ColdFusion

We are very excited to announce another Search Tech Berlin Meetup. The meetup will be hosted and sponsored by Zalando (thank you!). **Agenda** 18:15 - Doors open 18:45 - Introduction 19:00 - **Talk: Samay Kapadia: Multi-Modal Embedding Search with modern VLMs** 19:40 - Networking, food & drinks 20:00 - **Talk: David Fennesey: Automating the tedium of golden sets with agentic flows** 20:40 - Let’s socialize and grab some drinks 21:00 - Doors closing **Talks** **1) Multi-Modal Embedding Search with modern VLMs** Samay Kapadia, Principal ML Engineer, Zalando Creating a state-of-the-art search embedding model for products, that supports both text and visual inputs. Since there are no open-weight multimodal embedding models, we will convert VLMs like Qwen3 and Ministral 3 into embedding models using LoRA (Low Rank Adapters). **2) David Fennesey: Automating the tedium of golden sets with agentic flows** David Fennesey, Principal Engineer, Flink Search relevancy optimization, such as taxonomies, labeling, and query classification, is expensive to build and painful to maintain. Modern reasoning LLMs, with a small agentic framework around them are easily capable of exploring, evaluating, and iterating through your data. This talk builds that workflow from scratch: tool calls for strategic exploration and guardrails to keep it in check. See you at the event René & Roman

\*facilitated in english ## DNA. presents ''SHUFFLE FUSION'' #### A smooth Dance Style connected to Electronic Music ‍ This workshop guides You through the numerous facets of shuffle movements and shows You how to connect them into choreographies. Lead by our two amazing community members & Your new Shuffle Teachers Betty, Lena & Dani Ospina - talented shuffle teachers that started shuffling at a very young age and leads this class with his experience connected to a lifetime of passion. ‍ Wednesdays (Weekly, regular)- [Lena](https://www.instagram.com/lenaloha.shuffledance?igsh=N2ltZWhhMjM5b3Nz) & [Dani](https://www.instagram.com/daniospina20?igsh=bnBrM3BxY2xuNnll) Fridays (Special Classes, not regular) - [Betty](https://www.instagram.com/_betty.shapes_?igsh=NzhzYmJkZTUycHZl) ‍ > Try something new and experience an energetic dance style full of passion and great rhythms. ‍ ##### WHEN: Every Wednesday 6 - 7 pm ‍ ##### DURATION: 50 min. ‍ ##### WHERE: [DNA. ART HOUSE](https://maps.app.goo.gl/4XrC8gTPtdDGb3oB6) Wrangelstraße 25 10997 Berlin ‍ ##### WHAT DO YOU NEED: Sneakers (the less traction, the better) ‍ ##### LEVEL: Beginners (Betty) & Open Level (Dani) ‍ ‍ See Us Soon. Love, ‍ ‍ Lena, Betty, Dani & DNA. ‍‍ *** For more insights, follow us on IG: [@nightart.club](https://www.instagram.com/nightart.club) \*Members of Dair Night Art e.V. and Subscribers of DNA. Art GbR. \*\*By entering the DNA. ART HOUSE, You agree to comply with the [Hausordnung of Dair Night Art e.V.](https://dairnight.com/hausordnung) and [Geschäftsordnung of Dair Night Art e.V.](https://dairnight.com/geschaftsordnung) Please ensure You review these documents thoroughly in advan

