Speakers
Session One
10:00 am
Challenge accepted!
Strategies to overcome fears and express yourself in front of large groups.
Careers & Teams
Lightning Talk
Xero - BrickFielder
People in tech often find it challenging to express themselves in public. I’ll share my personal story of overcoming fears and insecurities in public speaking, working strategies to develop the skills and confidence needed, as well as some insights I learned from experts and international speakers.
Helen Kyryliuk
Front end developer at Timely
I am passionate about frontend. I am currently a frontend developer working with ReactJS at Timely Business Management Software. I have a growth mindset and a habit of constantly practising new technologies and applying gained skills.
A Brief History of the Clipper Chip
Cool & Fun
Lightning Talk
Xero - BrickFielder
We explore the spotty relationship between signals intelligence and communications privacy through a (very) condensed history of one of the NSA's most resounding failures: the Clipper chip.
Vera Connell
Vera Connell is a (struggling) renaissance woman, equal parts technology enthusiast and neo-luddite. Raised in grey, windy Wellington, she walks the earth raining on parades and being generally skeptical. But in a fun way! :3
Wear (OS) is my train?
Code On Screen
Lightning Talk
Xero - BrickFielder
You're running late for the train again! Getting to the station out of breath, you see the train is still 5 mins away!! If only there was some way to get push notifications in real time indicating how far away the train is... Trying to learn a new technology can be intimidating and frustrating at times. How do you know what to Google when you don't even know what the question is you're trying to ask? Join this session to see someone with zero experience in app development talk about their journey in making their first Wear OS app!
Daniel Hardie
Security Developer, PartsTrader Markets Limited
Daniel is a Security Developer at PartsTrader Markets Limited, with a focus on application security, governance and risk compliance and upskilling people in all things security. He has a deep passion for learning, problem solving and will never turn down a good challenge. In Daniel's spare time you can catch him in the exam room trying to collect another AWS cert, on the hockey turf gasping for breath or trying to keep up his daily streak on Duolingo!
Session Two
11:15 am
Learn Rust the Hobbes way
Code On Screen
Breakout Session
Xero - BrickFielder
The Rust language is increasingly popular for the way it balances safety, performance, and expressiveness. The way it gets there, though, can be challenging for developers familiar with better-known languages such as C, C#/Java, or Go: hence Rust's reputation for having less of a learning curve than a learning cliff. In this talk, we'll run full tilt at that cliff, and see how high we get. I'm going to focus not on teaching you "this is what comments look like," but on giving you a basis for *thinking* in Rust: major features that are different from the way other languages do things, idioms, false friends, and key packages and tools.
Ivan Towlson
Co-founder, Fermyon
Ivan has been knocking around the software scene since the days of Turbo Basic, and has lately found himself focusing on cloud native tools as part of Microsoft's Deis Labs group. He is now back in the startup world, helping to found Fermyon and using Rust and WebAssembly to build the next wave of cloud computing.
Session Three
12:15 pm
Resiliency patterns
Code On Screen
Breakout Session
Xero - BrickFielder
How do you build applications that resist or recover from disruptions? When building critical systems, certain design choices offer higher availability and continuity of operations during faults in the system. In this talk, learn about patterns for designing resilient systems.
Chris Kumar
Senior Solutions Architect - AWS
I'm a builder and love working with large systems. As an AWS architect and resiliency specialist, I work with enterprise financial services organisations to design highly secure and reliable solutions in cloud.
1:00 pm
Lunch
Session Four
1:45 pm
A walking tour of PostgreSQL
And a bit about how it is made
Code On Screen
Breakout Session
Xero - BrickFielder
I'll talk about: the origins and history of the PostgreSQL project; how it fits into the space of databases; how it fits into the space of open source projects; key architectural features, strengths and weakness; selected special topics found in different parts of an RDBMS; and how I got involved, from long time user to scratching-an-itch stage through to full time work on architectural features (this part might will include some code on screen).
Thomas Munro
Open source database hacker, Azure
I have been working with and on PostgreSQL for many years.
Session Five
2:45 pm
Coding while Trans
Careers & Teams
Lightning Talk
Xero - BrickFielder
The highs, lows, and just plain weird bits of being a trans woman in the tech industry. Tech can be a challenging space to navigate for trans women. Life can be pretty challenging for Trans people in general. But in the tech space there's actually a lot we can do to help.
Leliel Trethowen
I am a Trans woman working in the quality engineering space for nearly a decade as a full stack engineer. I have been involved in activist work advocating for improvements to trans healthcare, and civil rights. I will be speaking from personal experience.
Difficulty levels in Elden Ring
And what they can teach us about web accessibility
Cool & Fun
Lightning Talk
Xero - BrickFielder
Video game difficulty is a bit like web accessibility. Elden Ring lets players customise difficulty using choice, freedom, and flexibility. We'll borrow some of its tricks to help us make our sites and apps more easy to use for everyone, including disabled people.
Steve Barnett
Digital Accessibility Specialist at MSD
Steve is a human-centred front-end developer. He works as a Digital Accessibility Specialist at the Ministry of Social Development. He helps product, design, and development colleagues make things more accessible for more people. He's also a keen Switch and PS5 gamer, especially big, open-world games.
If Nature were developers
Cool & Fun
Lightning Talk
Xero - BrickFielder
AI is developing at an exhilarating yet alarming rate. As we eagerly and worriedly await to witness its unfolding impact, let's look at this problem from a fun perspective, the evolutionary perspective. If you want something that make you laugh and think, don't miss out on this talk.
Ashley Cao
Developer / ANZ
I'm a developer with a Marketing degree. I made my way into the tech industry largely through self-learning and thinking outside of the box. I took on programming projects as a coordinator, and built my tech career from there. I believe that we learn the best when we have fun.
Session Six
3:45 pm
From Bytes to Bias
The GRU's Convergence of Hacking and Disinformation
Cool & Fun
Breakout Session
Xero - BrickFielder
In 2016, the world witnessed a watershed moment in the realm of cybersecurity and information warfare as the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, embarked on a multifaceted campaign to interfere with the United States presidential election. This presentation delves into the intricacies of the GRU's operations, examining how they integrated hacking and disinformation tactics to try and influence the electoral process. From infiltrating networks to disseminating false narratives, the GRU's hybrid approach blurred the lines between cyber intrusion and information manipulation. Through an analysis of their tactics, and impact, this talk sheds light on the evolving landscape of cybersecurity and underscores the need to safeguard democratic institutions against such threats.
Kade Morton
Cofounder, Arachne Digital
A cybersecurity professional with a specialisation in threat intelligence, Kade brings experience from working in consultancies, banking, and managing a security operations center for a managed service provider, to their current role in a utilities company's SOC. They co-founded Arachne Digital, a startup committed to enhancing threat intelligence, supporting open-source projects and vulnerable sectors.