Katrina Clokie

Test Practice Manager at BNZ

Beyond Coding: Test Automation as Art

The rise of test automation is changing the testing landscape as organizations urgently accelerate their automation goals. As demand for automation increases, those accountable for testing roles are learning to write code, but few are learning the skills that support the creation of truly useful automated assets. Just as using a paintbrush does not make an artist, writing code does not make an engineer. Without a wider perspective, we can end up with test automation frameworks and tests that are inefficient and difficult to maintain. As a test practice manager at a major financial institution, Katrina Clokie has experience defining and implementing enterprise test automation strategy. Join Katrina as she challenges us to step back from coding and think about the bigger picture. Discover how to effectively evaluate existing test automation assets, define a vision for automation, collaborate on creating innovative automation solutions, apply automated visual regression, establish coding dojos, and develop and maintain stable automated suites.

Bio

Katrina Clokie leads a team of around 100 testers as a Test Practice Manager in Wellington, New Zealand. Katrina is an active contributor to the international testing community as the author of A Practical Guide to Testing in DevOps, an international keynote speaker, a co-founder of the WeTest New Zealand testing community, the founder of Testing Trapeze magazine, frequent blogger and tweeter.

Rebecca Downes

PhD Candidate, School of Management. Victoria University of Wellington

Why Remote Work is Great and How You Can Be Great At It

It’s the age of technology and we’re all connected by the internet. So why do so many people still drag themselves through rush-hour traffic to get to the office every day? There is an alternative! I will talk about why companies and job-seekers should consider remote work. I’ll talk briefly about the advantages it can offer but mostly I will focus on what you need to know to be successful working remotely, based on best practice from remote workers all over the world and hundreds of hours of research for my PhD on distributed teams. All condensed down to just 45 minutes of useful knowledge.

Bio

After nearly 20 years leading teams in the tech and film/visual effects industry in Wellington and working remotely, Rebecca left behind all hope of gainful employment to pursue her PhD. She is currently researching remote work and hopes her research will one day help companies embrace remote work too.

Anthony Borton

DevOps Architect, Microsoft

Playtime - Raspberry Pi, Azure, DevOps and a BBQ :)

We all use technology at work to solve problems and hopefully make things easier for our customers. We can also use that same technology and know how to power our own projects and hobbies! Join Anthony as he walks you through one of his recent personal projects where he used his knowledge of Azure IoT, Azure DevOps and a Raspberry Pi to monitor his ProQ smoker during his low'n'slow cooking. Warning! This session has been known to contribute to feelings of hunger.

Bio

Anthony Borton is a DevOps Architect on Microsoft’s DevOps Customer Advisory Team. He has many years’ experience helping organisations adopt and succeed using DevOps practises. He was Australia’s first Professional Scrum Developer Trainer and has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer for over 20 years.

Prae Songprasit

UI Front End Developer at Xero Wellington

What to expect, when transitioning from UI/UX design to front end?

Many have done it. In fact, it's a great thing for the industry. But what's involved? With the world of Front End Development evolving constantly. JavaScript is no longer just an interaction tool, but runs whole codebases, and even databases. Is there still a place for someone who just love CSS, HTML, UX, accessibility, and talking to designers in the language they understand? If there isn't, how do you continue to provide value to the team? But if there is a place, what does it take to get in?

Bio

Prae co-organised CSS Meetup in Auckland, and is now co-organising Wellington Web Accessibility.

Aaron Hodder

Senior Consultant, Assurity Consulting

Responsible Digital: Minimising digital cruelty through Inclusive Collaboration

'Silicon Valley is run by people who want to be in the tech business, but they are in the people business. They are way, way in over their heads' - Zeynep Tufekci
Tech's obsession with technical expertise, tools, and rapid development has some troubling consequences. In this presentation, Aaron will present some case studies demonstrating algorithmic cruelty, unethical practices, and harmful software behaviour - all largely unintentional - and offer some practices and models for how to introduce more humanity into our development practices in order to make our products more humane.

Bio

I am a senior consultant at Assurity Consulting Ltd. I am an advocate for agile and lean ways of working, with software testing being my primary area of expertise. My latest professional interests are in ethics, and the human and societal impact of technology and how teams can be more conscious of ways their products may inadvertently cause harm and distress.

