The Schedule

1. Day #1: Thursday, 15th Feb

2. 11:00

3. Registration

   Registration

   X

   In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 11:00am

4. 11:45

5. Welcome & Introductions

   Welcome & Introductions

   X

   In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 11:45am

6. 12:00

7. The Heat Death of Enterprise IT

   The Heat Death of Enterprise IT

   X

   Most Enterprise Applications have more frameworks than developers. Many have more NPM / Maven / NuGet libraries than users. If these libraries were ubiquitous then we might be OK, but this is far from the case. It is entirely possible to be a legitimate expert in some platform, yet encounter completely new dependencies when moving between projects. Given this diversity, one might expect a renewed emphasis in our industry on specialization. But instead the reverse is true. The modern developer is often expected to conduct their own QA, transition their code to Cloud Native, and perform their own Threat Modeling. All whilst analyzing requirements, organizing demos, and generally being a Product Person. In previous decades we questioned what it meant to be an expert in our trade. Today that seems quaint. A more relevant question is - “are we so spread out that expertise is no longer possible”? In this talk we will explore the proposition that Enterprise IT will soon be so spread out that skilled work becomes a thing of the past. Along the way we will explore why you need to be a Full Stack Developer in four different dimensions, the impact of AI and low-code on our profession, why ultimately all your code sucks, and how to be successful at your job and get away with it.

   In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 12:00pm

   

   Garth Gilmour Garth Gilmour - Developer Advocate at JetBrains

   Eamonn Boyle VP of Engineering at Gearset

   Garth Gilmour, Eamonn Boyle

8. 13:00

9. Lunch

   Lunch

   X

   In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 1:00pm

10. 13:45

11. How to protect yourself from the biggest Internet threats

    How to protect yourself from the biggest Internet threats

    X

    Nowadays, there are many attack vectors an adversary can employ to either break into the system or impact its operations. Oftentimes a successful attack is a clever combination of smaller vectors, which on their own do not seem very important or dangerous. That’s why to efficiently mitigate modern Internet threats the system should be built with the “defense in depth” in mind. In this presentation we will discuss the various approaches and technical solutions Cloudflare implemented to protect infrastructure and services from the biggest Internet threats. We will review a layered approach to security starting from the Internet itself, then data centre networking, server and operating systems layers, application and service layers. We will see how the Internet today has become the global “security perimeter” and how to protect modern cloud workloads and corporate services.

    In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 1:45pm

    

    Ignat Korchagin Cloudflare, Linux Guru

    Ignat Korchagin

12. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

    Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

    X

    Some of you will recognise the title of this session as Murphy's law. In this talk, we'll explore this in the context of AWS. Operating a workload in AWS offers the ability for your application to run more reliably and be more resilient to failure. But how? How do you architect for failure? How do you ensure that your application can survive an AWS datacentre failure? Come along and find out the answers to these questions among many more.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Thu, 15th Feb 1:45pm

    

    Alex Kearns Principal Solutions Architect at Ubertas Consulting

    Alex Kearns

13. Unlocking Azure's Orchestration Secret: A Journey through Durable Functions

    Unlocking Azure's Orchestration Secret: A Journey through Durable Functions

    X

    In this talk we will embark on an exploration of Azure with a brief introduction to storage, queues and Azure functions. This will lead us to a real-world scenario we encountered at NIQ Brandbank whilst building a bespoke pipeline to convert a customers data into our standard. We will discover Durable Functions and learn how they allowed us to build a more resilient system. Along the way we will explore application patterns and come up against deterministic APIs allowing you to define a stateful workflow for your business. Expect to see live code examples and demonstrations in the Azure Portal and Functions Monitor.

    In the Conference Room 2 on Thu, 15th Feb 1:45pm

    

    Luke Kittridge Luke - Lead DevOps Engineer - NIQ Brandbank

    Luke Kittridge

14. 14:30

15. Introduction to Azure Functions: Building, Deploying, and Triggering with .NET and C#

    Introduction to Azure Functions: Building, Deploying, and Triggering with .NET and C#

    X

    In this session, we will provide a comprehensive overview of Microsoft Azure Functions, discussing how to build and deploy functions using .NET and C#. You will gain a solid understanding of the core concepts, including function triggers, bindings, and input/output integrations.

