GitHub Copilot Night with Rory Preddy and Alexander Lamprecht

Copilot is getting a lot of momentum in our Singapore community of developers. Some companies have already started giving access to it to all their developers. Does it help people be more productive, while still keeping control of their code?
To answer this question, we will have 2 speakers tonight!
Rory Preddy is a Principal Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, where he helps professional cloud developers discover and successfully use Microsoft’s platforms. He is a seasoned speaker whose talks are both meaningful and humorous, and he speaks around the world empowering developers to achieve more. Rory has over 25 years of experience in software development, working with various technologies such as Java, Spring Boot, AI, and Azure. He is also a passionate Accessibility Advocate and a Top 50 Cloud Influencer in 2023. You can follow him on https://twitter.com/rorypreddy and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorypreddy/
Alexander Lamprecht is a Full Stack Software Engineer at Palo IT, a Full Stack Software Engineer based in Singapore with a background in electrical and computational engineering, including experience in machine learning and AI. He has been working as a Senior Software Engineer at PALO IT for the last three years, where he has helped organizations harness technology for positive change. he is in the final stages of completing his Doctorate in Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, specializing in embedded systems and IoT devices.
Talk 1: (Copilot - Behind the Scenes) - Rory Preddy
AI is reshaping how we code, and we're leading the charge at Microsoft. Over a million developers are already using AI to elevate their coding game, sparking the question: what's the next frontier for developers in this AI-driven era? They're not just hopeful at Microsoft; they're actively shaping this new future.
Rory will be providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some of the groundbreaking secrets behind our use of GitHub Copilot and Developer Flow.
During this distinctive session, the latest discoveries on attaining and maintaining 'the Flow' will be revealed – that elusive state where coding transforms from mere productivity to true fulfillment. Yet, it won't stop there. The exploration extends to how GitHub Copilot surpasses its role as a mere tool, evolving into a coding companion managing routine tasks, automating mundane processes, and ensuring precision. This empowers you to focus on addressing intricate challenges and pushing the boundaries of innovation.
Talk 2: (ChatGPT - deploy to org of 100+ people) - Alexander Lamprecht
About a year ago Github released their GPT-4 based Copilot and gave the world a glimpse into the future of software development. Striving to provide our engineers the best environment and tools, after a brief pilot program, we decided to give all our developers access to it.
This talk is about challenges in rolling out GenAI tools in a 100+ people organisation and the benefits and pitfalls for developers. Does Github Copilot live up to the expectations? Does it bring the benefit we were hoping for? Can we maybe even self-host similar tools? (Spoiler: It is possible, but we wouldn't recommend it.). Follow me through our journey of priming an entire organization for new and potentially revolutionary tools.