[LA-2026] Adding program

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program.md

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+Title = "Program"
+Type = "program"
+Description = "Program for devopsdays Los Angeles 2026"
+Icons = "true"
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content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/arthur-freyman.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "14:00"
+Talk_end_time = "14:45"
+Title = "Build a Better Loop: A Guide to Platform Engineering"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["arthur-freyman"]
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+
+From scrappy sysadmins and early SRE teams to DevOps and today's platform engineering wave, this talk traces how operations have evolved—and why the next frontier is treating your platform as a real internal product for developers. This talk will unpack what a modern platform actually is (and isn't), show how ideas like Team Topologies, golden paths, and "glue as a service" fit together, and share concrete strategies for success: adopting a product mindset, obsessing over developer experience, measuring with DevEx/DORA-style signals, and ruthlessly stripping away incidental complexity so autonomous teams can move faster with less coordination. You'll leave with a practical mental model and a set of patterns you can apply immediately to build a better loop between developers, platform, and the business.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/dondiego-aponte.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "13:30"
+Talk_end_time = "13:45"
+Title = "Barns Don't Burn Down Because of One Loose Nail, But Yours Just Might"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["dondiego-aponte"]
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+
+Kubernetes is exceptionally good at keeping things running—and sometimes a little too good at hiding when they're not. Pods restart, nodes reschedule, alerts auto-resolve, and dashboards stay green long after the system has started misbehaving.
+
+In this 10-minute talk, we'll walk through examples of Kubernetes failure patterns where missing observability signals and incomplete instrumentation allow small problems to quietly pile up until they become a production outage. We'll show how infrastructure-heavy dashboards—and "AIOps" systems confidently declaring "this is fine"—create blind spots that delay human intervention.
+
+Using OpenTelemetry as a practical example, we'll dig into how to instrument for behavior instead of resources, correlate metrics, logs, and traces by default, and surface early warning signs before users feel the impact.
+
+Because barns don't burn down because of one loose nail—but modern production systems absolutely can.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/john-willis.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "09:00"
+Talk_end_time = "09:45"
+Title = "When AI agents go rogue: DevOps lessons from the rise of polymorphic AI"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["john-willis"]
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+
+As AI agents gain the ability to plan, adapt, and even rewrite themselves, they introduce both new power and new risk to software delivery. This talk looks at real incidents and emerging research to show how polymorphic agents can reconfigure behavior, bypass constraints, and challenge assumptions about "safe" automation. Attendees will learn to recognize red flags and rethink quality in a world where tools don't just follow instructions—they evolve.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/joshua-lee.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "10:00"
+Talk_end_time = "10:45"
+Title = "DevOps is a Foreign Language (or Why There Are No Junior SREs)"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["joshua-lee"]
++++
+
+DevOps has a notoriously steep learning curve. Getting started in the field can feel like being dropped in a foreign country without the ability to understand *anything* about the language.
+
+A language is more than just the syntax and semantic rules of the words themselves. It also encompasses the shared culture of the speakers. With the proliferation of programming languages as well as the deeply held cultural beliefs of the community, it's easy to see that learning DevOps is like trying to learn a foreign language.
+
+I will review five foundational hypotheses from the field of Second Language Acquisition and relate these hypotheses back to the world of DevOps. DevOps practitioners, trainers, tool builders, and learners should all come away with useful insights to apply to their practice.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/moshe-zadka.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "11:00"
+Talk_end_time = "11:45"
+Title = "The AI Productivity Paradox: Why Some Teams Thrive While Others Drown"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["moshe-zadka"]
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+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/scott-mabe.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "15:00"
+Talk_end_time = "15:45"
+Title = "Gen AI for the Gen X Guy"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["scott-mabe"]
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+
+GenAI for the GenX guy is a talk about how being a member of the forgotten apathetic generation has led to a healthy distrust of GenAI.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/shalini-sudarsan.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "16:00"
+Talk_end_time = "16:45"
+Title = "From DevOps to AIOps: The Next Leap in IT Operations"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["shalini-sudarsan"]
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+
+For years, DevOps improved delivery speed, automation, and feedback loops, which were effective until they began to fail. As the stacks expanded into microservices and multi-cloud environments, the alert stream evolved into a firehose. While additional dashboards and stricter thresholds enabled teams to respond more quickly, they did not stop recurring problems or decrease the overall noise. The solution was not "more tools." It was a playbook update. That update starts with the basics of clean data, consistent tagging, reliable telemetry, clear ownership, and real SLOs. Once the foundation is in place, apply AIOps where it excels.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/program/tom-howe.md

