Discover my talks, workshops, and media appearances across the tech community.
I regularly speak at conferences, meetups, and workshops at the intersection of software development, developer experience, and creating inclusive tech communities. I also share insights through podcasts, interviews, and written content. Here you'll find my upcoming speaking engagements, past events, and other media appearances.
Conference talks, workshops, and meetup presentations
This session focuses on bridging technical competence and professional confidence by teaching developers how to effectively demonstrate and communicate their skills through building solutions, sharing knowledge, and presenting work. The practical framework includes speaking about experiences, building projects both at work and elsewhere, sharing expertise through social media, and managing impostor syndrome. By the end of the session, participants will have practical strategies to confidently discuss their work and prove their capabilities as developers.
Search is no longer just about Google. AI assistants, large language models, and conversational search engines are reshaping how people discover content—and the old rules of SEO aren't enough. This talk explores AI Engine Optimization (AEO): how to structure your web content, metadata, and schema markup so that AI systems can accurately surface, cite, and recommend your work. Drawing from real-world implementation experience, we'll cover practical strategies for optimizing structured data, semantic clarity, and content authority in a world where your audience might be asking ChatGPT instead of searching Google.
In an era where AI and tech influencers often promote jumping directly into framework development, this talk emphasizes the critical importance of mastering JavaScript fundamentals before diving into frameworks like Vue.js. Drawing from real-world experience transitioning into Vue 3 development, we'll explore why solid JavaScript foundations are crucial for effective framework usage. Through practical demonstrations and real-world examples, we'll examine how core JavaScript concepts directly map to modern framework features, using Vue 3 as our primary example. This session will help developers understand why 'learning to walk before running' in JavaScript is essential for long-term success in framework development.
This session focuses on bridging technical competence and professional confidence by teaching developers how to effectively demonstrate and communicate their skills through building solutions, sharing knowledge, and presenting work. The practical framework includes speaking about experiences, building projects both at work and elsewhere, sharing expertise through social media, and managing impostor syndrome. By the end of the session, participants will have practical strategies to confidently discuss their work and prove their capabilities as developers.
Search is no longer just about Google. AI assistants, large language models, and conversational search engines are reshaping how people discover content—and the old rules of SEO aren't enough. This talk explores AI Engine Optimization (AEO): how to structure your web content, metadata, and schema markup so that AI systems can accurately surface, cite, and recommend your work. Drawing from real-world implementation experience, we'll cover practical strategies for optimizing structured data, semantic clarity, and content authority in a world where your audience might be asking ChatGPT instead of searching Google.
In an era where AI and tech influencers often promote jumping directly into framework development, this talk emphasizes the critical importance of mastering JavaScript fundamentals before diving into frameworks like Vue.js. Drawing from real-world experience transitioning into Vue 3 development, we'll explore why solid JavaScript foundations are crucial for effective framework usage. Through practical demonstrations and real-world examples, we'll examine how core JavaScript concepts directly map to modern framework features, using Vue 3 as our primary example. This session will help developers understand why 'learning to walk before running' in JavaScript is essential for long-term success in framework development.
In the tech industry, we often focus heavily on technical abilities while undervaluing the crucial 'soft skills' that can make or break a developer's career. This talk delves into nine fundamental people skills that are essential for thriving in software engineering, presenting practical, actionable steps for improvement in each area.
This talk reimagines professional networking through the familiar lens of database associations, making relationship-building more approachable for developers. By mapping associations to networking scenarios, we'll transform technical knowledge into effective social strategies.
The how and why of creating effective lightning talks for technical audiences.
Podcasts, interviews, articles, and recorded content
Discussion about the importance of developer communities, mentorship, and creating inclusive spaces for learning. We explored how beginners can leverage community involvement for career growth.
Host: Dan Ott & Bekah Hawrot Weigel
Nerando shares lessons and experience as part of Dev.to's ongoing YouTube community events, focused on peer learning and open sharing.
Nerando Johnson shares insights on participating in developer communities for learning and mentorship. Part of the Virtual Coffee Lightning Talks series.
I'm available for speaking engagements on topics including JavaScript fundamentals, Vue.js development, open source contribution, civic hacking, and building inclusive developer communities.