Autumn. The season of chill in your cheeks, finally lighting that stash of candles at home for cozier (and sometimes witchy) vibes and books (bring on the dark academia and mysteries). I didn’t think a geeky conference would match this autumn of mine, but it did.

I have been to many tech conferences, and the more I’ve attended, the more they started feeling… the same. Yet this year’s DevOpsDays Vilnius 2026 was different. It resonated deeper than I expected. With me, autumn, and in that with… my autumn.

Post-apocalyptic scene

I stumbled in my tracks the first time I passed “Kablys” (Lithuanian for “The Hook”), the venue where the conference was taking place. I read the Nick Cave quotes on the facade, savoring the imagery of moral freaks and geeks. With this dark, post-apocalyptic, yet majestic vibe, the Former Railway Workers’ Palace of Culture now hosts events.

In the disruptive times of change with AI and all, the doom it has brought to some people, the venue for a tech conference was a crazy good fit. Also, autumn vibes, hey!

The highlights in the dark

With so much content and overwhelm online, meeting people in real life at a conference hit different. It did help that DevOpsDays Vilnius had not only regular-length talks, but also open spaces (discussion groups) and ignite talks, 5-minute talks with auto-forward slides to fit the time.

I attended and thought, I feel like I like conferences again because of this. I like listening to people speak and share. I love open spaces. I loved the ignites. There’s a different quality to all this real interaction. It’s not a heartless, very-same-phrasing LinkedIn post. Public speaking means nerves, which means… humanity. You hear the voice shake, the clumsy sentences, and you sense the passion for the topic they are talking about. You know what’s real and what is fluff.

When it comes to content, the conference had many gems, but in this post I’ll share just a glimpse of what touched me.

The bookish wisdom gems

My autumn is full of books. I find refuge in books. They allow me to slow down in this fast-paced world. And I’m surprised myself that DevOpsDays gave me the synchronicity of the very same thing I’m obsessed with.

The first time happened in an open-space discussion about juniors… We had a group of seniors, juniors, and even wanna-be juniors. We discussed hiring and learning: the fears and doubts. What impressed me were those juniors and their mindset. They said they need to differentiate themselves somehow in this rushed, AI-assisted world. Seniors advised not only to rush development, but also to slow down and understand. Funnily, when asked how they could differentiate themselves, juniors said with… communication (hello, soft skills! Love that). Meanwhile, the advice from seniors that sparked my aliveness came from Saulius Valatka: “Read books, actual programming books, and you’ll be ahead of the crowd.”

Reading books takes effort and attention; it’s not a 5-second reel… And, talking about Saulius and his ideas, he gave a talk about the inspiring setup of AI-Assist at Vinted, and this quote hit me:

“If you say a model doesn’t understand your codebase, I would question not the model, but your codebase”

Uh, mic drop! 🎤 It resonated so strongly with me, as so many companies basically sprinkle AI on top of a messy system and then blame AI, when all it did was amplify their own mess.

Seeing through the mess: igniting the human spark

For the first time, I gave an Ignite talk, called “Seeing Through the Noise: Quality is Imperfect”. It was extremely fun and exciting to be part of that. Because of time limitations, all speakers were lined up in a row in speaking order for the tech setup. Then you’re waiting backstage, and you go one after another. Felt surreal, a bit like being on a conveyor.

I shared how I, a Miss Perfect QA, have realized that in the times of “perfect,” very verbose bug reports, quality is… imperfect. How true essence is… human and caring about things we do. I was tired of all the fluff and wanted to run to something “real”. For me, that was nature and authenticity. So, I ended my little talk with a… poem. I wrote it, no AI was involved.

Biblioklept and open-source should be fun

A talk with so many resources I still need to read, and that resonated with my own nature-calling, was “Touching grass” by Josephine Pfeiffer. Josephine shared how AI assistance could help you be a maintainer who sits in the mountains and touches grass… Yet it needs quite a few rules and structures in the system to keep development fun (She also shared a great article, “Open Source Must Be Fun (Or It Will Die)”). As part of AI policy, Josie added a check to the NetworkManager (PR) that makes sure that a person who has created a PR at least reread it and is not mindlessly posting agentic information… As a disclaimer for AI-assisted PRs, it asks agents to include “biblioklept”.

Biblioklept — a person who compulsively steals books, especially from libraries or private collections

Oh, how much I love that. If you are using AI, at least add disclaimers so others know when you haven’t even put in the effort to read it. And you should put in some effort to keep the work fun.

It’s all about people

There was inspiration, but the biggest inspiration came from… people. People who created this event, attended, and spoke. People who shared their ideas and connected. In recent weeks, I kept telling people around me in Lithuania that I was lacking “gyvastis” (translated to spark/aliveness). Well, I do think I got it, and that’s thanks to this conference and the people there.

Thanks to the organizers for going the extra mile to make this a great event. Especially Marius for believing in me again and supporting me throughout the speaking journey, Ignas for the nice random talks we had during breaks about life, and Marijus, the supportive philosophical buddy I found thanks to this conference.

Thanks to the fellow speakers! Thank you, Jan - you’re the best serpent rock star. Awesome stories as always, and what a kind human you are. I see you. Then, I must say thanks to Nadine for friendship and random talks on all kinds of topics (I am adding you to the speaker bunch anyway as that’s how I got to know you, and we did quite a bit of speaking… to each other ;)). Thanks, Laura, for the unexpected talk about women in tech!

And thank you to everyone who attended for sharing your ideas. It’s quite alright to be in this post-apocalyptic world as long as we’re together and still connecting.