DevFest New York City 2025

Get ready for a full day of innovation!

Join DevFest New York City - a community-driven tech conference, igniting connections and knowledge right in your city. Annually hosted by GDG NYC, DevFest brings together professional developers and tech leaders for an unparalleled opportunity to dive into workshops, talks, and demos led by experts. It's the ultimate experience for learning, sharing, and networking!

As a part of DevFest New York City, Google Cloud Labs presents, "Unlocking the Enterprise Agentverse" workshop. This immersive, hands-on workshop will explore building and governing intelligent agent ecosystems, providing an end-to-end roadmap for mastering the agentic future on Google Cloud.

This event has limited capacity, so secure your spot by registering today!

STARTUPS: We'll have startup lightning pitches at the event. RSVP now to pitch ⚡⚡

10/3 - New York City AI Gathering ➡️ RSVP

Agenda

Day 1

8:00 AM: Check In & Networking

9:00 AM: Ancient Babies Opening

Ben Morss, Ian Roth, Ernesto Gramsch, Giulio Minguzzi

9:15 AM: Welcome to DevFest - GDG NYC Team

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

9:20 AM: DevFest Opening Video

Featuring Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, Logan Kilpatrick, Gogle Deepmind & Paige Bailey, AI Developer Relations Lead, Google DeepMind

9:25 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote

Francis Ma, Distinguished Product Manager, Google

9:35 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote

Sumitra Ganesh, AI Research Executive, J.P. Morgan AI Research

9:45 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote

Chrisitna Lin - Developer Relations Engineering Manager - Americas, Google

9:55 AM: ADK Crash Course: Build, Scale & Test AI Agents

Annie Wang, Software Engineer, Google

10:40 AM: Firebase Demo

Maja Bilić, Product Manager, Developer X, Google

11:15 AM: Code Assist MCP with Google Maps Platform

Brian Michalski, Staff Software Engineer, Google Maps Platform

11:45 AM: Research to Reality: Building with Google Deepmind Breakthroughs

Nikita Namjoshi, Google DeepMind Developer Advocate

12:30 PM: Lunch

1:30 PM: Unlocking the Enterprise Agentverse workshop led by Google Cloud Labs - Keynote

Megan O'Keefe, Senior Staff Developer Advocate, Google

2:00 PM: Unlocking the Enterprise Agentverse workshop led by Google Cloud Labs

Chrisitna Lin - Developer Relations Engineering Manager - Americas, Google

4:45 PM: Closing Remarks - GDG NYC Team

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

5:00 PM: Networking Hour

Day 2

8:00 AM: Check In & Networking

9:00 AM: Ancient Babies Opening- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Ben Morss, Ian Roth, Ernesto Gramsch, Giulio Minguzzi

9:15 AM: Welcome to DevFest - GDG NYC Team- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

9:20 AM: DevFest Opening Video- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Featuring Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, Logan Kilpatrick, Gogle Deepmind & Paige Bailey, AI Developer Relations Lead, Google DeepMind

9:25 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Francis Ma, Distinguished Product Manager, Google

9:35 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Sumitra Ganesh, Managing Director AI Research Executive, J.P. Morgan

9:45 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Chrisitna Lin - Developer Relations Engineering Manager - Americas, Google

9:55 AM: Beyond Hallucinations and Error Messages: Get Answers, Find People, and Learn with Stack Overflow

Kathrine Smith, Product & Developer Marketing Manager, Communities at Stack Overflow

10:40 AM: How to Build Your Very Own MCP Server

Ben Morss, Developer Evangelist, DeepL

11:15 AM: The Security Mechanisms You’ve Never Tried (But Should)

Charles Reeves, Senior Developer Advocate, Vonage

11:45 AM: Fireside Chat

Shivika Arora, Executive Director, Principal TPM, JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Peta Gay-Clarke, Strategy & Operations Executive Global Program Lead AI, Education and Social Impact

12:30 PM: Lunch

1:30 PM: Firebase Studio AI-powered development workflows

James O'Reilly, Developer Relations Engineer, Google
Roman Nurik, Product Design Engineer, Google

2:45 PM: Join us at Google NYC on Oct 3 for AI Gatherings — where startups, developers, and innovators connect to explore the latest in Google AI.

