Besides my regular work, I like to unleash the teacher in me and share some knowledge at different meetups and conferences. This page contains my talk portfolio. If you see any session that might interest you, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Upcoming Talks

ConferenceConferenceTitleDateLink
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J-Fall Ede
2024-11-07
Event Website Link

Braving the Change: recalibrating to new realities

A talk about keeping up with changing environments, with a focus on the impact of AI.

‘Change is the only constant in our industry’… but they never told us it would go this fast. With the recent evolutions in AI, ‘change’ has shifted from a ‘constant’ to something better described as ’exponential,’ sparking excitement for some and existential dread for others.

In this session, we’ll discuss some insights into dealing with change gathered from experts in the field. We’ll explore the emotional aspects of change, contextualize our relation to change and discuss skills and strategies to deal with evolving landscapes.

After leaving this session, you’ll be better prepared for whatever change might come on your path. And with preparation comes bravery.

ConferenceConferenceDateTypeResources
Country Flag: nl
J-Fall Ede
2024-11-07
Keynote 🔑📃
Event Website Link
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J-Spring Utrecht
2024-06-13
Full Session
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Belgian Java User Group
2024-04-23
Full Session
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Rotterdam Java User Group
2024-03-12
Full Session
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Utrecht Java User Group
2023-05-25
Full Session
Event Website Link

Learning Through Tinkering

A talk about different approaches to help you embrace 'life long learning' as a professional developer!

Do you also feel like it’s hard to keep up with all the new tools and frameworks coming your way? You are not alone! By choosing IT, you are choosing to learn for the rest of your life… not an easy task.

In this session we’ll look into some concepts that will help you get the most out of your efforts to learn new shiny stuff!

We’ll go over a couple of example projects and give you some tools to keep learning without being overwhelmed by the flood of new technologies.

ConferenceConferenceDateTypeResources
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DevoxxUK
2023-05-10
Full Session
Event Website Link
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Jfokus
2023-02-07
Full Session
Event Website Link
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FooConf Helsinki
2023-02-01
Keynote 🔑📃
Event Website Link
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Brabant Java User Group
2022-12-13
Full Session
Meetup.com Website Link
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Devoxx Belgium
2022-10-14
Full Session
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J-Spring
2022-06-08
Full Session
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Devnexus
2022-04-14
Full Session
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BrightonJUG
2022-03-15
Online
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JavaZone
2021-12-08
Online
Country Flag: nl
J-Fall
2021-11-04
Full Session
Country Flag: england
London Java Community
2021-03-19
Online (Plushy Lightning)
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JNation
2019-06-04
Full Session
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Full Stack Antwerp
2019-04-24
Full Session
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Utrecht Java User Group
2019-03-25
Full Session
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Devoxx Belgium
2018-11-15
Quicky Session

Leaving a legacy: a guide to being kind to those who come after

A talk about taking responsibility for what you leave behind

There comes a time in any project when you feel you are completely ‘done’ with it. Either you’ve learned all you can, the software is in production or you are completely fed up with the project or team and ask for a transfer.

Whatever the reason for leaving, every line of code you wrote and every interaction you had will have a lasting impact on whoever needs to take over the reigns. How successful your successors will be is in no small part in your hands.

This talk is about taking responsibility for what you leave behind. You leave this session with some guidance on how to leave a legacy which isn’t despised and hated but instead is a solid foundation for future development.

ConferenceConferenceDateTypeResources
Country Flag: nl
J-Fall
2023-11-09
Full Session
Cospeaker: Elien Callens
Event Website Link
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Voxxed Brussels
2023-05-23
Full Session
Cospeaker: Elien Callens
Event Website Link
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JavaLand
2023-03-21
Full Session
Cospeaker: Elien Callens
Event Website Link
Country Flag: norway
JavaZone
2022-09-07
Full Session
Cospeaker: Elien Callens
Event Website Link

Release your creations into the world with JReleaser! 🚀

A talk about using JReleaser to swiftly share CLI apps and libraries on repositories like Maven Central and Homebrew.

As a developer, you’ve been getting dependencies and applications from places like Maven Central, Homebrew and Chocolatey. Have you ever wondered how you can add your own creations to those packagers and repositories? Wouldn’t that be cool?!? Anyone worldwide being able to install your CLI or use your library with the tools they already use?

In this talk, we’ll show you just how fast and easy it can be to do just that! We’ll show you practical examples, like sharing a CLI app through Homebrew or publishing your library on Maven Central while announcing it on social media, all using JReleaser! After this talk, you’ll have learned exactly what this free Open Source tool has to offer and you’ll know why we are so excited to tell you about it!

So strap on your jetpack and join us as we show you how to package, publish, release and announce your creations at the speed of light!

ConferenceConferenceDateTypeResources
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DevoxxUK
2024-05-09
Full Session
Cospeaker: Maarten Mulders
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Devoxx Belgium
2023-10-03
Tools In Action
Cospeaker: Maarten Mulders

Modern Testing Patterns

An introduction to Frameworks and Tools which help you write tests which more accurately reflect your production environment

Unit Tests by themselves give no guarantee that your system will work in a production environment. That’s where your code will have to work together with other resources like databases and APIs. Unfortunately, those are the kind of dependencies we try to avoid in tests by using mocking-frameworks. Risky business, because this means we’ll only know if the application really works when you push it to production.

In this session we’ll look at some strategies you can use to test your application without mocking your dependencies away. You’ll discover how tools like Liquibase, TestContainers, WireMock and Spring Cloud Contract can immensely improve your tests so you can deploy your application to production AND sleep at night.

ConferenceConferenceDateTypeResources
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Arnhem Java User Group
2023-04-20
Full Session
Meetup.com Website Link
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Jfokus
2022-05-04
Full Session
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Info Support Knowledge Night
2021-12-01
Online
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Voxxed Days Romania
2021-10-21
Online
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jLove
2021-06-26
Online
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JNation
2021-06-16
Online
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Bonn Java User Group
2021-06-09
Online
Country Flag: be
Computer Futures Meetup
2021-06-02
Online
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KDG University College
2021-01-26
Online

Anticipating the fallacies of distributed computing with the Netflix OSS

An introduction into the different tools Netflix has Open Sourced to support their Microservice Architecture!

The Netflix Open Source Software Center is a collection of Open-Source tools and libraries developed by Netflix to help them build the system they need to bring video stream to millions of users worldwide . In this presentation we will have a look at some of these libraries and discover how they solve problems that will occur when splitting your system into hundreds of microservices.

Even if you do not adopt microservices, the OSS-tools discussed in this session can help you to make your software more resilient than it is today.

ConferenceConferenceDateTypeResources
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Computer Futures Meetup
2018-06-13
Full Session
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Brussels Java User Group
2018-04-24
Full Session
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Utrecht Java User Group
2018-04-18
Full Session
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JVMCon
2018-01-30
Full Session
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JavaSi '17
2017-10-16
Full Session
Event Website Link
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JavaCro '17
2017-05-12
Full Session
Event Website Link