William Klos at Stir Trek 2026

Architect and Chief Golang Advocate for CapTech Consulting

About William Klos

Bill got his start building monolithic applications on monolithic hardware. Literally. The AS/400s of the day were tall, matte black, and had an ominous “hum” about them. Since then, he has moved steadily towards more distributed pursuits. Today, Bill works primarily in AI, the cloud across multiple platforms, and specializes in IoT/distributed architectures. He also believes watching the data streams directly is more satisfying than what any UI has to offer.

Session: Maintenance by Smell: When Reading Every Line Becomes Obsolete

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | Inception - Theatre 28 (18,19)
Track: Software Quality & Delivery

Classic scenario. You get handed someone else’s codebase. The original author has left for a beach somewhere, better gig, or possibly witness protection.

Yesterday: Read it. Line by line. Function by function. Build a mental model. Understand it deeply. Then fix it.

Time required: Somewhere between “too long” and “I have regrets about my career choices.”

Today: Don’t read it. Ask AI what it does. Investigate what smells funny. Fix the smell. Move on with your life.

This talk is about the shift from syntax comprehension to diagnostic intuition. It’s the difference between memorizing every street name in a city versus knowing the neighborhoods well enough to sense when you’re heading somewhere sketchy. You don’t need to parse every semicolon, you need to recognize when something’s wrong.

The key skill isn’t reading code faster. It’s asking better questions. “What’s the happy path here?” “Where could this blow up?” “Why does this function exist?” And critically: “What’s the thing the original author was worried about that I should also be worried about?”

You’ll walk away with practical patterns for smell-based debugging, the questions that matter more than comprehensive reading, and a significantly improved relationship with legacy code. (It’s still not a good relationship. But it’s faster.)

Connect with William

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wjklos/
• Twitter/X: @williamklos
• Website: https://captechconsulting.com
• Blog: https://medium.com/@williamklos

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss William’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Joseph Guadagno at Stir Trek 2026

Microsoft “Developer Services” MVP, Progress Telerik Champion, and Organizer of Desert Code Camp

About Joseph Guadagno

Joe Guadagno has been writing software for over 30 years, has been an active member of the .NET community, formerly serving on the .NET Foundation Board of Directors, as President, and has been a Microsoft MVP in .NET for more than 15 years. He has spoken through the United States and international events on topics ranging from Microsoft .NET, Microsoft Azure, Ionic, Bootstrap, and many others. You can see the complete list at https://www.josephguadagno.net/presentations. When not sitting at a computer, Joe loves to hang out with his family and play games. When not playing games with the family, Joe is checking out the latest in Home Automation. You can connect with Joe on Bluesky at @jguadagno.com, Facebook at JosephGuadagnoNet, and on his blog at https://www.josephguadagno.net

Session: Application Architecture Patterns

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | The Goonies - Theatre 16 (21)
Track: Architecture & Platform Engineering

Architecting an application can be challenging. What do you do to keep your application flexible to ever-constant requirement changes? How do you handle landscape changes (cloud, on-premises, databases)? How do you avoid over-engineering the application? How do I make sure my application plays well with other applications?

In this session, we’ll take a look at some well-understood and practiced Software Architecture patterns. We’ll cover these patterns at a high level to understand how to use these patterns in different scenarios.

You’ll walk away with some knowledge, tips, and tricks that you’ll be able to use for new and existing applications.

Connect with Joseph

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephguadagno/
• Twitter/X: @jguadagno
• Website: https://www.josephguadagno.net
• Blog: https://www.josephguadagno.net

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Joseph’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Eric Martin at Stir Trek 2026

KODE Health, Director of Software Engineering

About Eric Martin

Eric is the Director of Engineering at KODE Health, bringing 25 years of expertise in software development to his role. Specializing in revenue cycle systems for healthcare, Eric has built and led teams that automate and track 1 billion communications annually.

Eric holds a degree in Information Systems from Ohio State University and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management. He is a co-patent holder for an innovative obfuscation of PII used in print and digital composition and delivery.

