(Saturday event!) Boston Azure AI - Global AI Bootcamp 2025

Hands-on, bring-your-laptop, on SATURDAY MARCH 22:

• Registration is limited to 75.
• ‼️‼️‼️ CANCELED - WILL NOT HAPPEN FRI ‼️‼️‼️ (Remote) Pre-event is Friday March 21 at 7:30 PM. The night before (Fri night) join us for a Virtual pre-bootcamp workshop with Nitya Narasimhan: Sketch The Docs. Nitya, who will also be joining us for the Global AI Day on Saturday, will present a really fun session on visual storytelling. We will put some of the lessons learned in this Fri session to use on Sat! Saturday is in-person. Friday night is virtual.
• (In-person) Event is Saturday March 22. Doors open at 9:00 (for breakfast!), then event content kicks off at 9:30. We'll wrap up by 5:00 PM.
• Sponsored by our friends at Daymark.

You are invited to join Boston Azure AI for this is ALL-DAY, SATURDAY, HANDS-ON coding workshop focused on Artificial Intelligence. Many concepts will be explained and explored.

IMPORTANT - ACTION NEEDED

1. If your NAME on Meetup does not match your government-issued ID (first, last names) then please correct it in Meetup.com or send email to the account "hq @ bostonazureai.org" with your correct name + your meetup name. Facility security requires that we send them the list of ACTUAL names by this coming weekend, so please do this ASAP.
2. If you are NOT GOING TO MAKE IT please change your RSVP accordingly. We have a large waiting list. If you are ON THE WAIT LIST we will let you know as soon as we can if a slot opens up. The note about name applies to you too, else we may not be able to promote you off the wait list.
3. We will use GitHub, Azure, and VS Code. Please set these up in advance. All are free.
4. https://github.com/
5. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/
6. https://code.visualstudio.com/

EVENT LOGISTICAL HIGHLIGHTS

1. ‼️‼️‼️ CANCELED - WILL NOT HAPPEN FRI ‼️‼️‼️ FRI 7:30 PM ➔ ‼️ Note updated start time - starting at 7:30 PM ‼️ The night before (Fri night) join us for a Virtual pre-bootcamp workshop with Nitya Narasimhan: Sketch The Docs. Nitya, who will also be joining us for the Global AI Day on Saturday, will present a really fun session on visual storytelling. We will put some of the lessons learned in this Fri session to use on Sat! Saturday is in-person. Friday night is virtual.
2. SAT 9:00 AM ➔ Doors open and breakfast will be available: fruit tray + lots of bagels + coffee & tea. (Concerns about the menu? Please reach out to "hq @ bostonazureai.org" - we may or may not be able to accommodate, but please feel free to ask.)
3. SAT 9:30 AM ➔ The event content kicks off at 9:30 AM sharp.
4. SAT NOON ➔ Time is approximate. There will be lunch: sandwiches + salad + more coffee & tea. (Concerns about the menu? Please reach out to "hq @ bostonazureai.org" - we may or may not be able to accommodate, but please feel free to ask.)
5. SAT 5:00 PM ➔ The event will end no later than 5:00 PM.

FUN FACT: We operated as Boston Azure from Oct 2009 through Dec 2024. Starting in 2025 we are operating as Boston Azure AI. This is the second event under the new Boston Azure AI moniker.

Where: Microsoft NERD (1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA)
⚠️ You need a name, you need an ID, and they need to match.

• ‼️ Government-issued ID is required by facility security staff before they admit you to the building.
• ‼️ Your name on your government-issued ID should match your name on your Meetup account, else facility security staff may not admit you to the building. They require we inform well in advance of all event attendees.

We have a FANTASTIC line-up featuring speakers from Microsoft, Boston Azure AI, and some new faces.

Rough schedule for the day:
9:00am - Breakfast
9:30am - Global keynote
10:00am - Nitya's Tech talk
11:10am - tech workshop
12:10pm - Lunch
1:00pm - Lightning Talks:
- Getting Sentiment Analysis via the Language Service (George Babey)
- AI-driven security and threat detection using Sentinel (Bhavya Agarwal)
1:30pm - Build your first agent with Azure AI Agent Service workshop
2:30pm - Build your first multi-agent with Azure AI Agent Service and AutgoGen workshop
3:30pm - (tech workshop) Using Local Models for RAG

Speakers:

• Nitya Narasimhan. Nitya is a PhD and Polyglot with 20+ years of software research & development experience spanning mobile, web, cloud and AI. She is also an innovator (12+ patents) and visual storyteller (@sketchthedocs) with a passion for helping developers translate emerging technologies into actionable solutions. Her current role focuses on empowering developers to do more with AI on Azure through content, code and collaborations with research and open-source communities.
• Juan Pablo Garcia Gonzalez:

Juan Pablo Garcia Gonzalez works as the Principal AI Solution Architect Lead at Microsoft’s Global Partner Solutions team based in Cambridge Massachusetts. One of his primary focus is to work with top global software developer companies in the AI space, assisting them in building solutions on Microsoft cloud. Before assuming this role, he spent over 20 years in software engineering, cloud architecture, and artificial intelligence roles in Microsoft and other leading technology companies like Dell.

Juan Pablo regularly collaborates with the leadership and development teams of Microsoft’s top global partners, guiding them in co-innovation by leveraging Microsoft technologies. He is a frequent speaker at numerous Microsoft and industry conferences. As an engineer, Juan Pablo consistently contributes to technical communities, sharing his insights on technical topics such as AI and Cloud.

He holds an Electronics Engineering Degree from Mayor University, Information Technology management certificate from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a Master’s degree in Information Technology from Federico Santa Maria University and Building AI Product and Services certificate from MIT.

• Bill Wilder. Bill is an AI-focused consultant with deep background spanning software architecture, Azure, and cybersecurity. Boston Azure AI founder and co-organizer. Microsoft MVP. CISSP.
• Jason Haley - Jason is an Azure MVP and independent Full Stack Solution Architect with a deep focus on Azure and .NET technologies. He is currently focused on helping customers integrate Gen AI functionality into their .NET applications.
• Veronika Kolesnikova. Software engineer by day and AI enthusiast by night. Veronika has extensive experience in full-stack development using C#, .NET, Java and Typescript, Azure and AWS clouds. Public speaker, Microsoft MVP in AI, hackathon volunteer, Boston Azure AI user group co-organizer, and mentor.
• George Babey. George Babey is VP of Engineering at Steer, a Waltham-based company focused on building a marketing and communications platform for helping auto repair shops grow.
• Bhavya Agarwal is a Computer Science student at UMass Amherst who spends more time talking to AI than people (don’t worry, it’s a healthy relationship). When she’s not swamped with exams or homework, Bhavya enjoys geeking out over new technologies, exploring new food spots, and learning fun CS-related facts. Did you know that Julius Caesar invented a cipher called the Caesar Cipher to send secret messages to his generals in the field?

➡️ If you're coming to this event, we recommend coming to our virtual pre-Bootcamp workshop too: https://www.meetup.com/bostonazureai/events/306610532/.

See you there!

Sincerely,

Your Boston Azure AI Team
@bostonazureai