August 20, 2018 // By David Frankenfield
At Magenic, we have a passion for technology. We like to help those with genuine curiosity by creating an environment where an interest in technology can grow, which is why every year Magenic hosts the Magenic Tech Summit.
The Tech Summit is an annual event that embraces education and collaboration. Championed by CTO Rocky Lhotka, Magenic’s Technical Leadership team and employees are invited to connect and educate on some of the hottest technology trends.
This year’s Summit featured five cloud-focused technologies that will have great significance in the coming years: the value of .NET Core and other open-source platforms, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, the current and future potential of Artificial Intelligence, the intuitive landscape of Modern Web Applications, and the new acceleration of Java and Spring development.
The technologies all share a common theme, Matt Lockhart VP of Development and Strategy explains, “Our educational efforts are focused around more flexible technologies that also work on the cloud. The partnership we’ve developed with Pivotal, our growth in Spring Boot, and other open source cloud services have provided amazing growth opportunities we are pushing towards.”
Heather Akerson, a developer out of our Minneapolis headquarters, was part of the Java and Spring presentation team that didn’t know much about her subject before starting, “I was intimidated when I started, but I work well under pressure and I’ve learned a lot listening to all the presentations. I realized these are really smart people.” Heather was able to push past her apprehension and lead an insightful discussion on Java and Spring Boot with experts on the subject.
In addition to education, promoting comradery and building new relationships are also primary objectives of the summit. CTO Rocky Lhotka said, “We want to share knowledge. We want to learn from each other and grow as technology professionals together.” Rocky believes this sort of trust and relationships with co-workers is best developed in person. Being able to learn and educate along with executives and other top technical professionals in the company fosters collaboration, “[Companies are] not hiring the individual, they’re hiring Magenic. We are not an insular culture; we are a collaborative culture.”
The event isn’t just for technical minds either. CEO Greg Frankenfield and other executives attend the summit to meet with the participants, learn from their knowledge of innovative technologies, and foster professional development in key technical areas. Greg Frankenfield was candid about how he feels Magenic’s role is in cultivating the skills of Magenic employees, “our job is to make sure our employees are more valuable than when they arrived.”
The summit is just one of many opportunities at Magenic that encourage education and adds value to their employees’ careers. If you have a passion for technology and are interested in joining an organization that values personal development, apply to Magenic today.
See the highlights from the 2018 Magenic Tech Summit below: