Welcome and Conference Overview | apidays India 2026

Come on. Come on. Come on. I didn't travel all this way to hear that. Right. How are you Bangalore? >> Okay, that's better. That's better. We will warm up. We will warm up. So, waiting for the thing. I will just ask who comes from Bangalore city. Can you raise the hand? Okay. Who comes from outside of Bangalore? Okay. A lot of people who come from outside of India. Okay. Still a few, right? Still a few. Do you have a USA? Yeah. Some USA here? Do you have Europe? Do you have Australia, New Zealand? Okay. Good. Good. So, uh, yeah. Also the question like who consider himself with the technical background? Okay. Who will consider himself or herself with the business background? Who has both? You can have you you can't have 20 people with business background and 100 with both. It's not possible. It's not possible. Right. So we will start uh really glad to be here and we'll do with the clickers. So yeah, it's a core organization with me and Nares right for this API India organization. So I represent the global aspect of EPIS conferences um on the worldwide level and narish is the decentralized local version you know uh there so we'll present that together so uh last question I will ask who has been to already to an API conferences before okay so we have uh some some new people some new people that's good so you know our mission at API days is to connect the humans behind APIs you know we did we started 14 years ago it was just a Google API craft uh API craft Google group discussion and we wanted to gather and just meet each other right we're discussing on Twitter it's it was called Twitter at the time we were uh having this uh Google group um discussions and we wanted just to meet the human behind the API human behind interfaces so we decided our mission was to connect these humans always in many places of the world so as a warm-up I will ask you to make two mindful connections right now so I will ask you to talk to your life neighbor and right neighbor, you know, for 30 seconds. Can we do that? >> Let's do that. Right. Let's do that. Okay, that's good. Okay. I've seen you cheating, right? Some of you are talking to friends. I've seen you. Yeah. Hi, Barry. So we will continue because we have a really really interesting program for you for the next two days. just to say API is a part of many conferences on APIs you know in different places of the world right in uh in North America north of America in Europe in India in Southeast Asia in Apac right so don't hesitate if you want to speak to these conferences to attend you know you can go you can follow us you know and discuss uh with us on APIs just to say P has been running for the last 14 years more than 100 conferences many many countries 15 countries lot of past attendees so we've gathered almost everyone in the space, right? So, uh we're really glad to be able to gather that knowledge and and try to deliver it to the community, right? Just to say over the last two years, AP grew so much that it was a big monolith, right? It was a big monolith of conferences. We were talking about many many topics about AI, about green software, about sovereignty. We were talking about so many different topics that we decided to slice the monolith into microervices conferences, right? But we still have a control plane. So we baptized the control plane F like future of software technology. So F is now the control plane. API days is the previous conferences monolith that still has lot of conferences and everything but we now he has other sister conferences that comes right. So depending on where you will go in Paris in London in in New York or whatever you will see sometimes we co-host conferences under the same control plane that is F. So API days is still API days but is now part of a federated ecosystem of conferences that we run or that other run with us. So now this conferences in India is mainly in API days. We still have a a graphql track uh for tomorrow graphql day conference but you will see over and over we will host under this f control plane many conferences colloccated with API days right so just to let you know APIs is great it's a great brand but you will hear first sometimes as a control plane of all these conferences three initiative I want to share with you before we go back about what we will do in the next two days uh for APIs India the first one is the API industry landscape. So we map all the tooling, the product, the open-source repo that are interesting about how to build, manage, secure version uh design APIs. So we have a printed landscape outside, but you can see like you know a specific taxonomy and mapping of these industry. So don't hesitate to look at it and to tell if we're wrong or not. If you see your tool or your company inside and where it should be, right? We try to help decision makers navigate into that landscape and there is an interactive live version on API landscape.apic.io. Second initiative I want to share is the women in APIs. Again in many conferences we we have a big gender balance uh and this conference is like all the others but the thing we try to bridge that gap so we have a woman API initiative. So if you know uh a woman that is engineer or that wants to learn more about APIs or that is already working with APIs and that wants to speak on conferences get know get known and get more uh uh recognized for her