Francis Ma, Distinguished Product Manager, Google
Matt Ridenour, Head of Accelerator & Startup Ecosystem - U.S., Google
Kate Olszewska, Product Manager, Google DeepMind

4:45 PM: GDG Closing Remarks- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

Day 3

8:00 AM: Check In & Networking

9:00 AM: Ancient Babies Opening- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Ben Morss, Ian Roth, Ernesto Gramsch, Giulio Minguzzi

9:15 AM: Welcome to DevFest - GDG NYC Team- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

9:20 AM: DevFest Opening Video- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Featuring Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, Logan Kilpatrick, Gogle Deepmind & Paige Bailey, AI Developer Relations Lead, Google DeepMind

9:25 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Francis Ma, Distinguished Product Manager, Google

9:35 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live from Bandshell

Sumitra Ganesh, Managing Director AI Research Executive, J.P. Morgan

9:45 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live from Bandshell

Chrisitna Lin - Developer Relations Engineering Manager - Americas, Google

9:55 AM: The Death (and Rebirth) of the Software Engineer

Peta Gay- Clarke, Strategy & Operations Executive Global Program Lead AI, Education and Social Impact

10:25 AM: Building Communities: Lessons Learned from Google to a Startup

Erica Hanson, Head of Growth, FlutterFlow

11:25 AM: 7 Levels of a Web Performance Journey: How Focused Performance Metrics Can Improve User Experience

Sergey Chernishev, Engineer, Speed- Cloudfare

11:55 AM: Mission-Driven Innovation: Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity Should Be Too! Turning Hidden Potential Into NYC’s Greatest Resource

Domenick Priante

12:30 PM: Lunch

1:30 PM: Insurance Cases in Agentspace

Vidya More, Director of Engineering/GCP Practice Leader, Cloud, Data & AI, Capgemini

2:00 PM: Mirror, Mirror in the Google Cloud

Anna Nerezova, Data & Analytics Specialist, Women Techmakers Ambassador, GDG NYC Lead
Kirsten Bohme, Marketing Technology Specialist, ICE & GDG NYC Organizer

2:30 PM: Accelerate Your Startup with Customer Discovery

Christelle Scharff, Professor of Computer Science at Pace University & Serial Entrepreneur

4:45 PM: GDG Closing Remarks- Streamed Live from Bandshell

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

Day 4

8:00 AM: Check In & Networking

9:00 AM: Ancient Babies Opening- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Ben Morss, Ian Roth, Ernesto Gramsch, Giulio Minguzzi

9:15 AM: Welcome to DevFest - GDG NYC Team- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

9:20 AM: DevFest Opening Video- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Featuring Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, Logan Kilpatrick, Gogle Deepmind & Paige Bailey, AI Developer Relations Lead, Google DeepMind

9:25 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Francis Ma, Distinguished Product Manager, Google

9:35 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live From Bandshell

Sumitra Ganesh, Managing Director AI Research Executive, J.P. Morgan

9:45 AM: DevFest New York City - Opening Keynote- Streamed Live from Bandshell

Chrisitna Lin - Developer Relations Engineering Manager - Americas, Google

9:55 AM: Generative AI Leader Certification Training

Norbert Kremer, Data Warehouse and Data Lake Consultant, Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Trainer

12:30 PM: Lunch

1:30 PM: Generative AI Leader Certification Training

Norbert Kremer, Data Warehouse and Data Lake Consultant, Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Trainer

2:10 PM: How Google uses technology to keep transit simple and keep us moving through Google Maps, Google Earth, & Waze

Lolita Tiwari, Strategic Partner Manager, Google

2:40 PM: The Future of eLearning: From Authoring Tools to Real Learning Systems

Susan Kingsley, Co-Founder & CEO, Happy Alien AI & Review MyELearning

3:10 PM: Latest Google research on AI usage in Software Development

James Brookbank, Director of Product Management, Google

3:40 PM: Mastering AI in Cybersecurity

Francesca sala, CTO/COO,GeoCyber Systems

4:10 PM: AI as an Ally: Accessibility, Cybersecurity, and the Future of Robotics

Denise Bowen,Founder & CEO,DB Connect

4:45 PM: GDG Closing Remarks- Streamed Live from Bandshell

Anna Nerezova, Bhavik Chopra, Shivika Arora, Kirsten Bohme, Francesca Sala

5:00 PM: Networking Hour

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Speakers

Francis Ma - Google (Distinguished Product Manager)

