DevFest DC

Some events inform you. This one recharged me. 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗖 𝟮𝟲 at Fuse at Mason Square was one of those events where the energy hits you the second you walk in and just doesn't let up. Between the keynotes and the sessions, I got to meet genuinely amazing people hearing about what they're building (and occasionally why it broke at 2am) never gets old. The 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 for me? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱-𝗮-𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻. Watching five projects go from "just an idea" to a live demo in front of judges, all within one event, was equal parts chaotic and inspiring. Respect to every team that showed up and shipped. Huge thanks to the 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗿𝘀 and the entire team behind 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗗𝗖 pulling off something this smooth (and this fun) takes serious work, and it did not go unnoticed. 🙌 Check out what they're building next 👉 https://www.devfestdc.org/ Already looking forward to the next one. Swipe through for a few photos from the day 📸👇 #DevFestDC #DevFest #GDG #TechCommunity #BuildAThon

Exciting morning at Dev Fest DC '26! As expected agents reign supreme. The day kicked off with Nathen Harvey's take that AI is an amplifier and developers need to continue shipping and running reliable applications that users love. Then Amanda Kendal-Brown's roller derby purpose built Bench Witch - a real time race tracking app for her internationally ranked team (awesome!). Great patterns from her presentation that can be used for collaborative whiteboards, multi-user POS systems, shared dashboards, and any product where multiple clients need to edit shared state in real time. Rezaur Rahman and John L.'s fireside chat addressing what it takes to ship agentic AI that works, not in a demo but in production systems where the answers matter. Oh, and there were robots too! #devfest DevFest DC #aiconference #developers

A little throwback to DevFest DC! We caught up with students during the event to hear about their experience. Here’s what they had to say. What was your favorite DevFest DC moment? #DevFest #StudentVoices #baudc #daretodream #bayatlanticuniversity

DevFest DC 2026 Build Edition Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend DevFest DC 2026 at Fuse at Mason Square, and honestly, this was one of the most interesting hackathon/build experiences I’ve participated in so far. From the talks and technical sessions to the hands-on Build-a-thon, there was something happening everywhere AI, agents, robotics, cloud, programming, startups, and so much more. I participated in the Build-a-thon from 10:30 AM to 2:45 PM, where one of the requirements was to build 5 projects. And yes… I actually built all five. 😅💻 Building five projects in that time meant A LOT of debugging sessions, quick decisions, rebuilding, testing, and figuring out why something that worked five minutes ago suddenly decided it didn’t want to work anymore. 😂 But that was also what made it so much fun. It pushed me to think faster, experiment more, and keep building even when things broke. A huge thank you to the BAU team and volunteers for supporting the event and helping make the experience so smooth. I’m also grateful to the DevFest DC organizers and volunteers for putting together such an engaging event and, especially, for organizing such an interesting Build-a-thon. And a special thank you to “Erin” for coordinating between DevFest DC and Bay Atlantic University , especially with BAU being one of the sponsors this year. It was great seeing our university represented as part of such a strong developer community. 🙌 And thank you to my fellow developer and teammate for joining me in this hackathon Gülce Gül I also enjoyed the startup-focused side of the event, including the Startup Reverse Pitch, and I’m already looking forward to DC Startup & Tech Week! Overall, DevFest DC reminded me why I enjoy hackathons and builder events so much: Build. Break. Debug. Learn. Repeat. Thank you, DevFest DC, for an amazing experience! #DevFestDC #GDG #Buildathon #Hackathon #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #SoftwareDevelopment #BayAtlanticUniversity #BAU #DMVTech #DCStartupAndTechWeek #BuildInPublic #Developers

I had a fantastic time attending DevFest DC today and gained invaluable insights into Enterprise AI Agent Architecture! Rather than prompt tuning, the focus was on turning nondeterministic LLMs into reliable backend systems. I’m posting to share a few core engineering insights I took away from the session. 1. Agent Harness and Orchestration Overloading prompts degrades context. Keeping the harness lightweight and controlling flow through state machines gives better execution control and auditability. Using graph-based workflows over making dozens of agents keeps context from breaking mid-execution. 2. Memory and Tooling Multi-layer memory design + context compaction to prevent context rot and token waste. Resumable long running tools and callback hooks so agents can recover safely after process crashes. 3. Production Backend Setup Moving away from local memory: using event driven triggers, asynchronous task queues, and serverless runners paired with persistent data stores to make agents truly scalable and resilient. +) During the hands-on session, I asked how to reduce user perceived latency in agent interactions. The key takeaways were 1. Choose smaller models 2. Control the context window 3. Think less LLM, more deterministic code. Solid session on what actual production agent architecture looks like in practice. Time to apply these patterns to my own pipelines!!

Toby&Tye partnered with DevFest DC to refresh the brand. The interesting part was figuring out what to keep. DevFest DC already had a lot of visual equity behind it: Google's identity, the wider DevFest brand, and 14 years of community history. Starting over would have been easy. Starting from what already mattered was more interesting. We looked at the intersection of Google, DevFest, developer culture and Washington, DC, then asked how those ingredients could become something that felt more distinctly DC. The answer came through a more expressive visual language: bold color, energetic compositions and a flexible system that could move between the many stories an event like DevFest needs to tell. A speaker. A workshop. A partner. A community moment. Different messages, same world. The refresh gave DevFest DC a visual identity that could feel familiar to its community while still looking forward. That was the brief. Keep the DNA. Change the energy.

I had a fantastic time attending DevFest DC today and gained invaluable insights into Enterprise AI Agent Architecture! Rather than prompt tuning, the focus was on turning nondeterministic LLMs into reliable backend systems. I’m posting to share a few core engineering insights I took away from the session. 1. Agent Harness and Orchestration Overloading prompts degrades context. Keeping the harness lightweight and controlling flow through state machines gives better execution control and auditability. Using graph-based workflows over making dozens of agents keeps context from breaking mid-execution. 2. Memory and Tooling Multi-layer memory design + context compaction to prevent context rot and token waste. Resumable long running tools and callback hooks so agents can recover safely after process crashes. 3. Production Backend Setup Moving away from local memory: using event driven triggers, asynchronous task queues, and serverless runners paired with persistent data stores to make agents truly scalable and resilient. +) During the hands-on session, I asked how to reduce user perceived latency in agent interactions. The key takeaways were 1. Choose smaller models 2. Control the context window 3. Think less LLM, more deterministic code. Solid session on what actual production agent architecture looks like in practice. Time to apply these patterns to my own pipelines!!

Spent the day at Google DevFest DC, an event that brought together an impressively diverse range of technologists, from robotics to AI to human-centered design, all under one roof. A personal highlight: the very first Battle of the Regions pitch competition, VA regional round, where I got to collaborate with an incredibly energetic group of founders. Thanks to Naviya Kothari and Blaire Rowe Rakowicz, District Angels co-founders, for building something this ambitious from the ground up. The session lineup was a highlight of the day too: Nathen Harveyn Harvey on the DORA Community, Andrew Gamino-Cheong of Trustible, Olga Ostrovskiy, and Bryce Howitson each gave me a dynamic perspective on the evolution of AI, user trust models, human-in-the-loop, and robotic interaction design. Good company throughout; great conversations with Victor Rhoder, PMP, Marielle Petty, and Cassandra C. and Cassandra C. along the way. Looking forward to watching Battle of the Regions build toward the final at DC Tech Week Pitch Competition. #DevFestDC #GoogleDevFest #BattleOfTheRegions #DistrictAngels #AI #PitchCompetition #BOTR #HCD