Design Management

We are once again delighted to be partnering with RPM Ambassador Steve Wake for an important event in London. Another outstanding line-up on Project Skills and Controls. You will hear the most compelling case for use of the new BSI Project Controls Specification Standard. Now delivered and tested. It works! If you are unable to make 2 days, then just come to one. They both have a strong programme. Go for day 2 if you are really interested in Estimating. Discounts are available for students and apprentices: £100 per head per day and £100 for dinner on 28th if booked direct with Steve Wake: steve@swprojects.onmicrosoft.com Otherwise book on Eventbrite with this link: [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eva33-putting-the-ev-into-achievement-2-days-of-controls-and-skills-tickets-1970522795727?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eva33-putting-the-ev-into-achievement-2-days-of-controls-and-skills-tickets-1970522795727?aff=oddtdtcreator "https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eva33-putting-the-ev-into-achievement-2-days-of-controls-and-skills-tickets-1970522795727?aff=oddtdtcreator") 20% discount til end 27th April with code FINALSCORE Programme Overview **Tuesday 28th** **0830 Doors open and Coffee Conversation** **0925 Welcome** **0930 Andrew Edkins, Professor Emeritus of Complex Projects. Messy projects - so what?** **1000 Joseph Lee, Programme Director, Mott McDonald** **Psychology, Psychobabble and PsychoPaths?** **1030 Adrian Pyne, Pyne Consulting Ltd** **Strangers in a Strange Land: How organisations kill projects and how they can be helped to thrive.** **1100 Coffee Conversation** **1130 Graham Clarke MBE, Designer Leader Coach** **Andrew Risley, Profolio** **Portfolio *mis*management: a public sector case study** **1200 Val Jonas, Risk Expert, Risk Ecosystems Ltd.** **Shine on you crazy diamond. Never a dull moment with risk.** **1230 Louisa Scanlan, Collaborate Business Solutions** **Emotions are Data** **1300 Lunch Conversation** **1345 Tommy Clarke, Head of Programme Controls Sizewell C,** **Amentum** **Carolyn le Roux, PMO Director Sizewell C** **AchiEVing a successful set up of PMO and Project Controls on Sizewell C** **1415 Stephen Carver, Change & Crisis Management** **If you are not at the table then you are on the menu.** **1445 Stephen Powell, Chief of PM capability Rolls-Royce** **EVM within RR, the transatlantic differences** **1515 Kym Henderson, ISO TC258 Convenor** **ISO/BS 21508 EVM standard. Putting the EV into AchiEVement Plugging the gaps and joining the dots in Project Controls** **1545 Tea** **1615 Simon Taylor, th3rdcurve** **Tomorrow’s World: Today’s opportunity or more Groundhog days?** **1645 Robin Ince, comedian, author, and science communicator** **Let the Quiet Ones Rise** **Finding our true voice and how we use it and may also include stories of why he walked away from a hugely successful radio show after 16 years.** **1730 Drinks Social** **1830 Dinner Social** **2000 Chat drinks social.** **2130 Carriages.** **Wednesday 29** **0830 Doors open and Coffee Conversation** **0925 Welcome** **0930 Paul Major, Changemaker** **Leading people through change** **1000 Sirish Parekh, Head of Estimating & Benchmarking** **NISTA, Co-Chair PsACE, Co-Chair BSi Estimating workgroup** **With Paul Major Changemaker** **Adaptive Estimating. Changing the estimating mindset** **1030 David Jones, Global Head of Cost, Sodexo** **AI, Benchmarking and Behaviour: The New Costing Trinity** **1100 Coffee Conversation** **1130 Ali Mafi, TIMIST** **Productivity That Matters. Valuing the Project Cycle Time (clock time) and accounting for every hour** **1200 Paul Fisher, Managing Consultant in Rail** **Luke Galvin PM3 Consultant, Costain** **Football and Railways. Measuring success objectively** **1230 Lunch Conversation** **1330 Heather Thompson, Senior Audit Manager** **Joe Tennet, Value For Money Analyst, National Audit Office** **Getting Better? NAO report on the New Hospital Programme** **1400 Lawrence Rowland, Director, Movar** **Why even Good Reporting Fails to Steer: Can we close the Project Controls loop?** **1430 Ben Fitzgerald, AECOM** **Applying BS 202001:2025 in Practice** **1500 Tea Conversation** **1530 Greg Lawton, Nodes&Links** **The AI Orchestrator for Project Controls: Engineering-Grade Automation for the PMO** **1600 Eddie Obeng, Pentacle** **From Triangle to Full Orchestra: Upgrading Martin Barnes' Iron Triangle for Better Success in Our New World of Stakeholders, Complexity and Transformation** **1630 Close**

