DEV Community: Vincent Mayers

Rod Johnson, creator of the Spring Framework, to Keynote the Devnexus 2026 Conference

Vincent Mayers — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 22:18:52 +0000

March 4-6, Atlanta, USA. Java’s influence on enterprise software is undeniable, and at the Devnexus 2026 Conference, one of the most anticipated moments will be when Rod Johnson, creator of the Spring Framework and visionary in enterprise Java, takes the stage to deliver a keynote that challenges, inspires, and equips developers for the future of AI in the enterprise.

Enterprise AI Needs Java Minds

In his keynote titled “It’s Up to Java Developers to Fix Enterprise AI,” Rod will tackle a critical industry challenge: enterprise generative AI initiatives often fail to deliver real value when treated as exotic bolt-ons rather than core parts of business systems.

Rod argues that Java developers are uniquely positioned to lead the next wave of enterprise AI success because the JVM already powers millions of mission-critical applications, and modern Java practices advance stability, scalability, and rigor.

From Patterns to Production

Rather than relying on ad-hoc hacks or prototypes, Rod’s keynote will highlight practical patterns for building agentic AI applications that work in real enterprise settings, including:
Structured agent interactions moving beyond unstructured text to type-safe, testable code.
Domain-anchored agents turning your domain model into an AI asset, not an afterthought.
Supercharged tool methods minimize context while keeping sensitive data secure.
Agentic RAG combines retrieval with business logic so AI reasoning ties back to enterprise reality.

Rod will show how frameworks like Embabel, Spring’s patterns, and the broader JVM ecosystem can leapfrog today’s Python-centric prototypes into production-ready, enterprise-grade solutions.

Why This Matters Now

AI is no longer a speculative future; it’s here, reshaping software development at every scale. But too many efforts stumble because they treat AI as something separate from the tried-and-true engineering practices that make enterprise systems reliable.

Rod’s message is clear: the future of enterprise AI belongs to developers who deeply understand their systems, and Java developers are uniquely equipped to lead that charge.

About Rod Johnson

Rod is a legend in the Java community. As the creator of the Spring Framework and co-founder/CEO of SpringSource, he helped make enterprise Java accessible, productive, and widely adopted. He’s an author, investor, and engineer who continues to explore the intersections of AI, software design, and real-world systems.

See the full details of all the training, workshops, and talks at DEVNEXUS HERE
Use code ROD_DEV for a 25% Discount

Devnexus 2026 Showcases the Powerful Intersection of AI, Java, and Modern Developer Tooling in Atlanta

Vincent Mayers — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 20:12:17 +0000

Devnexus, the largest Java ecosystem conference in the United States, returns to the Georgia World Congress Center on March 4–6, 2026, bringing together thousands of developers, architects, and technology leaders for three days of deep technical learning focused on AI, Java, and cutting-edge developer tools.

With over 100+ sessions, 10 content tracks, and a full day of hands-on workshops, Devnexus continues its mission to equip developers with the latest knowledge shaping modern software engineering.

A Conference at the Crossroads of AI and Java

As the software world rapidly transforms, Devnexus 2026 highlights how enterprise Java, generative AI, and modern developer practices are converging to build the next generation of intelligent, scalable systems.

This year’s program spans four key content pillars:

🔹 AI Track: Generative AI, Agents & Infrastructure
(https://devnexus.com/events/ai)
Sessions dive into AI engineering, LLM integration, AI agents, prompt engineering, and scalable AI architectures. Developers will gain hands-on insight into building and deploying AI-augmented features using Java, cloud platforms, and modern frameworks.

🔹 Java Track: The Future of the JVM & Modern Java Development
(https://devnexus.com/events/java)
The Java track covers the latest features of the language and JVM, performance tuning, Spring Boot 3.x, Jakarta EE, reactive applications, cloud-native Java, and the roadmaps for Java 26 and beyond.

🔹 Developer Practices Track: Architecture, Security & Observability
(https://devnexus.com/events/dev-practices)
Top experts share real-world guidance on microservices, event-driven design, distributed systems, DevOps, SRE fundamentals, testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines, security practices, and developer experience engineering.

🔹 Hands-On Workshops: Full-Day Deep Dives With Industry Experts
(https://devnexus.com/events/workshops)
Workshops on Day 1 include AI/Java agent development, Spring AI fundamentals, event streaming with Apache Kafka, software engineering essentials in the age of AI, and architectural patterns for cloud-native systems.