An inspiring, high-energy meeting of public speaking, connection, and personal growth in the heart of Berlin. **Mercury Toastmasters Berlin** invites you to our weekly meeting at our new home at **Das Center, Potsdamer Platz**, in the stunning **Historic Imperial Breakfast Hall**. *Experience the **power of prepared speeches** loaded with bold ideas, participate in our **dynamic Impromptu Session**, and **gain valuable insights** during our feedback segment.* *Leave with practical tools, fresh ideas, and renewed inspiration.* *Whether you want to speak up at work, boost your presence, or just meet inspiring people, you’ll feel at home at Mercury Toastmasters Berlin.* *** **[What to Expect:](https://mercurytoastmasters.de/find-toastmasters-meetings-in-berlin/)** ✨ A supportive space to speak, grow, and connect 🎤 Engaging prepared speeches ⚡ Fun, fast-paced impromptu speaking challenges 💬 Feedback session you can actually use 🌍 A friendly, international crowd (around 25–30 people) **Schedule** (times may vary) ⏰ 19:15 - Doors open & networking 🎙️ 19:30 - Prepared Speeches 🏓 20:35 - Impromptu Session (Guest welcome to join) ↩️ 21:00 - Constructive feedback 💬 21:30 - Food, drinks & relaxed socializing **No experience needed.** ***Come curious. Leave energized.*** *** **🤙 [Hear it from our members:](https://maps.app.goo.gl/eRtvR9DRNqU9WZQn7)** *“You can sharpen your public speaking skills and gain tons of confidence, while having fun and making new friends. Mercury is well-structured, fun, and affordable.”* — *Therese Pitt* *“Mercury gave me a safe place to speak, create, and grow. I love the multicultural vibe and supportive community. It’s the best place to learn and have fun.”* — *Krisztina Linka* *** **[Did You Know?](https://mercurytoastmasters.de/about-mercury-toastmasters-berlin/)** Toastmasters is where people go to get better at speaking—and grow into confident communicators and leaders. Today [Toastmasters ](https://mercurytoastmasters.de/about-mercury-toastmasters-berlin/)has 350,000+ members across 16,000 clubs in 143 countries. And [Mercury](https://mercurytoastmasters.de/find-toastmasters-meetings-in-berlin/) is one of the best places to experience it. So bring your curiosity, your energy—and just be yourself. Whether you’re just starting or ready to level up, there’s a place for you here. *** **[Wondering what you get as a member?](https://mercurytoastmasters.de/membership-mercury-toastmasters-berlin/)** Think expert feedback, real-world speaking practice, and a supportive crew that’s got your back. [See you Wednesday night! 🎉](https://mercurytoastmasters.de/find-toastmasters-meetings-in-berlin/)

A 2.5 hours oil color - acrylics painting lesson. **About this course** This is a painting workshop with the goal of teaching people how to create paintings using either oil colors or acrylics. The total subject lessons consists of around **27 lessons** that last 2.5 hours each. You can join at any time during the course. On each lesson the first part will be about theory and exercise and the second one about canvas time. Each participant will have the chance to work on canvas and start making paintings as artworks. All materials are provided by us. Each lesson has a subject. We do not follow a particular order, and every lesson is actually unique and many times personalized. This means that every time the attendess will have to do something new and different. You do not have to paint on canvas and with the mentioned art materias, you can also choose to use any of your wish. Most of the observations and exercises work well with all art materials. It is suitable for beginners and or even professionals who want to rationalize the canvas painting process. It is being hosted by the visual artist [Miltos Despoudis](https://miltosdespoudis.gr/). **How much does it cost?** Check below: * 5 x Lessons Packet (2.5 hours each) cost **120€.** * First lesson try-out costs **17€**. You can do that only once. * 1 x Lesson (2.5 hours) costs **30€.** You can pay either by cash or card at the event. All of the materials are included within the ticket reservation **except the canvases.** You can paint anything on a canvas we will provide you free but if you want to keep the canvas you will have to purchase it at the same cost we bought it. Canvases range from 3 to 9 Euros. **How do I subscribe?** You need to reserve a spot here and come at the event. You can pay at the event. Please verify that you are attending so that we know and prepare accordingly with the art supplies. **What do I need?** Watercolors materials will be provided at the venue. You can also bring your own art supplies, it might be helpful to learn working with what you have. Keep in mind that working with colors might make your clothes dirty, but in general we try to be clean. **More Info** The workshop happens almost every Wednesday. Learn more about the watercolor lesson plan here: [https://creativesessions.art/workshops/painting-workshop/](https://creativesessions.art/workshops/painting-workshop/) **Refund Policy** On case by case scenario. If you paid for the tryout session we can refund up to one day before the event starts. If you paid for the 4 lesson packet and used one of the tickets no refunds are possible.