Cliff Robinson

Client Interview and Engagement

Most developers don't receive any training on how to take their clients through the software development life cycle, or any project. However, there is a lot that can be learned from how other professions treat client engagement. Cliff Robinson practiced as a lawyer for 5 years before becoming a software developer, and shares his thoughts on what people in the development world can learn from those in the legal one.

Bio

Cliff Robinson is a fullstack developer and former lawyer. He's currently looking for work as a developer, but prior to this practiced as a lawyer in family, criminal and civil litigation for 5 years.

Sarrah Jayne

Human Skills Lead - Enspiral Dev Academy

Software development is a learning journey, open your mind

A career as a software developer is a journey of lifelong learning. But how does that happen? How can you set the conditions for learning and growth? Lets explore how to hack your own learning and to how to creative an environment conducive to growth.

Bio

I am all about human connection and communication, it is at the heart of everything that I do. I envisage a future where people thrive through the work they do and what they can contribute to the world. I have developed and taught the Human Skills programme within Enspiral Dev Academy since 2015 and have assisted the personal growth and learning of hundreds of students. I seek to empower others to use the tools available to them to create the changes in their work culture necessary to thrive. I do this through group training and one to one coaching.

Matt Powell

Senior developer, Optimal Workshop

It's just Makeup: How to care about CSS

(NO TECHNICAL BACKGROUND NEEDED!) There’s a tendency in developer circles to see Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) as a kind of black magic that can’t be learned or understood by “real developers” because it defies rational logic. And yet, somehow sites still get built, and look good, and people engage with them! This talk is an attempt to unpack some of the myths surrounding CSS, and a look at what perpetuating those myths means to the people on our team who are doing this work.

Bio

Matt Powell believes software should look and feel good from every angle, including under the hood. A full-stack developer from before that was a thing you could be, he believes the way we feel about our code and the way we feel about each other are tightly interlinked. Talk to him about theatre, craft beer, and cats.

Jevon Wright

Founder of CryptFolio

Lessons from 15 months of running a startup

Startups are portrayed as glamorous, but they are hard work. I left paid work in 2017 to focus full-time on my own cryptocurrency startup, but sadly it hasn't worked out (yet). If you are interested in joining, starting, or investing in a startup, I'll be presenting some ideas and techniques on how to maximise your chances of success.

Bio

Jevon is an experienced software engineer with over two decades of experience. She is passionate about software architecture, open source, empowering communities, and celebrating diversity.

Phoenix Zerin

VP Engineering, Tatau.io

Professional Networking: The Career-Accelerating Skill that Nobody's Talking About

By the end of 2013, I realised I was in trouble. My startup had failed, and I was running dangerously low on funds. In fact, it was looking pretty likely that I would not be able to pay rent the following month. To make matters worse, I was in Chile, nearly 8000 kilometres from the nearest country where I had right to work. I needed a new job, a freelancing client, anything that would keep me from getting kicked out of my flat in a foreign country where I barely spoke the language... and the clock was ticking!
Fortunately, thanks to the investment I had made in building and maintaining professional relationships over the preceding two years, what could have been a catastrophic setback instead became the catalyst for one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
In this talk, you will learn the mindset and skills that you can start practising right now, to build up your professional network and accelerate your career. Whether you are looking for a career change, a promotion, or you just want to keep your options open, professional networking is the skill that everyone needs, but nobody's talking about!

Bio

I have been developing and architecting software applications for over a decade, most recently completing a 5-year stint as a digital nomad in South America.
During working hours, I'm VP Engineering at Tatau. Mornings and weekends I am the lead dev for PyOTA, the Python API library for the IOTA cryptocurrency. In the afternoons I volunteer as a teaching aide at Enspiral Dev Academy.
In whatever hours are left, I love motorcycling, and according to my YouTube history, I may be bushcraft-curious.
Oh, and I really like cat emojis. 😸

Anna Lezhikova

Software engineer, BNZ

Machine learning on mobile devices

Machine learning in general is a buzz word today. Machine learning on mobile devices (or on the Edge) just entered the stage. The hardware is evolving, libraries and tools are appearing, open source projects are spawning every single day. I will talk about what are the main types/patterns of ML available today, what can be used on a mobile phone (and IoT devices), what are the limitations, use cases, libraries, tools, communities: all these things that can help to start a journey in this big ocean.