Top Speakers From the World’s Leading Tech Companies

Devnexus 2026 features technologists from some of the most influential companies in the industry, including:

Salesforce — AI architecture and enterprise cloud patterns
AWS — developer tooling, generative AI modernization & cloud best practices
Microsoft Azure — Java on cloud, AI agent systems and enterprise AI deployment
Oracle — Java Platform leadership, language evolution, JVM insights
Azul Systems — JVM performance, cloud cost optimization and runtime engineering
Neo4j — graph databases, GraphRAG, and AI-powered data modeling
Datadog — observability, monitoring, and production intelligence
VMware / Spring — Spring Boot, Spring AI, microservices & enterprise Java patterns

Speakers include Java Champions, industry CTOs, principal engineers, cloud architects, open-source maintainers, and leading experts shaping the future of developer experience and AI.

Why Devnexus Matters in 2026

As AI reshapes every aspect of software development, Devnexus offers a uniquely valuable blend of practical engineering, emerging technology, and community connection. Attendees will:

Learn how AI is transforming Java development and enterprise architecture.
Master new capabilities in the Java platform, Spring ecosystem, and JVM.
Explore agentic AI, LLM integration, and cloud-native AI deployment.
Gain real-world strategies for building scalable, secure, maintainable systems.
Connect with 1,500+ peers, engineers, architects, and thought leaders.
Participate in hands-on workshops led by globally recognized experts

Event Details

● Dates: March 4–6, 2026
● Location: Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA
● Website: https://devnexus.com
● Content Tracks: Java, AI, Dev Practices, JVM Performance, Cloud, Architecture, Security, Data & Graph, and more
● Workshops + Registration: https://devnexus.com/events/workshops

About Devnexus

Devnexus is a developer-first conference created by the Atlanta Java Users Group (AJUG). Since 2004, it has grown into one of the world’s premier gatherings for developers, engineering leaders, and technologists seeking deep, practical, hands-on learning in a collaborative community.

Open Source Relax, Recharge, Refresh (OSSRRR) v3.0 the virtual edition

Vincent Mayers — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 06:35:33 +0000

"It’s really easy planning a virtual happy hour, with a new platform, that will be fun, engaging for everyone, and that no one will whine about…" said no one ever!

Most of 2021 will be like most of 2020 for conferences and events, they will be virtual. The Atlanta Java Users Group (AJUG) will run its annual developer conference Devnexus as a virtual event in February. On Feb 16 we will start with what is becoming our annual Java Users Group Leaders Summit (60 JUGs from around the world will be represented), the main six track conference of Feb 17 and a workshop day on Feb 18 with workshops by IBM, JFrog, Oracle, Sonatype, Microsoft and Okta

But what about the Open Source Relax Recharge Refresh (OSSRRR) Party Jam that has become our annual community hang out at the conference? To be honest, virtual happy hours connected to conferences have been hit and miss in 2020, as we all try to figure out the right combination of platform, add-ons etc. But one of the reasons that we run this is to thank and celebrate a number of open-source orgs for what they do for the community by giving them a free sponsorship of Devnexus and of the OSSRRR. Running an open-source project takes an immense amount of passion and effort. It is a lot of hard and mostly thankless work. This is a way that we can give back to them by helping them to amplify their messaging and reach our audience via our platforms. This year we are excited to give the Asciidoctor Project, Jakarta EE, Jelastic, Jetty, Maven and MicroProfile this support. These orgs join Azul Systems, JFrog, Sonatype and Tomitribe as OSSRRR sponsors.

This year as the conference is virtual there is no free swag to be had. Well…. One of the things we are doing to help with the virtual experience is to send a swag box to the first 500 registrants. This swag box includes T-Shirts and stickers and other goodies provided by our sponsors. It will also include our exclusive OSSRRR limited edition T-Shirt, the one that you can normally only get by blogging or vlogging about Devnexus. This T-Shirt can still be had by blogging or vlogging about the event though, details here.

So, what are we doing? We are going to use a platform called spatial.chat which provides a unique experience. I won’t describe it here as others have done so more eloquently (links below) than I can. Plus, I am tired!!! We will have a number of rooms that people can gather in plus our resident DJ, DJ Provost will be live streaming into the event.

How is this going to go? TBH I don’t know. We have tested spatial.chat a number of times and we have a great feeling about it. As in most things though it’s going to be what you, our fabulous Devnexus community, makes of it. Bring a smile, bring a sense of adventure, bring a beverage of your choice and it will be super fun!

