Posit at ShinyConf 2025
Appsilon’s ShinyConf is just around the corner and we couldn’t be more excited! We are incredibly honored to be among the speakers unveiling advancements and practical applications of Shiny, especially in the rapidly evolving world of AI. A huge thank you to Appsilon for making this fantastic event possible for the Shiny community.
Below, we give a sneak peek into the latest developments and insights that we will share.
AI takes center stage
The conference kicks off with a keynote that’s sure to set the tone: “AI and Shiny” by Winston Chang. Winston will delve into the exciting intersection of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Shiny and how to create powerful web applications that leverage AI capabilities. But it’s not just about integrating LLMs into Shiny; Winston will also reveal how AI can enhance the Shiny development process itself, making it faster and more enjoyable.
Building on the AI theme, Barret Schloerke’s talk, “AI Kung-Fu: Training your model in Two Function Calls,” will explore the art of effectively communicating with LLMs. Barret will demonstrate how to create system prompts for Python packages using just two function calls, allowing LLMs to seamlessly interact with your custom tools.
Carson Sievert will further expand on the practical applications of AI in “Building LLM-Powered Shiny apps via ellmer and chatlas.” He’ll highlight Posit’s R package ellmer and its Python counterpart, chatlas, which aim to simplify common LLM tasks like streaming output and tool calling.
Beyond AI: Enhancing Shiny Skills
While AI is a major focus, we will also cover essential aspects of Shiny development. Daniel Chen, in “Creating and Sharing Scalable Applications with Shiny,” will tackle the challenges of building large-scale Shiny apps. He’ll demonstrate how to use Shiny modules to create reusable components and refactor complex code, emphasizing best practices for both Shiny for R and Python.
Garrick Aden-Buie will revolutionize your app styling with “Theming Made Easy: Introducing brand.yml for Shiny.” He’ll introduce brand.yml, a simple YAML file that streamlines styling for Shiny (and beyond), ensuring a consistent and professional look across your applications, reports, and presentations.
Choosing the right tool for the job is crucial, and I (Isabella Velásquez 😀) will guide you through the options in “Choosing the right tool for interactive dashboards: flexdashboard, Quarto, or Shiny.” I’ll provide practical heuristics to help you decide which tool best suits your needs, whether you’re creating lightweight reports or complex web applications.
Scaling your Shiny deployments
Finally, Alex Chisholm and Kelly O’Briant will address the critical aspect of deployment in their sponsored talk, “Scaling Shiny: From Hobbyist Projects to Enterprise Deployments with Posit Connect.” They’ll explore how Posit Connect Cloud and Posit Connect support Shiny developers at every stage, from initial development to enterprise-level deployment.
Charles Gao, in his talk, “Scaling Shiny: Seamless and Effortless Distributed Computing with mirai,” will discuss a complementary technique to traditional horizontal scaling methods. He’ll showcase how mirai natively supports Shiny ExtendedTask, leveraging the latest async innovations to drive the highest performance and minimize latency.
Join us at ShinyConf
This lineup of Posit speakers promises to deliver a wealth of knowledge and inspiration at ShinyConf. From AI integration to best practices in development and deployment, you’ll gain the skills and insights needed to take your Shiny applications to the next level. A huge thank you to Appsilon for their hard work in putting together ShinyConf. We’re thrilled to be a part of it.
