MD DevDays 2025 proved to be a remarkable event for vempio, with Falko Werner and Luca Ingianni delivering four diverse sessions to an audience of 750 participants. From a keynote on AI-powered development to an innovative hands-off hackathon, their presentations covered the full spectrum of modern software development challenges and solutions.
Keynote: “Wer selber codet, ist selber schuld!” - AI Tools in Software Development
The highlight of vempio’s presence was the keynote presentation “Who codes manually is at fault! AI Tools in Software Development Properly Applied” delivered by Falko and Luca. In this 30-minute session, they demonstrated how AI tools like GitHub Copilot, GitLab Duo, and ChatGPT are revolutionizing software development.
The keynote explored how these technologies can dramatically reduce development time, minimize errors, and make projects more efficient. The speakers made a compelling case that manual coding without AI assistance may soon become a thing of the past. The session is now available as a recording on YouTube, making these insights accessible to a broader audience.
Key Takeaways:
- AI tools are fundamentally changing how software is developed
- Proper integration of AI assistants can significantly improve efficiency
- The future of development lies in human-AI collaboration, not replacement
Continuous Delivery: The Pragmatic Approach with MinimumCD
Building on the MinimumCD initiative that emerged from DevOps Enterprise Summit 2021, Falko and Luca presented a practical pathway to continuous software delivery. This 60-minute session addressed the common question: “Where do you actually start with Continuous Delivery?”
Rather than getting lost in complex tool landscapes, the presentation focused on the three core elements needed to begin, and how to systematically build and evolve CD practices. Through concrete challenges and solutions - from oversized stories and manual testing to automation - attendees learned how to successfully introduce CD in their teams.
Key Takeaways:
- Focus on essential elements rather than complex toolchains
- Build CD practices incrementally and systematically
- Address common pitfalls like story sizing and test automation early
- Every change should be safely and reliably deployable to production
“It’s the Product, Stupid!” - Product Management as Shared Responsibility
In their product management session, Falko and Luca tackled a critical issue: why many teams using cutting-edge technologies and agile methods still fail to achieve expected success. Often, the problem isn’t technical implementation or skills, but inadequate product management.
This intermediate-level session explored how to improve product management regardless of one’s role in the team. The speakers emphasized that successful product management is a team responsibility where everyone can and should contribute.
Session Outcomes:
- Clear diagnosis tools for assessing product management in your environment
- Practical approaches for different roles:
- Developers: How to constructively contribute to product strategy
- Product Owners: How to effectively engage and enable your team
- Scrum Masters: How to foster collaboration between product management and development teams
- Directly implementable improvements for daily work
- Real-world learnings from successful and failed projects
“Look Ma, No Hands!” - An AI-Only Hackathon
Perhaps the most innovative session was the experimental 2-hour “Night School” hackathon where participants developed applications without writing a single line of code themselves. All development had to be accomplished through AI tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, or similar assistants.
This unique format focused not on coding skills, but on the art of effective prompting. The challenge tested participants’ ability to guide AI tools in creating functional applications through natural language instructions alone.
Hackathon Structure:
- Introduction to various AI coding assistants
- Team building and development challenge presentation
- “Hands-off” development phase with regular prompting strategy exchanges
- Live demos of AI-generated solutions
- Collaborative code review: What did the AI do well? Where did it struggle?
- Final retrospective: Collection of best prompting strategies
Key Learnings:
- Practical experience with different AI development tools
- Arsenal of effective prompting techniques
- Realistic assessment of current AI coding capabilities
- Inspiration for AI-assisted daily development work
Impact and Community Engagement
The four sessions demonstrated vempio’s comprehensive expertise across the modern software development landscape - from AI-powered tooling and delivery practices to product strategy and experimental development approaches. By addressing both technical and organizational challenges, Falko and Luca provided 750 participants with practical insights they could immediately apply in their work.
The diversity of formats - from keynote to hands-on hackathon - showcased different learning approaches and engagement styles, ensuring that attendees with various preferences and experience levels could benefit from vempio’s expertise.
The recorded keynote extends this impact beyond the conference, making these AI development insights available to the broader software development community. This aligns with vempio’s mission of knowledge sharing and enabling developers to work more effectively with modern tools and practices.