Spring is properly kicking in, and for our April meetup, we’re heading back to a crowd favorite: **The Light Bar** near Liverpool Street. If you haven't joined us here before, the venue is set inside a beautifully restored Victorian power station from 1893. It’s got a brilliant atmosphere, great drinks, and plenty of space to spread out. With the evenings finally getting a bit lighter, it's the perfect backdrop for catching up with everyone. **​What is Product Pints, anyway?** ​It's simple: Forget the stuffy presentations, Product Pints is all about meaningful connections and stimulating conversations for product people. Our diverse crowd includes everyone from aspiring PMs to seasoned CPOs, entrepreneurs, developers, designers, and tech enthusiasts. ​Need advice on a tricky problem? Curious what other PMs are building? Or just want to share a beer with your peers? This is the perfect opportunity to grow your network and launch some genuinely great chats! **​P.S. If your company is interested in sponsoring future events in 2026, please reach out to us at hello@productpints.com - thanks!**

Looking to brush up on your BSL skills or connect with other learners? Sacred Grounds is hosting a weekly Sign Club every Tuesday from 5-7pm. This casual and informal meetup is perfect for anyone learning BSL, whether you're just starting out or looking to keep your skills sharp. Come along to practice signing, connect with others in the community, and even try ordering your coffee in BSL! There’s no fee to join - all we ask is that if you're able to, you support the coffee shop by purchasing a drink or snack while you're here (please note that outside food and drinks are not permitted). Sacred Grounds is all about creating a warm and inclusive space, so don’t be shy - come sign with us! We look forward to welcoming you.

We're back to our usual format of 3 speakers + Q&A followed by networking. 18:30: Doors open 19:00 Welcome by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino (organiser since 2011) 19:10 [Scott Makenzie](https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-mackenzie-50a7ab1/) (Director at Acqua Libra) 19:30 [Suyash Joshi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/suyashj) **From Code to Motion: Programming a Dancing Robot** 19:50 [Luke Talbot](https://luketalbot.co.uk/) (Designer and researcher) 20:10 Networking 21:00 End of event and move to a nearby pub There will be drinks (including non-alcoholic) and nibbles. **About our sponsors:** [Green Custard](https://www.green-custard.com/) is an award-winning AWS IoT specialist consultancy that helps organisations design, build, and scale secure cloud-connected products and solutions. With deep expertise across IoT architectures, data lakes, ML and agentic AI our IoT expertise spans from product innovation to smart factory innovation. We have full stack capability from embedded & mobile to cloud-native development. Green Custard partners with clients to deliver on their business outcomes whether modernising legacy devices, unlocking new value from existing data, or accelerating the delivery of production-ready solutions. Customers trust Green Custard for its technical excellence, pragmatic delivery, and we are proud of our customer success. [Aqua Libra](https://aqualibra.com/pages/flavour-tap) is redefining sustainable hydration through innovative, low-impact dispensing technology. Beyond its zero-sugar infused drinks, the brand has pioneered solutions such as the Aqua Libra Flavour Tap, a digitally controlled dispensing system that delivers chilled, filtered water with natural flavours on demand. By removing the need for single-use bottles and reducing transport emissions, the Flavour Tap enables offices, venues, and public spaces to offer great-tasting drinks with a dramatically smaller environmental footprint. Aqua Libra’s approach blends sustainability, smart technology, and convenience to meet the growing demand for healthier, greener beverage options.

