State of Development 2026: Trends, Tools & What's Next

Sorry for the last minute event but I wanted to share this topic/meetup with this group for tonight as many of you may be interested.

Tonight | St. Louis .NET User Group Meetup

Join us this evening for a practitioner-led panel discussion on the real state of software development heading into 2026. AI-assisted coding, cloud-native architecture, shifting team structures, emerging frameworks — our panel of local technology leaders will give you straight talk on what's worth your attention and what's just noise.
Expect candid conversation on the topics developers are actually talking about right now: AI tooling that's changing daily workflows, what hiring looks like in an AI-augmented market, how team structures and job expectations are evolving, and which cloud and development skills are worth doubling down on.

Panelists:

- Emily Hemingway, CEO, TechSTL
- Kyle LeMarbe, Senior Director of DevOps, Momentus Technologies
- Kevin Grossnickalus, President, ArchitectNow
- Steve Sparks, Assistant Director and Application Architect, WashU
- Kurt Rolland, CTO Cognitive Systems, Covenant

Agenda:

5:30 PM — Networking
6:00 PM — Announcements
6:10 PM — Panel Discussion
7:15 PM — Closing

Location: 4 Hands Brewing Company, 17081 N Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield, MO

This is an in-person-only event. RSVP and details at the link below.
https://www.meetup.com/st-louis-net-user-group/events/313206192/