The era of the text-only chatbot is over. Join GDG Essex for an intensive, hands-on workshop where we shift from building basic applications to engineering highly agentic systems that interact with the world just like humans do.

We are bridging the gap between a "cool demo" and a "production-ready AI Agent." In this multi-session event, we will dive into the AI models, scalable architecture, cloud security, and database foundations you need to ship intelligent, multimodal agents powered by Google Cloud and Google AI.

Speakers and Session:

Keynote Session

The Growth Catalyst: Turning AI Fear into Real-World Impact

Speaker: Natalia Julio-Finnan (Strategy and Operations Lead, Google)

Description: In a fast-moving AI landscape, the biggest threat to success isn't technical—it's the rising tide of uncertainty and fear. Natalia brings her business-side expertise to show how to prevent project failure by transforming these crises into powerful catalysts for growth. This session provides a non-technical framework for building resilience and navigating the human side of tech, offering practical strategies to turn AI challenges into tangible, real-world impact.

Hands-on Workshops (Codelabs)

Build a Photo Restoration App using Genkit Go and Nano Banana Pro

Speaker: Daniela Petruzalek (Senior Developer Relations Engineer, Google Cloud)

Description: Build "GlowUp," a photo restoration tool that uses AI to restore old, damaged, or black-and-white photos into high-quality 4K color images. You will use Genkit Go to implement the application logic and Gemini 3 Pro Image (Nano Banana Pro) as the model to process the photos. You will learn Genkit concepts like flows, plugins, prompts, and how to handle multimodal model responses.

Design to Production with AI: A Deep-Dive into Google Stitch & Firebase Studio

Speaker: Ida Delphine (Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud)

Description: Turn your vision into a fully functional, deployed application with little to no code. This workshop demonstrates a revolutionary workflow: ideating and designing high-fidelity UIs with Google Stitch, refining them in Figma, and using Firebase Studio’s AI agents to build the logic, database, and authentication. By the end of this session, you will have built and launched a real-world application.

How to Add Short-Term Memory to Your AI Agent with ADK

Speaker: Buchi Michelle Okonicha (Google Developer Expert, Software & ML Engineer)

Description: Learn how to pass information between agents using short-term memory. This workshop breaks down the Google Agent Development Kit (ADK), explaining how sessions, events, and state work together to keep your agent context-aware. It includes a "Memory loss vs. memory fixed" codelab comparison to help you implement intelligent, stateful automation.

Advancing Generative AI integration with Vertex AI Node.js SDK

Speaker: Patricia O'Callaghan Olivo, Google Developer Expert, Head of AI Architecture and Engineering Group.

Description: This session explores the Vertex AI Node.js SDK, which allows developers to integrate Google's advanced generative AI models, such as Gemini, into their applications. It offers a comprehensive guide on leveraging these technologies for creating AI-powered features.

Technical Deep Dives

Beyond the Prototype: Autonomous Agents with Go and Google ADK

Speaker: Nicholas Breckwoldt, PhD (Lead AI & ML Engineer, Alis Exchange)

Description: Shift from local prototyping to orchestrating autonomous agents at scale. This session makes the case for the Go programming language as the ideal candidate for high-concurrency, low-latency agent deployments. Featuring a head-to-head comparison of Go and Python ADK agents, attendees will gain data-driven insights into how runtime decisions affect performance in the full agent lifecycle.

Build Healthcare Assistant with VertexAI, MedGemma, and Gemini

Speaker: Gabriel Preda (Principal Data Scientist, Endava & Kaggle Grandmaster)

Description: Discover the architecture behind a specialized healthcare assistant. Move from a simple medical image interpreter to a sophisticated agentic application powered by multiple multi-modal models including MedGemma and Gemini. This session covers the implementation of orchestration, validation, and guardrails using the Antigravity framework.

Enhancing SRE with Google Cloud's Gemini Cloud Assist and Code Assist

Speaker: Jai Ian Fuller Campbell (SRE Expert)

Description: Explore how Gemini is transforming Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). Learn how Gemini Cloud Assist empowers teams with proactive SLA creation and root cause analysis, and how Gemini Code Assist optimizes infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, YAML, Bash). This session features a live demo of AI-driven remediation and toil reduction in modern cloud workflows.

Building a Better AI: Practical Steps Towards Responsibility and Ethics

Speaker: Dr. Roushanak Rahmat (Google Developer Expert, Lead Data Science Consultant at IBM)

Description: Moving beyond theoretical discussions, this talk focuses on the practical frameworks necessary to build responsible AI. Explore actionable strategies for addressing bias, promoting fairness, and ensuring transparency. This session prioritizes ethical considerations in the creation and deployment of data-driven technologies to ensure AI remains human-centric.

What Attendees Can Expect

• Step-by-Step Learning: Focused sessions breaking down models, architecture, security, and databases for agentic systems.

• Hands-on Labs: Build working agent prototypes using Google AI APIs and cloud-native developer tools.

• Expert Guidance: Learn directly from cloud architects and AI specialists.

• A Complete Blueprint: Walk away knowing exactly how to launch a secure, autonomous AI-powered product.

• Local Networking: Connect with Essex’s community of engineers, architects, and innovators.

Who Should Attend

• Students, Developers & Software Engineers

• Cloud Architects & AI/ML Engineers

• Data scientist and Database engineer

• Security & DevSecOps Professionals

• Product teams building next-generation AI features

Ready to build the future? Secure your spot and RSVP today!

Hosting Sponsor

We thank our Hosting Sponsor, University of Essex, for providing the venue and support.