Quarkus at IBM TechCon 2026

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Event Description: Our 8th annual virtual event is for thought leaders and creators. IBM can help you activate the agentic enterprise with intelligent, resilient, and asset-smart systems.

Date: March 17-19th
Location: Virtual
Event Type: Virtual

https://www.ibm.com/events/reg/flow/ibm/l2ma0vmb/landing/page/landing

March 17th, Day 1 Sessions

Session: Developer Journey: Accelerating Developer Productivity
Speaker(s): Holly Cummins
Date/Time: March 17th, Day 1 at 9-10am EST (10-11 EDT)
Abstract: In 2026, developer productivity is no longer measured solely by lines of code, but by the velocity of the "inner loop" and the seamlessness of the path to production. As we move into the era of agentic AI and highly distributed hybrid clouds, the "Developer Journey" has faced new frictions from configuration drift to cognitive overload.

This session provides a high level strategic overview of the modern developer journey with following capabilities:
• Augmented Inner Loop: Leveraging AI agents and open-source standards to accelerate local development.
• Standard First Architecture: Why relying on Jakarta EE and MicroProfile creates portable, future-proof systems.
• Observability by Design: Moving beyond simple logging to a standardized telemetry approach that provides instant feedback.
• The Path to Production: Eliminating the "Day 2" bottlenecks through automated guardrails and cloud native adoption.
Whether you are an architect looking to standardize your organization’s output or a developer seeking to reclaim your flow state, you will walk away with a blueprint for modernizing your engineering practices and a clear understanding of where the developer journey is headed next.

Session: Modern Java at Warp Speed: Deep Dive into Developer Productivity
Speaker(s): Daniel Oh
Date/Time: March 17th, Day 1 at 10:10 - 11:10am EST (11:10-12:10 EDT)
Abstract: Join us for a live, hands-on demonstration of Quarkus, the revolutionary Java framework designed to supercharge your development experience.

In this interactive session, you'll witness firsthand how Quarkus can dramatically improve your productivity as a Java developer. Daniel will delve into the core features of Quarkus, demonstrating how tools like live coding, test automation, zero-config Testcontainers, native compilation, and more can streamline development workflows. We'll explore how these features can accelerate the development of modern Java applications, from Jakarta REST services to complex data transactions, security, cloud deployment, virtual threads, and AI integration.

Whether you're a seasoned Java developer or just starting, this session will provide valuable insights into how Quarkus can transform your development process. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn from experts and see the power of Quarkus in action.

March 18th, Day 2 Sessions

Session: Why Spring Developers should love Quarkus!
Speaker(s): Eric Deandrea
Date/Time: 11:30am-12:30pm EST (12:30-1:30 EDT)
Abstract: Spring dominates the Java landscape, but are you aware of other similar yet different frameworks out there?

Let me show you Quarkus, the new Java Jedi. I'll open up the cloak and dig into the inner workings of both Spring Boot and Quarkus,
showing how the concepts and conventions familiar to Spring developers actually work. I'll show what Quarkus does with those same
concepts and conventions to make it so resource efficient.

If someone asked you if you wanted to save 50% in your Java application operational costs, wouldn't you be interested? What if it involved close to zero effort? Come to this session to learn how!

March 19th, Day 3 Sessions

Session: Quarkus and LangChain4j: Build your first agentic AI-infused Java applications
Speaker(s): Kevin Dubois & Alex Soto
Date/Time: 9:00-10:00am EST (10:00-11:00 EDT)
Abstract: The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is here, and it's transforming industries around the globe. But for enterprise developers, the question remains: How can we use this powerful technology without becoming AI experts?

This session will take you through how Quarkus, Red Hat's high-performance Java framework, and LangChain4j, a powerful AI integration library, make it easier than ever to infuse AI into existing enterprise applications.

Next, we'll delve into the agentic workflow, learning how to craft effective prompts, chain models together, and preserve the state. We'll also explore agents and function calling, and discover how to enrich your AI models (LLMs) with your business domain documents using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Finally, we'll explore how to add observability and fault tolerance to agentic AI-infused applications.

Whether you're a seasoned AI developer or just getting started, this session will equip you with the knowledge and skills to build modern AI-infused applications with Quarkus.

Session: Serverless Java in Action: Cloud Agnostic Design Patterns and Tips
Speaker(s): Kevin Dubois
Date/Time: 11:30am-12:30pm EST (12:30-1:30 EDT)
Abstract: In this session we'll show you how to create a production-grade, cloud-agnostic, event-driven serverless solution with Quarkus, a Java stack optimized for fast startup and small footprint; and Knative, an open source community project for deploying, running and managing serverless applications on Kubernetes. Say goodbye to vendor lock-in and hello to Supersonic Subatomic Java-based Serverless bliss!