Cuban salsa classes every Wednesday . Join us, learn how to dance, save lives and make friends! **Classes**: 19:00 - Absolute Beginners (For Free) 20:00 - Beginners 2 21.00 - Improvers 1 **Price: (Card payment only)** 1 class - 7€ 10 class pass - 49€ or 42€ reduced* (To use within 11 weeks. Valid for all our classes. It can only be used by one person per class. No refund possible) * Reduced price for students, Schüler, Azubis, H4-Empfänger, and pensioners/retired folks. A valid proof is needed. **Why should you learn Salsa, and why with us?** - It's great fun! - You don't need any prior dancing experience. - You get to know loads of new people. - No registration, just swing by. - No fix starting date - you can start any week. - No dress code - come in whatever you feel comfortable in. Note:No outside shoes in the room: socks or a pair of clean shoes will be required - No partner needed - we change regularly during the classes (bring all your friends though!) - You can help us make a difference! **What is Salsa4Water**? Simple! We teach Salsa and donate all our profits to the NGO Welthungerhilfe, which uses these funds for their local projects in Malawi. Welthungerhilfe fights for equal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene in nearly 40 countries world wide. This gives you the chance to save lives while dancing!

**This LIVE support group is for job hunters in Berlin, to meet and connect in person.** **This event is LIVE, in person, not online!** The LIVE support group gets you off your screen, moves you out of the house to connect with people in real life. Many feel emotionally lighter, less isolated and more empowered at the end of the meeting. Knowing they are not alone, new friendships and professional networks are often formed. **WHAT TO EXPECT?** * Peer to peer support, exchange * Job hunting strategies, tips, tricks and hacks * Emotional support and encouragement * Share current job market trends in Berlin and Germany wide * Networking practice in a small and safe environment * Share your emotional highs and lows in a supportive space * Japanese 'IKIGAI' practice - being in the 'Here and Now' DURATION: 90 minutes Hosted by: June Kashio * 25 years in International Human Resources Management * Certified Life, Career Coach/Mentor * Japanese IKIGAI Coach * Mental Health Practitioner * Certified Grief Educator DATE: **Wednesday, 28 January at 12.30pm** VENUE: **Moritzplatz, Berlin** To secure your spot email: **hello@junekashio.com** (You will receive the venue address 1 day before the event) **6-8 people max** (for safe space sharing) **REGISTER by email!** To secure your spot, email: **hello@junekashio.com** *FEE: Donation based (to support the running cost)* **SEE you LIVE in person!** ***NOTE:*** *This event is a peer to peer support group, not therapy.*

**\*\*\* NEW LOCATION! \*\*\*** Join us for a relaxed, social evening exploring the basics of vibe coding. This time with a focus on automation workflows using **n8n** (n8n.io). This time at the awesome **Electric** **Social** Bar, with good vibes, good music, and great drinks. This event is for everyone. Especially beginners and anyone curious about AI and the latest tech. No prior experience needed. Just bring a laptop or tablet and an open mind. **Hosted by:** * **[Marcel Claus-Ahrens](https://www.linkedin.com/in/geckse/): n8n Ambassador and Leading Automation Expert** * **[Ridvan Sibic](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ridvan-sibic-300b5512a/): AI Engineer and Founder** **Who Is This For?** * Complete beginners and the coding-curious * Anyone wanting to learn something new in a relaxed group setting * Students, creatives, hobbyists, and professionals * Anyone with a cool app idea * If you ever wanted to know how to automate a process * People who enjoy learning with others **What to Bring:** * A laptop or tablet (as this is a hands-on event) * A curious mind * Good vibes **Schedule (19:00–21:00 + Open Session)** * **19:00 – Arrival & Drinks** * **19:15 – Vibe Coding Introduction by** **[Ridvan Sibic](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ridvan-sibic-300b5512a/)** * **19:20 – n8n Introduction by** **[Marcel Claus-Ahrens](https://www.linkedin.com/in/geckse/)** * **19:30 – Hands-on Kickoff** * **20:00 – Break & Social Time** * **20:10 – Working Session** * **20:40 – Lightning Presentations** * **21:00 – Wrap-Up & Open Session** Stay for drinks, conversations, and freestyle exploration for as long as you like. **Where:** At the Electric Social - Grunerstraße 13, 10179 Berlin **Price:** It's for free.