work don't hesitate to refer her or if you are a woman don't hesitate to join the women API initiative. Last but not least we have an online learning platform called API masters. Some are paid courses some are free courses. So if you want to get certified for your API skills, you can go on API masters, follow the classes, follow the courses, get certification and hopefully get a pay raise because of that, right? Okay. [sighs and gasps] So that was the overall aspect of API days, right? This uh international federation of conferences uh happening in many places. But again this could not happen without local organizers someone who know the place who know uh the community who someone who is actually a builder who have believed in uh in uh in the community for all these years who also have been a conference organizers uh for 20 years and now who decided to make API India. So this person is Narish Jane. I will ask you a warm applause for Narish explaining the next two days. Thank you. [applause] bringing API days to India and now Fost to India. uh I first interacted with Medi I think uh in the Paris conference where I was uh doing a talk and then uh I think Greor actually introduced us so it's a small world in some sense and Greor is like hey how come you don't have a conference in India and Mi is like we would love to but we don't have a good partner and uh Greor was kind enough to say you're stupid you know [laughter] you got to uh partner with Narish and so here we are second here uh it's been fantastic. So we hoping to grow this community and u again no conference is complete without the wonderful speakers who actually come and support the conference. So this year we have 88 speakers from 11 different countries speaking at this conference. Uh how many months did it take Mahi for us to put the program together? I think February. We started in February. Uh and uh so we we do an open submission. So uh you know people can go and apply to speak at the conference and then few of us I'll show the program committee we then go through review the proposals give feedback help improve the proposal and finally pick a small set of uh speakers from that we also do invite a few specific speakers because we believe that they are doing some very interesting work and we would like to bring them here. So uh these are like the wonderful speakers who are speaking here. Later we will request them to come on stage for a quick photo. But uh if you do see the speakers do thank them because without them the conference is nothing right. Uh here's a quick uh conference uh schedule for you. So we just finished the keynote from Gregor. We are now in the welcome uh of the conference. Uh and then after that we're going to do a book signing. Gregor and Abhijit are the two speakers who will be signing. We'll also be splitting into four tracks. Uh and then kind of uh go across. So what are the four tracks? I'll come to that in a quick minute. Uh but also you'll see there's an afternoon book signing that we'll be doing. Shriram who's one of the speakers will be speaking. Evening we have a panel of founders from India who've built worldclass products. So this is in my opinion the first of its kind where we've been able to get all these founders together. So that's a panel again and uh if you are looking for the schedule where you want to see the schedule this is the QR code. I'll leave it for a second. Someone was saying uh where is the printed copy of the schedule? Uh there are two reasons we don't do that. One is the schedule does change dynamically, right? Uh some speakers can't make it, some medical emergency, so things change and so a live schedule is always easy to maintain. Second is obviously we are environment conscious. We don't want to print papers that people just throw and then go away. It doesn't make sense, right? So everyone's got a phone. It's handy to keep the schedule and go from there. >> Yeah. If the QR code gives you to a payment gateway, that's a wrong QR code. [laughter] Just to let you know, >> you have to do a PTM payment first before you get the actual schedule. No. Uh, not working. Ah, okay. Uh, so yeah, just a quick reminder, the panel, I just put it up there. Uh so we have uh founders from Postman, Bceptor, Bruno, uh Kiplo, Karate Labs. Uh all of these guys have built world-class products from India and it'd be fantastic to hear from them. Uh I am moderating the panel. Uh as a founder myself, I have a lot of questions. So I'm going to put them on spot and ask some very hard questions. Uh and we'll see how we go. Uh these uh panels are all uh impromptu panels. So you want to hear the firsthand story not a sugarcoated story. So that's one of the things you will see about all the conferences we've been organizing. Uh it's Vizzywig, right? You see what you get. It's not a dog and pony show. It's it's what it is. Uh anyone who's attended a conference we've organized before like a quick show of hand. Okay, some of you and you might be familiar with this uh law of two feet. So what is the law of two feet? We have four parallel tracks as you saw right. So we have four parallel tracks. We've tried our best to put the most meaningful program we think which is relevant in today's day and time. But there are times where you might find yourself in a room where you're like ah this is not quite what I expected. Right? So what do you do then? You look for a