{dev.talk} - The One with the Cliffhanger

Hi there,

This event explores how AI can accelerate learning and skill growth in teams, alongside practical ways to simplify day-to-day developer setup. Attendees will gain real examples of AI-supported development and a clear approach to managing tools, tasks, and runtimes consistently across projects.

Thank you for being part of our amazing community of software engineers and tech enthusiasts.

Quick Reminder: Organising these events takes a lot of time and effort from our dedicated volunteers. If your plans change and you can't make it, please cancel your ticket via the ticketing app or drop us an email at contactus@devdottalk.uk. This helps us manage the event better and allows others to attend.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, 20th May 2026

Time:

• Doors open: 6:50 PM
• Event starts: 7:00 PM
• Event ends: 9:00 PM

Location: Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus

Venue

Maps & Directions

• 🅿️ If driving, head to the visitors car park: Parking Location (Parking marked with a P pin on the campus map below)
• 🎥 Watch the video showing how to get from the car park to Kimmeridge house: Car park to Kimmeridge house Video
• 📍 Navigate to Kimmeridge House entrance: Google Maps pin for Room K101 or what3words (Kimmeridge House marked with a KH pin on campus map below)
• More directions on the BU website & official Talbot Campus map

Visitors Car Park

Courtyard

Kimmeridge House – Room K101

Bus Stop

Building Entrance: Kimmeridge House has one entrance, accessed via the courtyard in the middle of campus (CY pin on Campus map). The room is on the first floor — take the stairs or lift, then turn left from the stairs or right from the lift.

Accessibility: Flat entrance at ground level with lift access to the first floor.

Travel Options

• Bus: Drops off at the main entrance on Fern Barrow (BS pin on the campus map above)
• Train: Nearest station is Bournemouth Station (~45 min walk). Taxi or bus from station takes 15 mins.
• Bike: Bike racks available on campus.
• Parking: Free during the event. Check signage when parking: Google Maps location

Speakers

AI and the zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development describes the space between what a learner can achieve independently and what they can achieve with guidance. Traditionally, bridging that gap required a more knowledgeable other — a teacher, a mentor, a senior colleague. The constraint has always been human: one expert can only scaffold so many learners at once. AI changes this. Not by replacing the expert, but by making expert knowledge available at scale, at the moment of need, personalised to each learner's specific gap. This talk draws on three live implementations — an AI-powered ballet examination tool, an administrative learning loop for a property management team, and an AI technical assistant deployed within a software development team — to explore how AI can compress the ZPD in ways that were previously impossible. How junior developers can be brought up to speed without draining senior bandwidth. How users can create personalised learning loops that question them, surface their gaps, and scaffold them toward mastery. And how teams can preserve essential institutional knowledge even as they grow and change. The talk will be honest about the limits: AI scaffolding without human expertise to validate it produces confident learners with confidently wrong knowledge. The more knowledgeable other still matters. But used well, AI doesn't just assist learning — it democratises the conditions for it.

Speaker Bio

AI Artisan | Developer | Designer | Artist

One Tool to Run Them All: Simplifying Your Dev Environment

Do you wander across many repositories and technology stacks? Have you ever stood before your terminal, wondering which incantation must be spoken in which environment?

In the lands of modern development, every project brings its own tools, versions, and commands. What begins as a simple journey soon becomes a tangle of scripts, forgotten setup steps, and environments that refuse to behave.

But... there is another way.

In this talk, I will introduce mise-en-place* — a small yet powerful tool that brings order where there is chaos, consistency where there is uncertainty, and a sense of calm to the ever-shifting world of developer environments.

With mise, your tools, tasks, and runtimes can be gathered and managed in one place, a single, reliable front-end to your development environment, no matter how many repositories you travel between.

Join me to discover how one simple tool can restore harmony to your workflow and lighten the burden of managing modern development setups.

*Pronounced “MEEZ ahn plahs.”

Speaker Bio

Mark Oliver is a seasoned Principal Software Engineer and Team Leader with over 25 years of experience in the software industry. Throughout his career, he has developed multi-million pound software solutions for the aerospace, e-commerce, and telephony sectors. With more than a decade of team leadership, Mark has successfully guided teams of various sizes, leaving a lasting impact on both his colleagues and the projects they have delivered. He is also the founder of the {dev.talk} community.

What to Expect

We'll have soft drinks and some snacks available to keep you refreshed throughout the evening. If you have any dietary restrictions or allergen concerns, please let our organisers know.

Upon arrival, we'll check your ticket and provide you with a name badge. This is a great opportunity to network with fellow attendees, so don't be shy, introduce yourself.

The night will consist of some software focussed talks (normally 2) interspersed with networking opportunities.

For more on the event format, see our Attending page and FAQs.

Important Notes

Photography & Recording: Please note that the event will be recorded and photographed. If you prefer not to be included in any photos or videos, kindly inform the camera operator. These materials will be used to promote future events and shared on platforms like YouTube.

We Can't Wait to See You

Thank you for being part of {dev.talk}. We're excited to connect, learn, and grow together as a community. See you soon!

Warm regards,

The {dev.talk} Team