This September we're celebrating our 100th meetup with a truly special event! We'll have 4 speakers that will analyze how web development has evolved over the years, while also looking forward at what lies ahead.
It's worth noting that all of our speakers have a deep connection with our community, making it a great honour to have them speak at this event.
Speakers
Alex Moldovan
Product Engineer @ together.ai
Benedek Gagyi
Staff Software Engineer at Shopify
Martin Hochel
Principal Engineer at Microsoft
Radu Marinescu
Head of Software Analytics @ Endava
Agenda
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15:00 – 15:30
Registration
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15:45 – 16:00
Welcome
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16:00 – 16:30
We Solved Everything. That’s Why It’s So Darn Complicated.
Benedek Gagyi
Developer, teacher, sports-fanatic. In his free time, he's researching the patterns and algorithms connecting basketball, tea, BJJ and drums. His devotion to impeccable and secure user experience is rivalled only by his constant search for the perfect brew of Chinese puerh.React is 12 years old—an eternity in a world where frontend frameworks change weekly. So, has frontend development finally settled down, or is "frontend fatigue" still alive and well?
This talk explores the current state of frontend development: what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and where we’re headed. We'll dive into JavaScript and CSS evolution, the shifting landscape of frameworks, growing role specialization, and what the future of web development might look like. -
16:45 – 17:15
Web Components: are we there yet?
Martin Hochel
As a Principal Engineer at Microsoft, Martin brings a wealth of experience in the web platform. He's recognized as an Nx Champion, Microsoft MVP, and Google Developer Expert, reflecting his deep expertise and commitment. Martin is a strong advocate for open source, actively contributing and building web applications and tools that prioritize scalability and an outstanding developer experience. His particular strength lies in mentoring and advising large engineering teams, guiding them through the complexities of building web applications at scale."2018 is gonna be the year of Web Components", they said. So, are we there yet? This talk picks up where our 2019 session left off, revisiting the journey of Web Components' evolution right up to today.
We'll cut through the hype to explore their current state, adoption, and practical applications in modern web development.
Furthermore, we'll delve into the increasingly relevant topic of integrating Web Components within React environments, showcasing patterns and considerations for building robust, interoperable solutions. -
17:15 – 18:00
Break
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18:00 – 18:30
Colocation is king
Alex Moldovan
Alex is Product Engineer at CodeSandbox (acquired by together.ai), where he mixes his passion user experience with the interest in creating better tooling for developers. While he now works for an AI company, he will occasionally go on a rant about the bad actors in the AI world and he is known for talking about ethics and the human side of technology. He is also the founder of JSHeroes, one of the biggest JS/Frontend conferences and communities in Romania.Codebases have to survive through waves of iterations, unpredictable changes and code degradation. This raises the question: What makes a codebase stand the test of time? You start with the best tools, the best architecture and the best intentions, but quality inevitably goes down. Frontend codebases are particularly fragile as they sit at the intersection of product, design and engineering.
Colocation, or the proximity principle, ensures that related code components are grouped together. For example, a piece of code describing the UI should be in close proximity with the code that handles the logic behind that UI. In this talk, I dive deep into colocation and showcase when and how it can improve the developer experience. I'll also explore the long term effect colocation has on the maintainability of codebases. -
18:45 – 19:15
Confessions of a Software Detective: why software understanding is the new super-power
Radu Marinescu
Radu Marinescu is a self-proclaimed software detective who’s analyzed more code than he’s written. By day he investigates legacy mysteries at Endava; by night he teaches software engineering at UPT... and both by day and by night he can't resist thinking about new ways to convince codebases to confess right away. His darkest secret: he's giving this talk despite never having written a line of JavaScript.Ever wanted to interrogate your code until it confesses its darkest secrets? The future of development will be less about writing the next cool line of code, and more about solving increasingly complex puzzles buried in piles of code be it crafted by humans or generated by agents.
In this session, I’ll try to convince you that static analysis, correlated with a system’s history and blended with the power of GenAI, can give you unprecedented insights into even the darkest legacy systems. Expect funky software visualizations, unexpected conversations with your code, and wisdom from the 400+ systems for which we’ve found out where the bodies were buried. Side effects may include questioning your repos like never before; and rethinking your perspective on software engineering. -
19:15 – 21:00
Networking
Tickets
There are two ticket categories: Standard (includes a t-shirt) and Premium (includes a t-shirt and hoodie)
All tickets include snacks and drinks.
*Tickets that include swag must be purchased before August 27, 2025. Tickets purchased after this date will not include the t-shirt or the hoodie, and will only provide access to the event.