feedback form. So you can fill a feedback. That feedback comes to us at the end of the conference and then we take that feedback for the next conference. It's too late, right? You're already investing two days of your valuable time. So you don't want to sit there and look for a feedback form. Instead, you want to use the law of two feet. Take your two feet and take yourself to a place where you can contribute or get value. Right? And actually I lied that there are four tracks. There are actually five tracks at this conference. The most interesting track in my opinion is in the hallways, right? It's an official track. This is where you hear uh from we have uh we have part we have over 1500 people who've registered for the conference from I believe uh 700 companies. So there is a fantastic mix of people here that you will get to learn and exchange ideas from. So do use the hallway track. So there are five tracks, four in the halls and one in the hallway. All right. >> And actually about the hallway important logistics aspect. Most of you came from that part where we have some sponsors. But the hallway is the all the floor and there is food and there is drinks on all the floor. So if there is too many people here, please do some load balancing and go on the other side and on the other side here. Right. >> Absolutely. Uh a lot of people are asking uh will we get the videos Right. So all the videos uh at at API days will be recorded and they will be available on YouTube freely. Uh this is just a sample from the last year's uh playlist you can see. Uh but every year we upload all the videos. You will get a email at the end of it as well when the videos go up. Uh but you know you will not be able to clone yourself create a digital twin of yourself and attend all four sessions. So don't worry uh you attend the ones you can the rest you can always get the video later. All right >> and I'm sure some new man will love that we posed him with the open mouth right talking. [laughter] >> Yeah that's >> he was a great keynote last year and we had a great keynote this year with Greor. >> Absolutely. So like we said we have a book signing. So uh Greor uh is uh going to be signing the book. Uh you don't have to buy the book. we going to give it away for free, right? Uh but there are limited copies so it's a first come first-s serve basis. Uh so it'll be right outside this hall. Uh so Gregor and Abhijit will be out here uh and both of them will be signing their books. Um so that is at 10:30 when we break for uh coffee tea. Right? When we break for coffee, what will also happen is this hall will get divided into two halls. Right? So this uh the dividers will come up over here. This will be track one. That will be track two. And then if you go around the hallway, you will see junior ballroom sign and that's where you will see track three and four. Right? So those are all the four tracks and of course the hallway the fifth track. Right? But uh the book signing will be right outside here. Uh in the afternoon Shriram is doing a talk and then after his talk during the second coffee tea break uh Shriram is also going to be giving away his impact intelligence uh book. So please do come for that. And then last but not the least, Medi is uh an author himself. Uh and so Medi is going to be doing a book signing uh along with Majuka. I think if she's somewhere here, right there. So she's uh made a special edition for us at this conference. And so this is a premier uh kind of a book that she we're going to be launching here. So that's going to happen tomorrow at uh 10:30. So actually me and Eric two co authors will be there. So Eric you didn't know but you will be right. >> Eric also has the open API track that he's going to be planning. So uh he's going to have some tough uh load balancing to do uh this evening because we get bored speaking uh listening to all the talks. Uh we thought we're going to do some uh you know fun stuff. So, what we're going to do is we're going to be doing a community drum circle. So, we have a professional group that will come distribute uh drums to everyone and get you to uh so we call this human in the loop, right? Uh so, we're going to get everyone to [laughter] perform. Uh so, it'll be all of us collaboratively performing, creating music. I think some of you might have attended in the past uh the drum circle that we do. It's a lot of fun. Uh it's it's going to start after the panel that we talked about and continue as long as you want. All right. Uh women in API, I think uh Medi already talked about that, but we what we also do at every women at every API days is we actually have a get connecting uh you know meetup. So you can kind of uh meet people here. So that's going to happen tomorrow over lunch in U meeting room number three which is also just across the corner. You do need to register beforehand. So just make sure you're registered. There are limited spots. So please do register. So the women in API is tomorrow 1 to 2 p.m. Uh Clara who's supposed to be here unfortunately she couldn't travel because of a medical emergency but she's going to join us online. And then we also have uh two headline speakers who are going to kind of share their story of how uh you know speaking at conferences and just speaking up has helped them in their career. Uh so I think it's a very important initiative. Uh we running four workshops at the end of the