The Agentic Future: Building AI That Sees, Hears, and Acts

The era of the text-only chatbot is over. Join GDG Essex for an intensive, hands-on workshop where we shift from building basic applications to engineering highly agentic systems that interact with the world just like humans do.

We are bridging the gap between a "cool demo" and a "production-ready AI Agent." In this multi-session event, we will dive into the AI models, scalable architecture, cloud security, and database foundations you need to ship intelligent, multimodal agents powered by Google Cloud and Google AI.

Speakers and Session:
Keynote Session
The Growth Catalyst: Turning AI Fear into Real-World Impact
Speaker: Natalia Julio-Finnan (Strategy and Operations Lead, Google)

Description: In a fast-moving AI landscape, the biggest threat to success isn't technical—it's the rising tide of uncertainty and fear. Natalia brings her business-side expertise to show how to prevent project failure by transforming these crises into powerful catalysts for growth. This session provides a non-technical framework for building resilience and navigating the human side of tech, offering practical strategies to turn AI challenges into tangible, real-world impact.

Hands-on Workshops (Codelabs)
Build a Photo Restoration App using Genkit Go and Nano Banana Pro
Speaker: Daniela Petruzalek (Senior Developer Relations Engineer, Google Cloud)

Description: Build "GlowUp," a photo restoration tool that uses AI to restore old, damaged, or black-and-white photos into high-quality 4K color images. You will use Genkit Go to implement the application logic and Gemini 3 Pro Image (Nano Banana Pro) as the model to process the photos. You will learn Genkit concepts like flows, plugins, prompts, and how to handle multimodal model responses.

Design to Production with AI: A Deep-Dive into Google Stitch & Firebase Studio
Speaker: Ida Delphine (Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud)

Description: Turn your vision into a fully functional, deployed application with little to no code. This workshop demonstrates a revolutionary workflow: ideating and designing high-fidelity UIs with Google Stitch, refining them in Figma, and using Firebase Studio’s AI agents to build the logic, database, and authentication. By the end of this session, you will have built and launched a real-world application.

How to Add Short-Term Memory to Your AI Agent with ADK
Speaker: Buchi Michelle Okonicha (Google Developer Expert, Software & ML Engineer)

Description: Learn how to pass information between agents using short-term memory. This workshop breaks down the Google Agent Development Kit (ADK), explaining how sessions, events, and state work together to keep your agent context-aware. It includes a "Memory loss vs. memory fixed" codelab comparison to help you implement intelligent, stateful automation.

Advancing Generative AI integration with Vertex AI Node.js SDK
Speaker: Patricia O'Callaghan Olivo, Google Developer Expert, Head of AI Architecture and Engineering Group.

Description: This session explores the Vertex AI Node.js SDK, which allows developers to integrate Google's advanced generative AI models, such as Gemini, into their applications. It offers a comprehensive guide on leveraging these technologies for creating AI-powered features.

Technical Deep Dives
Beyond the Prototype: Autonomous Agents with Go and Google ADK
Speaker: Nicholas Breckwoldt, PhD (Lead AI & ML Engineer, Alis Exchange)

Description: Shift from local prototyping to orchestrating autonomous agents at scale. This session makes the case for the Go programming language as the ideal candidate for high-concurrency, low-latency agent deployments. Featuring a head-to-head comparison of Go and Python ADK agents, attendees will gain data-driven insights into how runtime decisions affect performance in the full agent lifecycle.

Build Healthcare Assistant with VertexAI, MedGemma, and Gemini
Speaker: Gabriel Preda (Principal Data Scientist, Endava & Kaggle Grandmaster)

Description: Discover the architecture behind a specialized healthcare assistant. Move from a simple medical image interpreter to a sophisticated agentic application powered by multiple multi-modal models including MedGemma and Gemini. This session covers the implementation of orchestration, validation, and guardrails using the Antigravity framework.

Enhancing SRE with Google Cloud's Gemini Cloud Assist and Code Assist
Speaker: Jai Ian Fuller Campbell (SRE Expert)

Description: Explore how Gemini is transforming Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). Learn how Gemini Cloud Assist empowers teams with proactive SLA creation and root cause analysis, and how Gemini Code Assist optimizes infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, YAML, Bash). This session features a live demo of AI-driven remediation and toil reduction in modern cloud workflows.

Building a Better AI: Practical Steps Towards Responsibility and Ethics
Speaker: Dr. Roushanak Rahmat (Google Developer Expert, Lead Data Science Consultant at IBM)

Description: Moving beyond theoretical discussions, this talk focuses on the practical frameworks necessary to build responsible AI. Explore actionable strategies for addressing bias, promoting fairness, and ensuring transparency. This session prioritizes ethical considerations in the creation and deployment of data-driven technologies to ensure AI remains human-centric.

What Attendees Can Expect

Step-by-Step Learning: Focused sessions breaking down models, architecture, security, and databases for agentic systems.

Hands-on Labs: Build working agent prototypes using Google AI APIs and cloud-native developer tools.

