Amsterdam Java User Group

Anton Arhipov, Java Champion and much more (see bio below) is available at short notice for this free 2 1/2 hour workshop in a friendly informal environment (with free lunch and drinks sponsored by Temporal, which lets you write code as if failure doesn’t exist). Join in and learn to lead an AI agent from high-level requirements through a detailed plan, a task list, and all the way to working software, step by step, with you in control at every stage.

The session is built around a single evolving application:

1. We'll start with a batch application that imports CSV data into a database - simple enough to understand end-to-end, complex enough to feel real.
2. Next, we will add more functionality by turning the batch application into a Spring Boot web service.
3. To have more fun, we'll build a web UI to visualize the data.

While the agent does most of the work for writing code, we will review and discuss the results.

What you'll take away:

• A practical SDD workflow you can apply on your next project — with or without the exact tools shown.
• Hands-on experience directing an AI agent in IntelliJ IDEA through structured artifacts.
• The confidence to add AI to your process without losing ownership of your codebase.

Limited seats available (super exclusive to 40, maximum).

About Anton Arhipov. Anton is a Developer Advocate at JetBrains, where he focuses on IntelliJ IDEA and the intersection of AI agents and developer tooling. A Java Champion since 2014 with a background in server-side development, he has spent over a decade building tools and content for developers. These days, you'll find him speaking at conferences, exploring agentic workflows, and looking for ways to make the development experience smarter and more enjoyable.

Join in with the latest Amsterdam JUG Meetup at Backbase, Oosterdoksstraat 114, 1011 DK Amsterdam.

In this unique Amsterdam JUG meetup, hosted at Backbase, and run by the Amsterdam JUG together with Steve Poole, Java Champion and Developer Relations Lead at HeroDevs, we'll be discussing the theme of the moment with a panel of technology leaders: "Did AI Just Break Software Security Forever?"

Agenda

17:30 - Doors Open (And Food!)

18:00 - 19:00 Panel Discussion: "What's Happening With AI & Where's It Going?"

• Arthur Viegers (Cursor)
• Claudia Babescu (Uber)
• Paulo Cardoso (Backbase)
• Daniel Gebler (Picnic)
• Jeroen van Disseldorp (Axual)

19:00 - 19:30 Break

19:30 - 20:30 Panel Discussion: "What Can We All Do To Keep Safe & Benefit?"

• Ana-Maria Mihalceanu (Oracle)
• Arno Koehler (Albert Heijn)
• Chris Howard (Uber)
• Sarah Gruneison (Xebia)
• Soroosh Khodami (Rabobank)

20:30 - 21:00 Drinks & Networking

Details

If you’ve kept your eye on AI in the news this year, and who hasn’t, you’ll have heard all about Mythos, the short lived ban on Anthropic’s Fable frontier model and maybe even the recent US Whitehouse Gold Eagle initiative.

If you missed any of this, and even if you didn’t you may have missed the frighteningly real emerging situation: we’ve crossed a threshold into a new world where software vulnerability detection and exploitation are beginning to outstrip human abilities to respond.

In this panel discussion, we’ll explore what’s been happening, where it might all be going, and most importantly what does it mean for Java developers.

We’ll look at tools you can use, the rise of open-source clearing houses, the consequences of legislation, organizations to follow and ways to get ahead of what might just be the world of tomorrow.

Bios (More Coming)

• Ana-Maria Mihalceanu is a Java Champion Alumni, Senior Developer Advocate for the Java Platform Group at Oracle, with an extensive background in Java and cloud development, while contributing to Java community growth and events. Her exposure to varied technical challenges involving Java-based frameworks has given her with deep insights into the evolution of the JDK tools, practical use, and advanced features.
• Arno Koehler is an Engineering Manager at Albert Heijn, leading engineering teams in Digital Shop. With a background in JVM and cloud engineering, he focuses on engineering leadership, developer experience and practical AI adoption. He is part of AI4Devs Amsterdam and explores how agentic development changes the way teams build, review and operate software, including the implications for trust, security, developer autonomy and software supply chains.
• Chris Howard is Head of Open Source at Uber, steering the company’s strategy, governance, and external ecosystem engagement. In this role, he focuses on optimizing the developer experience through designing modern engineering workflows, implementing compliance and governance processes, and leveraging AI to streamline how teams safely consume and contribute to open source software. A dedicated advocate for sustainable technology, Chris also sits on the OpenUK leadership and works closely with global open source communities to advance open governance, innovation and developer collaboration.
• Daniel Gebler is CTO of Picnic, the world’s fastest growing online supermarket that makes grocery shopping simple, fun, and affordable for everyone. Previously, he was Director R&D of Fredhopper, responsible for the product and technology roadmap, and led engineering teams located in Amsterdam and Sofia. Daniel holds a PhD in Computer Science and an MBA. He published papers, edited journals, and chaired international workshops on software correctness.
• Jeroen van Disseldorp is a technology entrepreneur, CTO, and founder of Axual with a passion for real-time data and event-driven architectures. With years of experience designing scalable distributed systems, he focuses on making complex streaming technologies practical and accessible for teams. Jeroen is enthusiastic about energy and sustainability and is particularly interested in how innovation and data can contribute to a more sustainable future.
• Paulo Cardoso is Deputy Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Backbase, where he leads technology and engineering strategy with a focus on AI, modern software platforms, and engineering excellence. With deep expertise in software architecture and engineering leadership, he works at the intersection of technology, product, data, and AI, helping turn complex challenges into scalable platforms and high-performing engineering organizations.`
• Sarah Gruneison is a senior engineering leader with 20+ years of software engineering experience and 15+ years in engineering leadership. Experienced across large enterprises, mid-sized scale-ups, agencies, and small boutique organizations. Known for designing end-to-end technical solutions, leading deep organizational and delivery transformations, and scaling teams and leaders through clarity, ownership, and sustainable systems. Combines strong architectural judgment with people-centered leadership and a proven ability to translate leadership behavior into measurable improvements in engineering delivery, system health, and organizational effectiveness at scale.
• Soroosh Khodami is a software engineer and software architecture enthusiast, passionate about building simple but impactful solutions. With over 15 years of experience in diverse domains, including Telecom, Media & Entertainment, and E-Commerce. He has worked with small startups and large enterprises serving 80 million active subscribers. Currently working as a Solution Architect at Rabobank. Soroosh strongly believes in the power of collaborative learning and enjoys sharing his experiences and insights with other developers.
• Steve Poole is an accomplished technical leader and developer advocate at HeroDevs with over three decades of experience in software engineering, DevOps, developer advocacy, and security — especially cybercrime and software supply chains. Recognized international public speaker and author on software supply chain security, AI, and cybercrime legislation, with a deep background in engineering and DevOps leadership.

