{ August 2nd, 2025 }

Big Sky Dev Con is a summer tech conference in Bozeman, Montana, hosted by Montana Programmers. This year's event features hours of presentations—17 talks in total—covering everything from running LLMs on mobile and JSX without React to Rust-powered potato cannons, HTMX 3D games, and teaching Vim at scale. It's a mix of real-world software, ridiculous side projects, and lessons from the edge of what's possible in dev, design, and tech business.

Join Montana's tech community this August and get inspired to build something a little wild. If you're tired of boring conferences, this is your kind of conference.

{ Speakers }

Robbie Wagner
Currently slinging JS for HashiCorp; Previously slung JS for Amazon, Apple and Netflix. Host of Whiskey Web and Whatnot, member of the Ember Learning Core Team.
typecraft
I am a developer, and lifelong nerd. Currently working as a senior Rails API developer. And a content creator (typecraft). Most of my career has been in a full-stack capacity, bouncing between Rails, React/Next, Elixir, and back to Rails.
Stephanie Gredell
I have been at LinkedIn for the last 11 years as a software engineer. Prior to LinkedIn, I had 10 years of professional experience at small to medium companies and been a nerdy programmer since I was 12. While I spent a good portion of my career doing UI work, I have been working in the backend for the last 7 years. Currently I work in Infra on the gRPC team at LinkedIn.
Carson Gross
Dr. Gigi & Kendall Hamilton
Dr. Gigi Hamilton is an organizational psychologist, executive coach, and author of The Cape Escape. With 25+ years of experience, she helps professionals grow careers and lead through tech and gaming, using her RISE Framework to bridge innovation and leadership. Kendall Hamilton is a top-ranked Rocket League player, esports consultant, and performance coach. He helps professionals leverage gaming for career success, translating skills like strategy and teamwork into tech, AI, and leadership development.
Adam Stepinski
17 years in tech as a software engineer, manager, and director. Started my career at Google, but soon got the startup bug and worked on an education technology startup just as tablets started gaining popularity in schools. Past 8 years in various roles at Instawork, where we were early adopters of Intercooler/htmx. Created Hyperview at Instawork to build our 2 flagship mobile apps.
Barrett Breshears
I am a programmer and mobile developer
Mike Amundsen
Internationally known author and speaker
Dennis Ivy
Working on @appwrite, contributor to @freecodecamp & @traversymedia, developer advocate, instructor.
Warren Buffering
Internet personality; he went to college for 7 years
Turner Houghton
Senior software engineer @ Liberty Mutual
Tony Ennis
Product builder/entrepreneur. Avid hypertexter. Startup founder (yc s21). Created html-first.com and a number of no-build frameworks. Runs https://reallygoodsoftware.net
Duncan Lutz
I started my journey into tech in 2022 creating basic web applications. Since then I've branched out significantly, building web scrapers, large-scale data pipelines, backend API's, CLI Tooling, a Rust / HTMX web framework, and more. At my day job I work primarily in Javascript, Python, Go and Rust, but I branch out into other languages whenever possible.
Ken Wheeler
i made a bunch of open source, got canceled, disappeared into finance and now i cook and have a cutie wife
Dan Vail
C++ developer working on Elder Scrolls Online. Has good calves.
Jon-Michael Hartway
I'm a software engineer at a medium sized telecommunications company but i've been programming for almost 12 years now. Outside of programming I also like to tinker with networking equipment, servers, and general electronics.
Alex Petros

{ Schedule }

8:00am - 9:00am
Check in
Light breakfast offered
9:00am - 9:10am
Opening Remarks
From Montana Programmers & BSDC Organizer
9:15am - 9:35am
Carson Gross
TBD
9:40am - 10:00am
Stephanie Gredell
From Human To Bots
10:05am - 10:25am
typecraft (Chris Power)
VaaS (Vim as a service) -- How to teach vim to thousands of people with Rails and Go
10:30am - 10:50am
Robert Wagner
HTML is stealing our jobs!
10:55am - 11:15am
Warren Buffering
Browsers are for Reads, Native Apps are for Writes
11:20am - 11:40am
Jon-Michael Hartway
Building things for twitter clout(http://x.com/)
11:40am - 12:50pm
Lunch & Live Podcast
Whiskey Web and Whatnot
12:55pm - 1:15pm
Ken Wheeler
you can just build things
1:20pm - 1:40pm
Duncan Lutz
Potatoes Go Brrr: Adventures in High-Speed Embedded Rust
1:45pm - 2:05pm
Mike Amundsen
Making Connections and Solving Problems : Hypermedia's Legacy and Future
2:10pm - 2:30pm
Barrett A Breshears
Backends?!? Where we are going we don't need backends
2:35pm - 2:55pm
Adam Stepinski
Hyperview: Building a Hypermedia client for Mobile apps
2:55pm - 3:15pm
Afternoon Break
3:20pm - 3:40pm
Dr. Gigi Hamilton and Kendall Hamilton
Two Sides of the Game: How Esports & Gaming Skills Drive Success in Tech & Leadership
3:45pm - 4:05pm
Alex Petros
What's Left for Frontend Engineers?
4:10pm - 4:30pm
Dennis Ivy
TBD
4:30pm - 4:50pm
Turner Houghton
JSX minus react plus htmx
4:50pm - 5:10pm
Tony Ennis
The Platform and a Stylesheet (A path to Platform <> SPA Parity)
5:15pm - 5:35pm
Dan Vail
I'm dumb and so can you!
5:35pm - 5:45pm
Closing Remarks
5:45pm - 5:55pm
On Stage Group Photo
7:00pm - 9:00pm
After party at the SHINE Brewery!

Our Sponsors

{ Exhibitors }

{ Supporters }