Hampton Roads DevFest 2026
SAVE THE DATE: Feb 27th, 2026 | 8am to 6pm ET | Virginia Beach, VA
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Join 250+ local developers at Hampton Roads DevFest 2026
About
Mark your calendar for Hampton Roads DevFest 2026! This unique gathering will once again spotlight local speakers, showcasing our community's deep and diverse talent.
Hampton Roads DevFest is more than a conference; it's a tribute to our dynamic local developer community. It's an ideal platform to highlight the exceptional places to work in the Hampton Roads area, emphasizing innovative technological strides. This event caters to everyone in the tech sphere, from seasoned developers and industry veterans to emerging talents and students.
Organized by RevolutionVA, a dedicated 501(c)(3) non-profit, our mission is to advance software development education throughout Virginia. Our passion for promoting learning and growth in technology is at the heart of DevFest.
Take advantage of this unparalleled opportunity to network, learn from top industry professionals, and celebrate the remarkable achievements of our tech community. Whether you're looking to sharpen your skills, explore new career pathways, or simply immerse yourself in a community of like-minded tech enthusiasts, Hampton Roads DevFest is your destination.
Join us as we recognize and nurture the extraordinary tech talent that thrives in Hampton Roads. Let's connect, discover, and grow together at Hampton Roads DevFest 2026!
Our Sponsors
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the Hampton Roads tech community and making this event possible.
Interested in Sponsoring Hampton Roads DevFest 2026?
Help us make tech education accessible to our community while showcasing your organization to 250+ local developers.
Venue
Zeiders American Dream Theater
4509 Commerce Street,
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
Featured Speakers
Hampton Roads DevFest is special because it uniquely highlights the amazing developer talent we have in our region.
All HRDevFest speakers are current or past residents of the Hampton Roads area.
Lionel Sapp
Lionel Sapp is a Hampton Roads–based software engineer, community builder, and founder of The Digital Builders, a studio and mentorship network empowering others to turn their ideas into real-world products. A self-taught developer, Lionel has worked for two Techstars-backed startups, serving as CTO for one. Through Digital Builders, he leads mentorship programs and community events that teach aspiring creators how to build, launch, and grow their own tech ventures—right here in the 757.
Katie Novotny
Katie Novotny, AI Apps and Agents GBB at Microsoft. Software dev background but also manager, architect, and DevOps wrangler fluent in .NET, Python, and at least 10 other languages (some human, most not). Believes the best code - and life - comes from collaboration and curiosity. Loves: Functional fitness, skiing, and books that make her forget time. Hates: green peppers and chores that don't scale (looking at you, dusting).
Tim Banks
Tim's tech career spans over 25 years through large corporate environments and in small startups, honing their skills in systems administration, automation, architecture, and operations for large cloud-based datastores. Today, Tim leverages their years in data, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering to advise and consult the open source and cloud computing communities on modernizing workloads, safe and efficient DevOps practices, and the effective use of AI in their current role. Tim is also a competitive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, having won over 10 international championships.
Ian Taylor
Ian Taylor is the Economics Department Chair at Virginia Peninsula Community College, where his innovative teaching has earned rave reviews from students, including: "Awesome teacher. Y'all should let him teach all the courses. Clone him or something." and "Me and all my classmates learned the lesson with pleasure." A serial entrepreneur, Ian founded Carry Norfolk, a bicycle courier service delivering food and beer in Norfolk, VA (2013-2015; sold to a rider), and Carry Logistics, enterprise software automating information flows for online retailers (2014-2018; sold to Saatva). He now leads Question Foundry, an edtech startup creating individualized college textbooks with thousands of practice question variations and step-by-step solutions. Each textbook is accompanied by Aita—an AI teaching assistant that aids faculty in lesson preparation and guides students through discovery-based learning. Beyond his professional pursuits, Ian is a fun-loving dad to his daughter, serving as the "daddyman".
What People Say
Hear from members of our community about their DevFest experience.
Apply for a 2026 Scholarship!
Hampton Roads DevFest is committed to making our conference accessible to everyone. We're offering scholarships to students, career changers, and underrepresented groups in tech to help remove financial barriers to attending.
2024 Event Highlights
Take a look back at Hampton Roads DevFest 2024! Our 5th annual event brought together local developers, industry professionals, and tech enthusiasts for a day of learning and networking.
Networking in our modern venue lobby (click to enlarge)
Keynote presentation (click to enlarge)
Local speakers sharing their expertise (click to enlarge)
Engaged audience (click to enlarge)