React Universe Meetup, New York

Organizer
Callstack & Embrace
Speakers
Michał Pierzchala
Principal Engineer
@
Callstack
David Rifkin
Developer Relations
@
Embrace
Pepijn Senders
Principal Engineer
@
HelloFresh

React Universe Meetup is back in the US, and this time we’re landing in New York City at The Farm Soho. We’re joining forces with Embrace to bring you a packed evening of cutting-edge insights, real-world case studies, and practical tips for building better cross-platform apps.

Who's this meetup for?

If you're building with React Native, scaling full-stack mobile apps, or figuring out how to ship and observe complex deployments, this meetup is for you.

You’ll be in good company with engineers, app architects, and folks who care deeply about performance, code quality, and real-world trade-offs. Expect solid talks, sharp minds, and good vibes. No fluff, just practical insights and time to connect with other people who get it.

Agenda

6:00 PM – Doors open, grab a slice

6:30 PM – Intro: Welcome to React Universe Meetup by Mike Grabowski, CTO & Founder at Callstack and Andrew Tunall, President at Embrace

6:40 PM – Observability for Application Deployments by Pepijn Senders, Principal Software Engineer at HelloFresh

How does one prove that rendering dependencies are slow? In this talk, I’ll share how we used observability to build a data-driven case for improving end-to-end network performance. By tracing latency across the stack, we uncovered hidden bottlenecks and shifted the conversation from assumptions to evidence.

7:05 PM – Elevate your React Native observability with OpenTelemetry by David Rifkin, Developer Relations at Embrace

In this talk, David Rifkin from Embrace, the user-focused observability company, will talk through why production data matters for mobile and frontend engineers. He will discuss:

  • What OpenTelemetry is (briefly, he promises) and how it helps developers collaborate across teams
  • The complexity of mobile observability, and how to use it to build more resilient apps
  • How React Native engineers can make sense of the JS/native gap in production

7:30 PM – Brownfield Incremental React Native Adoption x Rock by Michał Pierzchała, Principal Engineer at Callstack

Adding React Native to existing native projects is hard today, involving a lot of moving code around, adding legacy tooling (CocoaPods) and making native engineers familiar with Node.js ecosystem. In this talk we'll go through a modern way of integrating React Native into a sample iOS and Android apps, utilizing `react-native-brownfield` library and Rock, which makes the whole process easier and less disruptive for iOS and Android developers.

8:00 PM – Networking

RSVP now

Seats are limited and access to the livestream requires registration. Whether you’re joining us IRL at The Farm Soho or from across the globe, save your spot now.

Insights

Learn more about Brownfield

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Aug 27Article

React Native in .NET MAUI: A Practical Brownfield Integration Guide

Learn how to embed React Native inside a .NET MAUI app with a brownfield setup. This guide covers runtime packaging, lifecycle wiring, navigation, and shared state across both runtimes.

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Aug 3Article

Migration to React Native in 2026 Starts With a Delivery Question

Choosing between brownfield and greenfield React Native migration? Learn where risk sits, when to use a checkpoint, and what to prove before committing.

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Jul 8Article

How we made Hybrid iOS apps compile 39% faster with React Native Brownfield

See how React Native Brownfield uses iOS prebuilts to cut packaging times by up to 39% for hybrid apps, with details on setup, internals, and benchmark results.

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Jun 18Article

How We Made the Brownfield Gradle Plugin 22% Faster

See how task-driven Gradle optimization made the Brownfield Gradle Plugin 22% faster for clean Android release builds.

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Jun 3Article

AI-Supported Brownfield Migration to React Native

See how AI-supported workflows cut brownfield React Native evaluation from weeks to days by speeding up setup, planning, implementation, and QA.

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May 18Article

Unlocking Expo Updates in an Isolated Brownfield Architecture with SDK 55

Learn how to enable Expo Updates in an Isolated Brownfield setup with Expo SDK 55, including iOS packaging, Android patching, and OTA testing.

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Apr 23Talk

State of Brownfield in React Native

A practical look at Brownfield React Native adoption in mature native apps, architecture, tooling, and real-world tradeoffs.

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Apr 2Webinar

AI-Assisted Migrations to React Native: From Months to Days

Reduce migration time from months to days by using AI in real React Native workflows. Learn when to migrate incrementally and when starting fresh is the better option.

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Nov 17Talk

Vega Developer Meetup

Learn how to integrate React Native into Android TV apps at the Vega Developer Meetup. Workshop, roadmap, and community talks, live in Munich.

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May 16Podcast

You Don’t Need a Rewrite, You Need React Native Brownfield

Discover how modern React Native Brownfield integration enables cross-platform power in native apps, without rewriting from scratch.

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Jan 13Podcast

Lessons from Shopify's Migration to React Native with Mustafa Ali

Learn how Shopify's migration to React Native led to 86% code unification, reduced build times, and seamless feature parity across platforms.

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Jun 14Podcast

Migration to React Native

The 13th episode of React Universe On Air (formerly known as The React Native Show) is fully focused on migrating from different technologies to React Native, the two most popular approaches to this process (greenfield and brownfield software development), and our state-of-the-art brownfield approach.

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Mar 19Tutorial

The Hard Way vs. The React Native AI SDK Way: Stop Writing Custom Modules for Every Model

Learn how React Native AI uses a unified provider model to switch between cloud and on-device LLMs without rewriting application logic, enabling reliable AI experiences online and offline.

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Mar 12Tutorial

Build Smarter Apps: Tool Calling & AI Orchestration Explained

Learn how on-device models in React Native can call tools, interact with external APIs, and return structured outputs you can use directly in application logic.

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Mar 5Tutorial

MLC LLM + React Native: On-Device AI Without the Pain

Learn how to run third-party on-device LLMs in React Native using MLC LLM. Choose your models, run them efficiently across platforms, and keep a unified JavaScript API with React Native AI.

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Feb 24Tutorial

Intelligent Fallbacks with Apple Intelligence in React Native

Learn how to use Apple’s built-in Foundation Models in React Native apps, reduce memory usage, and enable fast, fully on-device AI with React Native AI Apple.

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Feb 10Tutorial

What Is the React Native AI SDK? A Complete Intro & Quickstart

Learn why on-device AI matters for React Native apps, how local LLMs behave offline, and what problems React Native AI is designed to solve from day one.

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Jan 29Tutorial

Implementing an Android TurboModule with Kotlin

Learn how to implement a React Native TurboModule on Android, from the TypeScript spec and Codegen to the Kotlin implementation and package registration.

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Jan 19Tutorial

Working with Different Threads in Swift TurboModules

Learn how JavaScript, native module, background, and main threads interact in React Native TurboModules, and how to use GCD queues to run async work safely in Swift.

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Jan 9Tutorial

How to Add Type-Safe Constants to Swift TurboModules

Learn how to expose typed, immutable constants from a Swift TurboModule using Codegen, and get full end-to-end type safety between native and JavaScript.

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Dec 30Tutorial

Adding Event Emitters to Your TurboModule in Swift

Learn how to emit native events from a Swift TurboModule and subscribe to them in JavaScript, including proper memory management and Codegen integration.

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Dec 22Tutorial

Writing Your First TurboModule in Swift

Learn how to build a fully working TurboModule in Swift, integrate it with Codegen, and bridge it through Objective‑C inside an Expo app.