**Welcome to our April UX Beers in Antwerp!** This time, we will host our event on Tuesday the 28th of April at Plein Magazijn in Antwerp. [Ariad](https://www.ariadgroup.com/) and [Creative Skills](https://www.creativeskills.be/) sponsor our events. Follow the event online? We stream live via [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBqyTDAyQBw) \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# UX TALKS **Talk 1:** Design influence, how to get stakeholder buy-in on your ideas and create the design impact you want [Simon Vanleeuw](https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-vanleeuw/), Product/UX Designer @ iO / Organiser @ UX Belgium For all of you who have taken so much painstaking effort to make a customer centric solution for a client or a stakeholder, just to see your vision being compromised, your worries neglected, or your stakeholders asking you to make changes that make your design alarm bells go off, this is the talk for you. In this talk, Simon is going to share his experience with influencing stakeholders, where he went from changing types and colours to being trusted to make more strategic decisions for a product. Being his honest self, he is going to reflect on some cases where he learned something, where he failed, and what lessons can be drawn from that, so that you're better equiped to deal with this in your day to day work. **Talk 2:** “The broken coffee machine” [Tim Wouters](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-wouters-0521033/), CX strategist & service design lead @ iO Services are intricate systems that are hard to get exactly right for your customers. And what appears to be obvious and simple to solve, often hides surprising complexity. In this talk, we explore together what a boring coffee machine can teach us about customer-centric culture and jumping to conclusions. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# SCHEDULE 18:00 - Doors open. Drinks & snacks 19.00 - 19.15 - Introduction to UX Belgium Meetup, announcements 19.15 - 19:45 - Talk #1 19:45 -20:15 - BREAK 20:15 - 20:45 - Talk #2 20:45 - 21:30 - Socialize \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# SLACK CHANNEL We have our own UX Belgium slack channel. [Come join us and say hi!](https://join.slack.com/t/ux-belgium/shared_invite/zt-1bjpnuiog-T4Di4flXYPWgbT9KrZ53CA) \*\*\* \#\#\# YOUTUBE CHANNEL All our livestreams and talks are recorded and available on our [UX Belgium youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCno7V18T-EglYXprgrUZQ7A). \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# ABOUT UX BELGIUM UX Belgium is a growing community of User Experience (UX) professionals in and around Belgium. Look for these types of events: UX Beers Periodically, we gather at a different agency or venue to drink beers, network and listen to speakers on various themes in the world of UX and digital design. UX Antwerp: Each last Tuesday of the month UX Brussels: Each second Tuesday of the month, 4x per year UX Workshops Now and then we organize events to dive deeper into specific skills and techniques in UX. These are smaller, hands-on workshops designed to boost your UX toolbox. \*\*\* The UX Belgium Meetup Team

**Details 🚀** April 28 is Superhero Day. And no superhero leaves home without their Robin. This year, we're calling it an AI Agent. Join us for an exploration of AI agents: how they work, what they can actually *do*, and the workflows you never knew you needed them for! We'll be diving deeper than usual, hands-on with **Notion's** agent capabilities. Led by **[Liberatus](https://www.linkedin.com/in/liberatus/)** (ex-Amazon, recent Notion Hackathon winner), we'll discover the agentic way of building. **Complexity Level: ⭐⭐ (2/3 stars)** This one's a step up from our regular events. You'll get the most out of it if you've already played with prompting or understand how AI tools work. Coding skills aren't mandatory, but comfort with experimentation is! **Format 🛠️** Small groups (2–3 people) tackle open-ended challenges using Notion agents. The goal: learn how agents think differently, build something you didn't think was possible, and vibe with people who get it. Our friends from QuantSpark happily provided us with their space and will treat us with some snacks and refreshments 👾 **New to agents?** No worries! Liberatus kicks us off with a guide to agent fundamentals and example use cases so you can jump in without overthinking it. *** **Schedule 🕒** (Doors open early—aim for 6:50 PM so we start on time) * 6:00 – Presentation: Agent fundamentals from Liberatus * 6:15 – Challenge assignment + team formation 🤝 * 6:15 – Round 1: Build together 💻 * 7:00 – Break (grab a drink, swap ideas, compare what your agents are doing) 🍺 * 7:20 – Round 2: Keep building 🏗️ * 7:50 – Optional demos 📺 * 8:10 – Hang out, network, make friends ✌️ *** **Who is it for?** Anyone curious about what AI agents actually do. Folks who've tinkered with prompting, designers thinking about automation, people building with Notion, or anyone who wants to see where agent-powered workflows can go. **What to bring** * Laptop! 💻 * A workflow or problem you're curious about (optional, we have dummy data) 📋 * Vibes ⚡ 👉 No pressure, no gatekeeping. Just people exploring what agents can do, together. ​By signing up, you consent to the collection and sharing of your name, email address, photos, videos, and software, unless you explicitly opt out by informing the organizers.

