[KidzMash] Become a LEGO Master Builder With Teamwork!

Presented by: Thomas Haver

LEGO(R) sets are amazingly fun to build, but who has attempted to build a complete set without looking at the instructions? In this session, the kidz & adults will form teams and try to build one of sixteen different Creator sets without the instructions. Only one person from each team will be able...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, LeadershipFormat: KidzMash Sessionz

Agile Pitfalls and How to Parry Them: A Practical Guide

Presented by: Arin Heinselman

Hey there, fellow conference-goers! 🎉 Imagine this: you've embarked on the Agile journey, armed with good intentions and high spirits, only to find yourself tangled in a web of chaos and confusion. Fear not, because our talk is here to save the day! 🦸‍♂️ ...

Tags: Soft Skills, Leadership, AgileFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

Bad Tendencies in Leaders and How to Manage Up

Presented by: Benjamin Dobrowolski

No matter where you’ve worked, we’ve all had those bosses that we’ve not gotten along with. ...

Tags: Soft Skills, Leadership, Project ManagementFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

Balloon Animals: Blowing things Up at Codemash

Presented by: Ilyana Smith

In this fun session, you’ll learn the basics of balloon animals, twisting your way to a variety of adorable creatures! We’ll bring the balloons if you’ll bring the imagination! Kidz of all ages are welcome (younger kidz – please assist your parents)! No experience necessary! You’ll leave...

Tags: Soft SkillsFormat: KidzMash Sessionz

Building Better Teams Through Play

Presented by: Jenny Bramble

Teams work incredibly hard to drive software and processes forward. Sometimes we neglect the emotional side of our hard work, leaving teams brittle and less able to adapt and bend. How do we release tension and form the strong bonds that a good team needs to be successful as well as honing some of...

Tags: Soft Skills, LeadershipFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

Building Relationships for Better Security

Presented by: Darylynn Ross

It's 2024 and software engineering teams and security teams are still struggling to figure out how we can all just get along. Engineering teams are commonly frustrated and annoyed at all the extraneous stuff security wants them to do. And security teams are commonly frustrated with the lack of...

Tags: Security, Soft Skills, LeadershipFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Can We Learn to Manage Uncertainty? Probably!

Presented by: Robert Herbig

When we’re asked when something will be done, it’s tempting to answer the question. “It’ll be done on March 32nd” or “it’ll take 182.5 days” or “we need 15 sprints”. It doesn’t matter if that answer is the best-case, average, or worst-case scenario. ...

Tags: Soft Skills, Agile, Project ManagementFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Creative Problem Solving

Presented by: Eric Potter

You're a developer. Solving problems is a big part of what you do. But how can you learn to think more clearly and more creatively about the problems you are solving? In this session, you will learn about the cognitive science of creative thinking. You will also learn some practical things you can...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, Leadership, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Deliver what the client wants instead of what they ask for! Getting them to tell you what they need.

Presented by: Angel Thomas

As software developers, our goal is to typically write software that meets the needs of our clients, whether they be internal or external clients. Often times, when we miss the mark, it is due to a communication breakdown between the developer team and the client team on what the actual requirements...

Tags: Soft Skills, Teams, Code QualityFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Doodle with "Logo" the turtle

Presented by: Umang Nahata

Learn how to program and draw using "Logo" the turtle. The Logo programming language was invented over thirty years ago to make it easier for kids to learn how to program computers. ...

Tags: Soft SkillsFormat: KidzMash Divez

Dream Teams: Hiring (and Keeping) the Right People

Presented by: Michelle Smith

Everyone says that “your people are your most important asset.” But how do you find the RIGHT people? And once you have them, how do you keep them? In this entertaining session, we’ll turn the traditional hiring process on its head and share a new perspective on how to identify the right...

Tags: Soft Skills, Leadership, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Finding your Motivation and Managing When you aren’t Motivated

Presented by: Jennie Ocken

We are all motivated by different things. But most companies and managers only know how to encourage employees through money or title. By better understanding what motivates each of us, we can be better teammates, managers, and people. In this session we will learn: ...