Bio

Anna has been working in tech for several years in small startups and big enterprises. During her career she delt with frontend, backend, mobile, databases, cloud, machines, and people. She lives in Wellington, runs Wellington.js meetup, loves target archery and gardening.

Matt Harrison

Digital Technology Teacher & Y11 Dean, Hutt Valley High School

How to we're trying to train for next-gen devs and resuscitate CS

My back story... I've taught high school NZ students for 12 years and in that time we've gone from being a Microsoft Office Specialist teaching basic skills to computational thinking & programming by developing apps with Scratch, HTML & CSS / Javascript / PHP / MySQL.
Last year I was challenged to make an 'awesome' new Y12 DTEC course for the brand new NZ Digital Technology Curriculum, that will be both 'sexy' and 'fun' to boost student engagement. Hopefully it will create a 'word of mouth' buzz to boost student numbers.
My school has 2 courses: Digital Technology and Computer Science, the more academic kids are doing Computer Science. On average, the DTEC students are more visual learners and less abstract thinkers.
Having loved playing on HTC Vive at Te Papa's Hinatori Lab and Vic University's CS4HS I decided to do a VR project. My wero or challenge how to make noobs learn VR - inside the constraints of time and money: 3.5 hours per week for 1 term's teaching / assessment and a meagre $10.
Now... You may all resent teachers their long summer holidays but mine was a self imposed bootcamp on research and development 'advanced' Level 2 & 'complex' Level 3 skills with assessment writing. My mission: teach students with limited coding experience, and in some cases limited English, how to design, build and test a webVR app to brand new national standards (with no national exemplars in this area). So with nothing set in stone, I get to write the course to suit the interests of the kids. So, lets dive in with the Hello World with some primitives... then we can get into Fortnight dances and animation...

Bio

Dad, designer & dev, DTEC didact & dean. Matt is a UK trained digital media creative (graphic designer & full stack web dev) turned ICT teacher and agile herder of cats. Dad of 4, coding and kung fu enthusiast.

Jagraphob Jantakananuruk

Software Developer @ Flux Federation

Machine learning for noobs

Many developers especially young ones who want to learn and apply machine learning concept are usually intimidated by how much knowledge we need to acquire to make machine learning work. I am going to show some simple problems that can be solved by machine learning together easy to understand code and library (brain.js).

Bio

I am orignally from Thailand, used to work with ExxonMobil for 10 years -- 5 years as Infrastructure Engineer, 5 years as software developer. I have been in NZ for almost 4 years now working as a Software developer.

Rory Braybrook

Babbage and Lovelace - the dawn of computing

Charles Babbage was an English polymath who designed an "Analytical Engine" in the 1840's. He believed that this machine could do fully-fledged general purpose computation. Ada Lovelace helped him document the workings but quickly came to realise the implications of this design. She realised that anything that could be represented symbolically; numbers, logic, even music could pass through the machine and create "magic".
The "Analytical Engine" represents the dawn of the computer age. To demonstrate its working, Ada wrote mathematical proofs that many people believe are the first computer programs.
This is their story.

Bio

NZ Microsoft Identity dude. Azure AD/ADFS. Plus Auth0. North Shore .NET User Group Admin.

Skye & Sam

Skye Simpson

The wonderful and terrifying journey of crafting your first Angular web application.

The tech industry is fast paced and constantly ever changing. Different ways of doing things, modern tools, technologies and ideas are always evolving. Developers are consistently challenged with new problems to solve and how best to solve them. Lets explore how Angular can help us tackle some of these problems. This 20 minute lightning (thunder?) talk will look to go along a path through some of the highs and lows, common gotcha's, and 'nice to knows' when starting out building an Angular web APP.

Sam Ong

Why mentorship matters

Building strong relationships is one of the most important things you can do in this industry, especially in Wellington! This talk will go through the importance of surrounding yourself with good mentors, how to get a mentor, and what to do once you have one. I will also share some of my own mentorship experience and talk to both sides of a mentoring relationship, as both a mentee and a mentor.

Bio

Skye is currently a JavaScript developer at Trade Me. Before that she attended Enspiral Dev Academy where her adventure developing websites began.

