C3 Dev Festival 2024

Feeling the limitations of LLMs? They can be creative, but sometimes lack accuracy or rely on outdated information. In this workshop, we’ll break down the process of building and easily deploying a Retrieval-Augmented Generation system. This approach enables you to leverage the power of LLMs with the added benefit of factual accuracy and up-to-date information.

It is hard to know what you really want from your career, but answering this question is a powerful step towards gaining more agency and control in how you develop. This workshop will support you to know yourself better, to build your aspiration of who you are becoming in your career and to set a direction for where you would love to go. This will enable you to identify actions to take to be more intentional and deliberate in the development of your career.

Today every developer is using LLMs in different forms and shapes, from ChatGPT to code assistants like GitHub CoPilot. Following this, lots of products have introduced embedded AI capabilities, and in this workshop we will make LLMs understandable for web developers. And we'll get into coding your own AI-driven application. No prior experience in working with LLMs or machine learning is needed. Instead, we'll use web technologies such as JavaScript, React which you already know and love while also learning about some new libraries like OpenAI, Transformers.js

Are you curious about the world of electronic music but not sure where to start? and did you know your coding skills can translate to music-making? This workshop will help you discover the basics in a comfortable way, and see how your coding mindset can help you understand music production. We'll build on your developer logic, break down the basics, and help you get hands-on with creating cool sounds.

This workshop primarily targets Senior Software Engineers who wish to grow to the Lead role (Tech Lead (Staff), Team Lead, Engineering Manager)I would be happy to welcome ambitious Software Engineers as wellI would be happy to welcome Lead Engineers who wish to thrive in the role Some key topics we will go through:How to let your manager know about your goals and aspirationsHow to keep a brag list of all the wins that you achievedHow to become the go-to person or an expert in a certain domainHow to recognise an impactful improvement and own the implementationHow to become product-mindedHow to show yourself as a very credible individualHow to become a team player and a mentor/coach to others

Getting that senior title is easy. Just stick around. Being a true senior takes a new way of thinking.
You're a great engineer. You can code anything you need, solve every problem, google any solution. Your code is flying.
But somehow you're ... stuck. Interviewing feels rough, you pass the coding and fail the real stuff. Culture and system. At work they keep giving you stupid little problems with no growth. You crave challenge and keep tweaking CSS instead.
You want some responsibility, damn it! What's that coworker got that you don't?
Most of all you crave autonomy. The freedom to tackle big challenges and help the company with your brilliance.
They don't even see all the bad code you see! How can they live like this?? Instead of autonomy, you're getting babysat. Managers asking what you're up to, daily standups that feel like a drag, pushback and 'maybe someday' on every idea that you give.
I was like that a few years ago. A totally senior engineer who keeps running into walls and getting stuck.
Now even bigger companies trust me with designing systems and leading teams on projects that could make or break the company.
In this workshop you'll learn what changed and how to apply the Senior Mindset to your work and career:- How to gain autonomy- Inspire trust- Own large projects- Get freedom to experiment- Have your ideas heard- Think like an expert- Become a decision-making peer, not a pair of hands
You'll work on case studies, analyze anecdotes, discuss insightful books, and look at your work and career in a new light.

Join this crash-course into the exciting world of live coding music and visuals. No previous knowl- edge of programming required, only a desire to express yourself creatively! In this workshop, split into 2 parts, you will be introduced to two creative-coding environments used for creating expres- sive algorithmic music and visuals on-the-fly. For this we will use the programming environments Mercury and Hydra. You’ll learn to program the instructions that the computer will translate to beats and visuals. You can change the code while it’s running and hear/see the changes in real time. Welcome to the world of Live Coding! The workshops are led by Saskia Freeke (visuals) and Timo Hoogland (music).

Mental health has taken a back seat in the software engineering industry for years.It’s not often prioritised by our employers and unfortunately, we often neglect it ourselves…With so many external factors outside of our control, it’s important to focus on what we can control…After 24 years in software engineering, improving mental health in our industry is now my primary mission.Mental health impact us all in different ways.Better mental health starts by understanding what it means to you and then using tools to incrementally improve it.This workshop aims to help you on both accounts.
We’ll cover:Step 1 - Your ThinkingStep 2 - Your BeliefsStep 3 - Your ValuesStep 4 - Your Physical HealthStep 5 - Your Mental Health
There’ll be education and discussion on each of the 5 steps and we’ll use practical exercises to help you build a picture of what mental health means to you and a pathway to move it towards how you’d like it to be.

How do you get into the zone while coding? Why does taking a walk or taking a shower seem to help solve problems? Everything we do is regulated by complex processes in the brain, and coding is no exception. Sometimes it can feel difficult to control our minds when coding, but to debug the problem we’ll first need to understand it. This talk will dive into the basic neurological processes and psychological behaviors involved with learning and writing code. By understanding the physiological processes involved in the work we do, we can be more in touch with our bodies and more productive as a result.

This workshop is designed to help technology professionals elevate their resumes, led by Alla Pavlova, a senior freelance recruiter from the Netherlands with 15+ years of experience in the tech industry. In this interactive session, Alla shares tips on how recruiters review CVs, her knowledge on what top companies are looking for in candidates, offering personalized feedback to refine and enhance your CV for maximum impact.Participants will learn how to effectively showcase their skills, experiences, and achievements and make their applications stand out in the competitive tech job market. The workshop includes practical exercises, real-life examples, and Q&A sessions, providing attendees with the tools and confidence to make their tech CVs shine. Whether you’re seeking to advance in your current role or looking for new opportunities, this workshop is a good source. Bring your CV!

A Developer’s Guide to Communicating, Convincing, and Collaborating Effectively With Stakeholders
It’s a tale as old as time - collaboration between developers and business stakeholders has long been a challenge, with a lack of clear communication often leaving both sides frustrated. The best developers can deeply understand their business counterparts’ needs, effectively communicate technical strategy without losing the non-technical crowd, and convince the business to make the right decisions. Working at a consultancy, I’ve both failed and succeeded in architecting and “selling” technical visions, learning many lessons along the way.Whether you work at a product company, are a consultant/freelancer, or want to venture beyond just being a developer, the ability to convince and clearly communicate with stakeholders can set you apart in the tech industry. This becomes even more important with the rise of GenAI and the increasingly competitive developer market, as problem-solving and effective communication are key to positioning yourself.In this workshop, I’ll share real-world examples, both good and bad, and guide you through putting the theory into practice through dojos.