# Render ATL 2025

Source: https://www.dandenney.com/posts/conferences/render-atl-2025
Date: 2025-06-14
Tags: conferences
Summary: Another awesome experience

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<div class="longform">

I love Render ATL for many reasons! First off, they continually put together a lineup of speakers, topics, and sponsors that are in line with what's happening in the industry right now. Also, it's a vibe. The energy is unmatched and I have such a great time. This year was no different, but the topics sure were. I'm bullish on AI and so I was really curious how much would make its way into the lineup.

## AI Summit and Workshops

I grab the super early-bird tickets, which include workshops. Plus, this year there was also an AI Summit. I ended up flying in the morning, so I focused on the AI Summit sessions. There were lots to choose from, but these are the ones I caught in the afternoon.

<!-- <article class="mt-4">
  <h3></h3>
  <p class="speaker">, <span></span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p></p>
</article> -->

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Vibe coding and how to make it viable</h3>
  <p class="speaker">J. Chris Anderson, <span>Cofounder of Vibes DIY</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Sean Roberts, <span>Distinguished Engineer, Head of AI/AX Strategy at Netlify</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Shawn Meyer, <span>Auth0, Vice President of Engineering</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Great conversation on security concerns, efficiency debates, and opportunites for agent workflows. Best quote for when you're working with LLMS: "How much can you trust this thing?"</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Plugging AI into everything: MCP Simplified</h3>
  <p class="speaker">TODO, <span></span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Excellent walkthrough of Goose and MCP in general</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>AI Agents in Action</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Hamza Farooq, <span>CEO & Founder Traversaal.ai | Adjunct Professor Stanford & UCLA</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>"Security in data and AI: there's no such thing." and some great examples of ways that companies are using IBM products </p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>GenAI in Action: Transforming Business Through Practical Applications</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Swati Sharma, <span>Builder Solutions Architect for GenAI Solutions at AWS</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Interesting demos for large business usage</p>
</article>

## Conference Day One

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Build your own AI engineer like Copilot & Devin</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Anand Chowdary, GitHub Star, Forbes 30 Under 30, Y Combinator Founder</p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>I need to experiment with GitHub actions, the demos around executable prompts from a PR were fantastic</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Harnessing the Next-Gen Graphics API for High-Performance Redering on Web</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Preetish Kakkar, <span>Adobe, Senior Computer Graphics Engineer</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Technical breakdown of the core concepts: command buffers, pipelines, and resource bindings</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>The Future of Work: Thriving in a Remote-First World</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Dan Spaulding, <span>Chief People Officer at Zilow</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Dr. Shante Lyons, <span>Director, Engagement & Belonging, Zillow</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Marissa Brooks, <span>VP of Corporate Affairs</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Roz Harris, <span>VP of Talent Acquisition and Engagement & Belonging</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Great discussion on ways to stay engaged and balance a remote-first, but not remote-only working culture</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>This Session Might Just Save Your Career: Rewriting Work in the Age of AI</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Brandon Butler, <span>Founder of Butter.ATL and founder of iHeart's Butternomics Podcast</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Question everything, specifically using a QUEST framework</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Vibe Coding with MCP</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Ebony Louis, <span>Developer Advocate</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Another example of rad Goose is</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Back to the future: of web development</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Una Kravets, <span>Staff Developer Relaions Engineer, Web UI</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>You might not need JS, the 2025 version</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>The missing piece in full-stack AI app development</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Wayne Sutton, <span>Head of Community / Startup Programs at Convex</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Convex is pretty rad and they were up when Supabase and others were down while this talk was happening</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Letting AI Interface with Your App with MCPs</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Kent C. Dodds, <span>Software Developer and Educator</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>MCP servers are so powerful and I should take his workshop on building one</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>This search result is perfect... but for whom? Questioning Alignment in AI Systems</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Paul-Louis Nech, <span>Machine Learning @Algolia</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Tons of great pieces, but the summary is learn and apply the principle of caring for both the goat and the cabbage</p>
</article>

<p>The rooftop party had a well-needed break with some great music. Didn't stay late, but loved the jams and watching people dance</p>

![Photo of a talk](/posts/conferences/render-atl-2025/stage-pic.webp)

## Conference Day Two

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>OPFS: Redfining Web Storage for High-Performance Apps</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Piyush Gupta, <span>Senior Engineering Manger - Expedia</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Performant file storage I hadn't heard of, excellent for large files and likely what allows Photoshop in the browser</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>What no one tells you about Server-Side Rendering Micro-Frontends</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Luca Mezzalira, <span>Principal Serverless Specialist Solutions Architect at AWS</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Best quote was "data has gravity", which is valid reasoning for isolating UI that is tied to it</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Culture, Community & Capital: Atlanta's emergence as a Top 5 Tech Hub</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Avoilan Bingham, <span>President of Atlanta Tech Week, Gneral Manager & Investor at Drive Capital</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Great explanation of the goals of the Atlanta tech community and how Render and Tech Week help</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>The New Blueprint: Skills Every Engineer Needs for the AI Era</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Mercel Weekes, <span>VP, Engineering at Figma</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>AI automations allow us to focus on what we're building, not how we're building it</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>To embrace AI you need more hackathons</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Jean-Luc Vanhulst</p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Specifics about plannign one, but moreso that an ideal cadence is quarterly</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Fireside Chat: AI is everywhere... now what?</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Angie Jones, <span>Global VP of Developer Relations</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Dana Lawson, <span>Chief Technology Officer at Netlify</span></p>
  <p class="speaker">Tobin South, <span>Head of AI Agents at WorkOS, Standard Research Fellow</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Be the human in the loop and focus on the last mile of delivery</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>The Future of UI/UX: AI-Generated Interfaces Tailored Just-in-Time</h3>
  <p class="speaker">David vonThenen, <span>AI/ML Engineer</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Combine micro and macro context for the ideal UX</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Seeing is believing: How data visualization shapes our reality</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Marisa Morby, <span>Principal Researcher, Design & Strategy, Observable</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Data is not neutral</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>Business Development Lessons for Building Bold Careers and Companies</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Nicole Guido-Estrada, <span>Intuit Credit Karma, Head of Credit Card Partnerships</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Pinpoint the real challenges and solve high value problems</p>
</article>

<article class="mt-4">
  <h3>AI-Driven Product Management: Setting Vision, Crafting PRDs, and Prototyping Faster</h3>
  <p class="speaker">Imad Abusam, <span>Product Management Leader - Uber Gifting & Financial Products</span></p>
  <h4>My Takeaways</h4>
  <p>Evals are the new product requirement documents</p>
</article>

The end of the conf was an announcement for 2026, with the main conference moving to August and some additional events throught the year in Atlanta and beyond.

Also, holy shit that's a lot of talks in 2.5 days!

## Renderfest

Render typically ends with a concert and this year was soca and dancehall. As you can see here, a lot of fun was had!

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