Throughout his career, Eric has demonstrated a passion for helping engineers grow and achieve their next level of professional development. His leadership and commitment to innovation have left a lasting impact for customers and organizations.

Session: From PRs to Performance: Using Metrics and AI to Coach Stronger Engineering Teams

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | Back to the Future - Theatre 3 (1,2)
Track: Professional Growth & Leadership

Velocity is useful, but it is not leadership. Most organizations either stop at team velocity and “gut feel,” or they overcorrect into individual scoreboards that erode trust and create perverse incentives. This talk shares a pragmatic middle path: how engineering leaders can use metrics to understand delivery health, code quality, and collaboration, without turning measurement into micromanagement.

I built an internal metrics web application that connects to common systems like code repositories and agile/project tools (GitHub and Linear in my case, but the approach generalizes to Jira and other platforms). It tracks velocity and estimation trends over time, compares individual and team patterns, and adds pull request analysis to surface quality signals. I also integrated AI (Claude) to review commits and PR discussions and generate a quality assessment across four dimensions: code quality (DRY/SOLID), testing habits, adherence to standards, and collaboration in code review.

This session is designed for senior engineers through executive technology leaders. You will learn which metrics are actually useful, how to implement a dashboard in your environment, and how to apply guardrails so metrics drive coaching and continuous improvement rather than fear or gaming. The examples and demo are fully offline using anonymized or mock data and precomputed AI outputs, so the approach works even with limited connectivity.

What’s in it for you: you’ll leave with a concrete dashboard blueprint and an implementation plan you can apply immediately: what to measure, how to visualize it, how to layer in AI responsibly, and how to use the signals to coach, improve standards, and raise delivery confidence.

Key takeaways

• A leadership-oriented metrics framework: outcomes vs system signals vs behaviors (and what not to measure)
• A practical dashboard design that combines velocity, estimation reality (“hours per point”), and PR signals
• How to use AI as an assistant for qualitative insights (and how to calibrate it so it does not become “truth”)
• Guardrails for trust: privacy, transparency, and preventing metric gaming
• A step-by-step path to build this in your org using APIs from your existing tools

45-minute outline

• Why most engineering metrics fail in practice (5 min)
• Velocity, estimation, and forecasting that leaders can actually use (10 min) team velocity per cycle, averages, “hours per point” trends comparing individual patterns to team patterns without weaponizing it
• Pull request signals that reveal quality and delivery risk (10 min)
  review cycles, rework patterns, standards drift, collaboration signals
• AI-assisted quality analysis, responsibly (12 min)
  code quality, testing quality, standards, collaboration
  calibrating with spot checks and known baselines; using confidence labels
• How to apply the signals: coaching, leveling expectations, and intervention (6 min)
• Build plan: how to implement this dashboard in your environment (2 min)

Connect with Eric

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericemartin1/
• Website: https://www.kodehealth.com
• Blog: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericemartin1/recent-activity/all/

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Eric’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Sam Basu at Stir Trek 2026

Lead Developer Advocate

About Sam Basu

Sam Basu is a technologist, author, speaker, Microsoft MVP and Lead Developer Advocate for Uno Platform. With a long developer background, he now spends much of his time advocating modern development platforms & AI tools for cross-platform technology stacks. His spare times call for travel, fast cars, cricket and culinary adventures. You can find him on the internet.

Session: MCP Demystified 🤖

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | The Last Starfighter - Theatre 14 (12,13)
Track: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

It is the age of AI, and there is a huge opportunity for developers to infuse apps with solutions powered by generative AI and large/small language models. Modern AI is big opportunity to streamline and automate developer workflows for better productivity. There are some challenges though – AI Models often lack context, and AI Agents need expertise to reliably pull off complex workflows across disparate systems.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) can help. Developed as an open standard, MCP aims to provide a standardized way to connect AI models to different data sources, tools and non-public information. The point is to provide deep contextual information/APIs/data as tools to AI models/agents—MCP services also support robust authentication/authorization toward executing specific tasks on behalf of users.

