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.NET Conf 2025

Community Edition South Africa

Season of AI: MCP (Cape Town and Johannesburg)

Three cities. One vision. Join the South African .NET community for an unforgettable conference experience.

Durban

Nov 15, 2025

Cape Town

Nov 22, 2025

Johannesburg

Nov 29, 2025

Expected

400+ Attendees

All Events Completed Successfully!

Thank you to everyone who attended .NET Conf 2025 South Africa across all three cities!

🎉 Milestones & Achievements

  • 🏖️ First .NET Conf SA in Durban!
    Thank you to everyone who attended and made it special!
  • 🌊 Record-Breaking Cape Town Event!
    CPT had the biggest attendance of any .NET Conf event in South Africa (in any city) ever! Thank you SO MUCH for showing up in full force! The community is absolutely amazing!

About .NET Conf 2025 Community Edition South Africa

.NET Conf is a free, community-driven event that celebrates .NET and showcases the latest innovations in the .NET ecosystem.

This year's South African Community Edition focuses on the Season of AI, with a special emphasis on Model Context Protocols (MCP). Join us across three major cities as we explore how MCP is revolutionizing AI integration in .NET applications.

Whether you're a seasoned .NET developer or just starting your journey, .NET Conf 2025 Community Edition South Africa offers something for everyone—from deep technical sessions to hands-on workshops and networking opportunities with industry leaders.

Register Now

Choose your city and join us for an amazing day of learning and networking.

SOLD OUT
Durban

Durban

November 15, 2025

  • Full-day conference
  • Multiple tracks
  • Networking opportunities
  • Lunch & refreshments
Register on Quicket
SOLD OUT
Cape Town

Cape Town

November 22, 2025

  • Full-day conference
  • Multiple tracks
  • Networking opportunities
  • Lunch & refreshments
Register on Quicket
SOLD OUT
Johannesburg

Johannesburg

November 29, 2025

  • Full-day conference
  • Multiple tracks
  • Networking opportunities
  • Lunch & refreshments
Register on Quicket

Schedule

Preliminary Schedule - Subject to change

08:00 - 08:45

Registration

General area

08:45 - 09:00

Welcome & Introduction

Auditorium

09:30 - 09:50

Keynote - Welcome to .NET 10

Allan Pead, Matthew Leibowitz, Niels Berglund

Auditorium

Auditorium

Lecture 5

Lecture 1

10:00 - 10:50
Auditorium

Modernize your .NET applications at scale with agentic AI on AWS

Veliswa Boya

10:00 - 10:50
Lecture 5

Coding for Change: Using .NET to Drive Social Impact in South Africa

Sphiwe SK Khuzwayo

11:00 - 11:20
Auditorium

When Low-Code Meets Pro-Code: Supercharging Power Platform with .NET

Carike Botha

11:00 - 11:20
Lecture 5

TPL: zero-to-hero

Dean Martin

11:30 - 12:20
Auditorium

Is it a monolith? Is it a microservice? No, it's Microsoft Orleans

Dustyn Lightfoot

11:30 - 12:20
Lecture 5

Data Workflows in .NET: From Querying to Machine Learning

Kwanele Ayanda Nzibuko

12:30 - 12:50
Auditorium

Let's Learn MCP

Carike Botha

12:30 - 12:50
Lecture 5

From Rural Roots to Cloud Computing: Rewriting Africa's Tech Narrative

Siphesihle Kiwet

10:00 - 12:50

Quack the CLI Code

Coding Challenge

Veliswa Boya

All-day hands-on coding challenge

12:50 - 14:00

Lunch

Lecture 4

14:00 - 14:50
Auditorium

Tiny Devices, Big Potential: .NET & C# IoT

Allan Pead

14:00 - 14:50
Lecture 5

Shesha: A South African Take on Low-Code for .NET Developers

Ian Houvet

15:00 - 15:50
Auditorium

Paths to Hybrid Apps in .NET 10: Blazor and HybridWebView in .NET MAUI

Matthew Leibowitz

15:00 - 15:50
Lecture 5

Docs? I Hardly Know Her!