    In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 2:30pm

    

    Kire Simonovski Lead Software Engineer

    Kire Simonovski

16. Beyond Example-Based Tesing in .NET

    Beyond Example-Based Tesing in .NET

    X

    Introduction to property-based testing in (mostly) C# Are you tired of trying to find every edge case in your code and write a test for it? Generative testing is the answer to that. In this talk we'll explore how _property-based testing_ is the antidote to brittle and hard-to-maintain test suites. Using examples in C# (and some in F# for variety), we'll work through how to take your existing example-based tests and evolve them to use property-based testing to expand your coverage and probe your edge-cases more thoroughly. Unit testing code is often seen as a bit of a tedious necessity: tests can be brittle in the face of even innocuous change especially when there are several similar tests to probe edge-cases. Example-based testing, as its name suggests, usually takes a single example to examine a specific edge-case. Some example-based tests can use test parameters to generate several examples; by contrast, property-based testing generates _random_ values for each test which can give extra insight into your code, and sometimes produce surprising failure-cases.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Thu, 15th Feb 2:30pm

    

    Steve Love Programming and stuff

    Steve Love

17. Database Sharding

    Database Sharding

    X

    When you absolutely, positively got to join every table in the cluster, accept no substitutes. Richard Bensley, a database contractor, talks about his journey in scaling a customer's MariaDB servers using modern sharding techniques.

    In the Conference Room 2 on Thu, 15th Feb 2:30pm

    

    Richard Bensley Database Consultant

    Richard Bensley

18. 15:15

19. What is a Microservice?

    What is a Microservice?

    X

    Over a decade has passed since the term "microservice" first emerged, and yet, many are still left wondering, "What exactly is a microservice?" Join us in this lighthearted talk as we embark on a journey to uncover the essence of microservices. In this talk we will cover: * The origin of Microservices: We'll start by unraveling the backstory of the term "microservice," which surprisingly traces back to a small event in Italy attended by James Lewis. * Parallel Evolution: Microservices didn't emerge in isolation. We'll explore the concurrent development of alternative approaches by Adrian Cockcroft and Fred George. * Building on Tradition: Microservices are not a revolution but rather an evolution from existing patterns of modular programming and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). * What the Experts Say: We see what Wikipedia has to say about microservices. Explore the consensus among experts and the formal definition that has emerged over the years. * Twitter's Take: Finally, we'll see what the tech community has to say by sharing insights and opinions from Twitter.

    In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 3:15pm

    

    Chris O'Dell Senior Platform Engineer at Stack Overflow

    Chris O'Dell

20. Beyond Logs: Real-Time Anomaly Detection with Machine Learning

    Beyond Logs: Real-Time Anomaly Detection with Machine Learning

    X

    Logs and traces generated by applications are valuable sources of information that can help detect issues and improve performance. However, they are often treated separately from other data, even though they are no different from the data an application works with. In this talk, we will explore a different approach: treating logs and traces as part of a scalable cloud storage repository that can be analyzed with the same techniques used for big data. By keeping all the data together, we can apply machine learning models to detect situations of interest and alert us in real-time when unwanted behavior is occurring or brewing. This approach enables intelligent monitoring that goes beyond simple threshold-based alerts and can help identify complex issues that would otherwise go unnoticed. We will discuss how to harness existing technologies to implement this approach, providing attendees with practical tips and insights that they can apply to their own projects.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Thu, 15th Feb 3:15pm

    

    Fawaz Ghali Hazelcast, Principal Data Science Architect and Head of Developer Relations

    Fawaz Ghali

21. How to automate your data pipelines with Apache Airflow

    How to automate your data pipelines with Apache Airflow

    X

    There are many open source tools to help you with the different steps you typically need to extract insights from your data. As you scale and grow your use of data, keeping on top of the steps can be difficult. Apache Airflow is an open source orchestration tool that helps you to programmatically create workflows in Python that will help you run, schedule, monitor and mange data engineering pipelines - no more manually managing those cron jobs! In this session, we will take a look at the architecture of Apache Airflow, and walk you through creating your first workflow and how you can use a growing number of provider libraries to help you work with other open source tools and services. This session is intended for beginners/those wanting to learn more about this open source project.