Sam is a student and software developer just beginning her career in technology. She is studying Computer Science with a specialisation in Artificial Intelligence and is working part-time at Flux Federation.

Kai Koenig

Software Architect @ Ventego Creative

Why a Whole Country Skipped a Day: Fun with Timezones and Locales

The correct handling of timezones and locales is one of the most under-appreciated parts of software development. Commonly known as internationalisation (i18n), a lot of people underestimate the impact that getting it wrong can have for your users as well as your systems. Drawn from experiences with working on a global network of backend systems, websites and mobile apps in more than 30 locales for the last 10 years, this talk will start with an introduction to the concepts behind timezones and locales. You’re going to learn about the history of time measurement and time synchronisation and how the world eventually ended up with the global system of time zones of today. Today’s model is full of interesting and sometimes outright bizarre quirks and you’ll look at some of best and worst of them.
Some of the technical topics covered are:

Time on the JVM and Android
What level of support and libraries do we have?
Ways to make your developer life supporting multi-lingual/-locale apps easier.
WHAT? We have to support daylight-savings-time?
Managing user expectations

Bio

I am a software architect specialised in web and mobile technologies using client-side platforms such as mobile web, Flutter and Android. Another focus of my work is building and the integration with JVM-backend platforms using technologies like Kotlin, Java, ColdFusion, Lucee and others like Go and Python. I spend most of my work time contributing to projects of various clients and sizes, fulfilling the role of an architect, principal developer, consultant or mentor/instructor.

Amanda Hughes

Senior Data Scientist, Nicholson Consulting

Operational Algorithms: Predictive Models and the Other 99%

People often think that coding the predictive models takes the most time in the implementation of operational algorithms. This couldn’t be further from the truth. From my experience the time spent coding is less than one percent. In this talk I will detail what happens during the other 99%.

Bio

I am a Data Scientist with experience in statistical and analytics roles within the government sector. I am passionate about evidence based decision making, with an emphasis on communication and implementation. In my year with Nicholson Consulting, we implemented the largest frontline automation project within Government.

Felix Shi

Senior Security Architect, Xero

DevOps Security on a Shoestring Budget

So you've just read this great literature on building Security into your DevOps pipeline and can't wait to introduce it to your colleagues. What could possibly go wrong?
This talk is focused on the challenges involved with integrating security components in an existing DevOps pipeline. What are they? How can you introduce them without breaking your bank or your manager's sanity?
In this talk we'll run through a real-world example of building a poor man's DevSecOps pipeline from scratch. Then we'll look at the options and techniques available to developers and managers to ensure that the finished product will be a little bit more secure.

Bio

Felix is a Senior Security Architect for Xero. Before Xero he spent his years as a disgruntled developer, and has been dabbling in the information security scene in Wellington, having spoken at Wellington's ISIG, and has been involved in multiple Kiwicon as an event co-organiser for the CTF.

Chris Cormack

Technical lead, Koha Team, Catalyst IT

He kupu mō ngā kaiwhakawhanake (some words for developers)

This talk will be a really brief introduction to some te reo Māori words that we can use as IT professionals. As well as some concepts I think important too.

Bio

Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe
Christopher Cormack has a BSc in Computer Science and a BA in Mathematics and Māori Studies.
While working for Katipo Communications he was the lead developer of the original version of Koha, which went live at Horowhenua Library Trust on January 5, 2000. Since then he has served various roles in the community: Release manager, QA manager and Translation manager.
Christopher works for Catalyst IT in Wellington and believes in Free Software and allowing users the freedom to innovate

Rachel Collingridge

Development Manager - Ecosystem, Xero

Making teamwork work

Humans are constantly working in teams, whether consciously or not. It's pretty obvious that your sports team is a team! But have you thought of your family like that? Your rock band, clarinet quartet or choir? A committee that you sit on? The people you work with? I'll theorise about what makes a team great with the aim of getting you to think about your own interactions and contributions, and what changes you might make for better outcomes in any group.

Bio

A classically trained musician, I was accidentally drawn into software development 20 years ago and am still enjoying myself too much to get back to music. Most of my IT career has been spent crafting code until moving into leadership a few years back. Now I build high performing delivery teams and coach engineers in growing their careers and happiness. Outside of the office, I enjoy trail running with Jasper the rescue dog, and an occasional toot on a saxophone or clarinet.

