Beyond the Tech: People Who Made Devoxx France 2025 Special

This year, I had the pleasure of attending Devoxx France as a speaker for the third time.

However, this year was different from the previous two. I felt more at ease, without any pressure from giving two talks or the need to attend all sessions. I met amazing individuals who made this event truly special and memorable.

Devoxx France is a conference held in Paris, France, featuring three days of talks, 70 exhibitors, over 300 speakers, and 4,500 attendees.

My Schedule ​

As always, I prepared my schedule each morning while waiting for the first session. Arriving 45 minutes early to be first in line gave me the time to plan my day!

You might wonder why I arrive so early. The reason is simple: each day starts with two keynotes, but the main amphitheater only has 800 seats. Although they are broadcast in other rooms, I prefer being in the main room to see the speakers in person and enjoy the atmosphere. To secure the best seat, I have to arrive early since the line is already long 40 minutes before the first session begins.

This year, many sessions focused on AI, LLMs, and Agents. It's fascinating to see AI's evolution reflected in session titles. In 2023, it was about "AI" and "LLM"; in 2024, "AI" and "RAG" (Retrieval-Augmented Generation); and in 2025, "AI" and "Agents." It's incredible how fast the landscape is changing!

Yet, I aimed to avoid sessions on AI and LLMs, as this topic is already pervasive. I sought out sessions with less conventional topics.

Here was my schedule for the three days of Devoxx France 2025:

1. Wednesday, April 16, 2025
   • L'Intelligence Artificielle n'existe pas by Luc Julia
   • Luc Julia sans filtre : l'IA, la tech et les idées reçues by Luc Julia
   • Arcane: Quand la technologie n'est pas le produit: une série d'animation by Philippe Llerena
   • Comment nous avons transformé les Restos du Cœur en Cloud Provider by Julien Briault and Stéphane Trognon
   • "Ça marche dans mon .devcontainer" by Benoit Moussaud
2. Thursday, April 17, 2025
   • Language, IA et propagande : la guerre des récits a déjà commencé by Elodie Mielczareck
   • La territorialisation des infrastructures comme levier de pouvoir by Ophélie Coelho
   • Les clés de l'architecture pour les devs by Christian Sperandio and Cyrille Martraire
   • Design System : Du Chaos à la Cohérence avec style ! by Claire Gourcy
   • On met en place une stack React props et complète by Olivier Abdelnour
   • Load-testons M6+ pour préparer l'Euro 2024 by Paul-Henri Pillet and Benoit Colin
   • La réactivité et les signaux : démystifions la magie du frontend by Estéban Soubiran (it's me!)
3. Friday, April 18, 2025
   • Plongez dans l'Ère Quantique : décryptez et anticipez la révolution à venir by Fanny Bouton
   • Les LLM rêvent-ils de cavaliers électriques ? by Thibaut Giraud
   • 45 min pour mettre son application à genoux : le guide complet du test de charge by Loïc Ortola and Mathilde Lorrain
   • En JavaScript, il y a un paquet pour tout... et souvent pour rien. by Estéban Soubiran (it's me, again!)
   • Construire une IA agentique avec les Structured Outputs, Function Calling et MCP by Julien Dubois
   • Optimisation des requêtes PostgreSQL : Parlons Performance ! by Laetitia Avrot

These were just the sessions I attended. I had to make choices and possibly missed some great talks. Fortunately, the sessions are recorded and available on the Devoxx France YouTube channel.

This year, I attended fewer sessions than in previous years, opting to spend more time connecting with people. One highlight was visiting the Clever Cloud stand, where I had an engaging conversation with Clément Nivolle, co-founder of Clever Cloud. We discussed topics ranging from the French cloud ecosystem to the influence of hyperscalers on politics. At the Microsoft stand, I talked with Baptiste Ohanes about Microsoft, the cloud, and AI. I also reconnected with Tugdual Grall, whom I had met at GitHub Galaxy 2023. He showcased new features of GitHub Copilot, like the Agent mode. Watching his demo, it was clear that by not using AI, you're missing out on many advancements. Thank you all for the wonderful discussions!

If you attend conferences, don't neglect the value of networking—it can be more rewarding than the sessions themselves.

Talks I Loved ​

I had the privilege to attend many exceptional talks, and here are some of my favorites (in no particular order):

1. Arcane: Quand la technologie n'est pas le produit: une série d'animation by Philippe Llerena

   Arcane is a phenomenon—a true masterpiece and work of art. It was a brilliant decision to present a talk about Arcane. Philippe, the CTO of Fortiche, the studio behind Arcane, explained the crucial role technology plays in its production. It was refreshing to see how developers can empower artists and not only deliver another application.