Expert Guidance: Learn directly from cloud architects and AI specialists.

A Complete Blueprint: Walk away knowing exactly how to launch a secure, autonomous AI-powered product.

Local Networking: Connect with Essex’s community of engineers, architects, and innovators.

Who Should Attend

Students, Developers & Software Engineers

Cloud Architects & AI/ML Engineers

Data scientist and Database engineer

Security & DevSecOps Professionals

Product teams building next-generation AI features

Ready to build the future? Secure your spot and RSVP today!

Hosting Sponsor

We thank our Hosting Sponsor, University of Essex, for providing the venue and support.

Agenda

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Speakers

Natalia Julio-Finnan - Google (Google, Strategy and Operations Lead)

Born and raised in Brazil, Natalia is a multilingual business strategist, currently driving key initiatives at Google, where she has been working for over 7 years. Her background includes roles at YouTube (Lead for Scaled Support and Business Development Manager), Napster, and Globo Group. A passionate advocate for belonging and inclusion, Natalia co-founded a LatinX employee resource group ch…

Daniela Petruzalek - Google (Senior Developer Relations Engineer @ Google Cloud)

Dr Roushanak Rahmat - IBM (Google Developer Expert, Lead Data Science Consultant - AI, Automation and Analytics)

Dr Roushanak Rahmat is a Google Developer Expert and seasoned AI Strategy Leader with a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, specializing in computer vision and image processing. With over a decade of hands-on experience in designing, delivering, and scaling AI and Generative AI (GenAI) solutions, she has partnered with leading organizations including IBM, the NHS, Elekta, Coca-Cola, Lloyds, an…

Jai Campbell - Jellyfish (Lead Cloud & Security Engineer / Google Cloud GDE)

My names Jai Campbell, I am a software engineer from the UK working with a wide range of organisations leveraging cloud technologies to enhance their engineering and customer experiences. I specialise on the Google Cloud Platform in the following areas; cloud adoption, application modernisation, digital transformations, cloud migrations, SRE, DevSecOps, FinOps, architecture, endorsing cloud, o…

Gabriel Preda - Endava (Principal Data Scientist / Kaggle GDE)

Gabriel is a Romanian engineer living in Bucharest. He has +25 years of experience in the tech industry and has a PhD in Computational Electromagnetics. He is a Principal Data Scientist at Endava, working for a range of industries, from banking and insurance to telecom, logistics and healthcare.
In his free time, Gabriel contributes to Kaggle (he is a triple Kaggle Grandmaster). He is a …

Mohammad Alamin - Aiiotsys (Cloud and Solution Architect)

As a Google Cloud Innovator Champion and Google Developer Expert (GDE), I architect cutting-edge cloud solutions at Aiiotsys—backed by 14x Google Cloud certifications and multi-cloud expertise. My journey spans hands-on software engineering to large-scale system design, including a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s National ID & Voter List project. Passionate about knowledge-sharing, I was mode…

Ida Delphine - Google Cloud (Google Developer Expert)

Ida is a passionate software engineer and community manager with a strong background in computer engineering. Driven by a desire to leverage technology for positive change, she possesses a diverse technical skillset and is a strong open source advocate. Beyond coding, she is dedicated to building communities and fostering a culture of knowledge sharing.

Nicholas Breckwoldt, PhD - Alis Exchange (Lead AI & ML Engineer)

Nicholas Breckwoldt, PhD is the Lead AI & ML Engineer at Alis Exchange, where he leverages nearly seven years of experience to build and scale sophisticated machine learning systems. A Google Certified Professional Machine Learning Engineer, Nicholas combines deep academic rigor with practical industry expertise. He earned both his PhD and…

Buchi Michelle Okonicha - Aricah (Software & ML Engineer, Google Developer Expert)

With a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and multiple certificates in Computer Science, Software Development, Software Engineering, Computer Programming, Customer Discovery, and Digital Marketing from various institutions,
I have gained a diverse and comprehensive skill set that allows me to tackle different challenges and opportunities in the tech f…

Patty O’Callaghan - Charles River Laboratories (Head of AI Architecture and Engineering Group)

Patty is a Venezuelan living in Scotland. She has +20 years of experience in the tech industry and a background education in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. She is a Technical Director at Charles River Laboratories.
In her free time, Patty is a dedicated mentor and educator, leading a Code Club for 10-15 year-olds at her local school. Additionally, she's an organiser at Goo…

Santosh Kumar Perumal

Host

Mohammad Alamin - Aiiotsys (Cloud and Solution Architect)

As a Google Cloud Innovator Champion and Google Developer Expert (GDE), I architect cutting-edge cloud solutions at Aiiotsys—backed by 14x Google Cloud certifications and multi-cloud expertise. My journey spans hands-on software engineering to large-scale system design, including a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s National ID & Voter List project. Passionate about knowledge-sharing, I was mode…

Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-essex-presents-the-agentic-future-building-ai-that-sees-hears-and-acts/.