In this session, Richard Jarvis, Senior Product Designer at Rightmove, breaks down the redesign of the app’s search entry point, exploring how user insight, design craft, and business priorities come together when millions of people are using your product every day. **Event Overview** Rightmove is one of the UK’s most-used apps, woven into daily routines much like social media. In this session, Richard Jarvis shares how his team redesigned a critical part of the Rightmove app, revealing what it takes to ship meaningful design changes at massive scale. **01 - Redesigning the Front Door** A deep dive into the redesign of Rightmove’s search entry point. Explore the problem space, user insights, and decision-making process behind evolving a critical interaction that millions rely on every day, and why small changes can have outsized impact at scale. **02 - Designing With Influence in Large Organisations** Designing great experiences isn’t just about pixels. Learn how Richard navigated stakeholder alignment, trade-offs, and organisational constraints to advocate for the right native app experience inside a complex, mature product environment. **03 - From Insight to Shipped Outcome** Follow the full journey from initial insight to live product. See how assumptions were challenged, the status quo was questioned, and design decisions were tied directly to measurable outcomes, turning a bold idea into a shipped solution used by millions. **Speakers** **Richard Jarvis - Senior Product Designer, Rightmove** Richard is a Senior Product Designer at Rightmove, where he works on the core search experience within the native apps team. He focuses on solving complex problems through research-led, accessible design and close collaboration with engineering and product partners. His work centres on shaping effective native app experiences and influencing product direction within cross-functional teams.

**Important (Limited spots available):** * Please sign up on the following website to complete your sign up: https://uxdx.com/community/community-london-2026-04-29/ An in-person series of meetups focused on helping product & engineering teams in Copenhagen bridge the gap between UX, Product, Design, and Dev, and to build better products faster, together. Agenda **(Local time, PM)**: 06:00 - 06:30 Opening & Networking 06:30 - 06:40 Welcome from the UXDX Ambassadors, Alishba & AJ 06:40 - 07:00 Talk 1 by Gessica Puglielli, Head of Product Design - MPB 07:00 - 07:30 Interactive Forum by Gessica Puglielli & AJ King 07:30 - 08:30 Networking & Closing **Talk by Gessica Puglielli: Empowering Design Teams** Traditional sign-off processes can slow down creativity and decision-making in design teams. In this keynote, I’ll share my experience leading MPB’s design team through a transformation, where we moved from top-down approvals to a culture of accountability and trust. This shift not only boosted team morale but also enhanced creativity and sped up the design process. Attendees will walk away with actionable strategies for empowering their teams, fostering trust, and overcoming the challenges that come with reducing micromanagement. It’s time to empower your team to thrive without sign-offs. **Interactive Forum: From Sign Offs to Shared Accountability:** This interactive forum turns the keynote into a working session. Together, we will unpack what it really takes to replace sign offs with clear ownership, fast decisions, and high quality outcomes. We will explore the practical building blocks: defining decision rights, setting quality bars, running lightweight critique, and handling risk without reverting to approvals. Bring your real scenarios, blockers, and edge cases. You will leave with a set of patterns you can apply straight away, plus a few phrases and templates for aligning stakeholders and keeping momentum when trust is still being earned. ## **About UXDX** UXDX helps teams shift from project based delivery to empowered, autonomous product teams. We host global conferences and over 150 free community events each year, bringing together UX, Product, Design and Development practitioners to share how real teams build better products faster.

