2024 MESCIUS DevIntersection Recap

Microsoft’s yearly DEVintersection conference has again come and gone with three full days of innovative presentations given by passionate speakers and leaders within the tech space. This year, DEVintersection 2024 was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. With over 60 speakers, 100 sessions, 20 workshops, and tons of sponsors, there was surely something for everyone at this year's event. I was lucky enough to attend DEVintersection this year, and through this blog, I’m going to share some of the key topics and themes covered at the event. Let’s dive right in!

While there were many sessions and presentations focused on newer .NET technologies, like Blazor and .NET 9, it should come as no surprise that AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) took center stage at this year’s event, which is partnered with the next GenAI conference.

Many main speakers at the event were heavyweights in the world of Microsoft development, such as Scott Hanselman, Scott Hunter, Jeff Fritz, John Papa, and more. The opening keynote on Tuesday was titled “Practical Real-world AI for Developers,” followed by a second keynote titled “Innovating with Azure AI: The Power and Possibilities of GenAI.” On Wednesday, the opening keynote was titled “Introducing .NET Aspire - Cloud Native Development for .NET.” As you can see from these titles alone, a large focus was centered around AI development and how to incorporate AI into your business workflow. There was also talk on cloud deployment, but this has been a talking point for quite some time and, in this case, used to showcase the new .NET Aspire development platform, which Microsoft describes as an “opinionated, cloud-ready stack for building observable, production-ready, distributed applications.”

Along with keynote speakers, there were plenty of sessions, panels, and workshops presented throughout the conference. Some of the workshops included “building your first application with Blazor and .NET 8,” a “Build your own copilot workshop,” and a workshop titled “Designing for secure enterprise Azure/AI solutions.” For reference, these workshops were 7-hour-long events that occurred on days without typical hour-long speaking slots. In regard to speaker sessions, on Tuesday, 18 out of 30 sessions covered AI in some shape or form. On Wednesday, only 24 out of 40 topics covered AI. Finally, on Thursday, 11 out of 29 topics were AI-related. As mentioned previously, not everything was about AI, but if you were looking for it, you had your pick of AI material to sift through during your time at DEVintersection.

Some other key points of interest involved security enhancements that can be applied to your applications, the introduction of .NET 9 and the features it brings, .NET MAUI developments for mobile applications, SignalR and Blazor enhancements, as well as GitHub Copilot tips and tricks for various platforms. There were also plenty of talks on cloud development, particularly in Azure, although some did mention AWS. Each of these presentations was hosted in the various Grand Ballrooms within the Marquee Ballroom of the MGM Grand Conference Center.

In between speaking sessions, conference attendees were treated to breakfast, coffee breaks, a lunch buffet, ice cream breaks, donut spreads, sponsor table meet & greets for swag and raffle giveaways, and an alcohol-serving bar at the end of each conference day within the expo hall. Each of these breaks offered great networking opportunities and collaboration amongst fellow developers and peers within the space. To end on a high note, Wednesday night was the conference attendee party by the MGM Grand pool area, where, from 8 to 10 p.m., attendees could enjoy a full-featured dinner and dessert buffet, along with a photo booth, an Elvis performance, bars, and cornhole. Watching Elvis perform while eating a steak dinner was definitely my favorite moment of the conference!

After attending DEVintersection, one of the most impactful aspects of the conference was the community formed. Many tight-knit connections were made during the conference, with plenty of opportunities to bond over the shared technologies that bring us all together. The takeaway for what those technologies are, as of today, are largely AI-focused. In the world of .NET development, AI will provide intelligent code completion and code generation for boilerplate code, functions, and even complex algorithms based on natural language descriptions. Developers can expect to see enhanced debugging and troubleshooting through more meaningful, automated bug detection and smart error messages, all powered by AI. Enhanced security features, improved documentation, and automated code refactoring are all functions that can be powered by AI, and the goal of this conference was to share strategies that actually apply that power to your own business workflow and applications. Moving forward, combining the power of AI with the power of the cloud, along with other advancements across Microsoft’s tech stack and development environments, will be the central talking points of future DEVintersection events if this year’s conference is any indication. Code on!