conference that is on the 21st day after tomorrow. Uh so we often say like conferences are great to get a breadth of ideas but if you want to actually get some depth and something that you can like tangibly apply at work then you need to kind of spend a day deep dive into topics. So Gregor I think already highlighted that he's going to be doing uh his uh wonderful workshop. I highly recommend that. Uh but we also have Eric and Frank who's going to be doing uh their workshop on building AI ready APIs. Both of them have been core contributors to the uh open API standards and Aradzo uh you know I've worked with them wonderful folks so don't miss this opportunity and of course Majuka is doing her uh workshop again based on the book that you will see so uh there are few more slots left so if you're interested do sign up this is on the 21st right in the same venue uh this is the QR code for if you want to sign up for the workshop. So, I just thought I'll put it up there if you want to sign up. That's the QR code. Uh just want to thank the program committee uh who basically helped put this. Uh so last year we had a much bigger program committee. This year we shrunk it a little bit. Uh we we trying different experiments to see what is the most efficient way in terms of because all of us have daytime jobs. So we need to optimize for that. Uh so as you know today we have a GraphQL track that is happening. Uh it's a full day uh program. So Rean is kind of championing but of course he's got other uh people from the GraphQL foundation uh who's helped uh and tomorrow Eric is going to be uh championing the open API initiative track which is uh happening tomorrow. Uh and then Medi and I kind of try to spread across the whole thing. Uh we also have a few volunteers who actually helping make sure the show goes on time. As you would have seen, we started on time. Uh it's a little I apologize to Gregor because sometimes when we start, not everyone is in the hall, but if we delay, then it has a snowball effect and impacts the rest of the schedule. So we kind of try to keep everything on track. So these are the volunteers who will help us make sure the rest of the day goes smooth and everything is on time. All right. And we can have some applause for all the volunteers who make this happen. [applause] Uh yeah, that's also it's you know doing conferences is is important to have support from the community from ticket holders from sponsors and so this is why uh we're really glad to have at global level sponsors like Postman you know they they were giving some shirts this morning. I think a lot of people get a shirt congrats. uh also IBM Specmatic also who is the official partner of the conference with you organizing. So they are the gold sponsor of the conference and again we believe they have products that can help you actually be successful in the APIs to AI and nextg API uh uh building and management which is actually the theme of the event. So don't hesitate to look about what they're doing. We also have like silver and bronze and community sponsors. Uh they also do great solutions. they just delivered they didn't want to be as visible as as the others for that event but don't hesitate to look at what they're doing um yes because their support enable also us to do conferences and to have visibility on the long term so we can invest in new cities and stuff so yeah don't hesitate to go over there and they may have some cool swag also to deliver so I think what is important is that running a conference of this scale is very expensive as you can understand and without their support right so there is they they they support us financially uh which is important but they also support us in like advertising the conference getting to their user base bringing them in. So there's several kind of interesting collaborations that we have with these companies which make these kinds of conferences possible. They're all just outside here. So please do visit them. >> And so we have a joke that we say for the last 14 years and I will I say that at every conference. So yes, the only place you're allowed to use soap is in the restrooms. That's it, right? As long as I hear people laughing and giggling, I'll continue to do make to make that joke, right? So thank you for So next year we will do the joke again and one one when nobody will laugh at this joke, we will have achieved our mission. So that's that's how we measure uh the API literacy evolution, right? >> Okay, >> just quick show of hand. How many people still use SOAP at their companies? less and less over the years, right? Less and less over a year. Who who is who doesn't know the soap protocol, you know, SOAP. Okay. So, we begin to have Yeah, things are better. >> Getting better. Yeah. Soap XML. >> Okay. >> All right. I think that's the end of it. So, thanks again. If you have any other questions, we'll be around and we will make sure that uh you know the conference runs smoothly for you. Uh two logistics points. Again, there's a book signing at 10:30. We have limited copies, you know, like few dozens. But again, so if you feel to have 200 people in the queue, go uh eat somewhere or have a coffee uh if you're on the 200. And also just so you know, there is the full floor, right? So if there queue somewhere, they're probably availability elsewhere. Enjoy the two today, enjoy the break, and see you in the four tracks. Thank you.