Meet the First Round of Into the Box 2026 Speakers

Every conference is more than the talks we see on stage it’s also the story of the people who make it possible.

With the first round of Into the Box 2026 sessions and workshops now live, we’re excited to introduce some of the speakers who will be joining us this year. These community members, practitioners, and Ortus team experts bring decades of real-world experience across CFML, BoxLang, JVM modernization, testing, AI, and cloud-native development.

In this series, you’ll get to know the people behind the sessions, their backgrounds, and the topics they’ll be sharing in Washington, DC.

Let’s meet the first round of speakers.

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Bill Reese: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Bill Reese is a Senior Developer with 25+ years of experience in full-stack web application development. A ColdFusion expert since version 4, he specializes in building scalable, high-performance applications, with a strong focus on refactoring and data optimization. Outside of work, he enjoys film, music, photography, and exploring theme parks.

• Session:
  • Make Like a BIF and Get Outta Here: A Time-Traveling Guide to Creating and Using Built-In Functions in BoxLang

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Brad Wood : Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Brad has been programming ColdFusion since around 2002 and has used nearly every version since 4.5. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and three daughters, enjoys international food, and loves the outdoors. Brad first fell in love with CFML as a way to easily connect databases to websites and build dynamic applications.

• Workshop:
  • Converting Your Existing Application to BoxLang — Getting Started

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Charlie Arehart: Server Troubleshooting Consultant

Charlie Arehart (@carehart) is a veteran server troubleshooter with over three decades in enterprise IT. As an independent consultant, he provides short-term, remote, on-demand troubleshooting and tuning assistance for organizations of all sizes.

• Session:
  • Getting Started with BoxLang as an Alternative CFML Engine

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Curt Gratz: System Architect / Co-Owner, Computer Know How

Curt is the Co-Owner of Computer Know How, a Wisconsin-based technology firm. He has worked with technology systems since 1997 in software development, architecture, and system design. He’s also a husband, father of three, coach, and system architect by day.

• Session:
  • Stop Guessing: Data Modeling and Strategy for Trustworthy AI

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Dan Card: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Dan has been using CFML for nearly 20 years across education, non-profit, and for-profit sectors. His current work focuses on developing interactive, collaborative, and educational online experiences. He lives north of Boston and is an educator at UMass Lowell.

• Session:
  • Creating Your API with BoxLang in AWS Lambda
• Workshop:
  • Dynamic Serverless Applications

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Daniel Garcia: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Daniel has been working with web technologies since 1997 and lives in Plainfield, IL. He’s a husband, father, cinephile, aspiring podcaster, and advocate of “Work smarter, not harder” and “KISS.”

• Session:
  • Work Smarter, Not Harder: How AI Makes Developers More Productive
• Workshop:
  • Dynamic Serverless Applications

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Eric Peterson: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Eric (@_elpete) is a CFML and JavaScript developer at Ortus Solutions and creator of projects like QB, Quick, and ColdBox Elixir. He enjoys spending time with his family, playing board games, and participating in theatre.

• Session:
  • Behavior Driven Development with TestBox

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Jacob Beers: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Jacob’s professional journey includes 3D animation, game design, fine art, special education, and running a survival swim school all before becoming a full-time developer. He brings a uniquely creative perspective to modern software development.

• Workshop
  • BoxLang AI Bootcamp Zero to Hero
• Sessions
  • Agentic Coding Made Easy with BoxLang and VSCode
  • End-to-End Testing with TestBox and Playwright

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Jaime Ramirez: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Jaime is a Computer Engineer from Sonsonate, El Salvador, specializing in Vue.js, Quasar, TypeScript, CFML, ColdBox, and ContentBox. He is passionate about building reliable, modern web applications.

• Workshop:
  • End-to-End Testing with TestBox and Playwright

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Jon Clausen: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Jon has nearly 20 years of CFML experience and previously founded Silo, a full-stack development and consulting firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He joined Ortus full-time in 2018.

• Workshop:
  • Converting Your Existing Application to BoxLang Getting Started

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Kevin Wright: Senior Developer, Ortus Solutions

Kevin is a full-stack developer with over 20 years of experience building and deploying enterprise-level web applications using Adobe ColdFusion, Java, VB.Net, MVC frameworks, and modern front-end technologies.

• Session:
  • Going Global with ColdBox: Mastering Internationalization with cbi18n

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Luis Majano: CEO, Ortus Solutions

Luis is a Computer Engineer, author, and creator of ColdBox and BoxLang. He has been building software since 2000 and is a long-time leader in the CFML and JVM communities.

• Workshop:
  • BoxLang AI Bootcamp Zero to Hero
• Session:
  • BoxLang AI with ColdBox: Building Intelligent JVM Applications

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Michael Rigsby: CF Developer

Michael has been a CF developer for over 25 years, helping small and medium-sized businesses build and modernize their online presence. He brings deep practical experience to modernization projects.

• Session:
  • From Legacy to Modern: CBWIRE Gets You There Faster (Projects Finished Under the Wire)

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What’s Next?

This is just the first round of speakers and sessions. More announcements are coming soon, along with additional workshops and hands-on training.

• View the first round of the agenda
• Register for Into the Box 2026

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