Kick off the new year with our first gathering of 2026! As the days get colder, we’re bringing the Flutter community together for an evening of fresh inspiration and cutting-edge tech. Join us at Knowunity for a night of learning, networking, and a deep dive into the future of user interfaces. **Schedule** **18:30 — Doors Open & New Year Welcome** Check in, grab a drink, and catch up with the community as we start the year strong. **19:00 — Opening Remarks** A greeting from Flutter Berlin and our hosts at Knowunity to kick off the evening. **Talk 1 — Joshua Greenwood: From Prompts to Pixels: LLM-Powered Interfaces using Generative UI** Imagine asking an LLM a question and instead of receiving a static wall of text, you receive a fully tailored interactive interface that's built on the fly, specific to your task. In this talk, we'll dive into Google's new Generative UI paradigm and how it can be applied with Flutter. You’ll learn what it's capable of today, how it works under the hood, and how you can start integrating Generative UI patterns into your own Flutter applications. **Talk 2 — Norbert Kozsir: Pushing the boundaries of Dart and Flutter** This talk takes you on a short but unconventional journey: from re-implementing core Flutter concepts from scratch in the terminal, to building a coding agent on top of it - and eventually making Flutter run inside Minecraft. Along the way, I’ll share the technical challenges, unexpected lessons, and finally reveal why I actually did all of this in the first place 🙂 **20:00 — Networking** Meet fellow Flutter devs, exchange ideas, and chat over snacks. **22:00 — Doors Close** We say goodbye and step back into the crisp January night.

# **Program January 31, 2026: Community Night** #### Special Themes: Save Baumhaus Crowdfunding Since 2015 Community Networking Night is all about bringing together people from many walks of life who share a common desire to do what they can to make the world a better place. Enjoy meeting people in an authentic and informal atmosphere, developing organic relationships, sharing perspectives and collaboratively supporting each other. This time it's even more special because Baumhaus needs your help to get through this transitional period. Share your ideas for what you would like to see happen or help make happen at Baumhaus this coming year. [Contribute to the Baumhaus crowdfunding campaign](https://www.goodcrowd.org/saving-das-baumhaus) and spread the word! **12:00 \- 19:00 \| Arrival & Community Connection \+ Open Art Salon** Open networking in our Open Greeting Zone where you can feel free to introduce yourself to anyone in the space at any time and expect the same in return. Settle in, grab some water, coffee or tea, and connect with fellow change makers. Get a first hand look at our current mosaic project we just installed and learn how you can join in with this or other collaborative projects in Baumhaus like the vertical garden or worm compost. Join us anytime on Saturday for a laid back but productive **Open Art Salon**. Save some money, meet some new people and create the perfect gift or artwork! Step into a space to reconnect with what truly matters — yourself, the people who lift you up, and those you wish to honor. **Create gifts for others or keepsakes for yourself, infused with your presence and intention.** Feel free to bring some your own materials that have special meaning or value like photographs, sketches, dried leaves, a feather, a patterned textile, an old journal, magazines, glitter, a piece of old wood, dried flowers or whatever! We will have stations set up around the space for you to work on making cards, a recipe book, a drawing, a painting with watercolor or acrylic, making collages on cardboard or wood, hand sanding/coloring/oiling unique wood pieces as charms or a necklace. Our special guest, May hails from Burma bringing with her talent in drawing and painting plus her passion for helping other people to learn these skills. She host a regular series of Sunday events that are open for anyone to join. [https://www.instagram.com/artby_may_partofspring/](https://www.instagram.com/artby_may_partofspring/) Nils will be installing wooden roof tiles & Scott from Baumhaus will help with finishing wood pieces that were sustainably harvested branches from the forests of Brandenburg by Nils from Badabaum. [https://www.badabaum.de/](https://www.badabaum.de/) **18:00 \- 19:45 \| Community Cooking** Join us in the the kitchen to see how we can take our selection of food sharing donations and bio veggies straight from the regenerative farm and create a delicious vegan menu. Bring something to tie your hair back if you would like to join in, we provide the aprons! **18:30 - 19:30 [Saving Baumhaus - Crowdfunding Launch!](_wp_link_placeholder)** \- After our project funding ended we are left to start over again with making the Baumhaus financially sustainable\. The objective is to raise enough money to pay the costs of keeping the Baumhaus open for 3 months\, around 12\.000€ until we fill the gap with space rentals and paid services or project work this Spring\. We are looking ahead to developing new collaborations\, partnerships\, supports and new event concepts\. [Take a look at our new website](https://www.baumhausberlin.de/) and let us know what you think. Baumhaus founder, Scott will give a brief overview of where Baumhaus is headed next and how to get involved. **20:00 Community Night Buffet Opening** – it’s all vegan, with CSA/Solawi veggies and some food sharing items plus the standard tea, water, coffee or bring your own drinks! We recommend joining us the latest at this time so you can enjoy some of the food:) **21:00 “News You Can Use”** – you can briefly (1min) introduce yourself, let us know what you need help with, if you have resources to share/offer or know of something interesting going on we might want to know about **21:30 Cleaning the kitchen** loading the dishwasher, cleaning the pots washing the dishes **21:45 “FLOW” group vocal meditation** (seminar room) – more info here - [https://www.baumhausberlin.de/en/flow/](https://www.baumhausberlin.de/en/flow/) **23:00 end at Baumhaus** and head over to Panke Club... check out pics from our last events on our News and Events page or here - [https://www.facebook.com/baumhausberlin/photos_albums](https://www.facebook.com/baumhausberlin/photos_albums?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVdWIgHkPFOHjg4LXA50TXTugfTmpaDbDA_7ZECr1XNXuD64Dx-UQRG6eO1HzGH6Ngmy--X36f4_KR3loNevkF_iniyQoqZicNQ7LDO5XMzjaWTUERfBuOdALSeWa4ocZ7wnMcX5Nq7rh9JO8QNCFER&__tn__=q)