Hennie Francis

14:00 - 16:00

Quack the CLI Code

Coding Challenge

Veliswa Boya

16:00 - 16:50

Panel Discussion

Auditorium

17:00 - 17:30

Prize Giving and Closing Remarks

Auditorium

08:00 - 08:45

Registration

General area

08:45 - 09:00

Welcome & Introduction

Floor 2

09:00 - 09:50

Keynote - Welcome to .NET 10

Allan Pead, Matthew Leibowitz, Carike Botha

Floor 2

Floor 2

Floor 3

Floor 3 Boardroom

10:00 - 10:50
Floor 2

Modernize your .NET applications at scale with agentic AI on AWS

Veliswa Boya

10:00 - 10:50
Floor 3

From Idea to Agent: Rapid AI Prototyping with GitHub Copilot and Azure AI Foundry

Abed Matini

11:00 - 11:50
Floor 2

Building a Real-Time Multiplayer Shooter with Blazor WASM & SignalR

Neil Thompson

11:00 - 11:50
Floor 3

C# + MCP + Azure AI: Building Conversational Enterprise Applications That Actually Work

Niels Berglund

12:00 - 12:50
Floor 2

MCP in Action: Building an AI-Powered Email Spam Classifier

Warrick Sabatta

12:00 - 12:50
Floor 3

Building Quality into LLM powered solutions

Craig Risi

10:00 - 12:50

Quack the CLI Code

Coding Challenge

Veliswa Boya

All-day hands-on coding challenge

12:50 - 13:20

Lunch

Floor 2

13:20 - 14:10
Floor 2

TypeScript Meets .NET 10: Building a Modern Transport App on Azure

Shaqeel Less

13:20 - 13:35
Floor 3

Meets Pro-Code: Supercharging Power Platform with .NET

Carike Botha

13:45 - 14:00
Floor 3

Your Terminal Just Got Superpowers: Building with GitHub Copilot CLI

Luke Padiachy

14:20 - 15:10
Floor 2

Guardrails for Generative AI: Securing and Governing AI in .NET

Alistair

14:20 - 15:10
Floor 3

Shesha: A South African Take on Low-Code for .NET Developers

Ian Houvet

15:20 - 16:10
Floor 2

Paths to Hybrid Apps in .NET 10: Blazor and HybridWebView in .NET MAUI

Matthew Leibowitz

15:20 - 16:10
Floor 3

Docs? I Hardly Know Her!

Hennie Francis

16:20 - 17:10
Floor 2

Building Smart Defences with .NET and Machine Learning

Okuhle Mhambi

16:20 - 17:10
Floor 3

AI Made Me Do It: How I Accidentally Started a Business

Jacqui Muller

13:20 - 17:10

Quack the CLI Code

Coding Challenge

Veliswa Boya

17:20 - 18:00

Prize Giving and Closing Remarks

Floor 2

08:00 - 08:45

Registration

1st Floor

08:45 - 09:00

Welcome & Introduction

Carike Botha

1st Floor

09:00 - 09:50

Keynote - Welcome to .NET 10

Allan Pead, Matthew Leibowitz, Lehlohonolo Mofula

1st Floor

1st Floor

The Roof

Boardroom

10:00 - 10:50
1st Floor

Modernize your .NET applications at scale with agentic AI on AWS

Veliswa Boya

10:00 - 10:50
The Roof

Common Database mistakes and how to fix them.

Mike Johnson

11:00 - 11:50
1st Floor

Building a Real-Time Multiplayer Shooter with Blazor WASM & SignalR

Neil Thompson

11:00 - 11:50
The Roof

From Web Dev to .NET: Translating Clean Code Across Ecosystems

Siyabonga Fortune Nkuna

12:00 - 12:50
1st Floor

Paths to Hybrid Apps in .NET 10: Blazor and HybridWebView in .NET MAUI Microsoft

Matthew Leibowitz

12:00 - 12:50
The Roof

C# + MCP + Azure AI: Building Conversational Enterprise Applications That Actually Work

