief Architect, Premier Software Systems, LLC
As software developers we must hold ourselves accountable for producing bug-free software. Our development process should yield the attitude "we dare QA to find a bug in our code." This session will cover strategies and techniques for how quality is earned during development. We will cover Unit and Integration tests, what they are, when to write them, and a decades old approach for determining how many tests to write. Finally, we will discuss some best practice techniques and conventions for organizing your tests that will set you up for success.
Benjamin J Ferguson | 2:15 - 3 PM
'Advanced Typescript'
Senior Programmer/Analyst, Duncan Aviation
Typescript continues to grow in popularity and is the standard for javascript precompilers. In this talk, we will explore some of the more useful language features that help you be more productive and confident in your code. The majority of our time will be spent with live coding examples. Bring your laptop so you can clone my git sandbox and explore these features along with me. Some exposure to typescript is recommended, but not required.
Jared Dietz | 3:15 - 4 PM
'Modernizing Frontend for the Enterprise'
Engineering Lead, FNBO
Come explore how First National Bank of Omaha modernized their front-end development practices by adopting a design-focused approach that leverages UI designs, React component libraries, utility-first CSS with Tailwind, and Storybook. They also implemented mock-service-worker, which enables developers to simulate API responses in a controlled environment, reducing the dependency on real API endpoints during the development process. This approach has improved the overall speed and efficiency of their development process, while ensuring a consistent and visually appealing user experience. The success of this effort resulted in the creation of a Frontend Community of Excellence that is focused on being the authority for frontend best practices and on continuously improving frontend development at the bank.
Tech Leadership
Room 216
Andrew Zetterman | 11 - 11:45 AM
'Building Continuous Discovery Habits as a UX+Product+Dev Trio'
Chief Technology Officer, Quantum Workplace
Whether you're a UX designer, developer, or product manager, creating great things is hard. Resources are tight, deadlines are tighter, and there is almost always more research that needs to be done. Creating continuous discovery habits in the face of real-world constraints can be the difference from feeling owned by those constraints or owning them.
Come listen to how the product team at Quantum Workplace foster a culture of empowered squads to better navigate obstacles, be relentlessly resourceful, and build great experiences for customers and users!
Artur Margonari | 2:15 - 3 PM
'The 10 Vicious Circles at Work: Detecting and Breaking Them Up'
Agile Coach, Trainer and Facilitator, InspirationOwl
A vicious circle (or cycle) is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with harmful results. They can be happening today, anywhere at your company, creating friction, misalignment, bottlenecks, and even making the best employees quit. In the last ten years of working as an agile coach and Scrum Master in several types of companies and departments, I’ve listed 10 very common vicious circles that I saw again and again, and that can be a true pain in the neck. (And you might be in one of these loops without even knowing!) Let’s explore the 10 vicious circles together and get to know powerful practices, tools, and tips to break them up.
Fred Deichler | 3:15 - 4 PM
'Masterless Scrum: Harnessing the Power of AI in Agile Teams'
Senior Agile Master, Field Nation
In the rapidly evolving world of AI, our reliance on traditional roles is being challenged. As more companies embrace digital transformation, the opportunity to leverage AI in coaching Scrum teams becomes more apparent. In this breakout session, we will delve into a unique approach to Scrum Mastery - Masterless Scrum. Masterless Scrum is not about the absence of leadership or guidance. It's about embracing innovative solutions that allow teams to maximize effectiveness, self-ownership, and self-management. The focus will be on how to use artificial intelligence, specifically the advanced capabilities of AI like ChatGPT, to coach Scrum Mastery tasks traditionally handled by a dedicated Scrum Master. We will explore the process of creating a Scrum Master prompt in ChatGPT, setting up the AI to create unique and engaging retrospectives, and conducting productive dialogues with the AI when teams face challenges. We'll also dive into the strategic aspects, such as consulting with AI to optimize delivery strategies. But what happens when AI falls short? The limitations of AI in Scrum Mastery will also be an integral part of our discussion. We'll tackle troubleshooting methods, human intervention, and strategies for blending human and artificial intelligence in any agile framework. Join us as we take a deep dive into the future of Agile - a future that embraces AI's capabilities and the adaptability of human insight to navigate through the complexities of Scrum Mastery. This is a session designed for forward-thinking thought leaders, eager to leverage technology to the maximum while maintaining team creativity and collaboration.