Developers can think of MCP as a common standardized language for information exchange between AI Agents/systems - MCP is growing in popularity and is showing a lot of promise as the emerging standard that bridges AI models with the tools they rely on. Beyond the hype, let’s understand the promise of MCP and explore tooling to easily create MCP Servers/Clients. With official SDKs, it is a breeze to work with MCP and boost AI Model responses or surface tools to extend AI Agents. Developers could bring their own data, APIs, services and more through MCP - and have it surfaced through Agents in GitHub Copilot/Claude Code/Cursor. MCP provides a standardized protocol for bringing contextual expertise to the AI world and light up unique workflows for integrations – upwards and onwards.

Connect with Sam

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-basu-332247394/
• Twitter/X: @samidip
• Website: https://platform.uno/
• Blog: https://samidipbasu.com/

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Sam’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Chris Birie at Stir Trek 2026

Software and Data Martial Artist

About Chris Birie

Chris Birie is a software/data/platform/jack of all trades engineer who believes strong systems and apps are built through repetition, fundamentals, and attention to detail. Influenced by his kung fu practice, he applies the same mindset to designing scalable architectures and delivery workflows. He is passionate about teaching, mentoring, and helping teams build software that holds up under pressure.

Session: Designing Data Pipelines That Don’t Hate You Six Months Later

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | Interstellar - Theatre 4 (5,6,7,8,9)
Track: Data Engineering & Analytics

Most data pipelines don’t fail on day one. They fail months later — when requirements change, data volume grows, or the original developer is no longer around. Much like martial arts training, pipelines built on shaky fundamentals tend to collapse under pressure.

This session focuses on practical data pipeline design patterns that emphasize durability, maintainability, and operational confidence. Drawing from experience modernizing enterprise data platforms, I’ll walk through common failure modes in batch and streaming pipelines and how disciplined upfront design decisions can prevent them.

We’ll cover topics such as schema evolution, idempotency, observability, testing strategies, and scaling — grounded in real examples of what worked, what broke, and what we had to correct after the fact. There are no silver bullets here — just repeatable patterns and lessons learned from systems that had to stay running while everything around them changed.

This talk is tool-agnostic and focused on principles that apply whether you’re using Python, Spark, Kafka, or traditional ETL platforms.

What’s in it for the attendee

• How to design pipelines that withstand change and growth
• Patterns for building observability and testability into data systems
• Common anti-patterns that lead to brittle pipelines
• Practical guidance rooted in real production experience

Connect with Chris

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-birie/
• Twitter/X: @biriebiriebirie

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Chris’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Amy Norris at Stir Trek 2026

Software Development Supervisor, Dimensional Innovations

About Amy Norris

Amy is a graphic designer turned software developer currently building weird, cool, and unconventional stuff at Dimensional Innovations. On her off time she can be found volunteering with Kansas City Women in Tech, reading or playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Session: Managing for Failure

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | Galaxy Quest - Theatre 27 (23,24,25,26)
Track: Professional Growth & Leadership

Oh no! Your team is doing a fabulous job. You never have to have difficult conversations, everyone is getting their work done to a high standard and on time. The higher ups are super happy with you. No one on your team has failed in longer than you can remember! How could you let this happen and what can you do to fix it?

Failure is an important part of growing your team - both the individuals on it and the cohesiveness of the whole. Without it creative problem solving can stagnate, learning slows to a crawl, and the work you get done is less than it could have been.

We’ll dive in to strategies for helping your team (including you!) feel comfortable with failure, as well as strategies for keeping YOUR boss happy when it happens. We’ll also explore low-stakes ways to introduce failure into your team, so you’re not taking down prod to prove a point.

Connect with Amy

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/norrisamy/
• Website: https://www.dimin.com

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Amy’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Brian Gorman at Stir Trek 2026

Microsoft Azure MVP, Speaker, Author, Trainer, and .Net Developer

About Brian Gorman

Brian is a Microsoft Azure MVP, speaker, author, trainer, and .NET developer with deep expertise across cloud and application development. He holds MCSA: Web App Certification, MCSD: App Builder, and twelve Azure certifications, including Developer, Administrator, DevOps Engineer, Solutions Architect, Data Administrator, Security Engineer, AI Engineer, and Cosmos DB — along with multiple Fundamentals certifications. Since 2019, he has also been a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).