**Building a World Model for your organisation in Microsoft Azure** In this session, Raj Toora will explore how organisations can build a “world model” of their business using Microsoft Azure. By combining knowledge graphs, ontologies, and modern AI tooling, firms can move beyond fragmented data into a connected, queryable representation of their operations. We’ll look at how technologies like Neo4j and Cypher enable rich relationship modelling, and how emerging Fabric capabilities around graphs and ontologies are bringing these concepts closer to mainstream data platforms. We’ll also examine how Azure AI Foundry and GraphRAG patterns can sit on top of this graph foundation, enabling LLMs to reason over structured relationships rather than isolated documents. This allows organisations to ground AI responses in real business context, improving accuracy and relevance. The session will demonstrate how combining vector search with graph traversal unlocks more intelligent, explainable AI experiences. Security and governance are critical in this space. Raj will cover how Open Policy Agent (OPA) can be used to enforce fine-grained access controls across graph data and AI workflows, alongside techniques such as data obfuscation and masking to mitigate data leakage and insider risk. These controls ensure sensitive information remains protected while still enabling meaningful analysis and AI-driven insights. Finally, we’ll bring this to life in a legal context. For law firms, a world model enables powerful new questions: “Find similar client,” “Analyse similar contracts” or “How are clients, cases, and outcomes connected?” By structuring knowledge in this way, firms can unlock institutional intelligence, accelerate case preparation, and gain a competitive edge through better-informed decision making. **About the Speaker** Raj Toora is the Principal Strategist for Emerging Technology for HSFK, a top international law firm, where he leads the translation of cutting-edge innovation into practical enterprise strategy and execution. He is responsible for shaping the firm’s direction across AI, data, and digital platforms, ensuring alignment with long-term business outcomes and its Target Operating Model. Raj works across architecture, security, operations, and practice leadership to turn emerging trends into actionable investment and delivery decisions, with a focus on scalable, sustainable transformation. His work centres on building systems of intelligence, advancing AI platforms, and enabling data-driven decision making that improves both client value and organisational performance.

This month we have a fantastic session hosted by James Birnie, Director of Strategic Consultancy at **[Forrow](https://forrow.uk/)** where he will talk about how to get post quantum ready. In this talk James will discuss why all the world's encryption will break, why a lot of your data is leaking right now, what you need to do now and what you will need to do in the near future. **About James Birnie** James Birnie has worked in software delivery since the 1990s, when TDD was something you studied but never did, "agile" and "lean" were words used to describe athletes, and Pipelines were for carrying oil. James worked in a successful startup for 10 years before he became a consultant (and an ex software engineer) at, first, Thoughtworks and then Codurance. After time as Head of Platform at Currencycloud and VP of Engineering at IMMO Capital, James returned to consultancy and is currently Director of Strategic Consultancy at Forrow. He mainly spends his time trying to keep organisations secure against current and future threats, including the immediate threat of Harvest Now Decrypt Later attacks. **Food and Drinks** Pizza and drinks will be provided upon arrival sponsored by **[Codurance](https://www.codurance.com/),** with vegetarian and vegan options available.

PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST book and pay for your ticket in advance at http://www.londonbuiltenvironment.com/ The London Built Environment committee would like to extend you an invitation to our April 2026 Mayfair Networking Breakfast to be held at the famous Jaks of Mayfair - and hope you can join us for pre-work delicious breakfast and productive business networking to make new contacts and deals for 2026. We now have over 20,000 diverse and relevant London members so it’s the perfect opportunity for making new business connections. See photos from our latest events at http://www.londonbuiltenvironment.com/ PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST book and pay for your ticket in advance at http://www.londonbuiltenvironment.com/ ALSO PLEASE NOTE we take most of our event bookings through our website and EventBrite so the numbers booked is much larger than displayed on this Meetup page (normally about 70-100 guests).

