Meet a Speaker Michael John Pena

Not long now until DDD Sydney 2018 and in the lead up we wanted to make sure you get to know our speakers. Today we wanted to introduce you to Michael John Pena, aka MJ, who’s Readify’s resident Blockchain expert.

DDD: What excites you most about being a speaker at DDD Sydney?

MJ: DDD Sydney has been well known to be a technology event where community is at its core. It’s where you meet passionate people talking about the topics they really care about. What excites me most about DDD Sydney is that, this year, there are a lot of topics and tracks to choose from! Traditionally it has been centered to Developers, but I think the term DDD is becoming more diverse now: “Development, Design, Data”? I am so excited also to questions that people might raise to my talk and what are their thoughts about Blockchain.

DDD: How did you get into speaking?

MJ: I started public speaking back when I was 16-years-old in ‘Uni’ as part of Microsoft Student Partner program. I have been very passionate about public speaking, especially sharing my technical knowledge to the audience. A huge chunk of my professional career also involves: Delivering hands-on training, consultation with clients, and general presentation. What keeps me motivated up until this point is the people I get to meet, share ideas and as well as the learning I get before, during and after my presentations. If I get at least 1 person in the room motivated to pursue the topic I am talking about, that is always more than enough for me.

DDD: What should people expect in your talk?

MJ: My talk will cover one of the most interesting topics lately: “Blockchain”. In the talk, people will learn how you, as a developer, can start working on the Blockchain platform. Just like modern technology stacks we have today, there are set of techniques and practices that we can leverage in implementing your Blockchain solutions such as DevOps and Cloud computing technologies. My talk will cover how you can leverage the Cloud for your Blockchain platform as well as drive Continuous Integration and Deployment using VSTS (Visual Studio Team Services).

DDD: What talks, other than your own, are you looking forward to seeing?

MJ: Besides Blockchain, my interest lately revolves around ML (Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence). In particular, I am interested to see Caspar Yuill’s talk about “How we know what we know: Using philosophy and ethnography to define the limits of AI”. I am also interested on the new junior track that I believe we should have more often in all technology conferences. I would definitely attend Jigyasa Rathour’s “LESS is always MORE – The simple rules of shipping quality software”.

DDD: Anything else you want to say to people thinking of coming to DDD Sydney?

MJ: It’s definitely worth it for the value of your money and time. It’s very seldom that you can have this kind of “jam-packed” talks in a day for the price of 60 dollars. If you are looking at professional talks and networking opportunities with the people you follow, this is definitely one of those places. The list of speakers is awesome, the topics are awesome, make sure to bring your ‘learning hat’ on.

Catch Michael’s talk, Blockchain, Cloud and DevOps, at DDD Sydney 2018.