Michael Carducci

The pursuit of perfection in engineering and art

7:30 PM MDT

It begins with a vision - an awe-inspiring idea that both excites and motivates you. Then the compromises begin… Budget, schedule, scope, work/life balance; you're forced to cut a corner here and there and the vision of perfection slips further and further away until the end result is fragile, fetid shell of your original idea. How can we deal with inevitable compromises while maintaining our integrity as engineers (and pride in our work)

Like many of his talks, Michael has a very unique perspective on this phenomenon. After nearly two decades of experience both as a software engineer and as a professional magician he leverages all his skills explores this topic in an entertaining and insightful manner. It turns out creating beautiful, perfect code is not very different from creating the perfect card trick.

The Influential Engineer Overcoming resistance to change

4:30 PM MDT

By the end of this conference you will have learned many new tools and technologies. The easy part is done, now for the hard part: getting the rest of the teamand managementon board with the new ideas. Easier said than done.

Whether you want to effect culture change in your organization, lead the transition toward a new technology, or are simply asking for better tools; you must first understand that having a “good idea” is just the beginning. How can you dramatically increase your odds of success?

You will learn 12 concrete strategies to build consensus within your team as well as 6 technique to dramatically increase the odds that the other person will say “Yes” to your requests.

As a professional mentalist, Michael has been a student of psychology, human behavior and the principles of influence for nearly two decades. There are universal principles of influence that neccessary to both understand and leverage if you want to be more effective leader of change in your organization.

In this session we discuss strategies for getting your team on board as well as when/how to approach management within the department and also higherup in the organization.

Fully Optimize Your Memory

8:30 PM MDT

Unlock your latent photographic memory. In this session you'll learn failsafe techniques and systems that allow you to never forget names, appointments, or numbers. In the process you'll be more effective and imaginative at work; improve reading speed and comprehension, and shorten study times.

An improved memory will change your life, literally. In the session we will describe in detail several memory techniques that, with a little practice, will have you remembering virtually anything you want.

Scaling Out MySQL - Architectures and Implementation

9:00 AM MDT

Whether your goals are higher concurrency, lower latency or high availability; there are proven techniques and strategies you can implement. Each requires careful consideration and comes with it's own challenges.

In this session we'll examine several architectures for running MySQL at scale and will be building each of the architectures live and hands-on.

Productivity for the hopelessly disorganized

3:15 PM MDT

It happens to us all; there are simply days where it seems impossible to get anything done. This session focuses on techniques and tips to get into the zone, stay in the zone and to protect your productivity, even in disruptive environments.

Rather than focusing on any one productivity methodology (e.g. GTD) This talk analyzes the internal and external factors that affect our productivity and offers broader strategies to get back on track.

Soft Skills for the Software Architect: Building Your Professional Network

5:00 PM MDT

You've heard the old adage “It's not what you know it's who you know.” The focus of this session is divided between ways to better connect with everyone you meet as well as ways to grow your network, help and influence people and ultimately build long-term relationships and build your reputation.

Networking isn't about selling nor it isn't about “taking.” Done properly it benefits everyone. Among the benefits are strengthening relationships; getting new perspectives and ideas; building a reputation of being knowledgable, reliable and supportive; having access to opportunities and more!

Slides available online: https://prezi.com/ck1fdbhgqwiq/?token=8f8240f753ad9ae2c50ce696657020f40a877a40fa224790652eb412ac5eb8d3

VDD: Value Driven Development 10 Golden Rules for incremental Greatness

10:45 AM MDT

On the NFJS tour, there are questions that seem to come up again and again. One common example is “How do we determine which new tools and technologies we should focus our energy on learning?” another is “How do we stop management from forcing us to cut corners on every release so we can create better and more maintainable code?” which, after awhile becomes “How can we best convince management we need to rewrite the business application?”

There is a single metaanswer to all these questions and many others.

It begins with the understanding that what we as engineers value, and what the business values are often very different (even if the ultimate goals are the same) By being able to understand these different perspectives it's possible to begin to frame our arguments around the needs and the wants of the business. This alone will make any engineer significantly more effective.

This session picks up from where “Stop writing code and start solving problems” stops discussing what is value, how do we align the values of the business with the needs and values of the engineer.

Stop writing code and start solving problems

3:15 PM MDT

Being a professional software engineer, it's easy to fall into the belief that one's role in a company is to write code.
Another perspective might be that one's role is to solve problems for the business and that writing code is merely one of several tools available to help solve those problems.

There are numerous problem-solving “anti-patterns” that are rampant in the industry today. “Forewarned is forearmed” as they say. In addition to highlighting these “anti-patterns” with real-life examples and the (sometimes) disastrous consequences, Michael asks some of the difficult questions about our true motivations for our decisions and how our decisions can either positively or negatively affect our team and our organization.