   

2. Comment nous avons transformé les Restos du Cœur en Cloud Provider by Julien Briault and Stéphane Trognon

   The Restos du Cœur is a French charity providing food aid. In this three-hour talk, Julien and Stéphane shared the story behind transforming their IT system. The connection between a charity and a cloud provider might be unclear, but with over 35,000 people served daily, and every euro equating to a meal, an expensive provider wasn’t an option. This journey led to creating an in-house cloud provider. It exemplifies using technology for humanitarian solutions. Their work is truly inspiring, and I hope the project continues to grow.

   

3. Design System : Du Chaos à la Cohérence avec style ! by Claire Gourcy

   Claire, a UX-UI designer at Michelin, shared the journey behind creating Michelin's design system, which unifies the experience across all products, services, and tools. It reminded me of the challenge Infomaniak faces in unifying its web platforms and services. It was impressive to see the project's evolution from a best-effort initiative into the fully-implemented Motion Design System.

   

4. 45 min pour mettre son application à genoux : le guide complet du test de charge by Loïc Ortola and Mathilde Lorrain

   This talk was a masterclass. The content was incredibly insightful—I learned a lot—and the presentation by Loïc and Mathilde was impressive. Their collaboration, humor with the Bref moment, and use of techniques like slides, live coding, refactoring, and real-world examples made it engaging. The practical tips showcased the power of load testing.

   

   

I highly recommend watching these talks. Enjoy!

My Talks ​

This year, I had the pleasure of delivering two talks, which involved a lot of fun and hard work! 🫠

1. La réactivité et les signaux : démystifions la magie du frontend (in French, "The Reactivity and Signals: Demystifying the Magic of Frontend" in English)

   This was my flagship talk, and I spent weeks preparing it (and I'm continually improving it for future presentations). The goal was simple: exploring and deeply understanding the library Alien Signals through real code explanations. This talk targets those seeking a deep understanding of reactivity in JavaScript. The full room indicated strong interest, with more than 200 attendees. When informed there were no free seats five minutes before my talk, my stress level rose. But once I started, I entered my zone, and the stress vanished.

   

   After a year of work, it was the real first use of Inalia, the SaaS I'm developing to enhance talks with real-time interactions. One feature enables the audience to respond with emoji reactions, sharing their real-time thoughts and feelings. Seeing 🍆, 🍑, and 👅 on screen was amusing, at times requiring me to focus elsewhere than on my slides! 😆

   More than 20,000 emoji reactions were sent during the talk! 🤯

   

   When the audience uses reactions effectively, it becomes transformative. I can sense when they're lost, bored, or genuinely interested.

   Understanding Align Signals and building this platform was arduous but worthwhile. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, despite the deep, technical content. Thank you all for your feedback and enthusiasm.

2. En JavaScript, il y a un paquet pour tout... et souvent pour rien. (in French, "In JavaScript, there is a package for everything... and often for nothing" in English)

   This talk centers on Ecosystem Performance, an initiative to clean up, speed up, and enhance the JavaScript ecosystem, especially packages. I presented the project and tools to help anyone understand their node_modules and make improvements. Preparing and presenting this 15-minute talk was fun, and feedback shows attendees learned something new.

   

Special Thanks to Takima ​

Sometimes, one encounter can completely transform your experience.

I'm not the most outgoing person, and I've always found it challenging to strike up conversations with new faces—even approaching exhibitors can be difficult. Over the years, I've attended meetups, conferences, and other events on my own, as my friends aren’t web developers. While I enjoy going to these gatherings, it can feel a bit exhausting to go it alone, especially during a three-day event like Devoxx France where networking plays a big part, or during the meet-and-greet party where people are at the heart of the moment.

This all changed when I met the incredible team from Takima during their TakiMeet events. They attended my talk, and their stand felt like a welcoming headquarters—a place where I always had someone to chat with or even a spot to sit and relax, even with empty social batteries. This change was a game-changer for me and this year's Devoxx was an absolute blast!

Thank you to the amazing team at Takima—with special thanks to Mathilde, Camille, and Cyrielle—for your genuine hospitality and the conversations we shared. I truly appreciated our time together and I hope to reconnect soon. 🫶

It's all about the people!

To Be Continued ​

Devoxx France was a blast, but the adventure doesn't end here. At the end of April, I'll be attending MiXiT to deliver the same talk on reactivity and signals. The journey continues in June with BreizhCamp. If you're in the area, don't hesitate to come and say hi!

Happy coding! 👋