    In the Conference Room 2 on Thu, 15th Feb 3:15pm

    

    Ricardo Sueiras Sueiras Principal Advocate for Open Source

    Ricardo Sueiras Sueiras

22. 16:00

23. Break

    Break

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 4:00pm

24. 16:30

25. Predict the future with "old school maths"

    Predict the future with "old school maths"

    X

    Have you ever wondered what is inside the Machine Learning models? Do you wish to understand more, but the maths are too scary? Fear not! In this talk we will decompose the machine learning models into basic comprehensible elements! This talk will go through the principles behind the popular machine learning models. We will focus on the problems we are trying to solve, the quality of the data required, and the appropriate methods used for a series of common problems.

    In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 4:30pm

    

    Dani Papamaximou Sheffield Hallam University

    Dani Papamaximou

26. 17:30

27. nor(DEV): Drinks

    nor(DEV): Drinks

    X

    Socialising, Networking, and Drinks

    In the Main Auditorium on Thu, 15th Feb 5:30pm

28. Day #2: Friday, 16th Feb

29. 08:30

30. Registration

    Registration

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 8:30am

31. 09:15

32. Welcome & Introductions

    Welcome & Introductions

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 9:15am

33. 09:30

34. Opening Keynote

    Opening Keynote

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 9:30am

    

    Elle Overvoorde Senior Product Manager at Naked Wines

    Elle Overvoorde

35. 10:30

36. Break

    Break

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 10:30am

37. 10:45

38. [Panel] Game Development: An Industry For Norfolk?

    [Panel] Game Development: An Industry For Norfolk?

    X

    Over 3 billion people play computer games, the games industry is worth over 200 billion dollars globally and it is growing at an incredible rate. The UK is at the forefront of this industry with decades of experience and a strong supply of talented people with the skills needed to make great games. British games studios are highly export driven and bring money into the country from all around the world. Founding, nurturing and growing these studios within Norfolk offers a great opportunity to grow the wealth of the entire region and give our young people an exciting career option. This is a panel session gathering together five key figures in the Norfolk games industry. We will talk about what they need in order to grow and what opportunities there are for new teams looking to break into the market.

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 10:45am

    

    Rich Woods Game Developer, Co-organiser of Norfolk Game Developers Meetup group

    Robin Milton Founder of Fairer Games

    Susi Bauer Training & Facilitation Professional

    James Allen Connected Innovation, Programme Manager

    Jake Montanarini Course Leader of Games at Norwich University of the Arts

    Tom Kail Unity Prototype developer

    Rich Woods, Robin Milton, Susi Bauer, James Allen, Jake Montanarini, Tom Kail

39. Rethinking Content Modeling for Unforgettable User Experiences

    Rethinking Content Modeling for Unforgettable User Experiences

    X

    Effective content modeling is essential for creating a flawless user experience that drives product success. However, as content complexity and volume increase in a company, managing it all can seem overwhelming. In this talk, developers and founders will walk away with practical strategies for rethinking their content model to improve maintainability, developer experience and scalability - ultimately reducing technical debt and delivering a seamless user experience.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Fri, 16th Feb 10:45am

    

    Esther Agbaje Developer Advocate, Directus

    Esther Agbaje

40. Fighters, Bards, Druids and Wizards in It – how to talk to them?

    Fighters, Bards, Druids and Wizards in It – how to talk to them?

    X

    Do you ever feel like you're surrounded by characters that are impossible to get along with and insufferable? Are they too loud and too breakneck or are they always silent? Do they ask too many questions or don't read emails at all? Are they late for meetings or suck all the air from the room? Trample everyone bluntly or beat around the bush endlessly? Adventures in a diverse team of wanderers in the land of IT can be a difficult challenge. Rude Warriors, narcissistic Bards, slow Druids and cold Wizards. Or maybe: brave Warriors, captivating Bards, soothing Druids and insightful Wizards? How to play the game of communication? Stay awhile and listen. *May contain a fair number of references to Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, The Office, and more…

    In the Conference Room 2 on Fri, 16th Feb 10:45am

    

    Paweł Zajączkowski Development Manager at Xebia Poland

    Paweł Zajączkowski

41. 11:30

42. Harnessing Generative AI to Automate Business Processes

    Harnessing Generative AI to Automate Business Processes

    X

    The rapid evolution of AI, especially with the emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs), has been a transformative force in the tech landscape. Developers are enthusiastic about the potential of LLMs, but integrating them into real-world applications can be a daunting task as they often grapple with complex workflows, data challenges, and the lack of readily available tools. In this talk, I will discuss how a framework like LangChain simplifies LLM integration and redefines how we harness generative AI for tasks like report generation, data analysis, and even personalized customer service.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Fri, 16th Feb 11:30am