David Thomsen

Junior Full Stack Developer at Spotlight Reporting

Film Club: Stories For A Human Workplace

Allegory is a tool with an immediate and instinctive power, which is why the first books read to us are "The Little Engine That Could" and not "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". As adults we tend to leave stories out of the workplace and focus on sensible practical technical discussions, and while these can teach us how to operate in a workplace, stories can teach us how to be human as well. David will go over the stories and characters of various Film & Television properties and talk about what learnings we can take away from them, with particular focus on how we can be strengthened by the differences between us. By the end of the talk you will be convinced that movies don't just have to be fun, they can be homework as well!

Bio

David studied English and Film straight out of High School, and would later regret not having studied Computer Science instead, as their parents had suggested. After a 'stint' in retail (is eight years a stint?), David returned to University to pick up a Computer Science degree and begin their career in the Development of Softwares. Still, storytelling remains a central part of David's world view. They really like Lego.

Vanessa Thornton

Senior Developer in Developer Ecosystem team @ Xero.

How to make your smart TV even smarter - Voice control for your smart TV

Come on a journey with me to explore the world of IOT and serverless. This talk takes you through the architecture and code needed to be able to voice control your smart TV through the use of Amazon's echo dot. It also explores controlling your home media server via voice control including downloading new content, providing information on the latest completed downloads, and information on new shows available. This talk requires some knowledge of node and AWS serverless components.

Bio

Vanessa has been a developer for six years working in the financial sector firstly, at Kiwibank as an integration developer and now at Xero as an API developer. Vanessa has a passion for all things serverless which has led her to work on Xero’s webhook project. The Xero API’s first serverless only application. Vanessa is an active member in the serverless developer community, and has been fortunate enough to attend the 2017 Serverless Conf held in New York. Vanessa is also an avid speaker and has run demo’s and presented talks on serverless development and architecture.

Maz Hermon

UI evangelist at Trade Me

So, you wanna make your website more accessible. What next?

Let's assume you've already been convinced that it's best if all of your customers can actually use your products and services, regardless of their varied abilities. What comes next? How do you get from understanding the business benefits, to actually improving the UX of your products, particularly if you're not used to supporting assistive technologies such as screen readers. Or, maybe you're just not sure about some of the common barriers we've been busy putting in place for people as we build our websites.
You'll leave this session with some key accessibility patterns to implement in your work, including tips on accessible markup (the solid base of assistive technology support), getting started with screen readers, ARIA basics, testing & debugging tools for accessibility, and where to look for more information. The key thing you can take away is a new perspective on how to evaluate the quality of your work in relation to web accessibility so you can identify issues that may not have been previously apparent.

Bio

Hi I'm Maz, I love the web and helping other people to love it too. I'm passionate about web user interfaces. How we build them, how they are for our users, and how they form part of our daily lives. I enjoy sitting in the grey area between dev and design and encouraging cross disciplinary conversations and workflows which enable us to deliver better experiences to our users.

Oleg Voronin

Team lead at Xero

Human API: undocumented features

Skills, tools and techniques useful when working in a people-based environment.
Diagnosing and troubleshooting common interaction problems.
Science and fault tolerance.

Bio

I’ve been working on user experiences for 10 years, still trying to nail it. Never thought about management before my current role. I love learning more about things so I mostly listen to talks, but sometimes I talk talks, too. What’s the most awesome thing you’ve learned last year? Tell me!

Lauren Locke

Academic Advisor, Wellington ICT Graduate School

No tech skills, no problem! Learn from graduates on how to transition into a career in ICT.

Lauren Locke from the ICT Grad School will interview a panel of 4 ICT Graduate students from different disciplines.The audience will hear from soon-to-be graduates in the fields of UX Design, Software Development and Business Analysis. Topics will cover a range of topics related to transitioning into technology including networking, resumes, interviewing and diversity in the NZ tech sector.

Bio

The Wellington ICT Graduate School works alongside academia to bridge gaps with industry and disrupt the traditional system. An initiative developed by Wellington’s three leading tertiary establishments (Victoria University, WelTEC and Whitireia), the Wellington ICT Grad School seeks to advance and support the development of ICT skill and talent throughout New Zealand. Five Master’s-level degrees are taught, developing students in the areas of software development, business analysis, user experience design and VFX. The Wellington ICT Grad School has a joint industry and academic board and its central team is located in downtown Wellington.