Brian earned a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. He brings over 15 years of experience teaching computer science, SQL databases, object-oriented programming (C#, VB.NET, Java), and Microsoft Office in online university settings.

As an educator and creator, Brian has developed numerous online training courses available across multiple platforms and has authored several books with APress, including Practical Entity Framework and Practical Entity Framework Core 6, Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Certification Companion: Hands-on Preparation and Practice for Exam AZ-204, and is scheduled to publish the third edition of Practical Entity Framework in November along with .NET/EF 10

Session: Securing your Azure AI Workload

1 May 2026 04:00 PM | The Matrix - Theatre 15 (10, 11)
Track: Architecture & Platform Engineering

You’ve been given the task of creating an AI workload that will work with your data to allow your customers to get answers. Perhaps you even want to use some of these new “agent” things you’ve been hearing so much about. Maybe you need to see how your regular apps can also integrate with your workload.

But AI is scary. Just ask Samsung how they felt when their proprietary code showed up in chat GPT answers. Just look to the Canadian Airline that had to pay a refund because their chat agent said the customer should get one. Or how about the guy who negotiated a truck for $0? It’s challenging and scary - and that’s just the implementation. Just to be clear, learning how to ground your data properly is an entirely different session - and while we’ll talk about that briefly, this session is more about the workload in Azure itself.

What about the exposure of your data via your azure services? How can you keep your HIPPA/GDPR/NIST certifications and integrate an azure AI workload?

In this session, you will learn about how you can correctly utilize Azure services to secure your AI workload from public exposure, and how you can connect securely to the AI deployments from your other secure services.

Connect with Brian

• Twitter/X: @blgorman

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Brian’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Todd Nussbaum at Stir Trek 2026

Director, Consulting Services @ CGI

About Todd Nussbaum

With a career spanning two and a half decades, Todd has worn nearly every hat in the SDLC—from dev and architect to engineering leader. He is a firm believer that great software requires both a foundation of clean architecture and sensible UI design. Off the clock, Todd can be found tinkering with the newest open source library or AI app, and often trades the keyboard for the sidelines, following his sons’ college journeys, timing his daughter’s laps at the pool, and acting as the primary support crew for his wife’s running goals.

Session: LGTM is not a Strategy

1 May 2026 03:00 PM | Galaxy Quest - Theatre 27 (23,24,25,26)
Track: Software Quality & Delivery

Pull requests are where quality is won or lost, and too many teams still treat reviews with a rushed “LGTM”. In this talk, you’ll learn a practical, repeatable approach to high-quality PR reviews that balances speed with risk management - covering how to triage changes quickly, review in layers, and write comments that lead to better outcomes without friction. We’ll also show how QA and developers bring complementary lenses to the same review, turning acceptance criteria, scenarios, and observability into shared responsibility instead of production surprises. You’ll leave with a lightweight framework and concrete habits for authors and reviewers that make reviews faster, kinder, and more effective.

Connect with Todd

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjnussbaum/

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Todd’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Michelle Smith at Stir Trek 2026

Builder of Great Teams

About Michelle Smith

Dr. Michelle Smith’s unusual background gives her a fresh perspective on the tech industry and what it takes to build and keep great teams. She is a veterinarian by education, and she still practices in the State of Ohio. She’s also been an executive at a global software company and an active leader in her local community. But her real passions are entrepreneurship and building successful organizations. Along with her husband and business partner, Steve Smith, Michelle has built and sold several technology companies. Michelle and her current team (which include several alumni from previous companies!) work with organizations to help them not only improve the quality of their code, but their overall teamwork.

