Last week I had the opportunity to participate and speak at Future Tech 2025. And although it was the 7th edition, it was my first time there, so I didn't know what to expect. The Future Tech team was very kind and walked with me to the speaker room (yes, free 'stroopwafels'). When the opening was announced, I entered the main room together with 700+ other software developers still unaware of what would happen next.
And then Anjuli Jhakry and Dennis Vroegop took the stage…
What started as a small introduction of the agenda, evolved in a story about fear and ended with the key message that we all should confront and embrace our fears. This all brought in such a vulnerable and strong way (no I will not spoil how they did it) that it will stick with me for the rest of my life. What a great intro and exceptional example of storytelling. Kudos to both Anjuli and Dennis!
After putting the bar so high, Roelant Dieben and his AI companion took the stage for his keynote to talk about how we’ll become AI centaurs, combining human and AI capabilities. They both did an amazing job, although I had the feeling that Roelant AI companion didn’t always wanted to follow the agreed script.
I missed the last keynote by Shawn Wildermuth as I had to get ready for my session. Sorry Shawn!
This is no longer the job I signed for
In case you missed my session, here what is was all about:
Every industry encounters moments of disruption, and for IT, that moment is now. With AI reshaping the landscape, the role of developers is undergoing a profound transformation. Whether you view this as a threat or an opportunity, one thing is clear: change is here. In this session, Bart will help you navigate the path to becoming an AI-native developer and uncover what this new era means for your career.
The future of your role starts here.
I will not go in depth as I have planned to write a few follow up posts going in much more detail. You can find the slides here and the session is recorded. When it will be shared I put the link here as well.
From Pixels to the Cloud: Mastering XR with Azure
After my session I decided to give 2 of my colleagues and fellow MVPs Saskia Groenewegen and Michiel Hamers some moral support. Knowing very little about XR, this was a great introduction for me to better understand what is possible today in XR development and how Azure (AI) can help here.
I especially liked the many demos as it showed quite well what XR has to offer in a business context.
Extending GitHub Copilot: Building Agents and Skillsets
After lunch, I joined the session of Cecilia Wiren who showed us how it easy it is to extend GitHub Copilot by creating your own agents and skillset. In 45 minutes she succeeded in explaining all the required steps to get your own skillset or agent integrated. I immediately was hooked and have planned on using the information she shared to build my own agent soon.
More info to come…
10 years of Event Sourcing; thoughts and experiences
After working on multiple event sourced solutions myself, I was interested to learn on what the experiences and thoughts of Dennis Doomen were. He took on the impossible challenge to share all his experience of practicing Event Sourcing in 45 minutes. He shared some of the lessons he learned along the way, some benefits and potential pitfalls (where I have experienced some of them myself) and what tools and technologies he would recommend when you want to apply Event Sourcing today.
Conclusion
I have to say that really liked the conference; well organized, not too big, a nice venue and of course great content and speakers. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of nice people and learned a lot.
Already looking forward to the next edition!