DevFest Heraklion: Mixed Feelings & A Few Takeaways

Today I went to UoC CSD (yes my uni) for the GDG Heraklion talks, and honestly… it left me with a bit of a sour feeling.

A lot of it felt more like advertising Google AI tools (NotebookLM, Gemini, etc.) than giving us something real to take home. It was the usual vibe we already hear online: “use agents”, “use AI tools”, “become 10x” and so on.

That said, not all talks were bad. Some speakers were actually decent mot exceptional and it felt like they came to share interesting stuff from their work, or at least inspire people. But others… the slides were AI-generated (they straight up told us they just used notebookllm) and sloppy, and some didn’t even feel like they tried much. When you think “DevFest” you expect something a bit more solid.

The talk that stood out the most to me was the Flutter + Firebase one from the founder dude that was and ML engineer and vibe-coded a Flutter app without much mobile knowledge, super inspirational. He explained things in a very practical way, like how Firebase is basically low risk at the start (first ~10k users free, then you pay), and how useful stuff like a “kill switch” can be (forcing users to update). He also mentioned collecting user emails/feedback early because those people already committed to downloading your app, so be good to them, contact them, learn from them. He also reminded that there are rules depending on the country when you gather emails and user data.

Take Away's

In the last 30 minutes during questions (I’m a junior software engineer btw), these were the main things I kept:

• The most important breakthrough for junior devs: ask “why do it that way?” and don’t be shy.
• Negotiation matters more than you think. Even as a junior, make suggestions.
• Learn the basics on your own first, then use AI and never trust it keep asking it "why" and "why not do it that way".
• Book recommendation from the presenters about negotiation: Never Split the Difference
• Shape your CV based on the job you want, but if an opportunity comes and it’s not exactly your dream role — if it’s related, take the low-hanging job. Better to do something than nothing.

Overall… mixed experience. Some good parts, some “meh”, but at least I left with a few things worth remembering, some good free coffee and food and finally a good break spending it with colleges and friends.