    

    Maryleen Amaizu Data & AI Architect at Insight

    Maryleen Amaizu

43. What the Avengers taught me about working with developers

    What the Avengers taught me about working with developers

    X

    Developers are a curious kind of creature. Often found in the wild lands of product development, they create magical solutions by bringing requirements to life. As a Change Manager and big fan of the Avengers, I am fascinated by what I can achieve with them. However, due to misconceptions around the value and timing for Change Management, a question remains. How do you bring such different skillsets together to fight the battle against terrible DevOps implementations? Whilst many turn to ChatGPT, I am here to share with you what I learned from the Avengers about bringing a diverse team together. From fighting monsters in New York, to the absolute end game with the infinity stones, they can teach us a lot about dealing with adversity to bring change, enterprise, or small scale. After all, they also share a common mission despite a very diverse background. Through parallels between the Avengers and DevOps implementation teams, as well as the core principles of building robust and scalable applications, we will focus on defining what matters; Smart collaboration to make users the heroes of every solution story and empower them to navigate a world of continuous tech transformation.

    In the Conference Room 2 on Fri, 16th Feb 11:30am

    

    Angeliki Patsiavou Change Manager | Business Applications MVP | Change Manager | UN Women UK

    Angeliki Patsiavou

44. 12:15

45. Lunch

    Lunch

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 12:15pm

46. 13:30

47. [Panel] Future of AI

    [Panel] Future of AI

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 1:30pm

    

    Dom Davis CTO, Tech Marionette

    Maryleen Amaizu Data & AI Architect at Insight

    Andrew Keith Walker

    Somdip Dey CEO & Chief Scientist @ Nosh Technologies

    Dom Davis, Maryleen Amaizu, Andrew Keith Walker, Somdip Dey

48. The Erosion of Consumer Ownership: From Possession to Subscriptions

    The Erosion of Consumer Ownership: From Possession to Subscriptions

    X

    In the current digital era, a noticeable erosion of personal ownership and rights is underway as consumers transition from owning physical products to subscribing to services. This shift not only transforms our relationship with possessions but also imposes limitations on our ability to repair devices, often dictated by proprietary constraints. Join us in exploring ways to reclaim ownership and restore the repair freedoms we once enjoyed in the evolving realm of subscription-based services.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Fri, 16th Feb 1:30pm

    

    Alexio Rodrigues Software Consultant

    Alexio Rodrigues

49. Redundancy - How to tackle it and come out on top

    Redundancy - How to tackle it and come out on top

    X

    A career in software development has countless highs, but the lows are tricky to deal with. Many tech companies are making software developers redundant due to difficult times we are currently in. I’ve been made redundant multiple times over my career so far, and I’d like to talk about how I’ve dealt with it with the help of a fantastic community, how you can use your time effectively and ultimately how to stay one step ahead and learn from what I’ve experienced.

    In the Conference Room 2 on Fri, 16th Feb 1:30pm

    

    Jake Saterlay Software Developer at The AST Group

    Jake Saterlay

50. 14:15

51. Pizza Delivery in Motion: Real-time Pizza Delivery Service at Scale

    Pizza Delivery in Motion: Real-time Pizza Delivery Service at Scale

    X

    Most of us love pizza, so let’s use a pizza delivery service as an example. Our pizza delivery service receives orders from multiple users in real time; but what if you want to recommend specific starters for specific types of pizzas and enrich pizza orders with contextual data? How can you do this in real time? In this talk, we will address real-time application challenges and how real-time stream processing can be used to enhance data streaming pipelines by simplifying deployment and operations with ultra-low latency. The combination of Real-time storage and computing provides a unique synergy that enables applications to address real-time use cases at any scale.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Fri, 16th Feb 2:15pm

    

    Fawaz Ghali Hazelcast, Principal Data Science Architect and Head of Developer Relations

    Fawaz Ghali

52. 9-to-5 vs Contract Development: the Truth from an 11 Year Veteran

    9-to-5 vs Contract Development: the Truth from an 11 Year Veteran

    X

    Rob J has been a contract developer since 2012. He's worked with more than 23 clients, with user bases ranging from 1,000 to 1m+. He's seen the best in development, and the worst. He's been paid on time, paid late and not paid at all. You name it, he's experienced it. In this talk Rob is going to take you behind the scenes of what it's really like to be a contract developer - the pro's, the con's, and whether it's really worth moving away from permanent employment!