Lauren Locke is the Academic Advisor for the Wellington ICT Grad School. With a non-linear career in international development, sustainable tourism and academia, she is passionate about building connections which increase global understanding and the thoughtful use of future technology.

Craig Spence

Development Technical Lead @ Trade Me

Scaling JavaScript at Trade Me

Our team at Trade Me have spent the last 5 years figuring out how to make *big* JavaScript applications work. We've experiences all the ups and downs that you could imagine over that time - big wins, big losses, huge risky moves that failed, big gambles that paid off, and we're learned a heap along the way. As we shift gears on this project and it becomes "the way we do things" at Trade Me, it seems like a good time to reflect upon what we've done, and share some of the lessons we're learning with the wider community.
What went well? What went terribly? What would we definitely change? What would we definitely do again? What do we do next?
Let's talk about JavaScript, web technologies and how our choices impact what we build. Let's discuss people, cultural shift, trade-offs and continuous improvement. And let's look to the future. 🌟

Bio

Craig is a Tech Lead at Trade Me. He loves building cool things that help teams build cool things! He also loves punk rock, Disney's Frozen, and his cat Cosy.

Amelia Laundy

Returning Organiser

Amelia is a rising star in the firmament of Wellington IT. A graduate of the training powerhouse that is Enspiral Dev Academy she has worked with local luminaries such as Owen Evans at Hoist, Dave Williams at Trade Me, and, um, Owen Evans at 8i. Boasting development prowess which rampages across multiple stacks as well as the kind of organisational skills which would give Brunel cause to pause she is a linchpin of the organising committee.

Annah Gerletti

Organiser

Two years ago Annah came along to Code Camp to see what this IT lark was all about. Last year she gave a talk. This year she’s on the organising committee. Whaaaat! Originally from Arizona, she’s hit the Wellington IT scene with the pace of a roadrunner, and the impact of the Chicxulub asteroid. Currently she works at Flux Federation helping their app run like it’s on Rails. Annah brings to the committee boundless energy and a Get Stuff Done attitude which will make this the greatest code camp since the last one.

Ben Amor

Returning Organiser

Ben has worked with of the biggest names in Wellington, including alumni of both Xero and Trade Me. To widespread astonishment, including their own, they're all willing to work with him again. He brings a great sense of fun, a quirky sense of humour and a sterling can do attitude to everything he does and we think it's just splendid that he's joined us for the fourth Wellington Code Camp.

Bevan Arps

Founding Organiser

Bevan is the driving force behind Code Camp Wellington as well as the Wellington .NET user group. He's an alumnus speaker of TechEd and Code Camps in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. Over his long and storied development career he's written code you can bank on as well as some that's right on the button. We can only hope he's not going soft as Code Camp moves into its fourth year and we're delighted that he's brought his vision and zeal to the committee for another round.

Charlotte Hinton

Organiser

Charlotte brings all her experience from running internationally recognised events, such as WDCNZ and Xerocon to the Code Camp Wellington team. From delivering events to coaching teams, Charlotte loves working with people who want to change the way that they approach how they work. Her approach helps team navigate obstacles that they might stumble over - so that they instead leap and makes their work transparent and visible.

Craig Marshall

Speaker Liason

Craig has worked with both start-ups along with some of the more established technology companies around town leading their development teams. Having just finished up working for Aetna Health Insurance in the US and traveling the globe earning thousands of frequent flyer miles, Craig offered to help out the team for the 2019 Code Camp. Welcome to the team Craig!

Gareth Bradley

Speaker Liason

Gareth is a passionate speaker & organiser, with past involvement in communities covering software development (methodologies, Javascript/Angular, .NET), user experience, Toastmasters and internal corporate. He’s here to help our speakers succeed - from those with a tentative idea, those new/new-ish to public speaking, to any range of past presentation experience.

Marielle Hawkes

Speaker Liason

Marielle’s day job doesn’t have much to do with tech – unless you count despairing over the functionality of government IT systems. She does, however, care a lot about supporting her local community and diversity. From founding a women’s network at her work, to co-founding a small e-commerce store called We Love Local, Marielle is always looking for cool ways to bring people together.