Tags: Career Development, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, Soft Skills, Leadership, Remote WorkFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

Hybrid Agility: Working Conditions for Team Success

Presented by: Carina Silfverduk

Is your team or workplace working hybrid, with some in the office and some remote on any given day? Working hybrid is by far harder than either remote or on-site work because you need to accommodate both and then do something extra to keep everyone in the room and everyone on the call engaged. ...

Tags: Soft Skills, Agile, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

Learning, Giving Back, & the Art of Community

Presented by: Mike Nelson

As you journey through your career(s) in IT, it is becoming more critical for you to immerse yourself in the network of worldwide and regional communities that are available in just a few mouse clicks. The drive for continuous learning, combined with the passion for giving back through many...

Tags: Career Development, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, Soft Skills, Leadership, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Managing a Rewrite Without Getting Stuck in the Tar Pit

Presented by: Randall Koutnik

It's a tale as old as time: our startup had finally found success and was ready to scale up, but we'd taken on a huge amount of technical debt to get there. In particular, our frontend still relied on an old templating system! How could we rewrite our frontend to take advantage of modern tooling...

Tags: Soft Skills, Teams, System DesignFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Multithreaded Income: How Developers Can Achieve Parallel Success

Presented by: Kevin Griffin

In an unpredictable tech industry, job security is fragile. How can developers harness their unique skills to create a diversified, resilient professional life? This talk presents the concept of "Multithreaded Income," a strategic approach to building parallel income streams inspired by the...

Tags: Career Development, Soft SkillsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Networking for Introverts: Build, Maintain, and Use Networks Without Being Creepy

Presented by: Brian MacDonald

You've heard that having a professional network is important for career growth, for learning about your industry, and to help out in the event of a layoff. But how do you go about building one from scratch? Taking a transactional, goal-oriented approach may be good engineering design, but it tends...

Tags: Career Development, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, Soft SkillsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Neurodiverse Coders: Unlocking ADHD & Autism Superpowers in Tech

Presented by: Gaines Kergosien

In the tech world, diversity isn't just about backgrounds; it's also about how we think and process information. ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often pigeonholed as challenges. However, what if we told you that these so-called 'disorders' house superpowers that can be game-changers in...

Tags: Career Development, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, Soft Skills, Leadership, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

Product Thinking and Tinkering

Presented by: BJ Allmon

Do you aspire to be an inventor one day? Maybe you have lots of ideas and don't know what to do with them. ...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, UI/UXFormat: KidzMash Sessionz

Reaping the Benefits of Ritual and Routine

Presented by: Arthur Doler

Software is as close as humans are ever going to come to actual magic. You type arcane incantations using cryptic symbols, crafting messages incomprehensible to most mortals and communicating them to vast, unknowable systems, to be executed blindly by idiot machine gods who follow our instructions...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, Remote WorkFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Scrambled - Solving a Rubik's cube!

Presented by: Yajat Nahata

Have you ever wondered why solving a Rubik's cube is so much fun yet challenging! In this session, I will share how I solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube using the beginner's method and making it fun and exciting. ...

Tags: Soft SkillsFormat: KidzMash Divez

self.clone();//Passing On Your Passion

Presented by: Barry Tarlton

When you've written your last line of code, what will be your legacy? Will your applications live on forever in Production or at least until AI takes over? Will your Github repos be archived and immortalized? Will there be patterns or tools named after you? For most of us, there probably won't...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, Code QualityFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Spaces, squares, and circles - an intro to UI design

Presented by: Ash Banaszek

Are you a techie that has found yourself in charge of laying out and designing screens? Do you find yourself staring at screens that just don't "feel right" but it is hard to pinpoint why. Maybe a few design basics can get you back in the game. In this talk, [Redacted name] (an experienced UX...

Tags: Front End, Soft Skills, UI/UXFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Survival Under Fire: How to Stay Whole During Adversity

Presented by: Arthur Doler

Each of the last few years have hit like a brick to the temple. It felt like the entire world was upended. There’s been radical shifts in the way we work, endless video conference calls, social and political unrest, and lots of tough choices about our health and the health of those we love and...

