Azure Global Event

Welcome to the azure global Community conference!
The Columbus Azure meetup and Columbus Code and Coffee have partnered up to put on a free, 1 day, conference!
We have 6 amazing speakers that will be covering features on Azure, with a special focus on AI. There will of course also be time to meet and network. To make sure you aren’t hungry, there will be pizza, provided by our amazing sponsors, Leading Edje.
Schedule:

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1:30 - Doors Open
2:00 - Introduction/Kickoff
2:10 - AutoDev: The Future of DevOps?
Mike Alnakhaleh
2:45 - Mad Data Science: Using AI to Build Ridiculous Things
Matt Eland
3:20 - Where Does This Go? Navigating Azure Database Options
Drake Lundstrom
3:55 - Pizza break
4:30 - Leverage Azure, Entra, Intune: Protect organizational devices through Policies
Sucheta Gawade
5:05 - Building Digital Assistants with Azure AI Services
Chad Thomas
5:40 - Transforming Resiliency: Azure's journey to AZs
Mark Tinderholt
6:15 - Networking
7:00 - Doors Close

Session Descriptions:
AutoDev: The Future of DevOps?
Mike Alnakhaleh
Description TBD

Mad Data Science: Using AI to Build Ridiculous Things
Matt Eland
Have you ever gotten into an argument on whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie and thought "If only machine learning could help" or "What could I do to automate my dog's daily routine and make his life easier" or "Is it possible to spend 3 months time to determine if I can sleep in 5 minutes tomorrow morning"? If so, we might get along.
Come join this lighthearted talk as we explore some ridiculous uses of AI and Machine Learning with topics ranging from large language models to reinforcement learning to simple regression algorithms. You'll get a brief survey of data science and AI and see how these fascinating technologies can be used for fun and profit—and how simple hobby projects can lead to real learning, growth, and innovation.
As a bonus, you'll find out the truth about Die Hard and come away with some helpful starting points for trying your own mad data science experiments.

Where Does This Go? Navigating Azure Database Options
Drake Lundstrom
Azure has so many database offerings that is it easy to get lost. There are IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS offerings, and an uncountable number of configuration options.
In this talk, we’ll cover some of the most commonly used databases on Azure, what workloads are databases optimized for, and how to configure a database for your workload.
As a bonus, we will also talk about how to set up a database that is cheap or free for personal projects.

Leverage Azure, Entra, Intune: Protect organizational devices through Policies
Sucheta Gawade
In this presentation, I will discuss how to enhance the security of organizational Windows and mobile devices using a cohesive blend of Azure, Entra, and Intune, through comprehensive policy management. This approach significantly bolsters the protection of applications, identities, and data. As a key element of Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite, Intune leads in cloud-based enterprise device management, offering seamless integration with Azure and Entra.

Building Digital Assistants with Azure AI Services
Chad Thomas
This session will look at building digital assistants and micro-agents with Azure services like Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Semantic Kernel, and Autogen.

Transforming Resiliency: Azure's Journey to AZs
Mark Tinderholt
Description TBD

If you are interested in joining our community, find us on Discord here:
https://discord.gg/PG2yY3yZmx
If you are interested in speaking at a future Columbus Azure event, submit your session proposal here:
https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2024