DevOps & AI Latvia

Join Latvia DevOps & AI community for the 28th event on October 28th at Konventa Sēta Hotel.
Doors open at 18:30, talks start at 19:00.
This time we’re joined by two great speakers – Alex Shershebnev and Uldis Karlovs-Karlovskis

Alex Shershebnev is Head of ML/DevOps at Zencoder.
Talk: Supercharging DevOps with MCP (Without Opening a Security Hole).
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a powerful new way to extend LLMs with real-time access to tools, APIs, and infrastructure. It enables seamless workflows like querying Grafana dashboards, triggering CI/CD jobs, or fixing issues from Sentry all without leaving your IDE. In this talk, we’ll explore how MCP works, how to build your own MCP servers, and how to compose them to automate Ops tasks and boost productivity across your stack.
But as we wire LLMs into our systems, security becomes a critical concern. Unrestricted use of MCP can open the door to various vectors of attack. We’ll cover the main areas of concern as companies start adopting MCP tools and discuss how to use them safely in production environments.

Uldis Karlovs-Karlovskis is an IT coach and Co-founder/CTO @Zen IS. He is a certified DevOps Leader, the board chairman of the DevOps & AI Latvia community, the director of the Dzīvais Rīgas Teātris and a lecturer at the Riga Technical University and Riga Business School.
Talk: Sciencing DevOps with Model-driven and LLM code generation.
After 20 years of building pipelines, Uldis decided to “go do science” and became a PhD student. This talk is the story of that journey so far, and what is possible with the intersection of model-driven DevOps and LLM-powered code generation. Attendees will learn about the model-driven approach, discover how to leverage Large Language Models for automated code generation, and understand how these techniques can drastically improve DevOps efficiency. Uldis willl share practical insights into what works, what doesn't, and how you can apply these principles to your own pipelines. Join to learn how to "science" your DevOps!

We will also have a Lightning Talk by Evan Veinberg, founder and CTO of Engine
With 21+ years of software development experience and 20 years leading development teams. He created a mobile payment solution worth over €150M and developed a downtime migration mechanism that cut annual downtime from 40 minutes to 0.18 seconds. He is creating a product that helps business and technical teams make decisions and reach agreements more easily, streamlining collaboration and improving outcomes. Talk ‘Breaking the Bottlenecks: Stop Chasing Context’

This time, the event is sponsored by:

• Arvato Systems as General Partner

Extensive IT expertise, a high level of technical understanding, strong industry knowledge, and partnership in action – that’s Arvato Systems. As a team, they develop innovative IT solutions, bring our customers into the cloud, integrate digital processes, and take over the operation and support of IT systems.

If your plans change, please cancel your registration to free up your spot for others.

Also, check out our Slack channel Techies of Baltics.

As always, you are welcome to check out our YouTube channel, where we have previous meetup video recordings available.

Your presence and active participation make our community vibrant and inspiring. To secure your spot, RSVP on our Meetup.com page

See you there!
*Please note that photographs and footage will be taken throughout this event without a warning. These can be used by the Community for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media, or any third-party publication.

• Uldis Tatarčuks - the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of Tet, a Latvian technology and telecommunications company, a position he has held since 2021. Prior to that, he gained extensive experience in the telecommunications and IT sectors, including serving as Tet’s Chief Technology Officer.

• Antra Zālīte - a dynamic IT executive who thrives on turning complex challenges into measurable business success. With a proven track record in leading multinational teams, driving service excellence, and opening new growth opportunities, she brings both vision and execution to the table. Antra is known for building strong partnerships across clients, stakeholders, and suppliers, ensuring collaboration translates into real results. Passionate about people and performance, she inspires teams to embrace change and deliver beyond expectations. Her expertise lies in the Enterprise applications domain, helping customers to boost their efficiency and success.

About the event
You might be wondering, what's the value of such an event? Why are other existing Business Networking events not enough? - The key difference is that we meet, enjoy dinner, and discuss whatever we like. It's an event for professionals in Tech to exchange ideas and grow. The special guests will tell a little about themselves and do their best to initiate a discussion if awkward silence enters the room. However, "Runāšana – sudrabs, klusēšana – zelts" (translation: "talking - silver, silence - gold"). It's also a good time to think and listen to conversations that you typically would not have at home and work.

Communication and channels:
Join us on WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/GYDCBI5ca2BBvmgDVjA3fM

You can check out the previous events on the Techies of Baltics LinkedIn page.
We record short interviews with special guests for the Riga Tech Cast podcast during the event. Follow on Spotify and YouTube. Tell the host if you want to be featured as well.

Expectations from participants:

• try not to be late
• introduce yourself
• don't interrupt others
• come with an empty stomach and pay for your own dinner
• try not to be grumpy if you're hungry
• this is not a party. However, a glass of wine may oil the tongue a bit
• if you don't feel like talking, then don't. But coming to a networking event and not saying a word is like window-shopping
• pay the event fee in cash at the spot. No online transaction is possible
• judgment-free mind is a must
• RSVP - show up or update your status timely if you can't

Why the event fee? - we always have 2 special guests at the event. They have received a special invitation to join us. We should cover their dinner expenses as the least minimum we can do beyond a "thank you". The event fee is a fund for that.

The host: Uldis Karlovs-Karlovskis is an IT coach and Co-founder/CTO @Zen IS. He is a certified DevOps Leader, the board chairman of the DevOps & AI Latvia community, the director of the Dzīvais Rīgas Teātris and a lecturer at the Riga Technical University and Riga Business School.

'Please note that photographs and footage will be taken throughout this event without a warning. These can be used by the Community for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media or in any third-party publication.