Join in with the latest Amsterdam JUG Meetup at BeFrank, De Entree 99-197, 1101 HE Amsterdam.

Agenda

17:00 - Doors Open (And Food!)
17:30 - 18:00 Talk 1: "When the Currents Take You: Why Teams Must Take Ownership of Technical Debt" by David Veen
18:00 - 18:30 Talk 2: "From CRUD to Durable: Adding Temporal Workflows to the Spring Pet Clinic" by Geertjan Wielenga
18:30 Short Break
18:45 - 19:15 Talk 3: "Stop Building AI Tools Backwards" by Jonas Jebing
19:30 - End

Talk 1: "When the Currents Take You: Why Teams Must Take Ownership of Technical Debt" by David Veen

Technical debt is one of the most widely used metaphors in software engineering — and one of the most poorly understood. Since Ward Cunningham coined the term in 1992, the concept has drifted far from its original meaning, becoming a catch-all for anything wrong with a codebase. This imprecision has consequences: when everything is tech debt, nothing is prioritized.

This talk draws on Lou Franco's excellent book Swimming in Tech Debt (2025) and the author's first-hand experience with a startup where accumulated technical debt ultimately contributed to the decision to shut down operations. Franco's framework of forces and dimensions offers a structured, data-driven starting point for analyzing, communicating, and addressing tech debt that moves beyond vague appeals for "refactoring time."

We examine what tech debt is, why it is chronically underprioritized in organizations, and what development teams can do about it. Giving teams the tools to take ownership is key: to make debt visible, tie it to business outcomes, and advocate for targeted investment. The alternative is not some abstract risk of stagnation. The speaker's startup experience illustrates what happens when tech debt goes unmanaged for too long: when the moment comes to adapt, the codebase won't let you.

Talk 2: "From CRUD to Durable: Adding Temporal Workflows to the Spring Pet Clinic" by Geertjan Wielenga

Spring Boot applications excel at handling synchronous CRUD operations, but what happens when you need to send appointment reminders days in advance, manage multi-year vaccination schedules, or orchestrate complex payment workflows that must survive server restarts?

In this talk, we'll transform the classic Spring Pet Clinic application by integrating Temporal.io -- the free and open source durable execution platform that makes long-running processes reliable by default.

You'll learn how to:

• Identify which operations benefit from Temporal (and which don't)
• Implement appointment reminders that survive server restarts
• Build multi-year vaccination schedules with Signals and Queries
• Apply the Saga pattern for reliable payment processing
• Test workflows with Spring Boot's testing framework
• Deploy workers separately from your web tier

We'll start with a 5-minute "Hello World" workflow, then progressively build real Pet Clinic features, showing complete code examples you can use in your own applications.

By the end, you'll understand when and how to add Temporal to Spring Boot apps, with practical patterns for background jobs, scheduled reminders, and complex orchestration.

Talk 3: "Stop Building AI Tools Backwards" by Jonas Jebing

Many current AI tools are designed in ways that inadvertently hinder human learning and skill development by removing critical reasoning loops. Instead of empowering practitioners, these tools often prioritize immediate outcomes over the process of understanding.

This talk explores how we can shift our approach to building AI tools that act as instructors rather than "junior co-workers." We will delve into the theory of Retrieval Practice and introduce the EDGE framework (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, and Enhance) to design AI interactions that reinforce human learning, facilitate social reasoning, and encourage team-based cumulative iteration. Join us to learn how to build AI-augmented workflows that accelerate human execution in-process rather than replacing it.

The talk is based on this blog post with the same title “Stop building AI tools backwards” by Hazel Weakly. In addition to what the blog post covers, we’re going to take a deeper look at when and how these patterns can be applied.