The Engineering Leadership Summit is a loosely structured gathering where topics and themes are generated just in time focused on Directors, Managers, and Staff+ Engineers.
Participants gather, build an agenda, and convene sessions. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda was generated just in time, by the attendees. It allows for meaningful conversations, teaching, and learning to take place throughout the day.
This format, using Open Space Technology, allows participants to exchange ideas and information deemed most valuable by those in attendance. Because of this, the agenda for an unconference can go anywhere. Rather than traditional conferences, which require heavy up-front planning and rely on predetermined tracks or themes, an unconference allows ideas to flourish and evolve as the day goes by.
The four principles set the stage:
The one law encourages personal responsibility: If, during our time together, you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, move to some more productive place.
The one admonition is "Be Prepared to Be Surprised"!
The summit will be held online via Gather (You can learn more at https://www.gather.town/). We used Gather for other events in 2023 and 2024 (see the pictures) and it resulted in wonderful rich interactions via an online space.
This is the structure for the day. The specific sessions will be determined by the attendees on the day of the event.
Times shown in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), UTC -4.
10am to 11am - Build the agenda, bring your topics!
11am to 11:45am
11:45am to noon
noon to 12:45pm
12:45pm to 1:45pm
1:45pm to 2:30pm
2:30pm to 2:45pm
2:45pm to 3:30pm
3:30pm to 3:45pm
3:45pm to 4:30pm
4:30pm to 5pm
5pm to ???
Mike Clement is a husband, father of four, and currently a Distinguished Software Engineer at Hunter Industries. Mike believes we work best when we are working together and that there are no best practices—only better and worse ones depending on the context. Some leading practices Mike is passionate about are Test Driven Development, Pair and Mob Programming, User Story Mapping, Domain Driven Design and Open Space Technology. Passionate about raising the bar of technical excellence in the software development community, Mike is a founder and organizer of Software Crafters Atlanta, the Software Crafters Unconference, and the Lean+Agile Atlanta Unconference.
Amy Dredge is a technology leader who cares deeply about her teams and business performance. She believes that it is not only possible but optimal to have teams who are happy and deliver outstanding value to customers. She is on a quest to develop the skills to provide clarity for her teams: from a business plan down to individual responsibilities, so everyone can do work that is fulfilling and sustainable.
Amy is the VP of Engineering at Nursa where she leads over 50 team members that power a healthcare staffing marketplace with the mission of putting a nurse at the bedside of every patient in need. Amy is passionate about Test Driven Development, whole team collaboration, and a budding interest in human centered design.
As the mother of four children, Amy approaches motherhood with a continuous improvement mindset and hopes to one day look back and realize she has released several major versions under the guise of patches.
Will Munn is a multifaceted professional with over two decades of experience driving innovation and collaboration in the realms of technology, game design, and community building. As a Software Engineering Leader at L2L, Will leads teams in crafting cutting-edge connected workforce solutions that empower manufacturers to optimize productivity and efficiency. His expertise spans software development, crafting, and leadership.
Will is also an accomplished game designer, best known for his work on acclaimed tabletop roleplaying games such as Zorro: The Roleplaying Game and Arium. Will’s approach to storytelling and game mechanics has earned him recognition in the tabletop gaming community.
A passionate advocate for learning and connection, Will has been involved in numerous professional communities. He is a former organizer of Agile Roots and the SLC.NET meetup, where he cultivated spaces for knowledge sharing and growth among developers and Agile practitioners.
Whether he’s designing immersive worlds or leading teams, Will brings a blend of creativity, technical expertise, and leadership to every endeavor
Similar to the Engineering Leadership Summit but includes software developers from all levesl of experiences as well as others interested in the craft of building software.
Find out moreWhere: Online
A group of programmers that are passionate about our craft. We have a different format from your usual technology user group. Here is our format:
Monthly in Atlanta, GA
All attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers at the Engineering Leadership Summit 2025 are required to comply with the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everyone.
We as participants pledge to make participation in Engineering Leadership Summit 2025 a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy event.
Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our event include:
Examples of unacceptable behavior include:
Engineering Leadership Summit organizers are responsible for clarifying and enforcing standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.
Engineering Leadership Summit organizers have the right and responsibility to remove parti or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the Engineering Leadership Summit organizers responsible for enforcement at coc@elsummit.com. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly.
All organizers are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.
Organizers will use the following guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this code of conduct:
| Level | Infraction | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| I | Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or unwelcome in the community. | A private, written warning from organizers, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested. |
| II | A violation through a single incident or series of actions. | A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the code of conduct, for a specified period of time. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban. |
| III | A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior. | A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period of time. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the code of conduct, is allowed during this period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban. |
| IV | Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression | A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the community. |
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.0, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/0/code_of_conduct.html and the MenderCon CoC.