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+Talk_date = "2026-03-06"
+Talk_start_time = "17:00"
+Talk_end_time = "17:45"
+Title = "How AI is Accelerating the Pace of Innovation (And Why Humans Still Matter)"
+Type = "talk"
+Speakers = ["tom-howe"]
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+
+The innovation cycle is compressing dramatically. At Hydrolix, a real-time analytics platform company, we're witnessing this transformation firsthand within our product development team. What once took months now takes days.
+
+AI enables rapid experimentation, faster customer feedback loops, and dramatically shortened time-to-market for proofs of concept. However, this speed doesn't eliminate the need for human expertise—it transforms it.
+
+In this session, Director of Field Engineering Tom Howe will explore how AI is reshaping the innovation timeline, the competitive advantages this speed creates, and why human judgment and oversight have become more critical than ever—just in fundamentally different ways.
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers.md

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+Title = "Speakers"
+Type = "speakers"
+Description = "Speakers for devopsdays Los Angeles 2026"
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content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/arthur-freyman.md

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+Title = "Arthur Freyman"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "arthur-freyman.jpg"
+linktitle = "arthur-freyman"
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+<h3>
+Director of Engineering - Ziprecruiter
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+Arthur Freyman is Director of Engineering at ZipRecruiter, where he leads the Core infrastructure and platform organization, focusing on cloud-native architectures, reliability, and developer experience. Active in infrastructure, security, and operations for multiple decades, he has held senior engineering and leadership roles at companies including Foursquare, Riot Games, Spokeo, and uSamp, and has consulted for enterprises such as Disney, DirecTV, Kroger, and L3 Communications. His work centers on building secure, resilient platforms at scale and enabling teams to deliver software quickly and safely.
+</p>
+
+<h4>Presentations</h4>
+<p>
+<b>Build a Better Loop: A Guide to Platform Engineering</b><br><br>
+From scrappy sysadmins and early SRE teams to DevOps and today's platform engineering wave, this talk traces how operations have evolved—and why the next frontier is treating your platform as a real internal product for developers. This talk will unpack what a modern platform actually is (and isn't), show how ideas like Team Topologies, golden paths, and "glue as a service" fit together, and share concrete strategies for success: adopting a product mindset, obsessing over developer experience, measuring with DevEx/DORA-style signals, and ruthlessly stripping away incidental complexity so autonomous teams can move faster with less coordination. You'll leave with a practical mental model and a set of patterns you can apply immediately to build a better loop between developers, platform, and the business.
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/benjie-de-groot.md

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+Title = "Benjie De Groot"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "benjie-de-groot.jpg"
+linktitle = "benjie-de-groot"
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+<h3>
+Chief Architect - Shipyard
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/dondiego-aponte.md

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+Title = "DonDiego Aponte"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "dondiego-aponte.jpg"
+linktitle = "dondiego-aponte"
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+<h3>
+Manager of Solutions Engineering - Grafana Labs
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+Dondy Aponte leads at the intersection of technology, people, and purpose. He has spent his career helping teams navigate complex technical systems while fostering environments rooted in trust, inclusion, and accountability. With deep experience in infrastructure and observability, he values clarity over noise and progress over perfection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a servant-leader, Dondy believes the best leaders create space for others to grow, contribute, and succeed. He brings a thoughtful, people-first approach to leadership—shaped equally by his professional experience and by life outside of work as a father.
+</p>
+
+<h4>Presentations</h4>
+<p>
+<b>Barns Don't Burn Down Because of One Loose Nail, But Yours Just Might</b><br><br>
+Kubernetes is exceptionally good at keeping things running—and sometimes a little too good at hiding when they're not. Pods restart, nodes reschedule, alerts auto-resolve, and dashboards stay green long after the system has started misbehaving.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this 10-minute talk, we'll walk through examples of Kubernetes failure patterns where missing observability signals and incomplete instrumentation allow small problems to quietly pile up until they become a production outage. We'll show how infrastructure-heavy dashboards—and "AIOps" systems confidently declaring "this is fine"—create blind spots that delay human intervention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Using OpenTelemetry as a practical example, we'll dig into how to instrument for behavior instead of resources, correlate metrics, logs, and traces by default, and surface early warning signs before users feel the impact.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Because barns don't burn down because of one loose nail—but modern production systems absolutely can.
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/engin-diri.md

