UmbLeeds Lightning Talks: Agentic Development & Backoffice Validation

Join us for an evening of lightning talks covering two exciting topics!
We have two lightning talks lined up to share insights on agentic development workflows and backoffice validation.

Phil Whitaker - Understanding and Refining: Context Surfaces and Review Loops for Agentic Development
This talk looks at two ingredients for dependable agentic coding: contextual availability and iterative refinement. We'll show how using context-adjacent repository provides grounding for agents working in your solution, and how review-driven feedback loops refine their output. Together, these patterns produce more explainable, auditable, and controllable outcomes.

Jonathan Wood - Backoffice Validation: Limitations, Complexities, and a Solution
Content validation in Umbraco currently offers three options: limited built-in field validation, notification handlers, or building complex property editors. Jonathan explores these limitations and offers an alternative solution for that pesky validation. We'll look at ending the nightmare of handling custom validation in Umbraco and see a live demo of a simpler approach that is both dev and editor friendly.

Who Should Attend:
These talks are perfect for Umbraco developers and .NET professionals looking to solve real-world challenges. If you're wrestling with validation constraints in Umbraco or exploring how AI agents can improve your development workflow, you'll find practical insights here. Whether you're a junior developer building your first Umbraco site, a mid-level developer tired of complex workarounds for custom validation rules, or a senior developer evaluating agentic development tools for your team, both talks offer valuable takeaways. Content editors and technical project managers will also benefit from understanding these approaches to building better solutions.

Why It's Worth Attending:
If you're curious about AI-assisted coding but concerned about reliability and control, Phil's session will demonstrate how to make agentic development dependable and auditable. You'll walk away with practical solutions you can implement, a clearer understanding of what's possible with modern development approaches, and techniques to write more maintainable code while reducing development time. And If you've ever been frustrated by Umbraco's validation limitations, spent hours building custom property editors just to add simple validation rules, or wondered how to make validation both developer-friendly and editor-friendly, Jonathan's talk will show you a better way.

Agenda:
18:30 - Open for Mingling + Pizza
19:00 - Introductions & Umbraco news
19:15 - Lightning talks
20:00 - Open Social + Refreshments