The Atlanta chapter of the GRC Engineering Club is now an official community partner of the Atlanta Developers’ Conference.
This is our chapter’s first community partnership, and I am excited about what it represents. Our logo is already featured on the conference homepage alongside other groups supporting Atlanta’s developer community. Now I want our members to do more than notice the logo. I want us to participate.
The conference takes place Saturday, October 17 at FCS Innovation Academy in Alpharetta. It is built by the community, for the community, with programming for students, career switchers, experienced engineers, and plenty of people who fall somewhere in between.
One week left to submit a talk
The Call for Speakers remains open through September 24. That gives you one more week to propose a session.
New speakers are explicitly encouraged to submit. You do not need a long conference résumé or a highly advanced topic. The Foundations track is designed for beginners and students, and the broader program welcomes practical lessons from people at different experience levels.
GRC Engineering practitioners have relevant stories to tell here. Secure-by-design development, software supply-chain risk, SBOMs, secrets management, AI and LLM security, automated evidence, guardrails, and the human decisions behind trustworthy software all sit inside the conference’s areas of interest.
If you have learned something useful, built something that solved a problem, or found a better way to explain a difficult concept, consider sharing it.
More than one kind of developer
The program is broad enough to meet people where they are.
Some talks will focus on building AI applications and agents, including LLM apps, RAG, tool use, MCP, evaluations, and guardrails. Others will examine how AI-assisted development is changing the way software gets shipped through coding agents, copilots, AI code review, and refactoring.
There are also focused tracks for people who want to improve their skills in languages and frameworks such as Python, JavaScript and TypeScript, C#, Rust, Go, Kotlin, and Java. Web, mobile, game development, graphics, cross-platform engineering, security, and the software supply chain are all part of the mix.
Career development is not treated as an afterthought. The conference is also looking for sessions about building portfolios, finding mentors, growing into leadership, contributing to open source, navigating the workplace, and building a career while the technology around us keeps changing.
It will not all be sit-down lectures. After-hours activities are expected to include retro games, robotics demonstrations, snacks, and more time to continue conversations outside the session rooms.
“I’m not even a GRC engineer yet. How could I be a developer?”
I understand the hesitation. Titles can make an event feel like it belongs to somebody else.
Do not let the word developer scare you away.
This is an open, community-focused conference with resources and networking for people at every level, including students, newer practitioners, and career switchers. You do not have to arrive with a GitHub profile full of finished applications. You can arrive curious, honest about what you are learning, and ready to connect with people who know something you do not.
That is also part of our chapter’s ethos. We want practical learning to be accessible. We want people to cross the artificial lines between governance, security, compliance, engineering, and development. We want members to see how software gets designed and built, because that knowledge makes us better partners in managing its risk.
The cost supports that same accessibility. General admission tickets range from $10 to $20, and lunch is included. For a full day of technical sessions, career programming, hands-on ideas, and community connection, that is a lot of value without a conference-sized price tag.
Show up with us
Our first community partnership should be something our members can feel, not just another logo exchange.
Submit a talk before September 24. Buy a conference ticket. Explore a technical topic that is new to you. Introduce yourself to somebody outside your usual professional circle.
Most of all, do not be intimidated by the names of tracks or job titles. Arrive authentically, ready to learn and connect.
Atlanta assures everything, and our chapter members shouldn't be afraid to pull up anywhere!