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+Title = "Engin Diri"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "engin-diri.jpg"
+linktitle = "engin-diri"
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+<h3>
+Customer Success Architect - Pulumi
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+Engin is a Customer Success Architect at Pulumi and has been in the IT industry for over 15 years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He started as a Java backend developer and later migrated to the fronted development.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is where he found his passion for CI/CD, Cloud technologies and in particular Kubernetes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Engin is a very curious person and loves learning and testing new technologies.
+</p>
+
+<h4>Presentations</h4>
+<p>
+<b>Building AI Platforms Without Losing Your Engineering Principles</b><br><br>
+As organizations adopt generative AI, platform teams must support multi-node inference, GPU-based model serving, and growing API sprawl while keeping the developer experience simple. This session explores Kubernetes-native approaches like kserve, high-throughput frameworks like vLLM, and gateways like LiteLLM for standardized model access. Attendees will learn concrete patterns for supporting AI at scale while preserving the principles that made their platforms successful.
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/john-willis.md

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+Title = "John Willis"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "john-willis.jpg"
+linktitle = "john-willis"
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+<h3>
+Author and Consultant - Botchgalupe Technologies
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+John Willis has worked in the IT management for over 40 years. He is researching DevOps, DevSecOps, IT risk, modern governance, and audit compliance. Previously, he was an Evangelist at Docker Inc., VP of Solutions for Socketplane (sold to Docker) and Enstratius (sold to Dell), and VP of Training & Services at Opscode, where he formalized the training, evangelism, and professional services functions at the firm. Additionally, Willis founded Gulf Breeze Software, an award-winning IBM business partner specializing in Tivoli technology deployment. As an author, Willis has written six IBM Redbooks on enterprise systems management and four books for IT Revolution, including the DevOps Handbook. He is working on his latest book, The Operational History of Generative AI.
+</p>
+
+<h4>Presentations</h4>
+<p>
+<b>When AI agents go rogue: DevOps lessons from the rise of polymorphic AI</b><br><br>
+As AI agents gain the ability to plan, adapt, and even rewrite themselves, they introduce both new power and new risk to software delivery. This talk looks at real incidents and emerging research to show how polymorphic agents can reconfigure behavior, bypass constraints, and challenge assumptions about "safe" automation. Attendees will learn to recognize red flags and rethink quality in a world where tools don't just follow instructions—they evolve.
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/joshua-lee.md

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+Title = "Joshua Lee"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "joshua-lee.jpg"
+linktitle = "joshua-lee"
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+<h3>
+Developer Advocate - Altinity
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+osh is a seasoned software developer with over a decade of experience, specializing in a broad range of topics including operations, observability, agile methodologies, and accessibility. His passion for technology is matched by his enthusiasm for sharing knowledge through public speaking. Currently, Josh serves as a Developer Advocate for Altinity, where he creates educational content on ClickHouse and OpenTelemetry.
+</p>
+
+<h4>Presentations</h4>
+<p>
+<b>DevOps is a Foreign Language (or Why There Are No Junior SREs)</b><br><br>
+DevOps has a notoriously steep learning curve. Getting started in the field can feel like being dropped in a foreign country without the ability to understand *anything* about the language.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A language is more than just the syntax and semantic rules of the words themselves. It also encompasses the shared culture of the speakers. With the proliferation of programming languages as well as the deeply held cultural beliefs of the community, it's easy to see that learning DevOps is like trying to learn a foreign language.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will review five foundational hypotheses from the field of Second Language Acquisition and relate these hypotheses back to the world of DevOps. DevOps practitioners, trainers, tool builders, and learners should all come away with useful insights to apply to their practice.
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>

content/events/2026-los-angeles/speakers/jyoti-varpe.md

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+Title = "Jyoti Varpe"
+type = "speaker"
+image = "jyoti-varpe.jpg"
+linktitle = "jyoti-varpe"
++++
+<h3>
+Software Development Engineer - IronClad
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+</p>
+
+<style>
+  p {
+    text-align: justify;
+  }
+</style>