Session: The Low Risk Entrepreneur

1 May 2026 03:00 PM | Back to the Future - Theatre 3 (1,2)
Track: Professional Growth & Leadership

We all love what we do and we know that if we were in charge, we could do it better! But how do you make the leap from employee to the coveted position of “Your Own Boss”? Are you ready to quit your job? Do you HAVE to quit your job? In this session, we’ll look at the options for those who are considering making the big leap - and ways to make it less scary. Attendees will learn about ways to be an entrepreneur while minimizing the risk, and even ways that they can “entrepreneur in place” at their current gig. If you are itching to make a change, but not sure how to move forward, this session is for you.

Connect with Michelle

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellesmith6/
• Twitter/X: @mickeyme
• Website: https://nimblepros.com

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Michelle’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Eldert Grootenboer at Stir Trek 2026

Principal Product Manager @Microsoft | #Azure Service Bus | Former #Azure MVP | Community Enthousiast

About Eldert Grootenboer

Eldert is always enthusiastic about embarking on new journeys with the Cloud, and Azure in particular. He is very passionate about growing his dreams and teams, and goes above and beyond to help those with the same spark. Eldert comes from a background as a cloud solution architect and Technology Lead, was an Azure MVP for 5 consecutive years, and is now working as a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft for Azure Service Bus.

Always having a smile on his face, Eldert can be found delivering noteworthy sessions at in-person conferences, meetups, and online platforms. He values sharing and spreading knowledge while building genuine connections regardless of background and expertise. His goal is to bring people closer and work together to influence the outcome and optimize the future of Cloud technologies.

Session: Engineering for Reliability and Stability in the Azure Messaging Services

1 May 2026 03:00 PM | The Goonies - Theatre 16 (21)
Track: Architecture & Platform Engineering

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at some point, so it is best to come prepared. Whether you are in the cloud or running your own data center, there is always a risk of power outages, hardware failures, natural disasters, or other unexpected events. These can be especially impactful for critical components in your architecture, such as your message broker. In this session, we explore capabilities that enhance the reliability and stability of Azure Messaging services, specifically Service Bus and Event Hubs.

We first look at high-availability options provided by Azure, including transient error handling and Availability Zones, which offer a solid foundation for building reliable workloads. Furthermore, we also examine advanced features that provide additional resilience in unexpected situations, such as Geo-Replication.

Our recommendations are not limited to the platform itself. We also cover improvements you can implement when building and hosting applications, including retry and exception handling, and the various hosting models available for clients.

By attending this session, you will learn practical tips and guidelines directly from the Azure Messaging product group, helping you prepare for unplanned events and maintain confidence in the reliability of your systems.

Connect with Eldert

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eldert-grootenboer
• Twitter/X: @egrootenboer

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Eldert’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Sarah Dutkiewicz at Stir Trek 2026

Wife, mom, techie - 100% me, unapologetically

About Sarah Dutkiewicz

Sadukie is a tech polyglot who brings code to life and helps others unlock their potential through teaching and mentorship. As a seasoned software architect with a sharp eye for user experience, she makes it easy for developers to pick up new tools and hit the ground running. When technical roadblocks pop up, she’s the one who clears the path—breaking down complex ideas and helping teams communicate more effectively. A natural connector and strong community advocate, Sadukie loves bringing people together across the tech world. Whether she’s mentoring, speaking, or juggling life as a full-time mom, her mission stays the same: to make tech more approachable and spark confidence in every coder’s journey.

Session: Decision Records: Understanding Why Those Decisions Were Made!

1 May 2026 03:00 PM | Ghostbusters - Theatre 17 (20)
Track: Architecture & Platform Engineering

Ever stared at a complex system and thought, “Wait, why was that decision made?!” We’ve all been there – lost in a maze of logic, struggling to track down the root cause of a problem. Decision Records offer a brilliant way to finally unlock that understanding. They’re like having a detailed, searchable log of every decision in your applications – from architectural style to authentication to service discovery and containerization. By capturing these decisions, you build more maintainable, auditable, and, frankly, less frustrating systems. In this session, you will learn how decision records solve problems and will be given ideas of templates that you can implement in your projects today! Let’s ditch the guesswork and start documenting the why – because truly understanding your systems is the key to unlocking its full potential!