Hi Architects, Welcome to our the third AWS London Well-Architected User Group Meetup!!! 🥳🥳🥳 Our third meetup will take on a Security Theme. Dragon Hall Trust, 17 Stukeley Street, London WC2B 5LT The AWS London Well-Architected Meetup is the latest chapter in the most popular AWS Meetup group globally. At each meetup we cover off various pillars of AWS best-practice in detail including insights from industry leaders that specialise in the Well-Architected Framework. **Speakers** * "Detection Engineering on a Budget" - Tom O'Connor - Senior Content Engineer @ Try Hack Me * "Ransomware protection with immutable AWS backup ... it's complicated" - Paul Schwarzenberger - Cloud Security Engineer & Kurtis Mash - Lead Technical Architect from The National Archives (UK) **Detection Engineering on a Budget** AWS's Well-Architected Security Pillar tells you what to detect. It doesn't tell you how to do it without a SIEM contract and a six-figure budget. This talk covers building a credible detection engineering capability on AWS using native tooling, a bit of open source, and no enterprise spend. **Ransomware protection with immutable AWS backup ... it's complicated** You’ll hear how The National Archives used AWS Backup to implement centralised, immutable backups of critical data, to protect against ransomware attacks. You’ll see a live demo of the solution, and learn how you can use their open-source Terraform module for your own organisation’s backup and compliance needs. So come join us at 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start, including drinks, snacks and friendly networking after our talks :-) \*\*\*NB: No entry to the building after 7.00pm.\*\*\*

Join us for another evening at #WPLDN. This month, Louise Towler shares what AI actually looks like inside a WordPress agency, day to day. We'll follow that with a hosted, room-wide discussion on levelling up in WordPress, what the wider shift happening around us means for the work, and what it asks of us as a community. Two sessions, both grounded in the world WordPress competes in, rather than the world inside it. 📅 **Date:** Thursday, 30 April 2026 ⏰ **Time:** 6:00 PM BST 🎟️ **Cost:** Free (Registration Required) \-\-\- **Session 1: How we're integrating AI into our agency workflow** 🤝 **Speaker:** Louise Towler ([Indigo Tree](https://indigotree.co.uk)) Everyone's talking about AI transforming the way we work. But what does that actually look like inside a WordPress agency, day to day? Louise will share what Indigo Tree has been doing over the past year, integrating tools like Cursor, Sourcery, Claude, and Teamwork's MCP into real client work and reporting workflows. How they approached the change management, what genuinely saved time, what created more work than it solved, and what they're still figuring out. Louise is the Founder and Managing Director of Indigo Tree, a digital agency trusted by businesses and non-profits across the UK. With over 30 years of experience in software and website development, she leads a team of developers, designers, and digital marketers delivering high-performance WordPress websites, content strategy, and technical SEO. A regular conference speaker and recipient of a Women in Innovation Award, Louise is passionate about creating websites that are inclusive, fast, and sustainable. \-\-\- **Session 2: Levelling up in WordPress, a hosted discussion** 🤝 **Host:** Dan Maby The world WordPress operates in is shifting quickly. Clients expect more. Competition is sharper. AI is reshaping the work, the pricing, and what people are willing to pay for. "Good enough" isn't what it used to be, and the bar for working professionally in WordPress is moving up, whether we like it or not. So what does that mean for us? What does levelling up actually look like for agencies, freelancers, product builders, and everyone in between? And what does it mean for WPLDN, a community that has, if we're honest, often looked inward at the tool rather than outward at the world WordPress competes in? If the ground is moving, the conversations we have when we come together probably need to move with it. A hosted, room-wide conversation about the wider shift and what it asks of us, both professionally and as a community. Less about the tool, more about the work, the market, and what we want from the room we're standing in. Bring an opinion! \-\-\- **Schedule:** 🔹 **6:00 PM** – Doors Open & Networking 🔹 **6:30 PM** – Welcome & Session 1: Louise Towler 🔹 **7:30 PM** – Short Break & Networking 🔹 **7:45 PM** – Session 2: Discussion Hosted by Dan Maby 🔹 **8:30 PM** – Social & Wrap-Up \-\-\- **📢 RSVP Now!** Whether you're deep in AI tooling or still working out where it fits, whether you've been in WordPress for fifteen years or fifteen months, there's something here for you. Free pizza, excellent company, and post-event socials at a local bar afterwards. We'll see you there! 🎉 \-\-\- **Venue Information** **The Bridge** is a charity supporting women to make positive choices and encouraging improvements to fitness, health, and wellbeing. The venue features a plant-based café (supplied by Girls Who Grind Coffee) and is just a 5-minute walk from London Bridge Station. \-\-\- **Massive thanks to our sponsors who make these free events possible:** [DreamHost](https://www.dreamhost.com/partners/wpldn/), [PodcasterPlus](https://www.podcasterplus.com/?utm_source=wpldn&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=partnership), [Mollie](https://www.mollie.com/gb/integrations/woocommerce), and [Kinsta](https://kinsta.com/) \-\-\- If you're interested in being a featured speaker at an upcoming event, we'd love to hear from you at [https://wpldn.uk/speak](https://wpldn.uk/speak). **🎥 - Media Release Terms** By attending, you understand and accept that portions of the event may have audio/photo/video-recorded and/or live-streamed and may be used by the organisers. You agree that the organisers have the right and permission to use and publish such media for any purpose in any format, including online and offline, now and ever after, without further compensation, permission, or notification. You understand that all official recordings from the event are the exclusive property of the organisers, available under the Creative Commons Attribution­ShareAlike license for general use, and you do not ask for nor expect compensation or notification of the use of official recordings or photographs in which you appear or speak. Please inform an organisational team member at the event's start if you do not wish to appear in photos or videos.