**IMPORTANT PLEASE RSVP:** https://www.meetup.com/grafana-and-friends-berlin/events/312736114/?eventOrigin=group_upcoming_events **🕐 Agenda** * **18:00 — Welcome & Snacks** * Doors open! Grab a slice, meet fellow community members, and get settled. * **18:30 — Opening Remarks** * A warm welcome from the **Berlin community** and event partners. * **18:45 — Tech Talks Begin** **Talk 01: Keeping data private in real-time pipelines** **Abstract** We all love real-time data — clicks, payments, rides, messages — but most of it comes with a catch: it often includes personal information we’re not allowed to leak, such as names, emails, locations, or subtle clues that can identify someone. So how do we keep streaming data **useful** and **safe** at the same time? In this talk, we’ll explore practical approaches to protecting privacy in streaming systems using **Apache Kafka**, Apache Flink, and Apache Iceberg. We’ll cover: * Simple techniques like **masking and tokenizing PII** * Why “anonymous” data often **isn’t really anonymous** (the re-identification problem) * Privacy-preserving approaches such as **bucketing, k-anonymity, and adding noise** * How to **balance privacy and data utility** (because over-hiding can make data useless) ### **Talk 02: TBA** Details coming soon 👀 ### **Talk 03: TBA** Stay tuned for the announcement!

**Important: In order to attend this event, please register on the [Callstack event page](https://www.callstack.com/events/react-universe-meetup-x-zalando-berlin).** React Universe Meetup is coming to Berlin. On January 29, 2026, Zalando is teaming up with Callstack to host an in-person React Universe Meetup. Expect an evening built for experienced engineers who care about how things actually work in production, with time for both focused talks and unstructured conversations. The event is aimed at software developers, senior engineers, and architects working across full-stack and cross-platform applications, with an emphasis on sharing practical lessons, architectural tradeoffs, and production-ready approaches. It’s a space for teams working with React Native and related technologies to compare notes, learn from peers, and take ideas back to their own codebases. **Important: In order to attend this event, please register on the [Callstack event page](https://www.callstack.com/events/react-universe-meetup-x-zalando-berlin).** ## Agenda * **6:00 PM** Doors open * **‍6:20 PM** Welcome * **‍6:30 PM** Building a Video Experience with React Native: Lessons from Early Adoption Speaker: Eugene Verichev, Zalando * **6:55 PM** LLM inference on-device in React Native: the practical aspects‍ Speaker: Artur Morys-Magiera, Callstack‍ * **7:20 PM** Talk 3 (details to be announced)‍ * **7:45 PM** Q&A‍ * **8:00 PM** Networking Additional talks and speakers will be announced closer to the event.

Hola zusammen! 
☀️ Almuerzo / Brunch ☀️
 el domingo 1 de febrero, a partir de las 11:00
hrs (el local abre justo a las 11). Oficialmente el evento es de 2 hrs, pero con frecuencia nos quedamos un tiempo más, cuando la conversación lo amerita :D Tomamos algo y hablamos español y Deutsch Lugar: El Colmado en Alexanderplatz.