Connect with Sarah

• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sadukie
• Blog: https://sadukie.com

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Sarah’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Amanda Lange at Stir Trek 2026

Senior Agile Delivery Lead, NetJets

About Amanda Lange

Scrum master/ Product Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Skilled in negotiation, enablement, communication, evangelism, autonomy, leadership, management, networking and KINDNESS!

Session: AI in Agile: How to Leverage AI for Smarter Sprints & Roadmaps

1 May 2026 03:00 PM | The Last Starfighter - Theatre 14 (12,13)
Track: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

AI isn’t just disrupting industries; it’s redefining how Agile team’s work. From backlog grooming to sprint planning, modern tools like ChatGPT, Jira Assist, and GitHub Copilot are helping Agile leaders and teams move faster, think smarter, and focus more on value delivery than manual overhead.

In this forward-looking session, we’ll explore how AI is transforming the Agile lifecycle. You’ll see real-world examples and a live demo showing how AI can assist with generating user stories, refining acceptance criteria, summarizing retrospectives, and even forecasting roadmap scenarios.

Connect with Amanda

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-lange-scrummaster/

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Amanda’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Jamie Dicken at Stir Trek 2026

Builder and Protector

About Jamie Dicken

Jamie Dicken has worked across much of cybersecurity domain, including product security, AppSec, DevSecOps, security tooling and automation, and GRC. Prior to her transition into cybersecurity, she spent 8 years as a software engineer and technical manager at two Fortune 15 healthcare companies, where she focused on designing, building, and delivering new features to the market. Now Jamie focuses on protecting systems like the ones she used to build and transforming the ways that engineering teams and security professionals work together. Jamie is currently the Director of Security Platforms and Architecture at GitLab, leading Security Architecture, Security Research, and AppSec. She also freelances as a threat modeling instructor at Shostack + Associates.

Her professional passions include leading high-performing teams, executing on high-profile strategic initiatives, championing employee growth and development, and mentoring others. Outside of work, Jamie has lots of adventures with her two boys and husband. She enjoys crafting and spending time outdoors.

Session: A developer’s guide to making security reviews suck less

1 May 2026 02:00 PM | Inception - Theatre 28 (18,19)
Track: Security & Privacy Engineering

In many companies, security reviews suck. You’ve spent weeks or months grinding on a new feature and you’re finally ready to push to production, only to have a security review at the eleventh hour spark chaos. A security engineer raises a concern that might be valid or might be a total misunderstanding, but either way, it leads to urgent meetings, escalations, and complicated Go/No-Go decisions.

In this talk, we will dive into how to navigate these reviews without the drama. As an AppSec Director, I will help you understand exactly what security teams are looking for and why. I’ll show you anticipate their concerns and requirements so you aren’t surprised by scope creep right before code complete. We will explore how to effectively engage your security team, what specific information they need from you, and how to speak their language so you can accurately address concerns and get to the heart of their requirements.

By the end of this session, you will have a straightforward strategy to streamline your next security review and build a more collaborative relationship with your security partners. You will walk away with the tools to reduce the friction that leads to pre-launch panic, helping your team ship with significantly fewer headaches.

Connect with Jamie

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdicken/
• Blog: https://medium.com/@jamie_dicken

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Jamie’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

David Giard at Stir Trek 2026

Microsoft Partner Solution Architect

About David Giard

David Giard is a former accountant and a former biochemist, who has been developing solutions using Microsoft technologies for over three decades. Currently, David helps companies solve hard technical problems in his role as a Microsoft Partner Solution Architect. David has been very active in the developer community, speaking at numerous major conferences, code camps, and user groups around the world; helping to lead user groups; and helping to organize conferences and other geek events. He is the host and producer of the mildly popular online TV shows “Technology and Friends” and “GCast”. He is the co-author of the Wrox book Real World .NET, C#, and Silverlight. You can read his latest thoughts at davidgiard.com. His hobbies include video, photography, sports, and embarrassing his sons.