We meet to learn and practice American Sign Language and to grow our familiarity with Deaf culture. Facilitated by hearing folks (with a connection to a professional interpreter) using Deaf-created content. People of all ASL skill levels are welcome! As we learn, we hope to connect more with the Deaf community in Central Ohio. Join us as you're able! Come regularly or just once - whatever you're looking for! Each meetup will explore different topics related to ASL/Deaf culture, and will feature time to practice conversation with one another. Just bring yourself and a willingness to learn!

It feels like we just saw each other 🤷. Join members of the local design and UX community for our monthly breakfast. For May we’re stopping in for Rooh’s popup breakfast/cafe concept. You know someone is getting the lobster yuzu croissant, and that’s not even the prettiest thing on the menu!.

Join other experienced and aspiring agile coaches and professionals to: * develop and practice your coaching skills in a peer-to-peer environment * share current successes and challenges in your work environment and get support from each other * learn from each other, build better relationships and experiment with new ideas ***NOTE:*** Pre-registration is required for this event. **Please arrive 10 minutes early** to check in at the security desk.

**TBA**

FREE event [https://www.ccad.edu/chroma](https://www.ccad.edu/chroma) Friday, May 16, 3–7 p.m. CCAD campus, 60 Cleveland Ave, Columbus, OH Join Columbus College of Art & Design for *2025* *Chroma: Best of CCAD*, our annual campuswide exhibition showcasing outstanding student work from across the college’s academic programs. This faculty-juried show features select work from CCAD students of all class years, and is a can’t-miss end-of-year campus celebration recognizing their tremendous achievements. It’ll be a night of fun and entertainment, with interactive games, animation and film screenings, art symposiums, poetry and prose readings, and more (along with some of the best local food trucks). *Chroma* is free and open to all. Many exhibitions including... **Game Art & Design:** **DSB, first floor, Welcome Center lobby and Room 115**