    In the Conference Room 2 on Fri, 16th Feb 2:15pm

    

    Rob J Veteran Freelance App Developer

    Rob J

53. 15:00

54. Break

    Break

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 3:00pm

55. 15:15

56. [Panel] Norfolk Tech in the Politics

    [Panel] Norfolk Tech in the Politics

    X

    In this panel discussion we will discuss the political landscape and vision for supporting for the Norfolk tech community, the tech based businesses that call our county home, and the skills requirements and opportunities for our region.

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 3:15pm

    

    Steffan Aquarone Political Candidate, former Startup cofounder

    James Adams Founder and CEO of Akcela and Tech Educators

    Jane James Cabinet Member for Corporate Services & Innovation at Norfolk County Council

    Alice Macdonald

    Steffan Aquarone, James Adams, Jane James, Alice Macdonald

57. Cedar, next generation Authz for your applications

    Cedar, next generation Authz for your applications

    X

    Authorization is one of the foundational needs when building your applications and services. Making sure you are able to correctly and reliably grant or deny access to your application resources is critical. Yet this is still one of the hardest things we have to do as developers. In this session I am going to cover a new open source project called Cedar that helps you solve this problem and build next generation authorization into your applications. I am going to provide a quick overview in authorisation first before looking at Cedar and then showing you with a simple demo how you can begin to use Cedar to help you simplify authorisation for your applications.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Fri, 16th Feb 3:15pm

    

    Ricardo Sueiras Sueiras Principal Advocate for Open Source

    Ricardo Sueiras Sueiras

58. The best practices of working securely

    The best practices of working securely

    X

    In the Conference Room 2 on Fri, 16th Feb 3:15pm

    

    Alex Kearns Principal Solutions Architect at Ubertas Consulting

    Alex Kearns

59. 16:00

60. Escaping the Hype Train

    Escaping the Hype Train

    X

    As developers, we often find ourselves on the hype train; it's cool, it's amazing, and it's as full of shiny stuff as any magpie's nest. However, we never seem to ask why, or even if it's the right place to be. This talk is about thinking critically about the hype train, finding a balance between shiny and boring but stable. I'll share some cautionary tales from different corners of the industry, and draw on my own experience, before talking about stereotypes around "enterprise" languages and why they don't always deserve it. Hopefully, attendees will leave with a little bit more perspective on the hype train, and better equipped to think critically about it.

    In the Conference Room 1 on Fri, 16th Feb 4:00pm

    

    Anna Aitchison Senior DevOps Engineer at Callcare

    Anna Aitchison

61. "The Era of Creative Distinction: How To Become an Agile, Disruptive and Future Thinking Tech Leader

    "The Era of Creative Distinction: How To Become an Agile, Disruptive and Future Thinking Tech Leader

    X

    In my talk I will be sharing how tech leaders can develop their leadership distinction through my insights such as my 3 I's of Cutting Edge Leadership, the difference between a mindset and a state of mind and how to become legacy minded in the era of creative distinction and beyond. I'll also share how to become more agile, disruptive and a future thinker using my ODA Leadership Model™ and my insight below. "The push for machine learning and deep learning is growing at an exponential rate but, the world is searching for creative and deep thinkers, the human learners who can create and deliver disruptive value on local, national and global platforms." ~ Onyi Anyado.

    In the Conference Room 2 on Fri, 16th Feb 4:00pm

    

    Onyi Anyado Global Leadership Speaker, Futurist and Corporate Trainer.

    Onyi Anyado

62. 16:45

63. Break

    Break

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 4:45pm

64. 17:00

65. Sponsor Session

    Sponsor Session

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 5:00pm

    

    Patrick Boyd Principal software engineer @ Gearset

    Julian Wreford Gearset, Software Engineer doing Operational Ownership

    Patrick Boyd, Julian Wreford

66. 17:30

67. Keynote

    Keynote

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 5:30pm

    

    Somdip Dey CEO & Chief Scientist @ Nosh Technologies

    Somdip Dey

68. 18:30

69. Thanks & Celebrations

    Thanks & Celebrations

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 6:30pm

70. 18:45

71. Wine Reception & Conference Dinner

    Wine Reception & Conference Dinner

    X

    In the Main Auditorium on Fri, 16th Feb 6:45pm