Niels Berglund

12:50 - 13:15 (20 min)
1st Floor

Automating Accessibility testing with AI and .NET

Precious Lesupi

12:50 - 13:15 (20 min)
The Roof

Building a Startup Platform with ASP.NET: Lessons from PlantifyTech

Abisola O Adeyanju

11:00 - 13:15

Quack the CLI Code

Coding Challenge

Veliswa Boya

All-day hands-on coding challenge

13:15 - 14:00

Lunch (1st Floor)

14:00 - 14:50
1st Floor

Order Up! Real-Time Server-Sent Events in .NET 10

Stian Le Roux

14:00 - 14:50
The Roof

Shesha: A South African Take on Low-Code for .NET Developers

Ian Houvet

15:00 - 15:50
1st Floor

It ain't nothing but a RAG, doll!

Andile Sefiri Skosana

15:00 - 15:50
The Roof

Docs? I Hardly Know Her!

Hennie Francis

16:00 - 16:50
1st Floor

Is it a monolith? Is it a microservice? No, it's Microsoft Orleans

Dustyn Lightfoot

16:00 - 16:50
The Roof

Tiny Devices, Big Potential: .NET & C# IoT

Allan Pead

17:00 - 17:30

Up your C# & .NET game by getting that badge

Carike Blignaut-Staden

Prize Giving and Closing Remarks

Speakers

Meet the amazing speakers who will be sharing their knowledge.

Veliswa Boya

Veliswa Boya

Developer Advocate at AWS

Sphiwe SK Khuzwayo

Sphiwe SK Khuzwayo

Founder KZN Tech Horizons/ Software Developer

Carike Botha

Carike Botha

iSolve Business Solutions, Software Development Consultant

Dean Martin

Dean Martin

AI Architect, MagicOrange

Kwanele Ayanda Nzibuko

Kwanele Ayanda Nzibuko

SINGAWE INNOVATIVE, Founder & CEO

Siphesihle Kiwet

Siphesihle Kiwet

Graduate

Allan Pead

Allan Pead

CTO, developer, lecturer, Microsoft MVP

Ian Houvet

Ian Houvet

Boxfusion, Co-founder & MD

Matthew Leibowitz

Matthew Leibowitz

Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft building .NET MAUI

Hennie Francis

Hennie Francis

Cloud & Technology Strategist

Allan Pead

Allan Pead

CTO, developer, lecturer, Microsoft MVP

Veliswa Boya

Veliswa Boya

Developer Advocate at AWS

Neil Thompson

Neil Thompson

Managing consultant at Accso

Warrick Sabatta

Warrick Sabatta

AI Engineer at Dixon AI Ltd

Shaqeel Less

Shaqeel Less

Educational Technologist

Abed Matini

Abed Matini

Senior Backend Developer at Ogilvy

Niels Berglund

Niels Berglund

Software/AI Architect Lead, Derivco | Microsoft AI MVP

Craig Risi

Craig Risi

Software Architect | Writer | Board Game Designer

Carike Botha

Carike Botha

iSolve Business Solutions, Software Development Consultant

Alistair Pugin

Alistair Pugin

Microsoft MVP | Speaker | Blogger | Podcaster | CEO@YMD

Matthew Leibowitz

Matthew Leibowitz

Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft building .NET MAUI

Hennie Francis

Hennie Francis

Cloud & Technology Strategist

Okuhle Mhambi

Okuhle Mhambi

Shoprite, Software Developer

Jacqui Muller

Jacqui Muller

UiPath MVP | Industry Coordinator @ Belgium Campus

Ian Houvet

Ian Houvet

Boxfusion, Co-founder & MD

Luke Padiachy

Luke Padiachy

Junior Software Developer @ Full Stack | C# | .NET | #Tech4All

Allan Pead

Allan Pead

CTO, developer, lecturer, Microsoft Internet of Things MVP, Microsoft Dev Technologies MVP, Microsoft Azure MVP

Matthew Leibowitz

Matthew Leibowitz

Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft building .NET MAUI

Carike Botha

Carike Botha

(Carike_B) iSolve Business Solutions, Software Development Consultant

Andile Sefiri Skosana

Andile Sefiri Skosana

Let's talk tech like humans do.

