Merge

Grand Rapids, MI April 28, 2025

https://merge.softwaregr.org/

CFP closes at  February 24, 2025 15:08 UTC
  (Local)

Merge will be held in Grand Rapids, MI on April 28th, 2025

Merge is a single-day conference for software practitioners: The developers, designers, operators, and product managers involved with delivering software.

Our mission is to elevate the practice of building effective software. We think software is important to the long-term success of West Michigan, and the broader region. It’s critical to our ability to complete nationally and globally.

CFP Description

Theme: Collaborate Seamlessly: Software without Silos

Merge Conference: Connecting Code, Design, and Product is where product managers, designers, and developers come together to explore the overlaps between their disciplines and build exceptional software as one team. Our theme for 2025, “Collaborate Seamlessly: Software without Silos,” focuses on breaking down barriers, fostering collaboration, and uniting diverse skillsets to create cohesive, innovative solutions. Through engaging talks and networking, the Merge Conference empowers teams to work seamlessly, strengthening the connections between product, design, and development to craft better software—and better outcomes—together.

Are you passionate about bridging the gaps between disciplines to build exceptional software? Merge is seeking speakers to share insights and strategies around “Collaborate Seamlessly: Software without Silos.” We’re looking for talks that explore the intersections of product, design, and development—from cross-disciplinary collaboration to unified systems and shared workflows.

We offer two speaking formats: • Main Stage Talks (45 minutes): Deep dives into your experiences, methodologies, and lessons learned • Lightning Talks (5 minutes): Quick, focused insights or specific techniques that sparked positive change

While we’ve provided example topics below, we encourage you to surprise us! Share your unique perspective and experiences that could help teams work better together. Whether you’re a product manager, designer, developer, or someone who works across these disciplines, we want to hear your story.

Example Topics:

  1. Idea to Launch: Product Lifecycle in Practice
  2. Building a Culture of Experimentation
  3. Engineering leadership / mentoring in an AI era
  4. Crafting a Compelling Product Vision Together
  5. Cross-Discipline Customer Discovery Methods
  6. Shared Roadmaps
  7. Estimating Complex Work Across Teams
  8. Designing AI-enabled Experiences
  9. Unified Design Systems: Developer-Designer Collaboration
  10. Prototyping Together
  11. The Return to Software Craft: Quality in an AI World
  12. Building Quickly vs. Building for Scale
  13. AI Powered Engineering: New Team Workflows
  14. Modern Software Architecture: Human-AI Collaboration

Attendees (2)

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