Keynote: The Makers of Marvels: How Developers Are Rebuilding the Enterprise, One Brick at a Time

Keynote: The Makers of Marvels: How Developers Are Rebuilding the Enterprise, One Brick at a Time - Abby Kearns, Executive Director, Cloud Foundry Foundation History teaches us that astonishing feats occur not when a singular leader envisions them, but when a mass of skilled workers collaborates to transform that vision into something material. The Pyramids of Giza, for example, were not built overnight by a Pharaoh, but constructed by tens of thousands of workers over a period of years. Today’s “pyramid” is quite a bit smaller, but a wonder of the world in its own right: The iPhone has transformed the world as we know it -- but most of its power comes from the app store, which offers thousands of apps created from the imaginations of thousands of developers. These developers are the makers of marvels in our time. They instantiate the very concept of digital transformation -- that notion of infrastructure disruption and re-assembly on the mind of every CIO. Business development is driven by software development, and software development is shaped by developers in the open source community. In her talk, Abby Kearns empowers developers to think of themselves as the doers and makers who hold the key to unlocking digital transformation. She will cover the importance of diversity among developers for the technology industry to evolve and to reflect its user base, and will highlight the key open source concepts and technologies powering this trans-industrial transformation. Abby Kearns Cloud Foundry Foundation Executive Director San Francisco Bay Area Abby is a true tech veteran, with an 18 year career spanning product marketing, product management and consulting at a mix of Fortune 500 and startup companies. As the first fellow at Cloud Foundry Foundation and VP of Strategy, Abby was responsible for structuring and executing operational and strategic initiatives, as well as leading the User Advisory Board and Industry Special Interest Groups. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was part of the Product Management team at Pivotal, focusing on Pivotal Cloud Foundry. Previously, Abby led a Product Management and Product Marketing team at Verizon focused on cloud services. In her free time, Abby enjoys posting up at her local coffee shop, indulging in food and wine, and spending time with her husband and son.