Join us for the **first Berlin meetup of the year** as we bring together **Kong × Kafka × Grafana** for an evening focused on **real-time data, streaming, and observability** 🚀 This meetup is all about learning from practitioners, sharing experiences, and kicking off 2026 with the local data & platform community. As always, expect **high-quality technical talks**, **great conversations**, and **good vibes** — plus **pizza 🍕 and cold drinks** to keep things flowing. *** **🔐 Important** For security reasons, please provide your **Full name and surname** during registration. Our volunteers will verify your registration at the entrance — this is **mandatory** to access the venue. Your information will be used **only** for this purpose. *** **🗓️ Event Details** **📅 Date:** 29.01.26 *** **🕐 Agenda** **18:00 — Welcome & Snacks** Doors open! Grab a slice, meet fellow community members, and get settled. **18:30 — Opening Remarks** A warm welcome from the **Berlin community** and event partners. **18:45 — Tech Talks Begin** 📚 **Talk Details** ### **Talk 01: Keeping data private in real-time pipelines By Olena Kutsenko** **Abstract** We all love real-time data — clicks, payments, rides, messages — but most of it comes with a catch: it often includes personal information we’re not allowed to leak, such as names, emails, locations, or subtle clues that can identify someone. So how do we keep streaming data **useful** and **safe** at the same time? In this talk, we’ll explore practical approaches to protecting privacy in streaming systems using **Apache Kafka**, Apache Flink, and Apache Iceberg. We’ll cover: * Simple techniques like **masking and tokenizing PII** * Why “anonymous” data often **isn’t really anonymous** (the re-identification problem) * Privacy-preserving approaches such as **bucketing, k-anonymity, and adding noise** * How to **balance privacy and data utility** (because over-hiding can make data useless) *** ### **Talk 02: Blackbox Monitoring is Hard! (And Why That’s the Best Part) By Goutham Veeramachaneni** I’ve been experimenting with [Beyla](https://grafana.com/oss/beyla-ebpf/) and [eBPF-based monitoring](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ebpf-instrumentation) since its inception. While it’s an incredible tool for getting started with zero-code instrumentation, making it work reliably at scale presents a unique set of hurdles. In this session, we’ll introduce Beyla’s architecture and show how it can kickstart your observability journey.But the real story lies in what happens next. Navigating the scaling challenges has been an absolute blast, and we’ve tackled each bottleneck unfazed—sometimes by leaning into the tech, and other times by resorting to white box native instrumentation to gain the granular insights we need.What you’ll learn: * • **The "How":** A technical deep dive into how Beyla works under the hood. * • **The "Real-World":** The specific challenges we faced when moving beyond the initial phase. * • **The "Trade-offs":** A transparent look at the limitations of different approaches, from pure blackbox eBPF to native instrumentation. * • T**he "Product":** Insight into the intricacies of building a new product in a rapidly evolving ecosystem. Whether you are an observability veteran or just starting with eBPF, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of your monitoring stack and the confidence to handle the limitations of the tools you use. ### **Talk 03: Securing and governing both external and internal traffic By Sven Walther** Modern enterprises must secure and govern APIs, event-driven systems, and internal services—without fragmenting control across multiple platforms. This talk shows how a unified management plane brings consistency, visibility, and security across the entire application landscape using Kong Konnect. The session will cover three key areas: * **External connectivity & event exposure** Securely connect partners and customers to your event-driven systems without exposing internal infrastructure directly. * **Internal service governance with Service Mesh** Apply security, traffic control, and observability across your internal network using a service mesh. * **Fine-grained Kafka governance** Enforce policies and security down to the individual message level for internal event streams. *** ### **🤝🏻 21:00 — Networking & Q&A** Connect with fellow developers, data engineers, platform teams, and observability enthusiasts. Share ideas, experiences, and maybe even exchange a LinkedIn connection or two. **21:30 — Event Wrap-Up** *** **📷 Photo Notice** By attending this event, you consent to being photographed. These photos may be used for future community and event promotions. Don’t forget to smile 😄 *** We’re excited to kick off 2026 with the Berlin community and can’t wait to see you there! If you have any questions or are interested in **speaking at future meetups**, feel free to reach out.