Veliswa Boya

Veliswa Boya

Developer Advocate at AWS

Neil Thompson

Neil Thompson

Managing consultant at Accso

Niels Berglund

Niels Berglund

Software/AI Architect Lead, Derivco | Microsoft AI MVP

Precious Lesupi

Precious Lesupi

CEO - Queers Code

Abisola O Adeyanju

Abisola O Adeyanju

Lynxio Tech (Plantify Tech), CEO & Co-Founder as well as Tech Lead

Stian le Roux

Stian le Roux

Be Better: Tech Enthusiast, Mentor, and Proud Dad – Building the Future PR at a Time

Ian Houvet

Ian Houvet

Boxfusion, Co-founder & MD

Hennie Francis

Hennie Francis

Cloud & Technology Strategist • AWS Community Builder • AWS User Group Leader • Technology Speaker • Mentor • 2x AWS Certified • 19x Microsoft Certified • MCT • Aviation Enthusiast

Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson

SQL User group lead and Microsoft data platform MVP

Dustyn Lightfoot

Dustyn Lightfoot

Brightwire, Architect and Developer

Carike Blignaut-Staden

Carike Blignaut-Staden

Using technology to "work smarter, not harder"

Siyabonga Fortune Nkuna

Siyabonga Fortune Nkuna

Software Engineer at BBD

Lehlohonolo Mofula

Lehlohonolo Mofula

Data Science | Data & AI | Microsoft Student Ambassador | Data & AI

SPONSORS

This event would not be possible without the help of our sponsors.

Venues

Richfield Campus Umhlanga

Durban - November 15, 2025

Richfield Campus Umhlanga

Centenary Boulevard, Park Square, 5-9 Park Avenue, Umhlanga

Parking: Enter the parking garage from Centenary Boulevard

Finding Us: The campus is inside the Park Square complex. Take the elevator in Block C to the first floor, and you're there! Tell the ladies at the registration that you are a speaker, and they will guide you to the speaker room.

Pro Tip: Factor in Umhlanga traffic if you're coming from further afield 🚗

Catering: Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

View Map
BBD Cape Town

Cape Town - November 22, 2025

BBD Cape Town

3rd Floor, Northbank Building, No. 1 N Bank Ln, Century City, Cape Town, 7441

Parking: Limited Parking is available in the 2 secure parking areas at the BBD offices. Buzz BBD at the roller doors. Overflow pay parking at Canal Walk, Virgin Active or The Colosseum.

Catering: Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

View Map
BBD Johannesburg

Johannesburg - November 29, 2025

BBD Johannesburg Offices

The Zone Boulevard, Cnr Cradock & Tyrwhitt Ave, Rosebank, Johannesburg, 2196

Parking: Please park at The Zone Rosebank, walk from The Zone to the NewsCafe, and enter BBD through NewsCafe. After entering BBD take the lift or stairs to Floor 1.

Catering: Refreshments and lunch will be provided.

View Map

Meet the Team

We are so excited to be your organizing team with the support of our amazing volunteers.

Allan Pead

Allan Pead

CTO, developer, lecturer, Microsoft Internet of Things MVP, Microsoft Dev Technologies MVP, Microsoft Azure MVP

Carike Botha

Carike Botha

Development Consultant at iSolve Business Solutions an IQbusiness Company

Matthew Leibowitz

Matthew Leibowitz

Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft building .NET MAUI

Dustyn Lightfoot

Dustyn Lightfoot

Brightwire, Architect and Developer

Neil Thompson

Neil Thompson

Managing consultant at Accso

Niels Berglund

Niels Berglund

Software/AI Architect Lead, Derivco | Microsoft AI MVP

Carike Blignaut-Staden

Carike Blignaut-Staden

DevOps engineer at OUTsurance, co-organiser of JHBMSDUG

Louise van der Bijl

Louise van der Bijl

Community Organizer

Code of Conduct