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Kansas City Java User Group

Get involved

We encourage the Kansas City JUG community to get involved! There are several outlets which community members can use to interact with the rest of the community. Check us out below!

We have a passion for all things Java™

Whether you are a dedicated professional or a coding hobbyist, novice developer or seasoned engineer, programming student or lifelong learner, the Kansas City JUG is dedicated to bringing content to the community about all things on the JVM.

If you’re curious about Kotlin, juiced about Jakarta EE, stoked about Spring, or anything in between, our meetups span a variety of topics related to Java™ and other JVM-based technologies.

We feature speakers from the local community as well as internationally renowned speakers, authors, and industry leaders.

In addition to the informative topics, Kansas City JUG meetups give our members the opportunity to network with other developers and our great sponsors! Our other platforms facilitate interaction among our members. Feel free to dive in and share a topic, ask a question, find employment opportunities, or just socialize!

Meetups

Kansas City JUG hosts meetups on a monthly basis. Our typical meetups are on the 3rd Wendesday of the month. Occasionally, we host meetups on different days to accomodate speaker travel dates or avoid collision with other events (such as US holidays). To view and RSVP for upcoming events, please see our Meetup page.

Upcoming
Agentic AI Workflows with Embabel

**Abstract:** We have all seen the "Hello, World" of Spring AI: sending a prompt and getting a response. But as we move toward production, the real challenge is not the LLM call; it is the workflow. How do you ensure an agent does not loop infinitely? How do you coordinate multiple tools without a mess of "if-else" blocks? And how do we keep our Java-centric domain models at the heart of the AI’s reasoning?

Enter Embabel, a new JVM-based framework from Rod Johnson (creator of Spring) designed to bring discipline to agentic AI. Unlike Python-centric alternatives, Embabel is built on the philosophy of strong typing, OODA loops (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), and Goal-Oriented Action Planning (GOAP).

In this session, we will go beyond basic RAG and explore how to build “digital workers” that can actually plan. You will learn: How to turn your existing Spring Beans into AI Actions.

The shift from imperative coding to Goal-Oriented orchestration.

How Embabel uses DICE (Domain-Integrated Context Engineering) to give agents true domain knowledge.

Why the JVM is actually the best place to run mission-critical AI agents.

Join us for a code-heavy look at the future of Java backend development. We are moving to a world where our systems do not just respond to requests, but actively work to achieve goals.

Speaker: DaShaun Carter is a husband, father of four, youth coach, struggling triathlete, Raspberry Pi enthusiast, Testcontainer Champion, former professional cheerleader, keynote speaker, and Spring Developer Advocate at Broadcom. Deliberately practicing to build, run, and manage, better software, faster.

Thank you to TEKSystems for sponsoring!

Agenda: 5:30-6:15 pm Meet, greet & eat! 6:15-6:20 pm Java News 6:20pm Main presentation After presentation - social hour: Austins Bar & Grill | South Olathe 2103 E 151st St #2969, Olathe, KS 66062

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Feedback

Since we’re always looking for feedback, take a few minutes and let us know what you think!

We welcome all other feedback as well. Let us know what’s on your mind!

Sponsoring

We rely on sponsorship efforts for bringing speakers to Kansas City and assistance in facilitating a welcoming atmosphere atmosphere for our members. In exchange for sponsorship, our sponsors have the opportunity to join in the networking and social interaction with the members in attendance, as well as receive recognition for their sponsorship.