Francis Ma is a seasoned tech executive, entrepreneur, and angel investor with 20+ years of experience leading product and engineering teams at Google, Amazon, and high-growth startups. Currently Sr. Director of Product & Engineering for Google Cloud Developer X, he oversees 20+ cloud and developer services, including generative AI, databases, and security platforms, driving them to $xxxM+…

Sumitra Ganesh - JP Morgan Chase & Co. (Managing Director, AI Research)

Sumitra Ganesh is Managing Director at J.P. Morgan AI Research, where she leads the AI Agents & Hybrid Reasoning team. With 14+ years of experience in machine learning, multi-agent systems, and applied AI, she has advanced state-of-the-art research and built production AI/ML solutions for complex financial applications. Her work spans reinforcement learning, agent-based modeling, and lever…

Christina Lin - Google (Developer Relations Engineering Manager - Americas)

Christina Lin is a Developer Relations Engineering Manager at Google, leading advocacy and community programs across the Americas. With over two decades of experience spanning Google, Redpanda Data, and Red Hat, Christina has built a career at the intersection of developer relations, open source, and enterprise architecture. Recognized for driving technical ed…

Shivika Arora - JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Product Manager - Tech Center (Enterprise Technology))

Shivika Arora has extensive experience in financial data analytics and product management. she has recently had the opportunity to build and showcase expertise in tech product evolution and adoption and be a strategic partner to senior Tech leaders in deploying key tech priorities and programs.

Qingyue(Annie) Wang - Google (Software Engineer)

Hey, I'm Qingyue(Annie) Wang, a software engineer with over five years of industry experience, including roles at Amazon and Google. As an internal career coach for the past year, I've trained new hires, fostering leadership and career progression. Soon, I'll be ICF certified coach with over 50 coaching hours.
My passion lies in the human side of tech, offering mentorship and support to …

Maja Bilić - Google (Product Manager)

Product Manager on Firebase Studio and Firebase AI offerings. I bring a strategic market and customer centric POV into building product strategy, roadmap and features.
More than 15 years of experience in creating & driving product strategies. Focused on bringing strategic view into technical conversations and specialized in navigating ambiguous, novel and dynamic ecosystems (digita…

Nikita Namjoshi - Google DeepMind (Developer Advocate)

Nikita is a developer relations engineer at Google DeepMind, helping developers build AI applications with the latest research, products, and frontier models. She writes and teaches about AI on Coursera, YouTube, and Substack, and previously worked on the TensorFlow and Google Cloud AI teams.

Megan O'Keefe - Google (Senior Staff Developer Advocate)

Megan O’Keefe is a Senior Staff Developer Advocate at Google Cloud, leading Cloud Developer Relations with a focus on AI Agents and next-generation developer experiences. With 7+ years at Google, Megan has driven initiatives in Kubernetes, Istio, platform engineering, and generative AI, managed high-impact evaluation teams, and delivered conte…

Katherine Smith (She/her) - Stack Overflow (Product & Developer Marketing Manager, Communities)

Katherine Smith leads Product & Community at Stack Overflow, with 10+ years in product marketing and customer experience. Previously, she worked at Google Maps Platform in developer advocacy, marketing, and product change management.
Kate is a vocal advocate for women in tech and making open source materials accessible to aspiring de…

Paula Rosenberg - Stack Overflow (Director of Community)

Paula Rosenberg is a People & Communications leader and Director of Community at Stack Overflow, with 15+ years of experience spanning community management, client services, marketing, and education. A published writer and seasoned strategist, Paula specializes in building thriving communities, fostering engagement across 180+ global sites, and aligning co…

Ben Morss - DeepL (Developer Evangelist)

As DeepL’s Developer Evangelist, Ben works to help anyone use DeepL’s API to access its world-class AI translations. Previously, at Google, he was a Product Manager on Chrome and a Developer Advocate for a better web. Before that he was a software engineer at the New York Times and AOL, and once he was a full-time musician. He earned a BA in Computer Science at Harvard and a PhD in Music at th…

Charles Reeves - Vonage (Senior Developer Advocate)

Charles R. is a Senior Developer Advocate at Vonage, specializing in Node.js, TypeScript, PHP, and AWS. With prior experience as a DevOps Engineer and System Architect in aerospace and enterprise software, Charles has designed scalable cloud systems, satellite control applications, and developer-focused tools. Passionate about improving developer experience, C…

James O'Reilly - Google (Developer Relations Engineer)

James O. is a Developer Relations Engineer at Google, focused on Firebase Studio and Generative AI. With a career spanning leadership in streaming media and developer platforms, James previously served as VP of Software Engineering at Discovery, where he led teams behind HBO GO and 12+ Discovery “GO” apps. Earlier roles include technology lead…

Matt Ridenour - Google (Head of Accelerator & Startup Ecosystem - U.S.)

Matt Ridenour is the Head of Accelerator & Startup Ecosystem, USA at Google, where he leads programs supporting AI, Cloud, climate, and underrepresented founders. With nearly two decades of experience across design, innovation, and startups, Matt has built and scaled accelerators, guided early-stage ventures, and fostered cross-disciplinary collaboration. …

Peta-Gay Clarke

I am a Strategy & Operations Executive and Global Programs Leader with 15+ years of experience at the intersection of technology, education, and social impact. A former software developer turned executive leader, I bring a rare blend of technical depth, operational excellence, and people-centered leadership.
At Google, I helped launch and scale transformative initiatives across Googl…

Erica Hanson - FlutterFlow (Head of Growth)

Erica Hanson is the Head of Growth at FlutterFlow! She is on growing the awesome developer community. There are already 1.2M users!With FlutterFlow, developers and product teams can quickly create cross-platform apps for iOS, Android, and the web leveraging Flutter.

Junnet Ali - Google (Program Manager - North America GDG & GDG on Campus Program)

Junnet Ali is a Program Manager for the North America Developer Ecosystem at Google, based in Toronto. With a background in events, partnerships, and integrated marketing, Junnet has led programs that empower developers, foster vibrant communities, and build strategic initiatives across the tech landscape. Before joining Google, Junnet held roles in client man…

Rachel Francois - Google (Regional Lead - North America GDG & GDG on Campus Program)

Rachel Francois is the Regional Lead for North America for Google Developer Groups (GDG) & GDG on Campus, where she curates programs that empower developers, educators, and students. With a background spanning Google, higher education, and community building, she focuses on cultivating inclusive ecosystems and driving transformative learning experiences.

Sergey Chernyshev - Cloudfare (Engineer, Speed)

Sergey Chernyshev is an Engineer on the Speed team at Cloudflare and a Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies, specializing in web performance. With prior roles at Etsy and Meetup, Sergey has spent over a decade advancing performance optimization, open source projects, and community education. He organizes the NY Web Performance M…

Vidya More - Head of Engineering (Xero)

Vidya More is a Generative AI Product Leader and Harvard Business School alum, with 20+ years of experience in product development and 12+ years in Big4 technology consulting. As the GCP Practice Leader for Financial Services at Capgemini, Vidya helps BFSI CXOs design and execute Cloud, Data, and AI strategies, specializing in federate…

Kirsten Böhme - ICE (Marketing Technology Specialist)

Kirsten Böhme is a Marketing Technology Specialist at ICE with over a decade of experience in brand marketing, event management, and digital campaigns. Skilled in marketing automation, CRM integrations, and performance analytics, Kirsten has led cross-channel strategies for global brands across fashion, retail, and finance. She has also contributed to communit…

Anna Nerezova - ANY Analytics (Digital and Cloud Marketing Consultant)

Anna Nerezova is a Google Cloud Engineer Scholar, using the Google Cloud Platform since 2017. Anna is combining the latest cutting edge technologies to bring better business results. She believes that technology transforms not only businesses, but changes people's lives for the better. Anna leads the Google Developers Group in New York City, educating developers, marketers, students from start…

Norbert Kremer - Analytics By Design (Data Warehouse and Data Lake Consultant, Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Trainer)

Google Developer Expert (Data Cloud)
AI Engineer, Data EngineerTrustworthy AI (Data Quality, Agent security)AI GovernanceTrainer, Mentor

Kate Olszewska - Google DeepMind (Product Manager)

Kate Olszewska is a Product Manager at Google DeepMind, working on Gemini models. She previously drove Conversational AI and developer platform initiatives at Microsoft, with earlier experience in AI policy at Google. Kate holds a Master’s in Management Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon and an MS in Computer Science (Machine Learning) from Georgia Tech.

