This was my third time speaking at JConf Dominicana, so I am practically a regular by now.

The community spirit is so present at this conference. As I wrote last year, I think it is the only conference I have been to where the attendees immediately put on the conference T-shirt they get at registration. Everybody walking around in matching shirts strengthens the feeling of belonging to the community. The attendees are a mix of students and professionals from the area. Most of the speakers are from Central America, but there are always a couple from other parts of the World as well.

This year’s conference started with JakartaOne Dominican Republic as a day-zero event on Thursday. Then there was a full day of workshops on Friday before the regular conference on Saturday. My talk was right after the opening session. I talked about Augmenting AI with the Power of Jakarta EE. The room was full, and there were good questions and conversations following the talk.

After the talk, I stayed for the hallway track. It is very inspiring to talk to young developers. Get their perspective on things, as well as (hopefully) being able to give some good advice and insights. A couple of the students were very eager to get involved in open source, so I pointed them to the mentorship program we have with Jakarta EE.