**📅 Week 2 Focus: Image Processing Recap & Intro to Deep Learning** Each 7-week cycle focuses on a **small, well-defined part of a larger system**—and over time, these cycles build toward a complete, real-world project (covering data engineering, data science, and deployment). Feel free to join at any week and we will catch you up. There is no need to be at the beginning of the cohort to build. Complete beginners welcomed! 🧠 Current Project This cycle’s shared project is an **image-based knowledge extraction system** Last week, we kicked off our shared project by getting our hands dirty with OpenCV and exploring traditional image processing techniques. In Week 2, we’ll: * **Recap what we explored last week** and share cool experiments * **Look under the hood** of the OpenCV techniques we used * **Start exploring deep learning–based approaches** for text and object detection 📌 By the End of a Full Cycle, You should Have 🎯 A working project in your own GitHub repo 🎯 A small but real portfolio piece you can demo or write about 📅 When: Saturday, Jan 31 · 9:30–11:30 📍 Where: Torstraße 59, Forward Earth 💻 Bring: Your laptop, an idea—or just curiosity **👋 Who Is This For?** 🔹 Beginners who learn best by doing — no prior experience needed 🔹 Career switchers from product, engineering, design, marketing, or other fields who want to break into data 🔹 Analysts, engineers, and PMs looking to sharpen their skills or build real-world projects 🔹 Data professionals who want a creative playground outside of work 🔹 Anyone with big questions and a love for learning through experimentation \*\*\* **BUILD. LEARN. EXPERIMENT. OVER COFFEE.** Come hang out, meet like-minded people, and work on something fun. 📍 Based in Berlin – in-person meetups only (for now!) 💻 Laptops + ☕ highly encouraged Join our Discord → [https://discord.gg/dPnmzcCP8w](https://discord.gg/dPnmzcCP8w) Check out our program resources: [Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15DmZqD4bLBk2vU4zpvh1HiB3_5n09v-q?usp=sharing) \*\*\* ✨ Who’s Hosting? I’m Lindsey, a senior data scientist working on AI, causal inference, and data products. I’ve built models for fraud detection, uplift modeling, and LLM-based systems. I am always open to suggestion for different format for this meetup.

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: Nothing yet. (You should volunteer). What is Cocoaheads (http://cocoaheads.org/)? CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on MacOS X and iOS (including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch). During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. What is BuckeyeCocoa (http://buckeyecocoa.org/)? BuckeyeCocoa is a group of Objective-C/Swift developers/enthusiasts. We host monthly Cocoaheads and near-weekly NSCoder meetings in Columbus, Ohio. The meetings are free to attend. Presentations! Presenters welcome! We are always in need of people willing to present material. Any Swift and/or Objective-C related topic is welcome. Times can be 5 minutes (i.e. lightning talks) to a maximum of 2 hours. Interested? Contact info is on the BuckeyeCocoa website. To volunteer for a presentation contact us at @BuckeyeCocoa on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! @BuckeyeCocoa (https://twitter.com/#!/Buckeyecocoa/) For more information: http://buckeyecocoa.org/

Join us Saturday, 1/31 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm for an evening at The Cozy at Portia’s Café. Come learn about this local, grassroots animal rights organization and our current campaigns. Whether you want to do more for animals or simply meet other activists and vegans, this is the place for you. Bring your friends — all animal lovers are welcome. Enjoy games, socializing, and meaningful connections with fellow vegans and animal advocates. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Feel free to purchase food from Portia’s if you’d like — it’s completely optional. Location: Portia’s Café 3083 Indianola Ave, Columbus, OH 43202 The Cozy is located right next door.

Our monthly PHP meetup. A virtual shindig courtesy of Zoom. Check back here for the details around 6:15 pm

We are excited to host Guided Meditations on Sundays at 6 pm in our Ashram/Gallery/Home! !! !! Everyone wants to know what kind of God we worship and what kind of meditation we do. We worship the GOD that LOVES US! We understand that god is an energy and it lives in us as us. Our meditations guide others to actually experience that energy! xoxo We don't just talk about peace, love and affection, we experience it :) Also we are a home not a business, so we enjoy building community one friend at a time. We always build in time for people to mingle & develop friendships! xoxo Much Love, Frank Tennyson Namaste, Frank Tennyson http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/a/f/9/9/600_447824953.jpeg

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

This is a time where players of all ages, and skill levels can gather and enjoy a nice Sunday full of Chess!

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group × DevOps Columbus** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS, Columbus HashiCorp User Group, and DevOps Columbus meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/