Devnexus (Feb 17-18, 2021) is free to attend, Register here

spatial.chat

Article - What is spatial.chat

Vueconf.US March 2-4, 2020 in Austin TX Full Program Announced

Vincent Mayers — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 20:53:08 +0000

We are excited that the full program of workshops, speakers and sessions for Vueconf.US, the official US #vue #conference, March 2 - 4, 2020 at the Austin Convention Center, Austin Texas, is available for you to view on the website.

We have an incredible line up for you that will be kicked of by Vue.js creator Evan You's keynote, an update of all things Vue 3.0 and beyond.

Nine full-day Workshops will be followed by two days of awesome sessions and community Lightning Talks on all things in the Vueniverse.

We will have community events, socials, a VueVixens Skulk, and lightning talks to give you a chance to be truly immersed in this awesome inclusive community.

Check it out at https://vueconf.us
See a video from the 2019 conference https://cevents.io/Vue2019

What makes a great conference experience?

Vincent Mayers — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 15:12:18 +0000

Over the years I have been to a lot of conferences. I, like others in the “biz” have seen these from a number of different perspectives; as an attendee, as a sponsor, as an organizer, and as a presenter. So, what makes a great conference? What makes one want to return to a conference in subsequent years? Thinking through my personal experience, again as an attendee, sponsor, organizer and presenter, the one common denominator is the people I meet.

As an attendee, the overarching reason for attending a conference is the content right? Really? The content is available, for the most part, online. You can see videos on a number of different platforms by the speakers that might attract you to a conference, covering the topics that you are interested in. But if that is the only thing that you take away then I feel you are missing out on the most valuable part of the whole experience, the people. The “hallway track” is to me often the most valuable part of a conference. If you just go for the content, you will miss out on this. The hallway track is the conversations that are struck up with other attendees during a break, over lunch, at the conference reception. And, if you see someone else wearing an event related t-shirt; at the hotel, bar, in the lobby checking out or at the airport waiting for a flight. It’s the conversation you strike up with the person that you are sitting next to at a session. The person that you instantly bonded with because you both made eye contact and nodded appreciatively at a salient point made by the presenter.

The random conversations struck up with other attendees, about the real-world application of the knowledge imparted by a presenter, for their use case that get you thinking on how to apply what you learned in different ways; cannot be gained by watching content online. The conversations with sponsors or Dev Rel-types about what their framework/platform/product/whatever does, that leads to your synapses firing in new ways about how to bring new tech to your stack, reduce tech debt or tweak what you already have, cannot be gained by watching content online. It can only be gained by conversations with people.

It goes beyond this. When you attend a conference, unless you have met that person before, you don’t know who is going to be an engaging speaker. I don’t mean during their talk, but after. After the Q&A time allotted, after the room has cleared out, after the day is over, even after the conference has ended. Just recently at a conference I was running, the day was over, the reception was in full swing and I was clearing out a room to prep for the next day. A presenter ( I will call him Chris) was chatting to attendees and going over their code well into the evening. At the same conference another presenter (I’ll call him Gregg) organized a communication workshop for developers after hours (this was not a BoF, we did not have these as part of the schedule) because he understands the impact that communicating well at work has on your performance and career, these are life lessons as well, and he was driven to share his perspective with others. These are two recent examples I have seen of great people going above and beyond what was required of them at the conference. I have many more. Like when a Published Author and Globally renowned speaker spent so much time with attendees after his talk that he missed his flight out and had to stay another night. Meh, you might say? but this guy missed a day with his family before he had go on the road again in order to spend more time with attendees at the conference he was at. The point here is that you do not get this from watching content online.

The relationships you start or further when you go to a conference are invaluable in so many ways. My good friend Amelia has adopted a hashtag for this, #usualsuspects. There is a great book called “Three cups of tea” I won’t dwell on this or the challenges that the author has faced as you can follow the link or research to learn more but the premise is, in Balti Culture "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..." The same is true for #usualsuspects (tea is often replaced with beer though). Go to conferences and see the same people a few times whether as an attendee, speaker, sponsor or organizer and you have a network of likeminded people that will treat you like family and benefit you immensely both personally and professionally.

So, what’s the takeaway? What makes a great conference experience is the people. You may benefit from the content but you will absolutely be enriched by the relationships.