**A Transformative Half-Day Event** Welcome to Confidence Lab, the ultimate experience designed to help you step into your most confident self. This half-day event is packed with actionable strategies, inspiring sessions, and opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals who are ready to invest in their personal and professional growth. Whether you’re looking to advance in your career, deepen your self-belief, or simply embrace new challenges, Confidence Lab is your starting point. **What You’ll Experience** **Your Confidence Lab ticket includes:** * **Engaging Speaker Sessions**: Learn from experts about harnessing confidence in your career, relationships, and everyday life. * **Interactive Experiences:** Participate in dynamic activities designed to help you step into your most confident self. * **In-Depth Audience Q&A:** Get direct insights from speakers as they answer your most pressing questions about building confidence and stepping into leadership. * **Networking Opportunities**: Connect with a supportive community of professionals and confidence enthusiasts. **2026 Speaker Sessions:** * **Seeing Clearly** Understand how you show up - and what’s been getting in the way. * **Confidence in Relationship** Communicate, navigate conflict, and build trust more effectively. * **Sustainable Agency** Learn how to lead without burning out. Your energy is part of the strategy. * **Confidence in Service** Align how you show up with the impact you actually want to have. **This Is For You If…** * You’re ready to take up more space in your work or life * You want to communicate with clarity and confidence * You’re stepping into (or preparing for) leadership * You’re done second-guessing yourself **Our Speakers** **Lachandra Baker** Founder of LBB Edutainment and the kind of person who makes you realize you’ve been confusing confidence with performance your whole life. Lachandra blends psychology, research, and radical humanity to help individuals and teams stop code-switching their way through the day and start showing up as someone they actually recognize. Expect to be challenged, affirmed, and genuinely seen - sometimes all in the same breath. **Annette Santiago Reyes** Annette has a rare talent: she makes the way you communicate feel like a discovery, not a critique. A connection catalyst and culture strategist, she helps people understand why they show up the way they do, and how to bridge the gap between intention and impact. Whether you're navigating change, life’s challenges, or simply trying to better understand yourself and others. Annette gives you the language and the lens to get there. **Elizabeth Wangugi** Creator of The Nap Concert and the RESTOR™ framework, Elizabeth is here to tell you that rest is not a reward - it’s a strategy. Rooted in neuroscience and restorative practice, her work helps high-achievers stop running on fumes and start leading from a place of actual capacity. If your calendar is full and your tank is empty, Elizabeth might be the most important person you hear from at Confidence Lab. **Stephanie Andrews** Founder of Social Black Butterfly Training & Consulting, Stephanie knows what it takes to lead through complexity because she’s done it across social services, healthcare, and operations. She specializes in succession strategy and leadership development, equipping leaders to build trust, navigate the hard moments, and leave something worth inheriting. Stephanie doesn’t just develop leaders. She develops the kind of leaders people actually want to follow. **Lillian Morales-Laster** SVP Human Resources Director at United Midwest Savings Bank and Executive Director of the Empowering Latinas Leadership Academy (ELLA). Lillian has spent her career combining her passion for equity and inclusion with her experience in human resources to lead teams and organizations in the development of supportive work environments. She leads with a vision of ensuring Latinas' voices are included in crucial decision-making processes, because for Lillian, ELLA is more than just a program. It's a vibrant community of hermanas supporting and uplifting each other as they navigate their paths to leadership. A Columbus Business First Community Champion and Distinguished Hispanic Ohioan, her commitment to empowering others shows up everywhere she goes. **Rachyl Kershaw** Founder of Greater Columbus Consulting and the architect behind the Confidence Lab Annual Summit, Rachyl has a gift for cutting through the noise, helping high-achievers stop performing success and start living it. She asks the questions most people are afraid to, creates space for honest reckoning, and somehow makes the hard work feel energizing. If you’ve ever wondered why doing everything right still feels like something’s missing, you’re in exactly the right room. **Why Confidence Lab?** Confidence is the foundation for success in every area of life. Whether you’re navigating a career change, launching a business, or striving for personal growth, building your confidence is the key to unlocking your higher purpose. This is your chance to invest in yourself and start living boldly. **Join Us on May 4** Confidence Lab is more than just an event - it’s a movement. Step into your power, embrace your potential, and make this the year you thrive. Secure your spot today and take the first step toward a more confident YOU. Cost should never be a barrier to growth. If you'd like to request a complimentary community ticket, reach out to us at [hello@confidencelab.org](hello@confidencelab.org), no explanation needed. Read more and see additional ticketing options at [https://confidencelab.org/](https://confidencelab.org/)

Bring your Raspberry Pi, Arduino, microcontroller, or any other electronic project and join fellow electronics makers for a night of creativity and collaboration! This session is open forum to share your current projects—whether complete or in progress, it’s all interesting! Whether you’re deep into embedded systems, exploring new ideas, or just getting started, you’ll find a welcoming space to collaborate, share, and get inspired. **New to electronics or curious about tinkering?** You’re absolutely welcome. If you’re a beginner and want to experiment, I’ll have a couple of starter kits available so you can try things out—whether that’s blinking your first LED, putting something on a display, or experimenting with simple sensors. No pressure and no experience required—just an interest in learning and building. While we continue to pursue a more permanent venue for this Meetup, we’ll be using public library facilities based on availability. This session will be at the Worthington Park Library in the Olentangy Meeting Room.