The Developer Advocate's Perspective: Code, Community & AI with Gbadebo Bello

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside the Stack, we sit down with Gbadebo Bello, a Senior Developer Advocate at Postman and co-lead of API Conference Lagos. Gbadebo shares his ongoing journey from writing code to educating developers and managing tech communities on a global scale. We explore the distinct cultural differences between tech communities in Africa versus the rest of the world, the operational challenges of organizing large-scale developer conferences, and the strategic overlap between developer education and advocacy. We also discuss why foundational software engineering principles remain essential in the era of AI-assisted "vibe coding" and lay out a practical roadmap for engineers looking to transition into DevRel. Timeline 00:00 - Guest introduction and Gbadebo's background in developer communities. 03:45 - Transitioning from a full-time software engineer to a developer advocate. 10:21 - The strategic differences and overlaps between developer education and developer advocacy. 16:28 - Analyzing the cultural and economic differences between tech communities in Africa and worldwide. 22:24 - Why local tech communities struggle with continuity and retention. 28:40 - The hidden challenges of running API Conf Lagos and managing community volunteers. 36:47 - The critical role APIs continue to play within the AI and MCP ecosystem. 40:10 - Vibe coding vs. AI-assisted engineering: Why human code review and architectural knowledge still matter. 51:50 - How AI is shaping the future of the developer advocacy profession. 01:00:58 - A practical roadmap for software engineers wanting to get into developer advocacy. Find our guest's profile here: https://www.debo.codes/ Support the show