Session: Automating User Interface Tests with Playwright

1 May 2026 02:00 PM | Interstellar - Theatre 4 (5,6,7,8,9)
Track: Software Quality & Delivery

Testing a user interface is an important part of the development life cycle. However this testing is often done manually, which is expensive, time-consuming, and often inconsistent. Automating this process can make UI testing far more effective and efficient.

Azure Playwright is an open source node.js project that provides a way to automate user interface testing.

By the end of this session, you’ll know how to:

• Automate repetitive coding tasks with Playwright
• Record user actions and use the rich object model to automate your tests
• Integrate Copilot into your CI/CD pipeline
• Reduce test development time.

Connect with David

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgiard/
• Twitter/X: @davidgiard
• Website: https://microsoft.com
• Blog: http://davidgiard.com/

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss David’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Burton Smith at Stir Trek 2026

Technical Lead at Microsoft

About Burton Smith

I am a technical lead at Microsoft working with design systems and web components.

I am also the creator of various open-source projects like Kickstand UI (a design system built with web components - kickstand-ui.com) and Clarion (a style framework for managing design systems - projectclarion.com).

In my free time, I love spending time with my wife and three daughters, practicing martial arts, jamming on my ukulele, and learning new things (usually about software engineering).

Session: The 5 Fundamentals of UX Everyone Should Know

1 May 2026 11:30 AM | Galaxy Quest - Theatre 27 (23,24,25,26)
Track: Product Design & User Experience

If you are building something (website, API, developer tools, presentation, email, etc.), you are creating a UX (user experience). How do you make that a good user experience?

In this session, we will discuss 5 fundamental questions you can use as a framework to put you on the path to creating products your users will love.

Connect with Burton

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burton-smith-48132a34/
• Twitter/X: @stuffbreaker
• Website: https://www.microsoft.com/
• Blog: https://dev.to/stuffbreaker

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Burton’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition

Matt “Kelly” Williams at Stir Trek 2026

Sustainable IT Innovator Championing Agile Sustainability & Green Tech | | CEO of Sustainable IT Manifesto Foundation | International Speaker | Advisory Board Member

About Matt “Kelly” Williams

Matt “Kelly” Williams is the founder of Making Software Greener, the CEO of the Sustainable IT Manifesto Foundation, advisory board member for the Green Computing Foundation, and a speaker and mentor on IT practices including DevOps, Cloud Computing, and mental health advocacy. He has always wanted to be a Renaissance person; perhaps one day he will be. In the meantime, he explores IT Sustainability, is learning photography, designs tabletop games, reads, weaves, cooks, hacks, and explores the mountains near Loveland, Colorado.

Session: From Power to Supply Chains: Sustainability is Security

1 May 2026 11:30 AM | Inception - Theatre 28 (18,19)
Track: Security & Privacy Engineering

Technology is moving fast, and so are the environmental challenges we face. Security sits right in the middle of these pressures. It’s no longer just about defending systems—our choices around power, hardware, and supply chains also shape how secure those systems really are.

In this talk, I’ll explore why sustainability belongs in the security conversation. We’ll look at practical steps—like energy-efficient tools, leaner software, greener data centers, and responsible hardware lifecycles—that cut waste and costs while strengthening defenses. Just as importantly, we’ll examine how unstable supply chains, poor sourcing, or unreliable power can become security risks in themselves.

We’ll also connect this to risk and compliance: how building sustainability into security reduces exposure, steadies supply chains, and keeps organizations ahead of changing expectations. With real-world examples, you’ll walk away with a clear sense of how sustainability and security reinforce each other, and how to apply that thinking in your own work.

Connect with Matt

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattkwilliams/
• Twitter/X: @matt_k_williams
• Website: https://makingsoftwaregreener.com
• Blog: http://matthewkwilliams.com

Join Us at Stir Trek 2026

Stir Trek 2026 takes place on May 1st, 2026 in Columbus, OH. Don’t miss Matt’s session — grab your ticket before they’re gone!

🎟️ Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-2026-edition