Roman Nurik - Google (Product Design Engineer)

Roman Nurik is a Product Design Engineer at Google with 17+ years of experience building developer tools and platforms. He was the founding designer and product engineer for Project IDX (now Firebase Studio), previously led UX for Firebase backend products and design systems, and holds degrees in computer science and business from Boston University.

Susan Kingsley - Happy Alien AI & ReviewMyElearning (Co-Founder & CEO)

Susan Kingsley is the Co-Founder & CEO of Happy Alien AI & ReviewMyElearning, an edtech platform pioneering “cross-course intelligence” that moves learner data across SCORM/xAPI courses into AI—and back—so training is continuous, adaptive, and measurable. Since launching in Dec 2024, she’s led the company to $180K in revenue and $20K MRR

James Brookbank - Google (Director of Product Management)

James Brookbank is a Director of Product Management at Google, shaping strategy and execution for cloud platforms used by global enterprises. With a decade in financial-services infrastructure and cloud architecture (HSBC, Lloyds) and five+ years at Google, he focuses on platform engineering, reliability, and developer productivity—connecting metrics like DORA/AI-assisted delivery to business …

Denise Bowen

Denise Bowen is a pioneering leader at the intersection of technology, social impact, and global policy. As founder of DB Connect, she propels socially conscious entrepreneurs to scale ventures that combine profitability with purpose through strategic guidance, legal counsel, and access to a global network. She earned the prestigious Harvard Law School Zero-L certification, a rigorous pre-law …

Lolita Tiwari - Google (Strategic Partner Manager)

Lolita Tiwari is a Strategic Partner Manager at Google, managing strategic partnerships across North America for Google Maps, Google Earth, and Waze. With 9+ years of experience spanning ad tech, news, and digital media (Google, Microsoft/Xandr, Hulu), she has built scalable partnership strategies driving revenue, innovation, and community impact. A Pace University alum (M.S. Enterprise Analyt…

Hosted By

Anna Nerezova, GDG Organizer

Anna Nerezova is a Digital Marketing and Cloud Transformation Consultant with 15 years of experience in data, analytics and optimization.
She has built innovative solutions using Google Cloud to solve problems in the media and entertainment, tech, health and non-profit industries
Anna is a Google Cloud Engineer Scholar, and is on the 100 Women in Analytics list by Google Analytics. She is also a Google Developer Group NYC lead and a mentor for the Northeast, and a proud Women Techmakers Ambassador.

Anna is passionate about using the latest AI/ML technologies to provide solutions and bring growth and better experience for all users. She is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, and is committed to helping underrepresented groups become entrepreneurs and financially independent.

Bhavik Chopra, Computer Science Graduate Student

Hi, I’m Bhavik — a Data Scientist at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and an Organizer for Google Developer Group (GDG) NYC, where I foster a thriving tech community through events like GDG NYC DevFest and Cloud Study Jams on Google Cloud and Terraform.

My passion for technology started in childhood, surrounded by computers, software, and games. Although I initially pursued Science-Maths in high school, my true calling emerged when I discovered software development. Since then, I’ve been building projects and exploring cutting-edge technologies.

I hold a Master’s in Computer Science from Pace University and a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from Silver Oak University, where I actively contributed to the tech community through DSC Silver Oak (Google Developers) and various IEEE leadership roles.

Today, I merge my technical expertise with my love for community building—whether through data science innovations at MTA, improving NYC transit for 6M+ daily riders, or empowering developers through GDG NYC events.

Let’s connect and create something impactful together! 🚀

Shivika Arora, Executive Director, Product

I am currently responsible for driving modernization, innovation and engineer experience agenda in four strategic tech location for JP Morgan - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Silicon Valley and Seattle. Prior to this role, I was the Product and Solutions Lead for Trusts and Estates under Asset Wealth Management, where I was responsible for executing both brokerage op models as well lending framework for the ultra-high net worth clients.

Outside of work, I am Google’s WomenTechmaker Ambassador for NYC as well as GDG NYC Organizer; Champion Coach for JPM’s Women On The Move Network' and Fast Forward Small Business Mentor.

On a personal front, I love to read, dance to any good music and go on food tours around various cities.

Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-nyc-presents-devfest-new-york-city-2025/.