An AI-Driven Approach to Creating Effective Learning Experiences at QCon

"A certification program was never possible because at a QCon, five concurrent tracks are running, 75 particular talks that are happening, so you'd have to have somebody cover every single one of those, bring it all together to be able to do some form of certification. Artificial Intelligence (AI) gave us the option to do this. The project embraced lean thinking and started with a series of low-fidelity experiments to ensure there was demand and need."

"The first cohort was limited to 30 people and has since been expanded at QCon San Francisco this year. The program, called the InfoQ Certified Software Architect in Emerging Technologies (or ICSAET), included special events during the conference, a pre-conference breakfast where participants could learn about upcoming activities, and an AI-driven workshop immediately following the conference. In the workshop, Reisz,"

A certification program became possible by using AI to synthesize content across five concurrent tracks and 75 talks, overcoming scale limits. The initiative applied lean thinking and low-fidelity experiments to validate demand, starting with a 30-person cohort later expanded. The InfoQ Certified Software Architect in Emerging Technologies (ICSAET) combined conference events, a pre-conference breakfast, and an AI-driven post-conference workshop. Core lessons emphasized building the right thing through lean and rapid AI prototyping to reach an MVP, continuous learning to keep pace with AI innovation, and preserving human-to-human interaction for collaboration, judgment, and learning.

Read at InfoQ