Tags: Soft Skills, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

The Developer Relations Playbook: How to build bridges by putting people first

Presented by: Dan Vega

Are you passionate about technology and love engaging with communities? Ever wondered how you could turn these interests into a fulfilling career? Look no further! "The Developer Relations Playbook: How to Build Bridges by Putting People First" is your comprehensive guide to becoming a Developer...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, Remote WorkFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

The Five Code Reviewers You Meet At Work

Presented by: Aaron Salvo

When you review code at work do you simply trust your peers have written bug-free code? Does a co-worker infuriate you when they block your pull request over indention? Are you a freshman engineer who worries they'll get an atomic wedgie by the coffee maker if you point out a syntax error in a...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, Code QualityFormat: General SessionLevel: Intermediate

The Hazards of Sitting: An Osteopath’s Approach to Preventing Work-Related Injury.

Presented by: Michele Parsley-Lanning D.O.

My training as an Osteopathic Physician prepared me to counsel my patients about injury and disease prevention. However, I did not realize the full impact of spending a majority of my time sitting at a desk would have on my overall movement and flexibility. ...

Tags: Soft Skills, LeadershipFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

The Other Side of the Table - Salary Negotiation from a Management Perspective

Presented by: Nick Stewart

Salary negotiation is a daunting task, and it can be made all the more confusing, if you don’t understand the position management often has to take. One of the best strategies for a successful negotiation is to determine what the other side values, and it’s not always the lowest number. In...

Tags: Career Development, Soft SkillsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

The Subtle Art of Communication

Presented by: Natalie Hylton, Tristan Chiappisi

We probably don't need this session. Technologists are excellent communicators, aren’t they? But for those who would like to learn (and practice) a new thing or two, here is a session packed with experiential learning. Amongst the things that we will cover: ...

Tags: Soft Skills, Leadership, TeamsFormat: PreCompilerLevel: Intermediate

Thinking Architecturally

Presented by: Nathaniel Schutta

Rich Hickey once said programmers know the benefits of everything and the trade offs of nothing...an approach that can lead a project down a path of frustrated developers and unhappy customers. As architects though, we must consider the trade offs of every new library, language, pattern or approach...

Tags: Career Development, Soft Skills, ArchitectureFormat: PreCompilerLevel: Intermediate

Verbs, Not Nouns: Writing Documentation Users Want to Read

Presented by: Brian MacDonald

Documentation should be complete and comprehensive, but that doesn't mean it has to be dull and boring. Engaging documentation focuses on what your users want to do, the tasks they're trying to accomplish, the problems they want to solve. Writing documentation with the focus on your user, instead of...

Tags: Soft Skills, TeamsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

Visual Storytelling: How to be a Superhuman Communicator

Presented by: David Neal

Who says communication has to be dry, dull, and boring? Simple, hand-drawn illustrations are a compelling and fun way to engage, inform, and win your audience of readers and viewers! ...

Tags: Career Development, Soft SkillsFormat: General SessionLevel: Introductory and overview

What a Character!

Presented by: Matt "Kelly" Williams

What do games, stories, books, movies, and comics all have in common? ...

Tags: Career Development, Soft SkillsFormat: KidzMash Divez

What is Your Working Genius? (Workshop)

Presented by: Kyle Jenkins

The working genius model is a productivity model developed by Patrick Lencioni with the goal of accomplishing a simple concept: bringing more joy and fulfillment at work! When you and your team understand where your geniuses are and how to (and when not to) use them, it can improve meetings, reduce...

Tags: Soft Skills, Leadership, TeamsFormat: PreCompilerLevel: Introductory and overview

When in Doubt... Improvise

Presented by: Matt "Kelly" Williams

Join us for a fun filled deep dive into the world of improvisation. In this hands on deep dive you will learn and practice techniques and skills to create something out of nothing. These skills, in turn, can help any time you need to speak in public or work in groups. Come ready to be a little...

Tags: Career Development, Soft SkillsFormat: KidzMash Sessionz